The Week: A Temporary Cease-Fire

• No cease-fire in the podcasting wars as yet.

• By the time you read this, the status of the cease-fire with Iran that is intended to open the Strait of Hormuz may well have changed again. At this writing, Iran has not ceased firing at Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, and Kuwait. Israel insists that the deal does not include any reprieve for Hezbollah in Lebanon, while the Iranians insist that it does. Meanwhile, the strait remains mostly closed. President Trump has always been prone to posting furious outbursts on Truth Social, and he seems to be getting more erratic as the war continues. On Tuesday morning, the president was warning that “a whole civilization will die.” About twelve hours later, Iran’s release of wildly unrealistic demands was supposedly good enough to persuade the president to back down. But a little before midnight on Wednesday, Trump declared that U.S. military forces would remain in the region “until such time as the REAL AGREEMENT reached is fully complied with.” In the “highly unlikely” event it is not, “then the ‘Shootin’ Starts,’ bigger, and better, and stronger than anyone has ever seen before.” It is a blessing that Iran’s military has been degraded and we continue to hope for a good outcome, but steadier leadership in war would be helpful.

• A U.S. F-15E fighter jet was downed over Iran. The regime would have loved to capture either of the pilots who ejected. Instead, the United States mounted a stunning operation that involved the establishment of a forward-operating airbase deep inside Iran — just 30 miles outside Iran’s third-largest city — and recovered its airmen. According to the president, the mission became “much more difficult” when a reporter leaked information about the recovery of one of the jet’s officers even as the second was still at risk of Iranian capture. Trump has vowed to sic the Department of Justice on the unidentified reporter. Knees should not jerk about freedom of the press. Identifying the Pentagon’s point of failure in preserving operational security is important, and reporters have gone to jail before for protecting sources who jeopardize national security.

• Secretary of State Marco Rubio rescinded the green cards of two relatives of Qasem Soleimani, who orchestrated the deaths of hundreds of Americans as the top commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps until Trump had him assassinated in 2020. While the Iranian people suffer under the regime’s tyranny, children of top Iranian officials often live lavish lives in the West — many relishing the Great Satan’s non-sharia-compliant liberties. So it has been for the late general’s niece, Hamideh Soleimani Afshar, and her daughter. Our immigration authorities awarded them lawful permanent resident alien status, the law’s privileged gateway to American citizenship. Afshar reciprocated, from her glamorous California haunts, by publicly advocating the regime’s “Death to America” agenda. Rubio is relying on an immigration statute that lets the secretary deport even lawful aliens if he determines that their presence harms U.S. foreign policy interests. Other aliens against whom Rubio has invoked the provision have so far delayed their deportations through court challenges. Afshar and her daughter are detained. It’s unclear whether they’ll resist repatriation to Allah’s paradise on earth.

• Fewer people now work for the federal government than at any point since 1966, when Lyndon Johnson expanded the bureaucracy to construct his “Great Society.” The Trump administration deserves credit for this milestone. More than 150,000 federal employees accepted a buyout offer from the administration early in Trump’s term. Tens of thousands more were let go in lawful “reductions in force” as agencies reorganized. Even with fewer employees, though, the size of government has not been tamed. Federal spending accounted for a near-record share of the U.S. economy in 2025 and is projected to grow much more. Trump recently proposed a 2027 budget that would dramatically cut non-defense discretionary spending. But those savings would be swamped by the large-scale yet necessary defense expenditures he’s proposing. Meanwhile, unlike in past presidential budget proposals, Trump makes no effort to even mention entitlements such as Medicare and Social Security: the true drivers of gaping deficits. Almost no one in Washington has any interest in bringing long-term revenues and total spending into accord. Trimming the federal bureaucracy was a needed step toward rationalizing the size and scope of government. But there is much more work to be done.

• On April 2, 2025, Trump announced that he was liberating America from the scourge of imports. The worst predicted effects have not materialized, in part because Trump quickly backed off on some of the tariffs. Nor, however, have jobs and factories come “roaring back.” Manufacturing has shed tens of thousands of jobs, continuing a slide that began in 2023. Research finds that tariffs are passed on to Americans at rates of up to 96 percent, rather than paid by foreign countries, as Trump claims. Tariffs have raised the prices of imported and domestic goods alike, as dampened competition invites U.S. producers to charge more. They have also failed to reduce the U.S. trade deficit, a principal if dubious goal of the president. American consumers, including American producers, can be forgiven if they do not feel liberated.

• Trump is attempting to federalize elections via executive order. He has instructed the Department of Homeland Security to assemble lists of eligible, voting-age U.S. citizens using data provided by the Social Security Administration; to synchronize those lists with voting officials in the states before each federal election; and then to cooperate with the U.S. Postal Service to ensure that any illegitimate ballots cast by mail are nixed at the source. According to a White House spokesman, Trump’s plan would enable the federal government to “verify” that ballots are only “being sent to people who are eligible to vote” and to ensure that those that are returned are “returned by eligible voters only.” Congress enjoys a good deal of power over federally delivered mail. Congress has power as well to secure federal elections. And Congress has not elected to delegate anything close to this level of authority to the president. The citizenry has an interest in ensuring that its elections are free of fraud. It also has an interest in preventing enormous bureaucracies from overriding the sovereignty of the states and constructing, maintaining, and sharing lists of Americans. We would hope for a little more circumspection before our elections are so comprehensively overhauled.

