Back in the news this week — the Epstein Report — as a result of a random press conference called by First Lady Melania Trump, a surprise for everyone including the president himself who claimed to know nothing about it. As Joanna Coles writes on Substack, “Melania Trump, last seen smiling alongside the Easter bunny, emerged briefly on Thursday from her gilded witness protection program to issue a statement about Jeffrey Epstein. Why now? Her documentary ‘Melania,’ a long and frictionless Instagram exercise in image laundering, offered the perfect, hermetically sealed environment to address any lingering questions about proximity, rumor, or denial. A captive audience, a sympathetic frame, and not a whisper of Epstein. One might think the omission was the point.”

Melania’s White House statement denying ties to Jeffrey Epstein and knowledge of his crimes, and calling for a congressional hearing for survivors allowing them to testify before lawmakers and have their stories entered into the congressional record, comes at a time when President Trump and his administration had finally succeeded in moving beyond the controversy with the Iran “excursion” dominating headlines. While lawmakers had complained at the limited release last month of files by the Justice Department, the agency said more time was needed for review to ensure no sensitive information about victims was released. The First Lady didn’t waste any of her time defending her husband, and the White House was blindsided with her admitting that she had partied with Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell in New York in 1998. Journalist Aaron Rupar wrote on X, “I am not sure why Melania Trump decided to make a statement about Jeffrey Epstein seemingly out of nowhere today, but if the idea was to put the ongoing coverup in the rearview mirror it will backfire spectacularly.”

She denied being a victim of Epstein, to which research paralegal and progressive commentator, RJ Riley, posted on X: “Again, no one asked you if you were Epstein’s victim. That’s a deflection. The actual question is why you and your husband were, at MINIMUM, embedded in the same elite party circuit as a known predator for years, praised him publicly, and only distanced himself after Epstein became radioactive. That’s not chance. So no, a self-written book isn’t evidence, it’s clean up.” Paul Kavanagh, a columnist at the Scottish publication, The National, posted on Bluesky: “Melania Trump is talking about Epstein in order to distract from the Iran war her husband started in order to distract from Epstein.” David Rothkopf on The Daily Beast speculates that Donald Trump has apparently decided that being heavily linked to a notorious sex trafficker, while bad enough to make him want to start a war to distract from it, is not as bad as being seen as a genocidal maniac, behaving like Hitler.

Rothkopf goes on to say that suggesting the president’s wife never had a relationship with Maxwell, seems a stretch, since the internet is flooded with images of the First Lady looking very cozy with Epstein and Maxwell, which raises the questions about her intervention — why? And why now? Is there a pending legal matter in which she is involved? It seems that she would be unable to commandeer the White House stage without approval of and support of the president’s staff, and why would they condone it? Especially in light of Pam Bondi’s firing, she being unable to make the story go away. As delicious as the possibility of Melania’s going rogue may seem, Rothkopf says that is very unlikely since it took place at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue; and he leaves us with the choices of believing the president decided to place Epstein center-stage, or that he was blindsided by his wife because he is the old guy who is no more aware of, or in control of, what goes on in the White House than he is of anything else at the moment.

Jimmy Kimmel, on his show, says that Melania might have highlighted the Epstein scandal out of sheer resentment towards her husband, saying, “He spent the past six weeks trying to bomb this Epstein story out of the headlines. Two days after the ceasefire, she puts it right back on top. She must really hate him. I don’t know how else to explain it. For whatever reason, she didn’t ask. She didn’t give a heads up. She just went right out in front of the cameras and fired away.” To Melania’s demand that lies and rumors about her “cease today,” he ponders if ‘tomorrow’ would be okay, since he needs to catch up on what her concerns are. Melania declared that she is not Epstein’s victim, but Kimmel insisted she meant, “I am my husband’s victim,” and theorizing that the 5+ minute speech was the same one Donald gave to her after the Stormy Daniels brouhaha erupted. Political scientist, Professor Kristoffer Ealy, wrote on Lincon Square, “She spoke for five minutes, reading from a prepared statement, plugged her book, told Congress what investigations to conduct, and walked away without taking a single question. A press conference where you don’t take questions isn’t a press conference — that’s a hostage video with better lighting.”

