Letters from an American - Crises in the Wings

Episode Date: April 18, 2026

April 17, 2026Strait of Hormuz opens after 10-day ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon takes effect, Trump hits media circle announcing that the war with Iran is over, Trump claims Iran has agreed to all the US terms, but Iran’s top negotiator rejects these claims, Article in the Atlantic claims FBI's Kash Patel is barely functioning, House Democrats create task force to focus on corruption in the administration, Several organizations have filed briefs challenging Trump’s lawsuit against the IRS, Members of the House and the Senate introduce act to ban presidents and vice presidents from stealing taxpayer money.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 17, 26. This morning, after a 10-day ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon took effect Thursday, Iran announced the Strait of Hormuz was open to commercial ships. Israel has been bombing southern Lebanon, where Iran-backed Hezbollah militants operate, and Iran's leadership has said it would not recognize a ceasefire with the United States until Israel's bombing of Lebanon stopped. With Iran's announcement the strait was open, Trump hit the media circle, announcing through interviews and social media posts that the war with Iran was over and peace talks were all but done, although Trump says the U.S. Navy will continue to blockade Iran's ports. Ron Filipkowski of Midas touch noted that Trump posted 13 times in an hour, claiming total victory. He claimed that Iranian leaders had agreed to 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. He said that the United States would work with Iran at a leisurely pace to retrieve and capture Iran's highly enriched uranium, and that Iran would receive no money for its cooperation, despite a report. from Axios that the U.S. is considering the release of $20 billion in frozen Iranian funds in exchange for Iran giving up its stockpile of enriched uranium. Right on Q, the stock market jumped and the price of oil futures dropped. 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. But as Ashley On of the New York Times reported, Iranian officials' interpretation of events was quite different from Trump's characterization. Iran's top negotiator, Speaker of Parliament, Mohamed Bogar Ghalabov, posted on social media that Trump had made seven claims in an hour, and all seven of them were false. Iran rejected Trump's claim that it had agreed to hand over its uranium stockpile, and also said that the strait was open for commercial events. vessels, not military ships, but would close again if the U.S. blockade continued. Tonight, on Air Force One, after the stock market closed, what asked if Iran would turn over its nuclear material, Trump said, we're taking it, we're taking it. Very simple, we're taking it, with Iran, we're going in with Iran, we're taking it, we will have it. I don't call it

boots on the ground. We'll take it after the agreement is signed. After, we're going to there is a very big difference. Before and after. BC. It's before and after. And after the agreement is signed, it's a lot different than before. We would have taken it. If we didn't have an agreement, we would take it. But I don't think we'll have to. When a reporter asked Trump whether he would extend the ceasefire, if you don't have a deal by Wednesday when it ends, the president answered, I don't know, maybe not. Maybe I won't extend it, but the blockade is going to remain. But maybe I won't extend it, so you have a blockade, and unfortunately we'll have to start dropping bombs again. While being able to announce the end of the Iran War, at least for now, relieves Trump's immediate

crisis. There are many others in the wings. This evening, an article in the Atlantic by Sarah Fitzpatrick, portrayed Federal Bureau of Investigation, or FBI, Director Cash Patel, as a poor manager who is terrified he's going to lose his job, and whose overuse of alcohol, tendency to disappear, and purges of FBI agents who had investigated Trump, endangers our national security. Fitzpatrick notes that Patel has kept his job thanks to his willingness to use the FBI to target Trump's perceived enemies. But his focus on things like whether FBI merchandise looks fierce, has made officials think, we don't have a real functioning FBI director. Read even larger than the behavior of the director of the FBI is the growing focus on corruption

in the Trump administration. On Wednesday, House Democrats announced they have created a task force to reinforce ethics rules and highlight the Trump family's self-dealing when in office. The task force is made up of members from across the country and from from the country. from different caucuses in the Democratic Party. Representative Joe Morelli, a fellow New Yorker and close ally of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who is the top-ranking Democrat

on the House Administration Committee, will lead the task force, along with Kevin Mullen of California, Delia C. Ramirez of Illinois, and Nikima Williams of Georgia. Also on the task force are the top-ranking Democrat on the House Oversight and Reform Committee, Robert Garcia,

of California, and the top-ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, Jamie Raskin of Maryland, as well as Congressional Progressive Caucus members Greg Kossar of Texas and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, and the head of the moderate New Democrat Coalition, Brad Schneider of Illinois. They will be looking into self-dealing, like Trump's current negotiations with the Internal Revenue Service, to settle the $10 billion lawsuit he filed. filed against it after an IRS contractor during his first term leaked some of his tax information, along with that of more than 400,000 other taxpayers to two news outlets during Trump's first term. Trump, along with his sons, Donald Jr. and Eric, said the leak caused reputational and financial harm,

public embarrassment, unfairly tarnished their business reputations, portrayed them in a false light, and negatively affected President Trump and the other plaintiff's public standing. Peter Nicholas of NBC News noted in February that $10 billion is more than 80% of last year's IRS budget. Fatima Hussein of the Associated Press notes that several watchdog organizations have filed briefs challenging Trump's lawsuit.

Democracy Forward argued that the case is, extraordinary because the president controls both sides of the litigation, which raises the perspective of collusive litigation tactics, and that the conflicts of interest make it uncertain whether the Department of Justice will zealously defend the public treasury in the same way that it has against other plaintiffs claiming damages for related events. On Wednesday, Democratic representatives Jamie Raskin of Maryland and Dave Min of California, along with Democratic Senators Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, introduced the Ban Presidential Plunder of Taxpayer Funds Act to ban presidents and vice presidents

from stealing taxpayer money. Pointing to the Department of Justice's recent settlement of $1.2 million with Trump's former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russians before Trump took office. After he sued for $50 million on the grounds that the criminal case against him was malicious prosecution, Raskin warned of an emerging MAGA grift of suing the government as a plaintiff on bogus grounds and then settling the suit as a defendant for big bucks. Over the past 15 months, we have seen unprecedented corruption from this administration,

but this new abuse of power of providing huge cash payments to settle baseless lawsuits brought forward by Trump and his allies is a new low. The bill that Senator Warren, Leader Schumer, ranking member Raskin and I are bringing forward, would stop this backdoor bribery and bring some accountability back to the federal government, said Representative Min. In February, when the lawsuit came to public attention, Trump noted that it seemed odd for him to be negotiating with himself over the issue, but told reporters that he would give whatever monies he was awarded to charity.

We could make it a substantial amount, he said. Nobody would care because it's going to be. going to go to numerous very good charities. 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.