by Steve Benen | Mar 12, 2026 | Iran Tensions, Maddowblog, News, Politics
At his political rally in Kentucky, Donald Trump told a curious story about Iranian ships destroyed by the U.S. military in recent days. According to the president’s version of events, he grew angry with his military leaders, asking, “Why the hell did we kill them? Why didn’t we just capture them and use them in our navy?”
Eventually, according to Trump, a U.S. general told him, “Sir, it’s a lot more fun doing it this way.”
Trump: “They knocked out 54 ships in two days. I got mad at my people. I said, ‘Why the hell did we kill them? Why didn’t we just capture them and use them in our Navy?’ They said they wouldn’t have qualified for that. One of my generals said, ‘Sir, it’s a lot more fun doing it this way.'”— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2026-03-11T21:12:41.267Z
The Republican told a nearly identical story to members of the House Republican conference two days earlier, again claiming that military leaders told him it’s “more fun” to sink Iranian ships than to capture them.
The use of the word “fun” was jarring for all of the obvious reasons. Trump was, after all, talking about a U.S. military offensive that has killed some American service members and left many more wounded — in addition to the massive casualties in Iran, including an apparent American missile strike on an Iranian girls’ school that killed 175 civilians, most of whom were children.
There are a variety of adjectives that a wartime American leader should use when talking about this avoidable crisis. “Fun” isn’t one of them.
But by all appearances, the White House has come to a very different
by Jeff McCausland | Mar 12, 2026 | Opinion, Politics
Last week, the Pentagon was still conducting the investigation that led to Wednesday’s report that a U.S. missile likely killed more than 170 people at a school near an Iranian military base — and the White House was publishing to social media video montages that spliced snippets from video games and Hollywood action movies with real wartime footage out of Iran. Those social media posts were beneath the dignity of the White House, and they were released a day before the dignified transfer of American soldiers killed in the ongoing war provided an image of how deadly serious war is.
Those social media posts were beneath the dignity of the White House.
White House officials reportedly believe the Trump administration is losing the communications war with Americans. That concern may explain why Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has started conducting news conferences after assiduously avoiding them. But the former Fox News host’s briefings have amounted to Fox News “performances,” replete with braggadocio and empty phrases like “we’re playing for keeps” and “death and destruction from the sky all day.” If he believes such vacuous presentations have inspired Americans, then he is sorely mistaken. Polls have found that most Americans are opposed to the United States’ war with Iran.
During a March 4 news conference, Hegseth used the deaths of American soldiers to air his grievances that go back at least to March 2025 when, according to the Pentagon’s Office of the Inspector General, Hegseth violated Defense Department policy and put troops at greater risk when he used his personal cell phone to share sensitive military information in a group chat.
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‘Thin skin doesn’t get you too
by Steve Benen | Mar 11, 2026 | Iran Tensions, Maddowblog, Politics
At a press conference last week, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth took a moment to push back against reporting that he disagreed with. The beleaguered Pentagon chief said he’s heard commentary that the war in Iran “might be expanding” beyond Iranian borders.
“Nothing could be further from the truth,” he said.
On Tuesday, the former Fox News host tried to re-emphasize the same argument.
Hegseth: “I see in the media banners that say, ‘War expanding’ or ‘War spreading’ — it’s actually the opposite. It’s actually quite contained.”— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2026-03-10T12:29:44.166Z
“It’s worth underscoring, I see in the media banners that say, ‘War expanding,’ or ‘War spreading,” Hegseth said. “It’s actually the opposite. It’s actually quite contained.”
Perhaps he was referring to some other war?
On the first day of the military offensive, the conflict involved three countries: The United States, Israel and Iran. But it wasn’t long before that list grew. By the sixth day of the war, The Washington Post noted that the violence had “touched 12 countries across the Middle East.”
Soon after, an Iranian drone strike hit Bahrain, injuring 32 people, and the day after that, the United Arab Emirates felt the need to shut down one of the larger oil refineries in the world in response to an Iranian strike. The developments coincided with related violence spreading to Iraq and Lebanon, where a conflict with Israel has intensified.
What’s more, other countries around the world have been economically impacted by the war, widening the conflict beyond the Middle East.
