◼ State Department official John Negroponte drolly observed after Richard Nixon’s 1972 Christmas bombing campaign in North Vietnam that “we bombed them into accepting our concessions.” A similar verdict seems appropriate for President Donald Trump’s war with Iran. Both parties are signing a memorandum of understanding that is lopsided in Iran’s favor. Yes, Iranian authorities will reopen the Strait of Hormuz, but they may well still charge transit fees. In return, we are ending our blockade and letting the Iranians sell oil, a source of revenue totaling tens of billions of dollars a year. In short order, we might also unfreeze Iranian assets. If a final agreement regarding Iran’s nuclear program is hashed out in the next 60 days—a period that can and almost certainly will be extended—we will lift all sanctions and Iran will receive a $300 billion reconstruction fund. There’s no mention of Iran’s missiles or its support for terror proxies in the memorandum. This war and last year’s Operation Midnight Hammer achieved the large-scale destruction of Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, together with the degrading of its defense-industrial base. Otherwise, Trump has backed off almost all his demands from the outset of the war. There’s a reason the administration was so reluctant to let people see the text of the memorandum before it was signed, sealed, and delivered.

◼ The latest primary election results remind us that nobody is fully in charge of the GOP. In Georgia, Trump’s endorsed candidate, Representative Mike Collins, handily defeated Derek Dooley, who was backed by Governor Brian Kemp. But in the governor’s race, Trump and Kemp both supported Lieutenant Governor Burt Jones, who lost to populist businessman Rick Jackson. Jackson will face former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, while Collins will bid to knock off Senator Jon Ossoff. In Alabama, Freedom Caucus Representative Barry Moore, who was also backed by Trump, easily held off populist former Navy SEAL Jared Hudson. Representative Kevin Hern won the Oklahoma Senate primary, but the gubernatorial primary will likely head to a runoff between Gentner Drummond and Mike Mazzei. Drummond, the state attorney general, angered social conservatives by opposing the establishment of a state-funded Catholic charter school, while Mazzei gained a surprise endorsement from Trump after hiring Roger Stone’s consulting firm. Neither man cleared 27 percent of the vote. Meanwhile, socialist Janeese Lewis George is likely to be the next mayor of Washington, D.C., and Aisha Wahab, an arch-progressive member of the California State Senate, was elected to fill the remainder of Eric Swalwell’s term in the U.S. House.

◼ A B-52 bomber conducting a routine test mission at Edwards Air Force Base in California crashed and erupted in flames shortly after takeoff. All eight crew members aboard were killed, including members of the military and government contractors. The cause of the crash has not yet been identified, and investigators may take months to fully understand what happened. As we await more information, we mourn for those affected by this tragic incident.

◼ Federal officers announced that they had prevented a terrorist plot intended to target government officials and trigger a popular revolt during UFC Freedom 250, a mixed martial arts event on the White House lawn intended to celebrate Flag Day (as well as Trump’s 80th birthday). Five people were arrested in connection with the alleged plot, including Abraham Hermosillo Alvarez, a Mexican immigrant who had been part of the Obama administration’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. Federal authorities are reportedly investigating up to 23 individuals who may also have been involved, but the details of the alleged conspiracy remain unclear. A rapid and coordinated response may have stopped a credible attempt at mass murder.

◼ To beautify Washington, D.C., for America’s 250th birthday, Trump has attempted to clean up the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. Absurdly, this has attracted opprobrium from his critics. Before Trump turned his attention to it, the Reflecting Pool was a mess. It was full of algae, it had several leaks that needed attention, and, in the estimation of Trump’s advisers, the basin required repainting to enhance the water’s reflective effect. The Reflecting Pool is now in far better shape, although partisans continue to decry Trump’s work. The truth is simple: A monument needed fixing, and it was fixed quickly and competently. Not every development has to be a crisis, not every moment calls for extended debate, and not all features of American life require interrogation by postmodernist bores. Sometimes, a pool is just a pool.

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◼ Trustees of Medicare and Social Security released their annual reports last week on the state of the funds that finance aspects of both programs. They have only bad news. Social Security’s trust fund is set to run out of money by 2032. Medicare’s insolvency is expected just a year later. This will mean sudden and significant cuts for seniors. Absent action from Congress, Social Security recipients will see their benefits slashed instantly by 22 percent across the board. The true entitlement crisis, however, is the enormous public debt resulting from both programs that will only become more obvious once their trust funds are exhausted. Long-term fiscal deficits are driven almost entirely by projected shortfalls in these two programs. Rather than wait for a fiscal emergency, the government should enact gradual changes now by, for example, raising the retirement age and making future benefits grow more slowly. This would have been far easier one or two decades ago, but better late than never.