Ealy goes on: “I want to be very clear about something before we go any further. I do not believe this woman. I have not believed this woman for a long time. And it is not because of anything Jeffrey Epstein-related. It is because I have been watching Melania Trump operate for the better part of fifteen years, and what I have observed is a person who lies the way most people breathe — reflexively, efficiently, and without apparent discomfort. The difference between Melania Trump lying and Melania Trump telling the truth is not something you merely hear. It is something you feel. It settles in the room like humidity. And what settled into the White House Grand Foyer on April 9, 2026 was very, very familiar. The media will spend the next several days debating whether her denial was credible. I am not interested in that debate. I am interested in the record. Because the record is long, it is documented, and it has more receipts than a Whole Foods on a Saturday afternoon.”

On The Hartmann Report, Thom Hartmann asks “when will the other Melania shoe drop?” He says the great mystery this week, is why Melania Trump would go on TV from the White House and pull a ‘Richard “I am not a crook” Nixon’ for no apparent reason. “That didn’t work out well for Nixon, and it’s unlikely her demands will do anything other than fuel more speculation and a faster circulation of her nudie pictures and photos of her and Jeffrey Epstein. Speculations about what provoked her, run from a woman close to threatening to ‘expose’ her ‘pedophile’ husband, to the possibility of a new book release claiming Melania and Epstein were once involved, to weird theories that Trump asked her to do it to distract from the Iran debacle,” writes Hartmann. “Something very, very weird is going on with this couple (if you could call two people who live and sleep separately a couple). But then, if you were married to Trump, wouldn’t you be a bit on edge, too?”

As expected, NBC’s Saturday Night Live’s cold opening ripped into the Melania speech, with two regulars portraying the First Couple in a phone conversation. Melania has called her husband to warn him about her bombshell press conference, saying, “I decided I should do a big random speech completely out of nowhere and say, ‘I am not Epstein’s victim.’ Is that good?” The president replies, “Darling, I gotta admit that sounds a little insane. Who are you…me? Melania, I’d really love to talk to you more, but I have a meeting with, uh, Ronald Reagan.”

Oliver Willis, on Daily Kos, provides some details on Melania Trump’s standing in this country, with polling showing the First Lady is netting some of the lowest approval ratings in US history. Despite the White House-backed documentary, ‘Melania,’ which attempted to promote her image around the world, a CNN poll last month showed her favorability rating standing at a -12, a drop from the +3 she had upon her return to the White House in January 2025. This contrasts with second-term First Ladies Michelle Obama and Laura Bush who had a +42 rating, while Nancy Reagan netted a +50; and even Hillary Clinton, who suffered slings and arrows for most of her public life, garnered a +25. CNN data analyst, Harry Enten, notes, “Melania Trump is breaking records in the way that you don’t want to break records — historically awful. The American people don’t really care for her.”

The ‘Melania‘ documentary, costing billionaire Jeff Bezos $75 million, has a 10% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and is regarded as “shallow, sycophantic and absent a single unguarded moment, a near-two-hour infomercial disguised as a documentary,’ says reviewer Peter Travers. The First Lady’s recent activities might explain her poor standing, starting with her walking with a robot at the White House, touting use of A.I. in education. “This is exactly what Big Tech wants to create: a sense of a society being led by and taught by robots, displacing all of who we are, starting with education,” says AFT President Randi Weingarten. Melania’s recent chairing of a United Nations session on ‘children in conflict’ was frowned upon, in particular for her husband’s Iran war bombing of a school in which 168 children lost their lives. The administration has been blamed for traumatizing children in its anti-immigrant activities and the attacks on LGBTQ+ rights. Oliver Willis writes that Melania’s poor ratings only echo the low ratings she held upon exiting the White House in January 2021, and that historically, unpopular presidents have been unable to rely on public support for first ladies, even while dealing with political headwinds of their own. Donald Trump has had no such luck — his wife is disliked just as much as he is.

