Letters from an American - Questionable Claims

Episode Date: April 29, 2026

April 28, 2026Administration tries to blame Democrats for incident at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, Trump continues to claim the incident proves need for his proposed White House ballroom, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche files motion to dissolve the court's preliminary injunction stopping the ballroom construction, Trump desperately needs a win, Stalemate in Iran continues, Gas prices are at their highest level in four years, Reports suggest that the US military post in Kuwait where six service members died was unprotected, House measures are bottled up, reports suggest Mike Johnson is losing control, Trump is ramping up attacks, going after Jimmy Kimmel and James Comey. 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 28, 26. There's a frenzied feeling to the news coming from the White House these days. Yesterday, the administration tried to blame Democrats and the media for the incident at the White House correspondence dinner on Saturday night, when Secret Service agents apprehended a man carrying a shotgun, a handgun, and multiple knives on the floor above the room where the dinner was taking place. White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt called opponents of of Trump, a left-wing cult of hatred against the President of the United States and all of those who support him and blamed the entire Democrat Party for the event. Shots were fired during that incident, although not in the room where Trump, cabinet members, or the press were seated, but there is a good chance it was actually not Cole Thomas Allen,

the intruder who fired them. Yesterday, the Department of Justice charged Alan with attempting to assassinate the president. At his press conference, hours after the event, Trump insisted the trouble proved the need for his proposed ballroom. On Sunday morning, the Department of Justice, or DOJ, demanded that the National Trust for Historic Preservation

drop its lawsuit against Trump's plans, saying the lawsuit puts the lives of the president, his family, and his staff at grave risk. The National Trust for Historic Preservation rejected the demand yesterday, saying that while the event was awful, it did not change the fact that Trump must follow the law and get congressional approval for the ballroom. Yesterday, