What I'm Hearing - April 6th

Trump is unhinged and Democrats are feeling good.

What I’m Hearing — April 6, 2026

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.

“Praise Be to Allah” — Trump Spent Easter Threatening War Crimes

On Easter Sunday morning, the President of the United States posted this on Truth Social: “Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the Fckin’ Strait, you crazy bstards, or you’ll be living in Hell—JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah.”

Then, in an ABC News interview, he said he would blow up “the whole country” if Iran didn’t comply. Asked what’s off the table: “Very little.”

Heather Cox Richardson put this in historical context. Trump privately contemplated a preemptive nuclear strike on North Korea in 2017, and it took John Kelly physically in the room to talk him down. She also tracked something the media keeps missing: Trump has now issued and abandoned six separate escalation deadlines. The threats keep getting louder. The follow-through keeps being chaotic. Oil markets, per the New York Times, have stopped believing his peace signals entirely.

On the ground, Aaron Parnas reported that Sharif University of Technology, Iran’s MIT equivalent, was bombed. Israel struck South Pars, the facility responsible for roughly half of Iran’s petrochemical production. Iran responded with cruise missiles, ballistic missiles, and drones aimed at UAE targets in a single 24-hour window. Simon Rosenberg estimates that the total economic cost of the war now rivals that of the 2008 financial crisis, with Cleveland Fed projections showing annualized inflation approaching 10%.

European Council President António Costa explicitly compared Trump’s infrastructure threats to Russian war crimes in Ukraine. FBI counterintelligence director Frank Figliuzzi said, “The American president has lost his mind.” Even Marjorie Taylor Greene posted that Trump “has gone insane” and called on his cabinet to “intervene.” Prediction markets now put 25th Amendment invocation at 35%.

Six weeks into a war that only 28% of Americans support, the president spent Easter morning threatening to bomb power plants and bridges. Under international humanitarian law, deliberately targeting civilian infrastructure is a war crime. He told you his plan. Believe him.

Read more: Letters from an American, The Parnas Perspective, Hopium Chronicles, Zeteo

The Impeachment Conversation Is No Longer Fringe

Two of the sharpest voices in anti-Trump conservatism and progressive strategy made the same argument this weekend from completely different directions.

At The Bulwark, Bill Kristol argues Trump “deserves to be impeached and convicted” and that a formal trial would allow all the evidence of his offenses to be presented coherently in one place. Kristol, a lifelong conservative, acknowledges he’d prefer JD Vance’s presidency to what he calls “Mad King Donald.”

Brian Beutler of Off Message goes further with a concrete tactical argument: Hakeem Jeffries should force a privileged floor vote on impeachment immediately. Even if Republicans table it, every single House Republican would have to cast a public vote endorsing Trump’s conduct — including his threatened war crimes. But Beutler’s sharpest critique is aimed at Democrats themselves: the party has spent more energy debating whether to associate with anti-war streamer Hasan Piker than staking out a clear anti-war position. His line is worth sitting with: “A party with muddled views on this war, arguing over whether or not to blacklist antiwar podcasters, will have a hard time instilling confidence in skeptics that it means to end the war.”

With Senator Chris Murphy publicly invoking the 25th Amendment and even MTG breaking with Trump, the political coalition enabling this war is visibly cracking. The question Democrats face isn’t whether impeachment would succeed — it’s whether forcing the vote defines the party heading into 2026 or hands Republicans their favorite talking point. I think Beutler has the better argument: Democrats need to focus less on condemning Hasan Piker and more on defining their stance as the anti-war party.

Read more: The Bulwark, Off Message

Lina Khan Is Playing the Long Game While Everyone Watches the Fire

While the war dominates every cycle, Matt Stoller published something this week that deserves attention on a completely different timeline.

Former FTC Chair Lina Khan announced the founding of the Center for Law and Economy at Columbia University. Stoller draws a historical parallel that reframes what this means: after Goldwater’s landslide loss in 1964, Robert Bork channeled Lenin — “our general attitude should be that of the Bolsheviks after 1905” — and spent two decades building the Heritage Foundation, the Law and Economics Center, and the intellectual infrastructure that enabled Reagan’s deregulatory revolution. Khan is running the same playbook from the other direction.

And the anti-monopoly movement is already producing results at the state level. Arizona AG Kris Mayes’ RealPage rental cartel bust is already lowering rents. State AGs are fighting Ticketmaster and pursuing illegal tariff refunds from Lululemon. Maine became the first state to ban data center construction. Italy ordered Netflix to refund seven years of illegal price increases. Americans oppose data centers in their communities 65-24.

Meanwhile, Trump’s Antitrust Division has dropped more than 40 cases under former Attorney General¹ Pam Bondi — more than double any prior new administration. The fight over who controls the American economy is happening. Khan is betting that patient institution-building beats the next election cycle. History says she’s right.

Read more: BIG Newsletter

Democrats Are Getting Bullish on 2026. Tomorrow Is the First Real Test.

There’s a mood shift happening in Democratic circles.

The Bulwark’s Lauren Egan reports that Democratic operatives have moved from cautious optimism to near-euphoria. Pollster Zac McCrary now sees 35–40 competitive House seats, up from 15–20, and calls a 51 or 52-seat Senate majority “very plausible.” The main Senate Republican super PAC is spending $342 million defensively — with Alaska, Iowa, and Ohio as its most-worried holds. The DLCC announced its first state legislative target slate Monday, signaling a full-ticket strategy from the statehouse up.

The structural conditions are real: an unpopular war, high gas prices, Medicaid cuts, and declining consumer sentiment. Democrats haven’t had this kind of alignment since 2006.

Tomorrow’s Georgia 6th District runoff, Marjorie Taylor Greene’s former seat, is the first actual data point. The NYT reports the Iran war has split the GOP field there, which is exactly the kind of fracture Democrats need to exploit nationally. Meanwhile, a WaPo/Schar School poll out of Virginia is a useful reality check: even Gov. Spanberger, who won in a landslide, faces a brutal approval environment because of affordability concerns. The conditions favor Democrats, but vibes aren’t votes. Now is the time for Democrats to define what they stand for, not just what they are against.

Read more: The Bulwark, NYT — GOP super PAC spending, NYT — Georgia runoff

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That's your Monday. The House is back in session, markets reopen after the Easter weekend, and Trump's "Power Plant Day" deadline is tomorrow. If the pattern holds, he'll either escalate or quietly move the goalposts again.

1. It felt really good writing that.