With less than 20% of Americans identifying as MAGA Republicans, they continue to support nearly every decision President Donald Trump makes, yet his “contempt” for his most loyal supporters “is getting worse,” argues writer Amanda Marcotte on Substack. “To Trump and his top brass, like JD Vance, feeling like they owe anything to anybody, especially the red-hat yokels who got them into office, is insulting,” she writes. “Their resentment at their own voters for actually expecting results is getting worse, and that’s starting to be reflected in policy choices.” Trump’s deployment of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in the nation’s airports to supposedly alleviate staffing shortages sparked by the partial government shutdown also impacts MAGA voters — after all, Trump voters fly, too!

Marcotte says that more revealing, and aggravating, was Trump’s response to questions about rising gas prices, which should have been a predictable outcome once war against Iran was initiated. “Trump and even the Vice President can’t help but sneer with annoyance each time they are asked to care about skyrocketing prices at the pump,” says Marcotte. “Trump even tried to spin that as a good thing, claiming that ‘we make a lot of money’ when gas prices go up. Of course, that ‘we’ does not include approximately 99% of Americans, so he’s basically just telling the rest of us we don’t matter. Including his own voters.” Marcotte’s conclusion? “I think Trump and the rest of the White House really do hate Americans. They view the majority who don’t support the MAGA agenda as bratty liberals who need to be squashed into silence. But they also hold most Trump voters in contempt, seeing them as easily duped morons — which is hard to argue with, honestly!”

SFGate columnist, Drew Magary, launched a diatribe against Trump and his war last week, following the TACO president’s chickening-out on destroying the Iranian nation. He congratulates the Iranians for calling Trump’s bluff, and is thankful that we are all still here, though it got a bit dicey. A two-week ceasefire was agreed upon, although things have been iffy, and with JD Vance’s 21-hour negotiations with Iran falling through — provoked by the White House — everything is drifting back to square one. Magary says Trump believed Israeli PM Netanyahu’s pitch that a war would be a cakewalk, even after “human footstool” and Secretary of State Marco Rubio called the plan “b.s.” Every war at its core is a self-inflicted wound, Trump’s wound so wide that the Artemis crew could see it from the dark side of the moon — a decisive loss for the US, with Magary hoping it portends many electoral losses for the orchestrators.

Hawkish politicians who kept the Iranian bogeyman alive for half a century were waiting for a useful idiot to occupy the Oval Office to make the war happen — enter Donald Trump — the best and last chance to make war a reality. Netanyahu convinced Trump that Iran would fold in short order, and that he could seize the Strait of Hormuz, with Iranians greeting the US as liberators — shades of Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld! Didn’t happen! Mojtaba Khamenei took control of everything, gas prices soared, global markets went haywire, and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps began to charge nations to use the strait, which was free until Trump went off the deep end. Easter Sunday saw Trump screaming curses, throwing a hissy fit, throwing insulting names, and threatening to destroy the entire civilization — no matter that the US was getting low on munitions! Then Russia and China backed Iran, knowing a winner when they see one, as Iran dared Trump to blink. He did so, Iran winning the PR campaign, withTrump complaining the Strait of Hormuz is closed, yet is somehow open. Go figure.

Initially, the administration said Iran could keep its nuclear weapons program, as Trump tried to fish the Obama agreement out of the toilet, but that was transitioned in JD Vance’s negotiations, so expect the sound of flushing once again. As part of the ceasefire agreement, Iran might have received punitive damages from the US for bombing destruction, and with Trump’s negotiating acumen, Iran probably could have gotten Alaska thrown in had they wanted it. Magary accuses Trump of starting this “excursion” for no reason at all, quickly found himself in over his head, then tried to skulk away from it, while the country is stuck with skyrocketing gas bills and a nosediving stock market. Magary says he is outraged and mortified, and is sick to death of living in a country with a ruling party stupid enough to think this war was a good idea, especially when every war in his lifetime has been an unmitigated failure. “I’m sick of the fact that threats of a nuclear holocaust are now routine because our president is a terrorist who has a bowl of oatmeal for a brain. I’m sick of our military professionals having to take orders from politicians who have no idea what they’re doing. And I’m sick of the United States being run by a bunch of absolute losers. Trump lost this war. I hope that, one day soon, he loses everything else,” concludes Magary.

