Trump News for Thursday, April 2, 2026

What to know about Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche

BBC News

The former prosecutor has a long-standing relationship with President Trump, having represented him in the criminal hush-money case.

Iran Says It Hit Oracle Facilities in UAE

Ece Yildirim, Gizmodo.com

After Amazon, Oracle is now in the bulls-eye.

Trump’s First Speech About the War With Iran Explained Absolutely Nothing

Fred Kaplan, Slate Magazine

Let's take stock of just how much Trump is distorting the truth about this war.

“It’s a New World. It’s the Same Constitution.”

David Plotz, Emily Bazelon, and John Dickerson, Slate Magazine

Now that a challenge has finally reached the Supreme Court, is birthright citizenship any safer?

As war drags on, US reiterates Trump open to diplomacy with Iran

Al Jazeera Staff, Al Jazeera English

US State Department accuses Iran of attacking civilian sites as Trump shares footage of destruction of Iranian bridge.

US Burned 14 Years of Missiles in 30 Days

Liam Walters, Trendytechtribe.com

The US fired 850 Tomahawk missiles in 30 days but buys only 57 a year. As munitions run dry, the Pentagon pivots to ground troops in Iran, guaranteeing the Strait of Hormuz stays closed, European gas storage hits crisis levels, and Western energy prices keep …

RFK, Jr. and EPA announce plan to track microplastics in tap water and humans

Lauren J. Young, Scientific American

The Department of Health and Human Services and the Environmental Protection Agency announced a joint effort to track microplastics in drinking water—but experts say doing so will be difficult

Pam Bondi’s ouster makes Trump’s Justice Department even more dangerous

Ian Millhiser, Vox

Early in the first Trump administration, the legal journalist Benjamin Wittes coined one of the best descriptions of how President Donald Trump governs: “malevolence tempered by incompetence.” Trump, as Wittes originally wrote, often issued executive orders t…

Trump administration sues three states over attempts to regulate prediction markets

Bobby Allyn, NPR

The suits are the most ambitious effort to date that the Trump administration has gone to try to override state laws and set the rules for the fast-growing and increasingly divisive betting industry.

WATCH: New Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche has a track record of loyalty to President Trump — but so did Pam Bondi, ABC News' Alex Mallin reports.

ABC News, Abcnews.com

New Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche has a track record of loyalty to President Trump — but so did Pam Bondi, ABC News' Alex Mallin reports.

WATCH: Trump's deputy attorney general and former personal attorney Todd Blanche will serve as acting Attorney General, the president said.

ABC News, Abcnews.com

Trump's deputy attorney general and former personal attorney Todd Blanche will serve as acting Attorney General, the president said.

Humiliated Bondi Desperately Tries to Spin Trump Firing

Yahoo Entertainment

Pinterest said he violated laid-off colleagues’ privacy. Now he’s going public

Lauren Feiner, The Verge

It was late January, and Pinterest engineer Teddy Martin was on edge about recent layoffs at the company. Martin had just survived a round of cuts, but he and other employees were confused about who was being let go and why, and explanations from top executiv…

Trump fires attorney general Pam Bondi.

Richard Lawler, The Verge

Taking a break from calling Bruce Springsteen a boring loser on Thursday, Donald Trump followed that up with another Truth Social post saying "loyal friend" Pam Bondi will transition to a yet-to-be-announced job in the private sector. CNN, the New York Times,…

Why Trump betrayed MAGA, according to Tucker Carlson

Jolie Myers, Noel King, Vox

After five weeks of muddled messaging, President Donald Trump finally addressed the nation on Wednesday night to make the case for his war on Iran. That message was…still muddled. He did not articulate a clear exit plan from the conflict, fobbed the Strait of…

EPA flags concerns about microplastics, pharmaceuticals in drinking water

Will Stone, NPR

There's been a lot of public is concerned about health risks from the chemicals, especially from the Make America Healthy Again movement. The agency's move doesn't in itself guarantee regulation.

Millions of student-loan accounts are being transferred to the Treasury. There's a new push to slam the brakes.

asheffey@businessinsider.com (Ayelet Sheffey), Business Insider

Sen. Elizabeth Warren wants to know if Trump's plan to transfer the federal student-loan portfolio to the Treasury is in borrowers' best interest.

EPA moves to designate microplastics and pharmaceuticals as contaminants in drinking water

JENNIFER McDERMOTT and ALI SWENSON, Yahoo Entertainment

The Environmental Protection Agency proposed Thursday to include microplastics and pharmaceuticals on a list of contaminants in drinking water for the first ...

