Weekly Member Update - March 2, 2026
We all knew this was a ridiculous lie when the GOP posted this photo on the eve of the 2024 Election, echoing a familiar assertion that had been trotted out time and again by Trump and his surrogates throughout the campaign. And, if there was anyone left who woke up on Saturday morning still believing that the Orange King would be the Peace President — after all the saber rattling against our neighbors in Canada and Greenland, the claimed “obliteration” of the Iranian nuclear program just this past June, the indiscriminate bombing of random speed boats in the Caribbean and targets in Iraq, Nigeria, Yemen, Syria and Somalia, and the illegal abduction of the President of Venezuela — we have to believe that Trump’s new War of Choice against the Islamic Republic of Iran has finally put those delusions to bed once and for all. For those of us that experienced this Nation’s debacles in Iraq and Afghanistan — neither of which had the population or military capabilities of today’s Iran, it should be noted — the starkest thing about Trump’s new Persian escapade is that he and his Regime are really not even trying to persuade anyone — not the American people, nor our Representatives in Congress — that the expenditure of billions of dollars of taxpayer money and the blood of American soldiers is truly justified. Sure, the Regime makes occasional noise about the need to stop Iran’s nuclear program from coming to fruition, that being the same Iranian nuclear program that we supposedly obliterated eight months ago and that being the same Iranian nuclear program that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been claiming to be on a course for imminent success for more than 30 years. But, while Trump suggested to Axios on Saturday that he commenced his attacks on Iran when nuclear talks between the two countries collapsed, he also pointed to Iran’s longtime role as a state sponsor of terrorism. Trump has also floated the theory that Iran is being retaliated against for interference in American elections; never mind that the evidence suggests that Iranian election meddling has been geared to assist Trump, not defeat him. Trump has also intimated to the Washington Post that the freedom of the Iranian people was at the forefront of his mind. You know, because Trump is a real big fan of democracy and the People’s right to self-determination…
The shifting, half-hearted and inconsistent talking points about this latest war for regime change imply that there are unstated rationales at play. Representative Jamie Raskin has suggested that Trump’s strikes on Iran were a desperate attempt to “to distract from the spectacular failure of his discredited and illegal tariffs, spiraling inflation in groceries and housing, the accelerating and shocking disclosures from the Epstein files and his collapsing poll numbers.” That certainly seems plausible to us, but it also seems more like a happy side effect from Trump’s perspective. Given how deeply unpopular Trump’s military interventionism is with the American people — and how the issue divides his base — we agree with Timothy Snyder and Rachel Maddow that the driving motivations behind war with Iran are probably the same things that always motivate this Narcissist King; his unquenchable thirst for unbridled power and his preternatural impulse for corrupt self-enrichment. On the domestic politics front, Trump knows that his polls are in the absolute shitter and that the GOP is currently headed for a historic wipeout in the midterms that would mark the functional end of Trump’s Presidency. So let’s start a war; maybe folks will rally around the flag or, even better, maybe the war gives him a pretext to cancel the midterms. But it’s also hard not to see war with Iran as a consequence of the perpetual grift by Trump and his family. After all, aside from Israel, Iran’s biggest geopolitical rivals are the Persian Gulf states like Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. Let’s all recall, the Qataris have “gifted” Trump with his own personal Air Force One that he gets to take home with him, the UAE’s spy chief secretly purchased a $500 million, 49% share of the Trump family’s cryptocurrency venture, and the Saudis have invested $2 billion in Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner’s private equity firm, a deal once thought to disqualify Kushner from any role in Trump 2.0 until Kushner recently (and probably illegally) weaseled back onto the diplomatic stage. There is also reporting that the murderous Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman personally lobbied for American military action against Iran over the last several weeks. So, our money is on this being a stereotypical Trump quid pro quo; Trump and his family bank billions in Gulf-State oil money and, in return, those Gulf States get to have the American military take out their most powerful regional rival. In the end, Trump once again makes George W. Bush look like a paragon of virtue; say what you will about W and his illegal wars, at least he didn’t spill American blood and treasure purely for his and his family’s personal financial enrichment.
The bottom line is that this war with Iran, apart from being plainly illegal, is likely to be a quagmire like all the rest of American misadventures around the Persian Gulf. While the war has already resulted in the assassination of 87-year-old Iranian Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, there is no reason to believe that Khamenei’s death will lead to a quick collapse of an Iranian government that has been in place for 47 years and has its tendrils in every aspect of Iranian society. Trump’s fantasy that American military intervention will magically pave the way for the Iranian people to rise up against its government is also unlikely to come to pass. So the American People are being dragged into yet another war that they do not want, only this time, the war will be waged without the assistance of our European allies by an addled game-show host and his incompetent, band-of-misfits Cabinet. No one seems to know for sure what is the end game is, or what American interests are being served. Meanwhile, as of this morning, three American soldiers are dead so far, the price of oil is up 7-8% in overnight trading and Iran has launched retaliatory strikes against Israel, Kuwait, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Jordan, Qatar and the UAE amid concerns that the American missile defense systems which protect American personnel and allies alike are seriously depleted. Now that we think of it, maybe this isn’t a quagmire like all the others; it has the potential to be so much worse.
We didn’t watch the State of the Union address, and expect that many of you skipped it as well. But this photo of MAGA Congresswoman Nicole Maliotakis (NY-11) — who is likely to be redistricted out of a job this November — caught our attention. The Republican Party seems to have an infinite supply of classless and despicable trolls, but we think this photo of Maliotakis jeering at Congressman Al Green (TX-9) as he is ejected from the SOTU will age about as well as the photos of the white people that berated civil rights activists at lunch counters in the South in the 60s.
Odds and Ends:
Tomorrow marks the beginning of the 2026 Primary season and it starts with a doozy in Texas. Incumbent US Senator John Cornyn faces a staunch challenge from MAGA Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, and Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett (TX-30) faces State Represenative James Talarico for the right to face the Cornyn/Paxton winner in November.
The Trump Regime quietly announced last week that the roughly 2,200 trans prisoners in the custody of the federal Bureau of Prisons will be subjected to so-calledconversion therapy in an attempt to “cure” them of their gender dysphoria. Our federal government is full of monsters.
Speaking of monsters, American Prospect has established a running count of those murdered and injured by ICE and CBP. As of this morning, that tracker had not yet accounted for the criminally negligent homicide of Rohingan refugee Nurul Amin Shah Alam on the frigid streets of Buffalo.
Finally, our next Monthly Member Meeting is coming up fast, on Monday, March 9 at The Love Center. As part of our ongoing speaker series, the March Meeting will feature a forum on electoral reform and universal healthcare. UAlbany Professor Ashley Fox will discuss the New York Health Act and the prospect of single-payer healthcare in New York. In addition, Dorian Solot, Co-Chair of RCV Albany, will be discussing ranked-choice voting and RCV Albany’s approach to making elections more inclusive and representative in the City. Finally, Ian Cummins, volunteer leader at Unite NY, will address Unite NY’s nonpartisan strategy for addressing political gridlock through comprehensive electoral reforms. Next week’s meeting is also the last Member Meeting before No Kings 3, so there will be plenty of discussion about what our mass day of action on Central Avenue is going to look like. We hope to see you next Monday!