◼ The reporting ahead of President Donald Trump’s Wednesday night address to the nation forecast Trump’s intention to declare victory and withdraw from the war against the Islamic Republic of Iran. According to media speculation, he would insist that our objectives had been achieved. He would wash his hands of the crisis in the Strait of Hormuz, and he would lambaste America’s NATO allies for failing to take ownership of it—perhaps even going so far as to withdraw from the Atlantic Alliance. He did nothing of the sort. While Trump did declare that most of America’s wartime objectives had been achieved, he said there was more fighting to come, and he pledged to “help” alleviate the crisis in the strait. The U.S. has so far suffered the loss of 13 service members, but the operation has been remarkably successful in destroying Iranian military power. Had the Iranian threat been allowed to mature, as the president said, the future would have been bleak.

◼ On February 14, funding for the Department of Homeland Security lapsed, leading to a partial shutdown. Democratic lawmakers forced the shutdown based on their assumption that public outrage over the conduct of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents is widespread. The fact that ICE’s operations would continue during the shutdown—unlike, for example, the Transportation Security Administration’s—didn’t seem to register with them. The Senate recently passed a stopgap measure to restore DHS funding, but House Republicans balked at it because it would still deprive ICE and U.S. Customs and Border Protection of cash. Since then, the Senate has held firm, and House Speaker Mike Johnson appears to be relenting. But the prolonged shutdown, the most visible element of which has been intolerable dysfunction in America’s civilian airports, persists. It’s not clear why Democrats regard that as a victory. Only the most plugged-in, very online political junkie would associate long lines at airports with ICE raids in Minneapolis. These days, however, that describes the Democratic Party’s archetypal constituent.

◼ Trump fired Attorney General Pam Bondi. She had been on thin ice since she mishandled the controversy over the disclosure of the Justice Department’s voluminous files on the late convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. Bondi led the MAGA base to believe that there were explosive revelations coming—claiming in a Fox News interview that she was reviewing Epstein’s “client list” only for the DOJ to later concede that there was no such list. The larger story is that Bondi failed at an impossible job. Trump demands that prosecutions be brought against his political enemies, but the attorney general cannot ethically charge people absent sufficient evidence. Trump has fumed over the collapse of the DOJ cases against James Comey and Letitia James and over Bondi’s failure to indict other Trump targets. But shed no tears for her: She knew what she was getting into.

◼ Trump has added his name to the Kennedy Center, Palm Beach International Airport, and even, informally, María Corina Machado’s 2025 Nobel Peace Prize. Now, he is adding it to America’s currency. In addition to the traditional signature of the secretary of the treasury, $100 bills will soon feature the president’s autograph. Trump’s signature will then slowly be added to all paper money. If the president wants blue states to transition to a cash-free economy, then this plan is brilliantly conceived. Otherwise, it is yet another example of Trump’s pettiness: Sensing his political mortality, he will throw his name onto anything to remind the world he was once here.

◼ “No Kings” protests rolled into cities and upper-middle-class suburbs across America. Many of those in attendance were white, well-heeled, and graying. While the protests were largely peaceful, demonstrations in cities such as Denver, Portland, and Los Angeles took violent turns. Rioters in gas masks attacked government buildings and brawled with police officers. It’s easy to laugh at balding Trotskyites with second homes marching to protest America’s ills—until you consider that the younger generation, disillusioned with the politics of Boomer gesture, may look to other, more destructive methods.

◼ NBC News reported that “health clinics”—read: abortion providers—that rely on federal funding through Title X are beside themselves over the prospect that their taxpayer-backed largesse might dry up on April 1. The Trump administration had delayed the application process for new grants in 2025, a maneuver that some saw as a way to starve abortion providers of taxpayer funds. Alas, the administration caved under pressure from groups such as Planned Parenthood. “The administration has issued the fifth and final year of Title X grants that were locked in place during the Biden presidency,” White House spokesman Kush Desai told the Daily Wire. The spokesman assured conservatives that Title X funds cannot be used to fund abortions, but pro-life activists are nevertheless reeling over the betrayal. The White House insists that its hands are tied and asks for voters’ forbearance. The pro-life movement is not convinced, especially as the administration has failed to try to reinstate Trump’s sound first-term policy on the program.

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◼ One of the loudest Democratic advocates of outlandish fiscal policy is Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren. She seeks to tax all household wealth above $50 million at 2 percent each year, with a 1 percent surtax on fortunes over $1 billion. The proceeds would be used not to trim the gaping deficit but to fund a laundry list of new entitlements. The tax, which targets what Warren calls “ultra-millionaires,” would hit an estimated 260,000 households. Warren’s plan would be unjust because it aims to perpetrate the very expropriation that republican government exists to prevent. The purpose of the tax code is to pay for legitimate state functions, not to seize money from one set of citizens and dole it out to another. Contrary to popular belief, the richest households already contribute the bulk of federal revenue and pay higher effective tax rates than anyone else. Any leftover wealth is rightfully theirs to spend as they see fit. A punitive tax on the rich would risk U.S. investment and competitiveness, and foreign experience suggests it would also be an administrative nightmare for the government and targeted citizens alike. Sober-minded Democrats should mark the wealth tax down as a liability.