"When Your Crimes Are So Bad, Even Switzerland Stops Being Neutral": 54 Tweets Calling Out The Absolute Chaos Of Politics Over The Last Month

Morgan Sloss, Buzzfeed

"I'm running for US Senate. If elected, the first bill I introduce will draft Lindsey Graham into any conflict he publicly supports while in office."View Entire Post ›

Trump replacing Pam Bondi as attorney general, Todd Blanche to step in

Alexander Mallin, Katherine Faulders, Luke Barr, Abcnews.com

President Trump has announced that Pam Bondi is being ousted as his attorney general, and that Todd Blanche will serve as acting attorney general.

U.S. Considers Ban on Chinese Air Bags Blamed for Deaths of 10 People in Survivable Crashes

Matt Novak, Gizmodo.com

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said, "these substandard parts are killing American families."

Pastor’s White House prayer claims Iranians seek death of all Jews

Al Jazeera English

Evangelical pastor Franklin Graham claimed Iranians seek to kill Jews worldwide and said Trump was chosen by God.

Attorney General Pam Bondi out at DOJ

Ryan Lucas, NPR

President Trump has announced that Attorney General Pam Bondi is out at the Justice Department. Her departure comes amid simmering frustration over her leadership and handling of the Epstein files.

Trump says Pam Bondi out as Attorney General

Al Jazeera, Al Jazeera English

This is a breaking news story.

WATCH: Body camera footage released in Tiger Woods rollover car crash: 'I'm being arrested?'

ABC News, Abcnews.com

Body camera footage has been released showing the law enforcement response to Tiger Woods' rollover crash in Florida.

Trump’s Anti-Migrant Surge Is Now A Mudslide That’s Wiping Out What’s Left Of His DOJ

Tim Cushing, Techdirt

Trump’s do everything all at once approach to immigration enforcement is starting to go off the rails. Trump’s plainly stated hatred of “shithole countries” and their inhabitants manifested in early wins for his bigoted “remove the brown people” programs. The…

On One Hand, Eating Raw Cheese Might Kill You. But on the Other Hand ... Yum?

Jim Vorel, Jezebel

The FDA asked the producer of the raw cheese that has given 9 people E. coli infections to take it off the market. The producer said no.

The Team Behind a Pro-Iran, Lego-Themed Viral-Video Campaign

Kyle Chayka, The New Yorker

Explosive News’ A.I.-generated videos have been shared by Iranian-government accounts and co-opted by No Kings protesters. A spokesperson for the group says, “Let’s face it—if truth isn’t flashy, it’s kinda lonely.”

Happy Liberation Day 1-Year Anniversary!

Barry Ritholtz, Ritholtz.com

It’s been exactly one year since the Liberation Day Tariffs were announced, implemented, challenged, and ultimately overturned at every level. They served as the foundation of the administration’s main economic policy. What has been the overall impact – econo…

My Wife’s Ideas About Who Should Father Our Child Are Absurd. But I’ve Got a Trump Card.

Jenée Desmond-Harris and Lizzie O’Leary, Slate Magazine

Prudie says: “This is not the hill you want to die on.”

Forking frenzy ensues after Euro-Office launch sparks OnlyOffice backlash

Liam Proven, Theregister.com

Meanwhile, Collabora splits from LibreOffice Online amid claims TDF ejected 'all Collabora staff and partners' European outfits Ionos and Nextcloud have launched Euro-Office, a fork of the OnlyOffice cloud-based productivity suite aimed at orgs with qualms ar…

It’s not easy to get depression-detecting AI through the FDA

Robert Hart, The Verge

For the past seven years, the California-based startup Kintsugi has been developing AI designed to detect signs of depression and anxiety from a person's speech. But after failing to secure FDA clearance in time, the company is shutting down and releasing mos…

Despite EV headwinds, Rivian’s sales are up

Andrew J. Hawkins, The Verge

It's rough out there for the pure EV companies, but despite all the challenges, Rivian says its on target for a historic year. Ahead of the launch of the company's more affordable R2 electric SUV, Rivian released its sales and production report for the first …

A record 50,000 unsold Teslas are sitting on the lot

Tom Carter, Business Insider

Elon Musk's automaker announced on Thursday that it had produced 50,000 more vehicles than it sold in the first three months of the year.

US targets Chinese robots over security fears

Fox News

Senators Cotton and Schumer introduced the American Security Robotics Act to ban federal agencies from using robots tied to foreign adversaries like China.

Iran releases mocking missile launch video after Trump threats

Al Jazeera English

Iranian state media released footage showing the launch of missiles plastered with messages mocking Donald Trump.

