Posted at Hartmann Report on Apr. 13, 2026

Did Trump Just Light a Fuse He Can’t Control?

The Strait of Hormuz crisis could be following the same path that led to World War I… Saturday’s back-to-back headlines on The Washington Post were: “‘They Have Chosen Not To Accept Our Terms,’ Vance Says“ and “U.S. Intelligence Shows China Taking A More Active Role In Iran War.” They echo headlines from a century ago that reported on the early days of what quickly became World War I. In 2021, China and Iran became military allies, signing a “broad strategic partnership encompassing economic, diplomatic, and security dimensions.” Russia signed a similar comprehensive military/security agreement with Iran in January of last year. The three countries are now military allies and formally assisting each other. Hold that thought.
Posted at Hartmann Report on Apr. 12, 2026

Milton Friedman: The Hidden History of Neoliberalism: How Reaganism Gutted America and How to Restore Its Greatness

"The great innovation of Hayek and Mises was to create a defense of the free market using the language of freedom and revolutionary change. … Even as the welfare state and the mixed economy were coming into existence, Hayek and Mises set as their political imperative tearing them down."— Kim Phillips-Fein. The American among the Three Musketeers of neoliberalism was Milton Friedman, who taught for years at the Chicago School of Economics and has become a figure of cult worship on the economic and political right in America. He was a speechwriter for Barry Goldwater’s 1960 campaign for president, and a formal advisor to, among others, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher and Donald Rumsfeld (who he pushed Reagan to take on as his VP instead of GHW Bush in 1980).[xli] Friedman was the functional theologian among the three; he absolutely believed that there was a near-mystical power to unregulated markets and that virtually any sort of governmental intervention in or regulation of the marketplace produced economic distortions that prevented capitalism from working its magic.
Posted at Hartmann Report on Apr. 11, 2026

Saturday Report 4/11/26 — When will the other Melania shoe drop?

The Best of the Rest of the News. — Is Trump privatizing Medicare? — The economy is falling apart as Stagflation looms on the horizon — The GOP’s white male supremacist project rolls along at the Pentagon. — Trump has promised to pardon the people who’ve committed crimes for him in the White House, according to a new report in The Wall Street Journal. — Carlos Hernandez, 36, is the father of a two-year-old daughter and works rehabbing houses that have been damaged in fires; ICE thugs pumped 6 bullets into his body, including one into his face. — When will the other Melania shoe drop? — Speaking of which, the attorney for the woman who says Trump forced her to give him a blow job when she was 13 years old and she bit his penis, leading to him beating her up, is now demanding that the president testify under oath. — Best News of the Week: New polling estimates show Trump is underwater (below 50%) in the districts or states of 135 current Republican members of the House and Senate.
Posted at Hartmann Report on Apr. 10, 2026

“What I’m Going To Do To You Is Going to be Fucking Disgusting…”

Trump makes mob-style threats. Only instead of, “I’m going to mess up you and your family,” it’s now, “A whole civilization will die tonight.” He must be impeached now… Donald Trump used to have Michael Cohen to make his threats for him (after Roy Cohn died and could no longer serve Trump and the New York Mafia families).
Posted at Hartmann Report on Apr. 9, 2026

Is the Department of Thought Crimes Closing In On You?

As a new federal pre-crime system begins identifying Americans for what they might do — before any law is broken — the Trump regime is making a list and expanding its network of concentration camps… Trump’s thought police may already have your name in their database, which is growing — according to Kash Patel — at the rate of around 300% right now. They’re not looking for people who’ve committed crimes, but, rather, for people who they think may commit crimes in the future. Thought and opinion crimes. Yeah, like in the movie Minority Report, only with an Orwell 1984 twist. You could call it the FBI’s New Political Pre-Crime Center.
Posted at Hartmann Report on Apr. 8, 2026

Trump Deploys Reality Show Tricks to Dominate and Destabilize America and the World

Using the same tactics that made him a TV star, he stokes outrage, scripts conflict, and dominates headlines even as his actions weaken democratic norms and heighten international risk… Well, 8 PM ET came and went, to paraphrase TS Eliot, “Not with a bang but a whimper.” In the latest episode of Trump’s reality show presidency, he decided he’ll give Iran “another two weeks” (we’ll get to that in a minute) to open the Strait of Hormuz because something something Pakistan something. Some are suggesting it was a predictable TACO — “Trump Always Chickens Out” — while others, including at least one retired general who was on MSNOW yesterday, say sources tell them that the commanders at CENTCOM simply and bluntly refused to carry out his and Whiskey Pete’s orders to commit massive war crimes. In either case, it shouldn’t surprise us that Trump has backed down. Throughout his entire life, this nepo-baby has only been good at two things beyond inheriting and squandering his father’s money.
Posted at Hartmann Report on Apr. 7, 2026

The Most Dangerous Crisis in America Isn’t Political: It’s the GOP’s Intentional Destruction of Trust

When people lose faith in government, the result isn’t reform, it’s instability, extremism, and eventual breakdown… Trump is tearing America apart with his threats against Iran and comment that domestically, “It’s not possible for us to take care of day care, Medicaid, Medicare, all these individual things.” He’s also succeeded in intentionally pitting Americans of different races, religions, and across the rural/urban divide against each other.
Posted at Hartmann Report on Apr. 6, 2026

Are Trump’s Purges and Calls for a Larger Military Budget the Setup for a Coup?

As Trump demands sweeping new resources in the name of war, the scale of funding raises a chilling question: is this about national security or consolidating power? On Easter Sunday, Donald Trump posted to his failing, Nazi-infested social media site a rant that has shocked the world, threatening multiple war crimes with a level of obscenity that no Republican would have tolerated from President Obama or any other Democrat: "Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell - JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah. President DONALD J. TRUMP"
Posted at Hartmann Report on Apr. 5, 2026

Epilogue: The Last American President: A Broken Man, a Corrupt Party, and a World on the Brink

"If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide." —Abraham Lincoln, Lyceum Address, 1838 Trump isn’t the first Republican president to have seized the White House by fraud. In fact, the historical pattern is far more disturbing: every Republican president since Eisenhower has either directly stolen the presidency or inherited their position from someone who did.
Posted at Hartmann Report on Apr. 4, 2026

The Saturday Report 4/4/26 — Vance Targets Blue States as Trump’s New Fraud Czar

The Best of the Rest of the News. — Sure is starting to smell like Vietnam… — Who was General George, who Whiskey Pete just fired? — Is the Supreme Court about to become even more bizarre and corrupt than it already is? — Gas prices got you down? — JD Vance (or whatever his name is this week) is now in charge of Project Screw Blue States. — Is Vance now the Vice President of Hungary? — The West is drying up and Republicans who take money from the fossil fuel industry are trying to ignore it. — Trump has released his budget and wants $500 billion more for the military to pay for his war against Iran.