Hartmann Report

As bombs fall and soldiers die, Jared Kushner is reportedly seeking billions from the same Gulf states pushing America toward conflict… There are several clear winners from Trump's attack on Iran: — Russia, who can again fund their violence against Ukraine with new oil revenue and now claims their unprovoked attack on that nation is consistent with this new Trump Doctrine; — Saudi Arabia, which has long hated Iran and lobbied since at least 2008 for the US to attack that country; — the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which has similarly pushed America to attack Iran since at least 2010; — the American defense weapons industry, which is making additional billions; — Don Jr. and Eric who have taken a big position in a drone-manufacturing business, getting them in on the Pentagon gravy train; — Donald Trump himself, who's succeeded in largely pushing Epstein off the front page; — and Benjamin Netanyahu, who's called for American strikes against Iran since 1992 and will stay out of prison as long as the war continues.

Pope Leo XIV labeled AI one of the main threats facing humanity, saying it poses challenges to human dignity, justice, and labor. He’s right, but it’s even worse than that; AI represents, unless it’s rigorously regulated, a threat to democracy itself. In every generation, the enemies of democracy change costumes, nations, and languages, but their playbook remains eerily familiar. They lie, divide, intimidate, and exploit every available tool to consolidate power. In the 1930s they used newspapers and radio, in the 2010s it was social media, and now, in 2025, the newest and most dangerous weapon in the authoritarian arsenal is artificial intelligence. Make no mistake: AI isn’t just another “new technology.” It’s power, scaled. And in the hands of the hard right that is trying to end our republican form of government, it has the potential to become the most effective tool for dismantling democracy ever invented.

The Best of the Rest of the News. — Trump chuckles as he admits Putin is helping Iran kill American troops. — The lie heard around the world: Trump told our allies Iran was surrendering, but Iran didn't get the memo. — The war comes home, as they always do. An Israeli strike in Lebanon killed two of Ghazli's (the attacker of of the Michigan synagogue) brothers and two of his brother's children. The FBI — what's left of it after Ka$h Patel fired the team responsible for tracking Iranian terror operations in the US — is also investigating the two separate attacks that happened this week. — Don't let Stephen Miller turn America into a surveillance state. — Is this what the Republican Party's future looks like? — Democrats are winning. Everywhere. And nobody's talking about it. — Did AI kill 175 children in an Iranian school?

The slogan that promised efficiency was really a blueprint to dismantle public government and hand its power—and money—to the billionaire class… The bombs are falling on Iran this week, Kash Patel has fired the FBI experts on Iranian sleeper cells in America, and people are speculating that Trump's trying to provoke an Iranian attack on the US to justify blowing up November's elections. Somewhere in the wreckage of what used to be America's functioning national security apparatus, the ghost of Ronald Reagan is grinning. I've been doing my progressive program on SiriusXM, Free Speech TV, and radio stations nationwide for over two decades, and every time a Republican runs for office promising to "run government like a business" — Reagan's favorite meme — I tell my listeners exactly what's coming next: — Tax cuts for the morbidly rich, — Gutted regulations that had been designed to protect average people, — Privatized (profitized) public services that will make billions for corporations and eat our tax dollars, — incompetent management of government agencies and our economy, — And, soon, a slow-motion disaster that the rest of us end up paying for.

If the road to Tehran required the sons and daughters of the billionaire & political class to march beside everyone else's kids, would we still be there? The drumbeats for expanding our (and Israel's) war with Iran are loud. Cable news panels talk about strategy. Politicians talk about deterrence. Pentagon briefings talk about targets and timelines. But there's one thing missing from almost every conversation in Washington. Risk.

From campaigning to destroy NATO to selling out Ukraine to letting Russia help kill American soldiers in the Gulf region, Trump's goal appears to be, to "Make America Russia"… Eight of our American service members are dead and over 140 wounded because Iran's military has suddenly gotten really good at targeting our soldiers, Airmen, and Marines. News reports say they've been able to hit us with such precision because Russia is using their extraordinary spy satellite, spy plane, and advanced radar capabilities to help Iran's military. The Washington Post, which first reported on this, quoted a Russian military expert as saying that Iran is now "making very precise hits on early-warning radars or over-the-horizon radars," seeming to validate the concern.

It's the deliberate, systematic destruction of your ability to know what's real... We got more lies this morning from the Pentagon press briefing. They're now up to 17 different rationalizations for the attack on Iran, none of which makes sense. To paraphrase Rod Serling, consider what happened in Minab, Iran. A Tomahawk cruise missile, an American weapon, a weapon that Iran doesn't own and can't fire, struck a girls' elementary school. One hundred and seventy-five people are dead, most of them little girls who showed up that morning to learn to read. And Donald Trump stood in front of cameras and said Iran did it. He lied. About dead children. Without blinking. And his crew backed him up, even knowing it was a lie.

Bombed boats, dead fishermen, starving children, and broken families reveal the human cost of power without empathy… Across Iran and the Caribbean, Trump and his lickspittles delight in killing as if people were expendable scenery, not human beings with loved ones and families. Meanwhile, they ignore the death and destruction their fellow psychopath, Putin, rains down on Ukraine every night. India and America invite Iran to send an UNARMED ship to the Indian Ocean to participate in military exercises, and Trump and Whiskey Pete decided it would be fun to blow it out of the water, leaving over 100 sailors miles from shore, desperate for a rescue. Instead of saving them, as international law requires, we simply left them to drown. Whiskey Pete called it "quiet death." In fact, there was a lot of screaming and sobbing, although the bombers couldn't hear it from 20,000 feet any more than Hegseth could in his drunken haze.

Donald Trump didn’t emerge from a vacuum. He’s the product of systems—­corrupt, corroded, and increasingly anti-democratic, yes, but systems nonetheless—­that made his rise not just possible but inevitable. If we only focus on removing Trump without addressing the deep corruption of Citizens United and other events and systems that produced him, we’re simply setting the stage for the next authoritarian, who may be smarter, more disciplined, and ultimately more dangerous. As a result, the deep question that our media almost never mentions is this: can democracy survive when it’s for sale?

The Best of the Rest of the News. — Will Iran surrender or will this war burn the world down? and, "Some people will die": That's your president speaking of Americans' lives. — Trump tells CNN Cuba is soon going to fall: "I'm going to put Marco over there." — DOJ releases the interview with the woman who alleges Trump raped her as a minor. — ICE has killed another person in one of their concentration camps, the ninth so far this year. — Russia Sharing Intelligence with Iran to Target US Forces? — Good News Alert! Kristi Noem got fired. Cricket the Dog was unavailable for comment.