Trump says he’ll sign order to pay all DHS employees as shutdown continues

ABC NEWS, Abcnews.com

President Donald Trump said he plans to sign an order to pay "all" employees at the Department of Homeland Security amid the record-long agency shutdown.

The boring, insidious world of the womanosphere

Gaby Del Valle, The Verge

Usha Vance has a new podcast: Storytime with the Second Lady. It's exactly what it sounds like. Each episode begins with a brief introduction, after which JD Vance's wife reads a children's story. The first three episodes were released Monday, and none is lon…

They Had to Clean Solitary Cells. What They Saw Forced Them to Quit.

Antoine E. Davis, Slate Magazine

It might be the worst job in all of prison.

Stocks tumble after Trump vows to hit Iran 'extremely hard' in coming weeks

Max Zahn, Abcnews.com

U.S. oil prices soared more than 10% on Thursday.

Rising gas prices are good news for EV sales, for now

Lawrence Ulrich, The Verge

It's become an American truism: Once you buy an SUV, there's no going back. And our love affair with pickups has been documented in a million country songs and TV commercials. But a brutal spike in gasoline prices - nipping $4 nationwide for a gallon of unlea…

Pakistan to continue with Iran-US mediation despite ‘obstacles’

Abid Hussain, Al Jazeera English

Islamabad's statement follows Trump threatening to bomb Iran 'back to the Stone Ages'.

ThreatsDay Bulletin: Pre-Auth Chains, Android Rootkits, CloudTrail Evasion & 10 More Stories

info@thehackernews.com (The Hacker News), Internet

The latest ThreatsDay Bulletin is basically a cheat sheet for everything breaking on the internet right now. No corporate fluff or boring lectures here, just a quick and honest look at the messy reality of keeping systems safe this week. Things are moving fas…

Macron calls Trump's remarks on his marriage 'inelegant'

BBC News

French President Emmanuel Macron has said Donald Trump's comments about his marriage were "neither elegant nor up to standard".

WSJ: Lobbyists Easily Destroyed Any Semi-Serious Antitrust Enforcers Left In MAGA

Karl Bode, Techdirt

Last election season the Trump campaign lied to everyone repeatedly about how his second administration would “rein in big tech,” and be a natural extension of the Lina Khan antitrust movement. As we noted at the time, that was always an obvious fake populist…

WATCH: Search for American journalist kidnapped in Iraq

ABC News, Abcnews.com

A source says the FBI is now involved in the search for veteran American journalist Shelly Kittleson.

The Aging Class

Trevor Jackson, The New York Review of Books

Retirement, like so much of the American economy, is a broken system that benefits private interests and exploits the most vulnerable people.

Trump Prepares to Replace Pam Bondi With Someone Even Worse

Jim Vorel, Jezebel

Trump is reportedly fed up that Pam Bondi hasn't prosecuted enough of his enemies, and maybe desperate enough to do something really stupid.

Gas Prices Are Soaring. So Is the Demand for Used EVs

Aarian Marshall, Wired

Dealerships say they’re getting busier as the Iran war and the shipping crisis at the Strait of Hormuz drag on.

I Took RFK Jr.’s Advice and Ate Nothing but High-Protein Foods for a Week

Miles Klee, Wired

From forcing down chewy, bacon-flavored Man Cereal to vomiting at the office, buying into the MAHA protein craze was a challenging endeavor.

The Pro-Immigrant Case for Opposing Illegal Immigration

Alexander Kustov, The Atlantic

Any viable reform coalition has to include voters who oppose unlawful immigration but support legal channels.

Young People Are Falling Behind, but Not Because of AI

Rogé Karma, The Atlantic

The case that AI is already stealing young people’s jobs is based on a statistical mirage.

Sexual Violence Has Become the ‘Defining Feature’ of the World’s Worst Humanitarian Crisis

Danielle Han, Jezebel

“Apart from the rapes, they beat us with sticks and pointed guns at my head,” one woman in Sudan told Doctors Without Borders about the violence against women amid the country’s ongoing civil war.

A year later, two charts show how Liberation Day inflation panic actually panned out

allisonkelly@businessinsider.com (Allie Kelly,Madison Hoff), Business Insider

It's been a year since Liberation Day on April 2, 2025. Here's how tariff rates and inflation have evolved since then.

Meta, Google, and Amazon slash H-1B petitions after Trump's visa crackdown

gweiss@businessinsider.com (Geoff Weiss,Melia Russell,Andy Kiersz,Alex Nicoll), Business Insider

Big Tech's H-1B filings are falling as Washington has made the visa program harder and more expensive to use, and as tech companies cut jobs.

