Letters from an American - A New Low

Episode Date: April 22, 2026

April 21, 2026Trump makes confusing statements about where things stand in Iran, Iranian officials say they are not sure about going to Pakistan for talks with the US this week, Reports indicate that Trump is considering using money from the US Treasury to shore up the finances of the UAE, Trump extends ceasefire with Iran, but Iran responds by saying it means nothing, Trump’s approval rating sinks to a new low, Administration demands election records from Wayne County and Detroit, MI, Mike Johnson suffers two embarrassing losses in the House, Virginia passes a redistricting referendum that may boost Democrats’ chances of winning four more seats in the House.Watch today's recording here: https://www.youtube.com/live/g9TUa1Rwd6U?si=T8_KKcHQZElhpnZ-Get full, free access to Letters from an American here: https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/subscribeYou can also find me:Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/hcrichardson.bsky.socialInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/heathercoxrichardson/?hl=enFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/heathercoxrichardson/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@heathercoxrichardson Get full access to Letters from an American at heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/subscribe

April 21st, 26. There is the unmistakable feeling that the wheels are coming off the MAGA bus. Elena Trine and Kevin Liptack of CNN reported last night that by the end of last week, negotiators for the U.S. and Iran appeared to be on the verge of hammering out an end to hostilities before the two-week ceasefire ends on Wednesday. Then Trump took to the media to crow that Iranian leaders had agreed, everything, including the removal of its enriched uranium, and that Iran has agreed never to close the Strait of Hormuz again. He promised that Iran had agreed to end its nuclear program forever,

and that talks should go very quickly. Trump declared the breakthrough was a great and brilliant day for the world and asked why media outlets questioning the alleged deal didn't just say, at the right time, job well done, Mr. President. Iranian negotiators said Trump's claims were false and that if he didn't remove the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports, they would reclose the Strait of Hormuz they had just opened. The Iranians didn't appreciate Trump negotiating through social media and making it appear as if they had signed off on issues they hadn't yet agreed to

and ones that aren't popular with their people back home, a source told Trin and Liptack. Over the weekend, Iranians closed the strait, and the U.S. fired on an Iranian vessel. On Sunday, even as two senior U.S. government officials were on television saying Vice President J.D. Vance would lead a new round of talks in Pakistan. Trump was on the phone telling reporters that he wouldn't. On Monday, Trump told a reporter that Vance was in the air, about to touch down in Pakistan, just minutes before Vance's motorcade arrived at the White House.

After Iranian officials said today, they were not sure they would respond to U.S. positions or go to Pakistan for talks, Vance's trip has been put on hold. Iran's foreign ministry spokesperson, Esmail Bahai, complained of contradictory messages, inconsistent behavior, and unacceptable actions by the American side on Iran's state media. For his part, Trump blamed the Democrats for the Democrats for the chaos in U.S. diplomacy. The Democrats are doing everything possible to hurt the very strong position we are in with respect to Iran, his social media account posted yesterday. The post insisted, it will be done right and we won't let the weak and pathetic Democrats, traders all, who for years have been talking about the dangers of Iran and that something has to be done. But now, since I'm the one doing it, belittle the accomplishments of our military and

the Trump administration. This is being perfectly executed on the scale of Venezuela, just a bigger, more complex operation. As David S. Bernstein of Good Politics, Bad Politics noted, Trump's account this morning reposted another account claiming that Iran was preparing to execute eight women showing AI generated images of them. Trump posted, to the Iranian leaders who will soon be in negotiations with my representatives, I would greatly appreciate the release of these women. I am sure that they will respect the fact that you did so. Please do them no harm. Would be a great start to our negotiations. As Bernstein put it, Trump urged Iran to start peace negotiations by releasing non-existent AI-generated women some rando posted about on X.

and Rapaport of the New York Times reported today that Trump is considering using money from the U.S. Treasury to shore up the finances of the oil-rich United Arab Emirates, which have been hurt by the Iran War. After the story appeared, Zach Everson of Public Citizen pointed out that Sheikh Tanun bin Zayed Al-Nayan, who controls the sovereign wealth of the United Arab Emirates, has directed hundreds of millions to Trump personally, buying 49% of the Trump family's World Liberty Financial and investing $2 billion in WLF's USD1 stable coin. Tonight, Trump announced he is extending the ceasefire with Iran until Iran comes up with a proposal to end the fighting permanently. Iran has responded by saying Trump's extension means nothing and suggesting it was a ploy to buy time for a surprise strike.

