What I'm Hearing: April 3rd
Iran was escalates, Bombs over Healthcare and Billionaires are buying our election. . . again.
This is "What I'm Hearing" — a somewhat daily guide to the stories that matter, drawn from the best pro-democracy political writers working right now, with my analysis on top.
A US Fighter Jet Is Down Over Iran. This War Just Changed.
This is the story that should stop everything else today.
Iranian state media claims it shot down a US F-15E over central Iran using an advanced air defense system. Aaron Parnas confirmed the US has launched a search-and-rescue mission, with a Combat King II aircraft spotted flying at low altitude over southern Iran. The US military hasn’t officially confirmed the loss. Two crew members are unaccounted for inside Iranian territory.
This comes one day after US airstrikes destroyed a major bridge near Tehran — the first confirmed strike on civilian infrastructure — which Zeteo reports killed eight people. Trump then bragged on Truth Social that “bridges next, then electric power plants” were coming.
Meanwhile, Heather Cox Richardson notes that during Trump’s primetime address on Wednesday, which offered virtually no new information, US stock futures plummeted $550 billion in 25 minutes. Oil is now at $112 a barrel, up from $54 at the start of the year. And in a detail that should be leading every newscast: 40 nations led by Britain and France convened Thursday to discuss reopening the Strait of Hormuz. The United States was not invited.
Here’s what I keep coming back to: there was no Congressional vote authorizing this war. There’s no exit strategy. It’s destroying our economy and leaving us isolated in the world. Trump claimed to have “dramatically curtailed” Iran’s capabilities, yet CNN reports they still have roughly half their missile launchers and thousands of drones. The markets are closed today and through the weekend; look for more escalation by a desperate Trump.
Read more: The Parnas Perspective, Zeteo, Letters from an American, The Bulwark
Trump’s Budget: No Childcare, More War.
Trump is releasing his 2027 budget proposal today, featuring a 50% jump in defense spending — from $1 trillion to $1.5 trillion. That’s the largest single-year increase since the Korean War. Bigger than Reagan’s buildup. Bigger than the post-9/11 spike.
And he told you exactly how he plans to pay for it. At an Easter lunch on Wednesday, Trump said plainly: “The United States can’t take care of day care… We’re fighting wars… It’s not possible for us to take care of day care, Medicaid, Medicare, all of these individual things… We have to take care of one thing: military protection.”
Richardson points out that this is nearly word-for-word Barry Goldwater’s vision from 1960: military supremacy, no federal safety net. The difference is that it’s no longer a political pamphlet. It’s the governing philosophy of the United States during a hot war.
Zeteo provides the cost comparison that should be tattooed on every campaign ad between now and November: the 850 Tomahawk missiles already fired at Iran cost $3.1 billion. That’s enough to eliminate 15 years of school lunch debt, fund cancer treatment for 28,000 Americans, or provide solar power for 393,000 homes. Raytheon’s parent company hit an all-time stock high the day the war began.
Trump is putting America and Americans last. There’s no grift for him in increased spending on childcare and healthcare. No polymarkets to bet on. No foreign bribes to accept. The bottom line is he has found a way to profit from war. So more war is what we will get.
Read more: Zeteo, Letters from an American
$433 Million Is Already Buying the 2026 Midterms
While everyone is watching the war story, Robert Reich published a detailed accounting of the billionaire money already flooding 2026 midterm races — and the scale is staggering.
As of March 1, the 50 biggest-spending billionaires had contributed over $433 million, with 80% going to Republican candidates or conservative groups. At the top: Elon Musk at $71 million to Republicans so far in 2026 (on top of $278 million in 2024). Wall Street financier Jeff Yass at $55 million — with documented correlating Trump decisions protecting Yass’s TikTok investment. OpenAI’s Greg Brockman at $25 million, apparently to prevent state-level AI regulation. Blackstone’s Stephen Schwarzman at $12 million split across Trump’s super PAC and Republican leadership funds.
Reich frames this as a doom loop: concentrated wealth buys political decisions that make the wealthy even wealthier. Musk’s net worth grew 220% since Trump won in 2024. Raytheon hit all-time highs the day the war started. This isn’t random. It’s a documented transactional ecosystem — donate, receive policy favors, get richer, donate more. This is what the oligarchy looks like when it stops pretending.
Read more: Robert Reich
One Year Since “Liberation Day”
One more for your Friday: today marks exactly one year since Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariff rollout. Over at The Bulwark, Andrew Egger and Catherine Rampell look back at what actually happened. The Supreme Court ruled the tariffs illegal. Companies are still waiting on refunds. And the White House is quietly tinkering with new versions of the same failed policy.
Here's the scorecard: tariff policy changed more than 50 times in the months that followed. Manufacturing employment didn't reverse — it declined by 89,000 jobs between April 2025 and February 2026. Consumer goods prices went up another 2%, with estimates that 90 to 95% of the tariff cost was passed directly to consumers1. The Supreme Court ruled most of the tariffs unconstitutional in February, and around half of the revenue generated last year must now be refunded. Trump's response? He immediately used a separate statute to reimpose a 10% tariff for a temporary five-month period.
That’s your Friday. Markets are closed for Easter weekend, which historically is when this administration escalates, so keep your notifications on.
And if you’re not already subscribed to the writers I’m pulling from here, you should be. They’re doing some of the best political journalism in the country right now.
Trump and Hegseth have taken the war to a place that seems impossible to come back from. Their video game mentality is increasingly getting more people on both sides killed and drawing the world into the conflict. Aside from all the puppet masters behind the scenes, one weak man’s attempt to cover up his guilt and look strong is destroying everything. I’m not giving up ever, but it is increasingly difficult to see a way to turn this around fast enough.