by Steve Benen | Mar 30, 2026 | Maddowblog, News, Politics
In recent months, Donald Trump has traveled to Mar-a-Lago nearly every weekend, and this past weekend was no exception. On Friday night, however, the president added a stop before arriving at his glorified country club: He went to Miami to speak at a conference for Saudi Arabia’s sovereign investment fund.
The remarks did not go especially well. While bragging about the war in Iran he started for reasons he’s struggled to explain, Trump boasted that he and his administration “saved the Middle East” — a claim that roughly coincided with news that an Iranian missile strike had injured American service members stationed at an air base in Saudi Arabia.
The New York Times reported, “Mr. Trump appeared to be unaware in the moment of the combined missile and drone attack, which was one of the most serious breaches of U.S. air defenses in the course of the monthlong war. While onstage, he continued to praise the dominance of the United States and its Gulf allies. The result was an unsettling, split-screen reminder that despite Mr. Trump’s contention, the war is far from resolved and could risk more American lives.”
But complicating matters further are the broader circumstances: The sitting American president was speaking at a conference for Saudi Arabia’s sovereign investment fund, on the heels of his son-in-law Jared Kushner turning to Saudi officials for more money for his private investment firm.
This is the same son-in-law who also happens to be simultaneously leading the U.S. government’s negotiations in the Middle East, despite his obvious conflicts of interests and the fact that he holds no public office.
Meanwhile, Riyadh — when it’s not talking business
by Steve Benen | Mar 30, 2026 | 2026 election, Maddowblog, News, Politics
Donald Trump hasn’t been subtle about his contempt for Rep. Eric Swalwell. In recent years, the president has condemned the California Democrat as “a loser,” “a lowlife,” an “idiot” and a “total sleazebag.” If the Republican has an enemies list specifically focused on members of Congress, it’s probably fair to say that Swalwell is near the top.
The question, however, is how far Trump and his team are prepared to go to undermine the progressive lawmaker.
Last fall, as part of a larger effort to weaponize mortgage fraud allegations against the president’s perceived political enemies, Bill Pulte, the Trump loyalist who leads the Federal Housing Finance Agency, referred Swalwell to the Justice Department for a potential federal criminal probe. The complaint appeared highly dubious, and at least so far, nothing has come of it.
Almost five months later, however, the campaign against Swalwell — now a leading Democratic gubernatorial candidate in California — appears to be taking an even more aggressive turn. The Washington Post reported:
FBI Director Kash Patel is pressing to release a decade-old investigative file involving Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-California) and a suspected Chinese intelligence operative, recently dispatching agents in the bureau’s San Francisco office to quickly redact the files before they are released publicly despite no evidence of wrongdoing by Swalwell, according to three people familiar with the effort.
The potential release is part of the Trump administration’s aggressive push to investigate Swalwell, a vocal critic of President Donald Trump and a leading Democratic candidate for California governor, according to the people familiar with the effort.
The Post’s report, which has been confirmed by MS NOW, dovetailed with a related article from
by Steve Benen | Mar 30, 2026 | Maddowblog, News, Politics
Shortly after starting the war in Iran, Donald Trump made little effort to hide the fact that Cuba was his next target. The American president didn’t explicitly say that he intends to use military force against the island nation, but he did suggest he intended to bring down the government in Havana — soon.
On Sunday night, during a Q&A on Air Force One, a reporter briefly brought up Cuba, at which point Trump interjected before the question could even be asked. “Cuba’s gonna be next,” he said. “Cuba’s a mess, it’s a failing country, and they’re gonna be next. Within a short period of time, it’s gonna fail. … Cuba’s gonna be next, yeah.”
The rhetoric was hardly unusual. On the contrary, the Republican has been making nearly identical comments for weeks, declaring two weeks ago, “Taking Cuba in some form, yeah. I mean, whether I free it, take it, think I can do anything I want with it.”
What’s more, it’s not just rhetoric: The Trump administration has effectively tried to strangle the Cuban government, enforcing an oil blockade around the island — in the process, sending much of Cuba into sporadic darkness — and even threatening to punish other countries that might be inclined to provide Cuba with the resources it needs.
The point of the policy is hardly subtle: The White House intends to push Cuban officials to the point of desperation, making it easier for the administration to impose its will. The longer the country goes without oil, the weaker its regime becomes.