The last word belongs to satirist Andy Borowitz, datelined Tehran: “In its first act of goodwill since the declaration of a ceasefire, on Wednesday Iran permitted a container ship loaded with copies of the Epstein files to pass through the Strait of Hormuz. ‘In recent weeks, the closure of the Strait has cut off the world’s supply of Epstein files,’ and Iranian government statement read. ‘Now, those files will flow freely to the four corners of the globe.’ Although Iran is charging vessels millions for safe passage through the Strait, ‘We are sending the Epstein files through free of charge,’ the statement indicated. The Iranians said they had taken Donald J. Trump’s threat to destroy their civilization ‘very seriously,’ noting, ‘We see what he’s already done to American civilization.‘”

ARMAGEDDON, STUPID PEOPLE, VICTORIOUS

The long-standing notion of separating church and state took another blow last week with Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s revelation of monthly worship services for military personnel, led by evangelical faith leader Hegseth himself, as reported by The Washington Post. Pentagon staffers, current officers, former high-ranking military officials, the chaplain corps, and veterans groups expressed concerns the Hegseth is flouting the Constitution by pushing his evangelical beliefs onto service members. One source told the Post, “I don’t approve of cramming your religious faith down people’s throats, and when the top of the chain couches these operations in this hyper-Christian tone, it flies in the face of the freedom of religion that the Constitution enshrines and that our men and women in uniform sign up to defend.” Some critics say Hegseth’s approach may be bad for overall morale, but Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson disputes that contention, insisting, “The prayer undoubtedly improve morale for those who attend. No special treatment or punishment is given as a result of one’s choice to attend these services.”

Military officials have long looked askance at Hegseth’s Jerusalem cross tattooed across his chest, and are unsettled that he wears his evangelical faith on his sleeve, along with his proselytizing comments, especially in connection with the US/Israeli action in Iran. In a press briefing on March 19, the Secretary encouraged viewers to pray for US success in the Middle East, saying, “To the American people, please pray for them everyday on bended knee with your family, in your schools, in your churches, in the name of Jesus Christ.” In a recent worship service, Hegseth called for “overwhelming violence” against Iran, unconcerned about the 2,500+ killed in both Iran and Lebanon, including hundreds of children. Pentagon Pete recently announced that he was downsizing the number of faith codes used in the military, from 200 to 31 in an effort to address “political correctness and secular humanism,” which he believes has afflicted the Chaplain Corps, or the ordained, interfaith clergy supporting service members. The result of this move according to retired Army Major General Randy Manner is that “dozens and dozens” of active-duty chaplains who don’t identify with Hegseth “are being marginalized” and some are “not included in staff meetings.”

During the first month of the Iran “excursion,” many service members have reported unsettling rhetoric from their commanders citing the idea of a holy war. Advocate for service members’ constitutional right to religious freedom, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, reports that it received over 200 calls from active-duty personnel following strikes in Iran, as military leaders spoke of Armageddon to encourage troops to fight. One caller who identifies as a Christian, told the MRFF his commander told troops this was “all part of God’s divine plan,” specifically referencing citations from the Book of Revelation, referring to Armageddon and the “imminent return of Jesus Christ.” The commander is also quoted as saying, “President Trump has been anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran to cause Armageddon and mark His return to Earth.” Hegseth is a member of the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches, an archconservative network co-founded by Doug Wilson, who identifies as a Christian nationalist, and who infiltrated the Pentagon in February with a sermon.