• California is one of a handful of states that have set out to cure the ills of democracy with more democracy. To soften political partisanship’s sharp edges, the state implemented reforms to its primary system that allow all candidates, regardless of party affiliation, to run on the same ballot. The top two winners of that contest advance to the general election. But a variety of high-profile Democrats, each with his or her own sticky constituency, were drawn into the race to replace Governor Gavin Newsom. The result, according to the polls, was a muddle in which each Democratic aspirant secured modest support. By contrast, the race attracted only two Republicans, both of whom cornered the GOP vote in California. The two Republicans therefore led the early polling, heralding the funniest of all possible scenarios: a general gubernatorial election in California between two GOP candidates. Alas, Trump has intervened to ensure that this will not come to pass. This week, the president endorsed former Fox News Host Steve Hilton over former Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco. Trump’s intervention likely seals the deal for Hilton, and it probably cedes the general election to the Democrat who consolidates a plurality of the Democratic primary vote. It was fun while it lasted.

• In 2025, Virginia’s Democratic Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger ran for governor with the game set on easy mode. Trump had never been popular in the state and was radioactive in the state’s populous northern suburbs. The GOP nominee, Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle-Sears, was incapable of meeting the moment. Spanberger ran a slew of soft-focus biographical ads and pledged to be a sensible centrist. She even said she opposed redistricting. But since the start of the year, the now heavily Democratic state legislature has seen progressivism go wild, and if Spanberger objects, she has hidden it well. She is now touting a wildly partisan redistricting referendum, in a shameless reversal of her campaign stance. This week, a poll by the Washington Post found that “the approval mark for Spanberger is 13 percentage points lower than the average for Virginia governors in Post polling since the 1990s.” The Post survey found that 46 percent of Virginians disapprove of the job she’s doing. Campaigning as a centrist and governing from the far left has consequences, and hopefully Virginians will express their disappointment when they cast ballots in the April 21 redistricting referendum.

• Janet Mills, the Democratic governor of Maine, is shedding her temperate persona to embrace big-government populism. The two-term executive previously vetoed legislation that would have increased the state’s top income tax rate to 8.45 percent, correctly arguing that it would drive high earners to friendlier jurisdictions. Running for reelection, Mills swore she wasn’t interested in raising taxes. Call that false advertising. She now endorses a “millionaire’s tax” of 9.15 percent: a higher rate than the one she once rejected. It would be the steepest income tax in all of New England. Mills is also poised to sign a moratorium on the construction of new data centers in Maine, mirroring a proposal in Congress by socialists Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. This sudden rush to the left was apparently a political imperative. Mills is running in Maine's Democratic primary for Senate, badly trailing her opponent Graham Platner, the gruff progressive oysterman with the worrisome Nazi tattoos. The governor’s calculation indicates that her party will have a tough time retiring the shibboleths that poisoned its public image. Even in a famously moderate state like Maine, Democrats seem compelled to hug the fringe.

• Vice President JD Vance descended on Budapest this week. He joined Hungary’s embattled President Viktor Orbán in condemning Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s pernicious interference in foreign elections, including America’s. Zelensky, unwisely, appeared at a Pennsylvania munitions factory alongside Democratic Governor Josh Shapiro in 2024. But the accusation lost any sting because Vance was, at that moment, doing the same thing. The vice president traveled to Hungary to endorse and campaign with Orbán, although the U.S. interest in the election outcome is not clear. The administration has repeatedly said, after all, that Europe should carry more of the load of supporting Ukraine, something the Orbán government obstructs at every chance. In any case, the elections seem more likely to be affected by the government’s longevity in office and poor economic results than by any foreign visitors.

• National Review reported that Washington State presumes racial minority groups to be “disadvantaged” when awarding special business certifications. These come with privileges, including access to a low-interest loan program and registration on a state-operated registry designed to increase diversity in government contracting. The certificates, the loan scheme, and the directory probably violate the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment, especially since none of the programs appear tailored to remedy a historical instance of discrimination against a specific group. Colorblindness has long been the letter of the law -- and long been resisted.

• The Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne, a group of Catholic nuns who have dedicated their lives to caring for the terminally ill poor, are suing the State of New York over a 2024 law that requires them to recognize and support patients’ gender-related delusions. The nuns have cared for patients at Rosary Hill Home for more than 120 years and do not accept any compensation for their efforts. The nuns take issue with the state law — the LGBTQ Long Term Care Facility Residents’ Bill of Rights — which, among other things, mandates that care facilities allow patients access to bathrooms and rooming assignments that reflect their “gender preferences.” Failure to comply could result in thousands of dollars in fines and even a prison sentence. The Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne applied for an exemption. The state health department, however, did not respond to their request, prompting the lawsuit. The state’s new “rights” legislation should not come before the rights spelled out in the Constitution.

• A medical study from Finland found that youth patients diagnosed with gender dysphoria did not have improved psychological outcomes after gender-reassignment procedures. Their mental health worsened, in defiance of the prevailing claim that such interventions reduce depression and suicide among minors. The findings run counter to the narrative that “gender-affirming care” is lifesaving and necessary. The study comes at a critical time as more de-transitioners file lawsuits against doctors and hospitals for allowing underage patients to undergo these treatments. Further, medical groups such as the American Society of Plastic Surgeons are directing minor patients to delay “gender-reassignment” procedures until they reach adulthood. The vaunted “scientific consensus” is, too slowly, moving toward actual evidence and away from fads.

• The Artemis II crew have nearly completed their mission. Having rounded the moon as planned, they are currently properly positioned for the journey home and reentry into Earth’s atmosphere. We await their arrival off the coast of San Diego. While the mission will not be counted a complete success until after splashdown, it has gone almost entirely according to plan so far. The pictures the crew has sent back from the dark side of the moon are stunning on their own terms, and even more so when one realizes the immense national effort required to get these astronauts into a position to snap them. One step at a time — but full speed ahead.