According to a new poll out today from Strength and Numbers Verasite, conducted between April 10th and April 14th, just 35% of U.S. adults approve of Trump's job performance. 61% disapprove, a new low. 72% of Americans disapprove of the way Trump is handling rising prices. In a generic ballot for Congress, voters prefer Democrats over Republicans by 50% to 43%, a margin of seven points. Administration officials' approach to the mid-term elections seems to be to continue to sow distrust of elections. Following Patel's claim on Sunday that there would soon be arrests stemming from the 2020

presidential election, Harmeet Dillon, Assistant Attorney General of the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice, or DOJ, released a letter from April 14, demanding that a Wayne County, Michigan elections official give it records from Wayne County and Detroit from 2024 and alleging that there was fraud in 2020. Although Trump won Michigan, he lost Wayne County by almost 250,000 votes. Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel and Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson wrote in the Detroit Free Press that,

this demand isn't about election integrity. It's about a weaponized DOJ trying to please the president who doesn't want to be held accountable at the ballot box by voters tired of the chaos of his administration. It's also about the upcoming elections in November and in 2008, which he is working to discredit by sowing doubt as to the security and fairness of the process. It's not going to work with us, and it's not going to hold up in court, they wrote. Michigan's elections are safe and secure. Trump seems, though, to be courting the base that in 2021 attacked the U.S. Capitol to try to keep him in power. After offending his base, first by posting an image of himself as Jesus Christ, and then by insulting Pope Leo the 14th,

Trump is participating this week in an event called America Reads the Bible. Kaanida Ayer and Alina Fayaaz of CNN report that Trump is expected to read Second Chronicles 7-11 through 22 from the Oval Office. The same verse was read by Cowboys for Trump founder Cooey Griffin at the January 6, 2021 insurrection, and is associated with white evangelicals belief

God sent Trump to heal America. Trump's vulnerability is showing on Capitol Hill. In public notice today, Noah Berlatsky examined House Speaker Mike Johnson's no good, very bad day last Thursday. With a Republican majority in the House of only three seats and a dramatically weakened president, Republican House members handed Johnson two embarrassing losses on Thursday. First, Republicans joined with Democrats first to pass a discharge petition to force a vote on a measure to protect the temporary protected status or TPS for 350,000 Haitian immigrants, and then they passed the measure itself. Trump's administration has left his claims to want to deport undocumented criminals far in the

dust, working hard to get rid of legal immigrants as well. When she was Homeland Security Secretary, Kristy Noem ignored the requirements for evaluating TPS and simply refused to agree to routine extensions of TPS for people from Venezuela, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, Nepal, Ukraine, Afghanistan, and Cameroon. Haitian TPS holders sued, noting Nome's apparent racial animus as a driving factor in her decision, and that Haiti remains dangerous in the wake of the 2010 earthquake that destabilized the country. In February, U.S. District Judge Anna Rae paused the loss of Haitian immigrants' TPS until the lawsuit works its way through the courts. Last month, Representative Ayanna Presley, a Democrat of Massachusetts,

brought a discharge petition to force a vote on a measure to restore TPS to Haitian immigrants. Johnson has tried to do Trump's bidding, even though it means ignoring what members of Congress actually want. It's possible for members to force a measure to the floor, even after the speaker bottles it up through something called a discharge petition by getting a majority of members of Congress to agree to override the speaker. But such an action is exceedingly rare because it requires members of the majority to side with the minority against their own speaker. Or it was exceedingly rare before this Congress. Herb Scribner of Axios noted last year that there were seven discharge petitions in the 30 years between 1985 and 2015, there were the same number from

2023 to 2025. Four Republicans, all of them from purple districts, joined all the Democrats to sign Presley's discharge petition. Then, when the measure came up for a vote, six more Republicans voted in favor of it. As Berlaski notes, the bill probably won't pass the Senate, but not only did it demonstrate Johnson's weakness. It also, as Jamie Dupree of regular order noted, was a real rebuke to Trump on immigration, and it was bipartisan. That was not the end of Johnson's bad day. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, of 1978, was scheduled to expire on April 20th, and Trump and Republican loyalists wanted simply to renew it. But members of both parties have issues with Section 702 of that act, which allows the government to collect information about the communications

of foreigners without getting a warrant from a judge. But there are increasing signs that the government is also collecting data from Americans without a warrant, and members of both parties concerned about government overreach have refused to extend the law without reforms to 702. Republican leaders tried to force through a five-year extension just before midnight on Friday, but while four Democrats voted in favor of the measure, 12 Republicans voted against it, sending the measure down to a loss by 20 votes. Then Johnson tried to push through an 18-month extension.

20 Republicans voted against even considering it. Finally, the House agreed to extend the law for just 10 days. Today, Virginians passed a redistricting referendum that will boost the Democrats' chances of winning four more seats in the U.S. House. Redistricting in the middle of a decade is rare, but after Trump pressed Texas to rejigger its maps to give Republicans more House seats, California retaliated with its own temporary redistricting to offset the new Texas seats. Others followed suit. As David A. Leeb of the Associated Press explained today, Republicans currently believe that their

redistricting of Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, and Texas will net them nine more seats. Democrats think their redistricting of California, along with a court-ordered redistricting of Utah, will get them an additional six seats. They're hoping that redistricting Virginia temporarily will make up the difference. Zachary Roth of Democracy Docket noted that Trump allies Steve Bannon warned on his podcast Monday that Democrats are demonic and said that if allowed to have power, they will impeach Trump. Not just are they going to take power and use these four seats to impeach Trump, he said, but they're going to use this as a template for the rest of the country. It's coming.

Letters from an American was written and read by Heather Cox Richardson. It was produced at Soundscape Productions, Dead in Massachusetts. Recorded with music composed by Michael Moss.