Trump's VA killed a home loan program. Vets are now losing their homes because of it

Chris Arnold, NPR

Foreclosures on VA loans are at their highest level in a decade. VA has a fix but it is months away and could still leave vets worse off than most other homeowners.

Morning news brief

A Martínez, NPR

Trump says war in Iran is 'nearing completion' in national address, Iranian officials react to President Trump's speech on Iran war, SCOTUS hears arguments on birthright citizenship.

Iran war: What is happening on day 34 of US-Israel attacks?

Elizabeth Melimopoulos, Al Jazeera English

As the war enters day 34, US President Donald Trump said Washington was close to achieving its objectives.

They Planned Their Escape: A Systems Architect's Guide to the Iran Trade Scandal

William Azada, 60tb.tech

A systems architect traces the dependencies from DOJ gutting to Polymarket insider trades to $580M oil futures bets placed 15 minutes before a presidential announcement.

WATCH: President Trump on Iran war: 'We're going to bring them back to the Stone Ages'

ABC News, Abcnews.com

President Trump on the war in Iran: "We are on track to complete all of America's military objectives... We're going to bring them back to the Stone Ages where they belong."

U.S. lifts sanctions on Venezuela's acting President Delcy Rodríguez

The Associated Press, NPR

The newly announced sanctions relief is the latest U.S. recognition of Rodríguez as a legitimate authority in Venezuela ever since the U.S. military captured her predecessor, Nicolás Maduro.

WATCH: Questions remain after President Trump's primetime address on Iran

ABC News, Abcnews.com

President Trump delivered his first primetime address on the war in Iran - just over a month after the conflict began.

WATCH: President Trump touts success against Iran in primetime address

ABC News, Abcnews.com

President Trump delivered a primetime address to the nation on Wednesday, touting U.S. military operations against Iran.

Trump claims ‘success’ in Iran in just 32 days compared to lengthy US wars

Al Jazeera English

US President Donald Trump said Iran was the ‘bully of the Middle East’ but is ‘no longer a threat’.

Trump threatens to bring Iran ‘back to the Stone Ages’

Al Jazeera English

President Trump says the US will bring Iran ‘back to the Stone Ages where they belong' by striking hard.

The IEEPA tariff refund portal tops 26,000 registrations as CBP races to pay back $166 billion

Katherine Li, Business Insider

Tens of thousands have registered with the CBP for their IEEPA tariffs back, but one-third of the total sum will be excluded from the first refund.

Federal Cyber Experts Thought Microsoft’s Cloud Was “A Pile Of Shit.” They Approved It Anyway.

Renee Dudley, Techdirt

This story was originally published by ProPublica. Republished under a CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 license. In late 2024, the federal government’s cybersecurity evaluators rendered a troubling verdict on one of Microsoft’s biggest cloud computing offerings. The tech gian…

Is this the beginning of the end of the war in Iran?

Joshua Keating, Vox

The Iran war of 2026 will continue, but it appears to be entering its final phase. Or at least, that’s what President Donald Trump hopes. Claiming that the “hard part is done,” Trump made the case in a televised address on Wednesday night that America has “be…

Oil surges after Trump's speech on Iran offers no clear path to war's end

htan@insider.com (Huileng Tan), Business Insider

President Trump's address on Iran left oil markets unsettled, leading to a spike in Brent and WTI futures amid ongoing geopolitical tensions.

WATCH: Artemis II launch visible from commercial aircraft

ABC News, Abcnews.com

Footage from aboard a commercial aircraft shows a unique perspective of the Artemis II launch from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

WATCH: Artemis II crew crosses boundary into space

ABC News, Abcnews.com

The four-person crew of the Artemis II mission has crossed the boundary into space after launching from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

WATCH: Artemis II crew lifts off for the Moon

ABC News, Abcnews.com

Artemis II has launched, taking four astronauts around the moon for the first time in more than 50 years.

WATCH: Crowd cheers Artemis II launch in Florida

ABC News, Abcnews.com

A crowd gathered in Titusville, Florida, to watch NASA's Artemis II mission blast off from Kennedy Space Center.

Appeals court rejects HUD homelessness overhaul saying it would be "disastrous"

Jennifer Ludden, NPR

The federal housing agency wants to shift money away from permanent housing and toward programs that impose sobriety and other conditions. Advocates warn that would push many back into homelessness.

WATCH: Historic Artemis II mission to the moon manned with 4 astronauts

ABC News, Abcnews.com

NASA teams cheered and crowds at Kennedy Space Center clamored to view the launch as the astronauts embarked on their voyage.