A lawsuit has been filed by Americans for Separation of Church and State over the Pentagon services, and is seeking to compel the Pentagon to hand over internal documents about their cost, attendees, and any complaints raised by employees. A corresponding suit has been filed against the Labor Department, where Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer runs her own monthly gatherings inspired by Hegseth’s model. Rachel Laser, president and CEO of Americans United, charges, “Secretaries Hegseth and Chavez-DeRemer are abusing the power of their government positions and taxpayer-funded resources to impose their preferred religion on federal workers. Even if these prayer services are presented as voluntary, there is pressure on federal employees to attend in order to appease their bosses.” At a gathering of Christian broadcasters in February, Hegseth dismissed critics of the Pentagon prayer services, saying, “We hear a lot from the ‘freedom from religion’ crowd. They hate it. The left-wing shrieks, which means we’re right over the target.”

The military’s historical approach to faith has been in a more nondenominational manner, but Hegseth’s faith leader, evangelical minister Brooks Potteiger is due to relocate to Washington, DC to lead a new congregation, encouraged by Hegseth. Potteiger found himself in hot water recently for calling for the death of a Democrat candidate, Texas candidate James Talarico. On the extreme Christian nationalist podcast, Reformation Red Pill, the show’s co-host declared, “I pray that God kills him,” to which Potteiger agreed, “Right. Right. We want him crucified with Christ.” Later, a spokesperson for the organization insisted that the pastor did not ‘call’ for Talarico’s death, but for his Biblical ‘conversion.’ At last week’s prayer service, Hegseth called for “overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy, that ‘wicked souls’ be ‘delivered to the eternal damnation‘” in the fight against Iran. An unidentified senior Army civilian describes the current situation as “terrifying — if US troops are trained to believe that ‘God is on our side,’ what precludes us from doing anything we want to win?” “It feels like decades worth of progress has been undone in 12 months. It’s heartbreaking and it’s heartbreaking to watch our chaplains try to navigate this,” says an unnamed Air Force general.

President Trump hosted a group of MAGA pastors and religious allies for a luncheon on the Wednesday before Easter, making several off-the-wall remarks during the event — never meant to be seen by the public, so they were quickly deleted from the White House pages, but too late! Bryan Metzger of Business Insider saved the footage, revealing that Trump expressed his true feelings about the Supreme Court hearing he had stormed from earlier in the day. “Republicans, judges, and justices,” Trump ranted. “They always want to show that they’re independent. ‘I don’t care if Trump appointed me, I don’t care, if it doesn’t make any difference to me. I’m voting against him.’ ‘Cause they want to show their independence, you know, stupid people.” The visibly annoyed president then went on to insult French President Macron for not supporting him with the Iran engagement, and implying that Brigitte Macron is a tough cookie. He then took credit for sales of the Bible, saying, “Bible sales are now at the highest number in many decades. And church attendance among young people nearly doubled compared to five years ago.”

Trump then went on to liken himself to a king, complaining about the delay on his ballroom vanity project because a federal judge ordered a halt on construction. “I can’t get a ballroom approved. It’s pretty amazing, right? If I was a king, we’d be doing a lot more. I’m doing a lot, but I could be doing a lot more if I was a king,” he whined. In a confession, he explained why he aligns himself with unsavory characters. “You know, we’re not supposed to be seduced that way, right? But I am. When someone’s nice to me. I love that person. Even if they’re bad people. I couldn’t care less. I’ll fight to the end for them.” Sure, buddy — let’s hear what Pam Bondi has to say about that! Trump’s spiritual adviser, televangelist Paula White-Cain caused a bit of an uproar during the Holy Week luncheon, when she compared the president’s legal battles and assassination attempts the trials endured by Christ. Standing near the president, she said, “Jesus taught so many lessons through his death, burial and resurrection. He showed us great leadership, great transformation requires great sacrifice. And Mr. President, no one has paid the price like you have paid the price. Because he was victorious, you are victorious.”

White-Cain’s praise ended with applause by the attendees, but social media posts identified her remarks as “insanity;” “blasphemous — stunning to see a US Bishop on stage while Paula White compares Trump to Jesus;” “Turning this White House lunch toward the Divine is a campaign prop — it’s theatrical;” “Freaks, liars, charlatans, grifters, criminals — anything but Christians. All of them.” Televangelist Paula has been in contact with Donald Trump since 2002, when he called her after seeing her on TV, and she was in the White House circle in 2019 as an adviser. In 2020, she delivered a sermon calling upon Jesus to “command all satanic pregnancies to miscarry,” and has previously declared the White House as “Holy Ground,” saying that, “to say ‘no’ to President Trump would be saying ‘no’ to God.”