Donald Trump’s attack on Iran is already having profound effects on economies around the world.— MaddowBlog (@maddowblog.bsky.social) 2026-03-10T20:07:34.699Z
None of this is a secret. It’s been well
by Steve Benen | Mar 11, 2026 | Congress, Maddowblog, Politics
In recent weeks, there’s been a series of indefensible incidents in which Republican members of Congress have peddled overt and explicit anti-Muslim bigotry, but GOP Rep. Andy Ogles of Tennessee added to the pattern this week, publishing a message to social media that argued, “Muslims don’t belong in American society.”
Democratic leaders have been quick to condemn the hateful partisan trend, but Republican leaders failed to do the same, and it was difficult to wonder whether someone like House Speaker Mike Johnson would ever address the subject in a meaningful way.
The good news is, the Louisiana Republican finally said something on Tuesday afternoon. The bad news is, Congress’ most powerful GOP leader made an ugly problem even worse.
Mike Johnson on House Republicans’ Islamophobic rhetoric: “There’s a lot of energy in the country and a lot of popular sentiment that the demand to impose Sharia Law in America is a serious problem”— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2026-03-10T15:50:01.235Z
After a brief comment about the significance of “tone,” Johnson effectively presented a defense of his far-right members’ bigotry.
“There’s a lot of energy in the country and a lot of popular sentiment that the demand to impose sharia law in America is a serious problem. That’s what animates this,” the House speaker said. “The language that people use — it’s different language than I would use, but I think that’s a serious issue. Sharia law and the imposition of sharia law is contrary to the U.S. Constitution.”
He concluded, “When you seek to come to a country and not assimilate but impose sharia law, sharia law is in conflict with the Constitution. It’s not about people as Muslims;
by Steve Benen | Mar 11, 2026 | 2026 election, Maddowblog, Politics
Heading into Tuesday’s state legislative special election in New Hampshire, Republicans had reason to be cautiously optimistic. The race was in a district that Donald Trump won by nine points in 2024, and the Democratic candidate had already run and lost twice before by wide margins.
And yet, the contest turned into the latest in a series of red-to-blue flips. NH Journal reported:
In what Granite State Republicans hope is not a preview of November, Democrat Bobbi Boudman won Tuesday’s special election for Carroll County District 7, defeating Republican Dale Fincher 51 percent to 47 percent in a district that voted Republican by more than 13 points just 16 months ago.
The New Hampshire Union Leader called the outcome “stunning” and a “big upset” given the Republican advantage in the local district.
In a press statement, Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee President Heather Williams boasted, “Tuesdays are becoming a headache for state Republicans across the country as they suffer one stunning defeat after another.”
And therein lies the point: For Democrats, 2026 is off to a very encouraging start.
In January, two of the party’s candidates won lopsided victories in two special elections in Minnesota, the first two contests of the year, restoring the state House to an even partisan split.
Soon after, in Texas, Republicans invested a considerable amount of resources to keep a state Senate seat in the suburbs of Fort Worth. They failed: Democrat Taylor Rehmet, a union leader and an Air Force veteran, won a double-digit victory in a district Trump won by 17 points in 2024. (The president personally tried to rally support for the GOP candidate, but then pretended he didn’t after
by Steve Benen | Mar 10, 2026 | Maddowblog, Politics
Over the last year or so, far-right activist Ed Martin has served in a variety of capacities on Donald Trump’s team, including a failed tenure as the director of the Justice Department’s “Weaponization Working Group” and his ongoing work as the president’s pardon attorney.
But to appreciate the Missouri Republican’s contributions, one has to look no further than Martin’s truly ridiculous work as interim U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C., which proved so controversial that GOP senators refused to confirm him to the post.
Over the course of roughly 16 weeks, Martin repeatedly proved his critics right, acting as a hyper-partisan prosecutor who appeared to abuse the powers of his office, including a weird fight exactly one year ago this week with the dean of Georgetown University’s law school.
While federal prosecutors tend to focus resources on matters of law enforcement (since that is their job), Martin decided to launch a bizarre attack on academic freedom, targeting a private Catholic institution for unexplained reasons, telling the law school dean that Georgetown graduates would be locked out of potential jobs in the U.S. attorney’s office if the university taught or used “diversity, equity and inclusion” — which went undefined in his letter.
One year later, MS NOW confirmed that Martin is facing an ethics investigation from the D.C. Bar over his wildly unnecessary campaign against Georgetown Law.
Bloomberg Law also reported on the developments:
The Office of Disciplinary Counsel — the enforcement arm for the local DC Bar — alleges that Martin violated ethics rules in early 2025 by making threats against Georgetown University Law Center. … According to a petition from the office, Martin violated the local