◼ A federal judge in San Francisco granted Anthropic a preliminary injunction barring the Trump administration from designating the AI giant a “supply chain risk.” The label could cripple the company by prohibiting all government contractors from dealing with it, no matter how unrelated to the government’s dealings with Anthropic such commerce may be. Judge Rita Lin (a Biden appointee) held that the administration had issued the designation as a pretext to penalize the company. The Defense Department had pressured Anthropic to abandon restrictions on Claude, an AI tool, but the company declined. The restrictions prohibit autonomous AI control of weapons systems and the use of Claude to conduct mass domestic surveillance. Lin observed that the supply chain risk statute is meant to address “adversaries of the United States who may sabotage its technology systems,” not American companies—especially not those, such as Anthropic, that are currently assisting U.S. war-fighting operations. Besides failing to comply with the statute’s due process provisions, the government’s retaliation against a company’s expression of disagreement is illegal under the First Amendment.

◼ In Chiles v. Salazar, the Supreme Court struck down a Colorado law that banned licensed counselors from engaging in “conversion therapy” with minors. Justice Neil Gorsuch’s ringing opinion attracted a lopsided 8–1 majority, with only Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson in dissent. The Colorado law was speech-specific and flagrantly one-sided: It applied to purely talk-based therapies designed to resolve gender dysphoria or to reduce homosexual attraction. It was also harmful: Most children and teens who are suffering from gender dysphoria can outgrow the problem, and talking through it can help. As Gorsuch wrote, “The First Amendment stands as a shield against any effort to enforce orthodoxy in thought or speech in this country.” Colorado’s brazenness made this an easy case. Winning the easy cases, however, is the necessary first step. And the Court’s skepticism of white-coated censors bodes well for a culture in which it is legal to speak the truth.

◼ A jury in California found that Meta (which owns Facebook and Instagram) and Google (which owns YouTube) are responsible for the depression and suicidal ideation of a woman named Kaley who obsessively used their services when she was a child. Together, Meta and Google must pay $6 million in damages. The plaintiff’s lawyers managed to sidestep the protections for these platforms contained in Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 by arguing not that the content on Facebook and YouTube was to blame but that the mechanisms by which that content was delivered were knowingly contrived to addict users, including children. Social media can be toxic for children—and for adults. But for a court to place the liability on those who facilitate the speech that appears online, rather than on those who write or utter it, routes the complaint to the wrong place. Facebook and YouTube are conduits. If, indeed, their products are addictive, that is because they are exhibiting other people’s irresistible content. The effect of social media on our culture remains a question that can be debated in good faith. But those debates are the preserve of our legislatures and our Constitution rather than our courts.

◼ A federal judge in Washington, D.C., barred the Trump administration from continuing the construction of a lavish ballroom to replace the East Wing of the White House that the president has already demolished. Judge Richard Leon ruled that the project requires congressional approval. While Trump fumed that his project was ahead of schedule and would not cost taxpayers anything—the current $400 million tab, about double the original estimate, is to be paid by private contributions—the Justice Department quietly conceded in court that the president lacks constitutional authority regarding government building projects. Leon pointed out that Congress has authorized presidents to carry out only ordinary upkeep and on a modest $2.475 million budget (which precludes the possibility of outsiders’ currying favor with the president through large donations). Moreover, another statute, ignored by the president, prohibits the erection of any building or structure on federal land without express congressional assent. The administration is appealing, Democrats are crowing, and Republicans are silently pondering whether to fund a massive vanity project or endure the wrath of the vain.

◼ Men are now barred from competing against women at the Olympics, per the International Olympic Committee’s announcement ahead of the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. Female athletes are also now required to undergo genetic sex screening, marking a major shift in international sports policy. Previously, each sport determined its own standards for sex segregation. IOC officials said the policy protects fairness and safety in women’s sports, citing evidence that males who undergo puberty retain physical advantages even after hormone therapy. The new policy will apply to the upcoming summer games. Recent Gallup polling reveals that more than two-thirds of Americans believe that athletes should compete in the category that corresponds with their sex. But the resistance to common sense remains ferocious and the fight will continue—albeit not, thankfully, at the Olympics.

◼ NASA successfully launched its first crewed moon mission since Apollo 17 in 1972. The Artemis II made a spectacular departure from the Kennedy Space Center. Its crew of four astronauts—three Americans and one Canadian—have embarked on a ten-day journey around the moon and back. The test flight will pave the way for a full-fledged moon landing in the coming years. By any metric, this is a stunning achievement. For decades, America seemed to have lost interest in outer space. As we turn back toward the stars, it’s worth remembering just how extraordinary our past cosmic expeditions have been. Spaceflight, once confined to science fiction, became reality through the power of human ingenuity and aspiration. It’s about time Americans relearned these virtues.