◼ In response to Trump’s appointment of Bill Pulte, an unqualified loyalist, to the position of acting director of national intelligence following the resignation of Tulsi Gabbard, congressional Democrats let FISA Section 702, the statutory authority to conduct foreign intelligence surveillance, lapse. Pulte had used his position as Trump’s chief of the Federal Housing Finance Agency to mine government mortgage files for dirt on Trump’s political enemies. Still, Democrats could have objected to his appointment without endangering national security. Trump could not bring himself to retreat, but he nominated the well-regarded Jay Clayton as DNI and affirmed that Pulte’s tenure would be brief and focused on slashing bureaucracy rather than intelligence analysis (in which Pulte has no experience). Alas, Democrats would not agree to even a brief reauthorization of Section 702 while the parties hammer out terms for its three-year extension. Trump has now pulled Clayton’s nomination, which will lengthen Pulte’s tenure as acting DNI. Hopefully, the damage will be minimal: The statute, even though it has lapsed, allows court orders authorizing intelligence-collection programs to continue. There are concerns, though, that telecoms may balk at helping surveillance programs and that agents may be inhibited in using the Section 702 database. Washington’s toxic partisanship has devolved into national security recklessness.

◼ New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced plans to spend $15 million to expand access to so-called gender-affirming care. Mamdani has publicly suggested that the funds will be designated for gender interventions for minors, but the city’s health department told media that patients must be at least 19 years of age. NYC Health Commissioner Alister Martin said that the city is trying to make these procedures available for pediatric patients without triggering a response from the federal government. The Trump administration’s righteous crusade against such procedures for minors remains necessary.

◼ In State of Texas v. Karmelo Sincere Anthony, a jury rightly concluded that Karmelo Anthony was guilty of murdering Austin Metcalf. The facts of the case were not seriously disputed during the trial. On April 2, 2025, while it was raining at a high school track meet in Frisco, Texas, 17-year-old Karmelo Anthony of Centennial High School took shelter under a team tent that belonged to Memorial High School. Austin Metcalf, a 17-year-old Memorial student-athlete, approached Anthony and told him to leave on the grounds that the tent was reserved for Memorial competitors. A brief argument followed, during which Anthony told Metcalf, “Touch me and see what happens.” Anthony then produced a knife and stabbed Metcalf once in the chest, killing him. Anthony claimed he had acted in self-defense. Legally, using a weapon is justified only when the actor reasonably believes deadly force is immediately necessary to protect against death, serious bodily injury, or certain specified crimes. That cannot reasonably describe the situation in which Anthony found himself. In the press, certain figures have suggested that it is relevant that Anthony was black and Metcalf was white; that the jury had no African-Americans members; and that in different states and under different laws, different juries have found different people not guilty. None of this makes any sense. The citizens who were charged with adjudicating this case took their task seriously and called Anthony’s crime what it was: murder.

◼ As Russian ground forces experience setback after setback in Ukraine, the Kremlin has redoubled its efforts to bring Kyiv to its knees via rockets and drones. Russia fired hundreds of drones and missiles at Ukraine’s biggest cities. In Kyiv, Russian missiles struck dozens of civilian sites, including the historic eleventh-century monastery Pechersk Lavra. But Ukraine, now one of the world’s leading defense technology powers, has the capacity to strike back. The skies over Moscow were blackened as hundreds of Ukrainian drones descended on Russia’s capital city and struck oil refineries. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called the strikes a “fair response to Russian attacks on our cities and communities.” Unlike Russia’s strikes on UNESCO World Heritage Sites, Ukraine is at least targeting infrastructure that supports the Russian war effort. Moreover, Zelensky added, this is what proportionality looks like. “If Ukraine is burning,” he said, “your Moscow will burn, too.”

◼ SpaceX, the cutting-edge spaceflight and technology company led by Elon Musk, offered its shares to the public and instantly became recognized as one of the world’s most valuable companies. There are only winners in this story. It’s great news for retail investors, who can at last buy into the next frontier of cosmic exploration. The initial public offering made Musk the first trillionaire in history and minted several thousand millionaires among those who have worked for the company over the past two decades. Progressives were apoplectic, blaring that such wealth creation is illegitimate and could justify government seizure. But SpaceX’s value is rooted in its otherworldly products and services: reusable space rockets, satellite internet that blankets the Earth, and artificial intelligence. Due to the IPO’s proceeds, the firm now has $86 billion to pour into these innovations. Democrats should be thanking Musk for the widespread wealth that his enterprise, a representation of American ingenuity, has generated.

◼ Born and bred Yorkshireman David Hockney was a British icon. Yet he became famous painting scenes of poolside leisure in sunny California, where he moved in 1964. Hockney was often a renegade. He bucked abstraction, worked on the fringe of Pop Art, and pioneered the theory that old masters like Vermeer had used proto-photographic lenses in their work. He was an avant-garde portraitist, which might appear as a contradiction. Late in life, he turned to iPad art. He gravitated from California to Britain, Normandy, and back to Britain. His paintings, rich in color and optimism, remain highly valued. Dead at 88. R.I.P.