It was against this backdrop that Russia announced plans to provide Cuba with oil — and Team
by Rep. Derek Tran | Mar 30, 2026 | Opinion, Politics
Effective April 1, refugees and asylum seekers in California will no longer qualify for benefits through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, sometimes called food stamps or SNAP. In other states, food assistance for refugees and asylees has already ended. The end of that aid is a direct result of President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill, which cuts $187 billion from SNAP through 2034.
In many cases, these are families who fled unimaginable violence and persecution, welcomed into the safety, freedom and opportunity provided in America.
My story is a refugee story.
For hundreds of years, refugees have arrived in America, ready to contribute to society. But starting from nothing is almost impossible. They require support to rebuild their lives.
I know this firsthand. My story is a refugee story.
I was born barely a year after my parents fled the unimaginable horrors of communist Vietnam. My father lost his first wife and four of his children on their first attempt to escape as boat people following the fall of Saigon in April 1975. He met my mom and five years later, with three young daughters, they found their way to America.
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My family found the freedom and democracy that had been ripped away in their homeland, but materially we had almost nothing. In their escape, my parents had no choice but to leave everything behind.
I grew up on SNAP, WIC (Women, Infants and Children) and Medicaid, lived in Section 8 housing and attended public schools. Because of that foundation, I excelled. I served in the Army. I graduated from law school. I opened a business. Today, I represent California’s
by Robyn Autry | Mar 28, 2026 | Opinion, Politics
UPDATE, March 27, 2026, 3:00 p.m. ET: According to a report from The Independent Florida Alligator, “The Florida Board of Governors removed sociology as a general education course offering in a surprise vote Thursday.”
It just got harder to teach sociology in Florida. The board of governors, which runs the state’s public university system, has developed a new introductory textbook and syllabus for sociology that exclude many of the bedrock areas of concern within the field, including gender and sexuality, social stratification, systemic racism and other forms of social inequality. Robert Cassanello, an associate professor of history at the University of Central Florida and president of the United Faculty of Florida union, told Inside Higher Ed on Saturday that all of the state’s public colleges had received new guidelines that warn against teaching content that might violate state law.
In 2023 the Florida Legislature passed a bill that bans curriculum at state-funded schools that supposedly teaches identity politics or diversity, equity and inclusion, or that suggests racism, sexism and other forms of oppression are embedded in American institutions.
Florida’s new textbook excludes chapters not just on race and ethnicity and gender and sexuality, but also on media and technology, global inequality and social stratification.
Florida’s new 267-page sociology textbook is an abbreviated version of the 669-page free and open-source “Introduction to Sociology 3e” and excludes chapters not just on race and ethnicity and gender and sexuality — the usual targets — but also on media and technology, global inequality and social stratification. There is also a suggested course framework or syllabus that instructors were expected to adopt just days before the spring semester.
by Dr. Joia Crear Perry | Mar 25, 2026 | Opinion, Politics
A recent ProPublica report about patients in labor being forced to virtually appear before judges who force them to undergo a cesarean section against their will exposes the problems with laws and policies that bestow personhood on a fetus. In some states, hospitals can turn to the courts when a pregnant patient refuses a recommended intervention, arguing that the fetus has separate rights that must be protected. In one example that ProPublica brought to light, a Florida patient demonstrated a clear understanding that there was less than a 2% chance of her uterus rupturing if she delivered vaginally. She articulated an informed refusal of a recommended C-section. Even so, a judge on an electronic tablet that was brought to her bedside overrode her bodily autonomy under the guise of fetal protection.
A judge on an electronic tablet that was brought to her bedside overrode her bodily autonomy.
When one mother in the ProPublica story asks who will help her care for her newborn after she became unable to cook for herself for weeks after surgery, there was no answer. In a country with no paid leave and no free newborn care, the promise of such “protection” rings hollow. These policies prioritize the fetus and abandon the mother and child. Forced C-sections don’t happen in a vacuum; they occur in a country in which more women die within six weeks of giving birth than in any other high-income nation. (Deaths after a C-section, vaginal delivery, ectopic pregnancy, elective abortion or miscarriage are all included in this number.)
The ethical tradition of obstetrics and gynecology emphasizes patient autonomy. Our primary responsibility as doctors is to