It wasn’t exactly an Easter message, but in March US Secretary of State Rubio said, “Imagine in Iran that instead of spending their wealth, billions of dollars, supporting terrorists or weapons, had spent that money helping the people of Iran, you’d have a much different country.” That quote was voiced on ‘Good Morning America‘ in a discussion on the US “excursion” into Iran, and now available on YouTube. A few days later, President Trump’s Easter luncheon message was that the US has “to take care of one thing: military protection” and isn’t able to provide people in this country with necessities like healthcare and childcare, demanding that states fully fund daycare programs. “We’re fighting wars. We can’t take care of daycare. You gotta let a state take care of daycare, and they should pay for it too. It’s not possible to take care of daycare, Medicaid, Medicare, all these individual things.” Michigan Representative Rashid Tlaib commented about Trump’s statement, “The warmongers in the White House and Congress will always fund death and destruction. They will let people in our country starve and die before they will stop funding wars.”

Attorney Dina Doll’s guest post on MeidasTouch addresses Trump’s grifting, writing, “You didn’t buy the Bible. You didn’t mint the coin. You didn’t sign up for Trump University or bid on the NFTs or book a room at Mar-a-Lago. You’re opted out of every scheme, every hustle, every grift and it didn’t matter. Because while you were watching an illegal war burn through a billion dollars a day and TSA workers suffered because Congress couldn’t find the money to pay them, Trump was doing something quieter. He was taking yours. Trump has grifted his entire life. Now he’s just taking it.” She goes on to say that Trump transferred $1.25 billion in foreign aid to Trump’s Board of Peace, pulling $1 billion from international disaster assistance, $200 million from peacekeeping operations, and $50 million from international organizations. Moneys that Congress had authorized for hurricanes and refugees, moved in Trump’s direction without a congressional vote, into a fund that Trump created by executive order and controls PERSONALLY! Reporters approached the State Department regarding the transfers, but they had “nothing to announce at this time.” Maybe later?

The defining characteristic of the Board of Peace is that Trump controls it forever, naming himself chairman for life with no audits, no transparency requirements, no conflict of interest rules, with countries paying $1 billion into a fund he runs to get a seat at the table. No money has been transferred to Gaza, nothing has been disclosed about its spending, but it has received $1.25 billion of YOUR disaster relief money with no explanations offered. When Trump leaves the White House, he keeps the fund — not a loophole, it’s by design. Attorney Doll reminds us of another pending grift initiated by Trump — the $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS over the leak of his tax records by a contractor. Problem? Trump controls the government  he is suing — he gets to work out the settlement with himself! With Todd Blanche heading the Department of Justice, and Treasury Secretary Bessent’s pen ready to sign the check, we don’t have to purchase cheap trinkets this time — the money wasn’t going to you, or you anyway, so we’ll just skip the transaction! And we don’t have to read a cheap brochure or visit a crappy web page.

President Trump’s dismissals of Attorney General Pam Bondi and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has sent a clear message to this remaining Cabinet members, that job security is no longer guaranteed. He has become increasingly willing to consider firing top officials who he believes are underperforming, amid deepening frustration with his declining approval ratings and fears of a wipeout in the upcoming midterm elections. “This is a recalibration. There are high expectations that are not being met,” said one Trumper. “It’s just a function of whether he thinks you’re doing your job well. When it comes to this stuff, it’s an audience of one,” said another. CNN reports that beyond Trump’s personal feelings, there are also more conventional concerns in play when it comes to dismissing his top officials — chief among them who might serve as a viable replacement. “I don’t think anybody’s safe. Ever,” said one White House ally. Like Pam Bondi famously shrieked, “The stock market’s over 50,000! Why are you laughing?” Ha-ha!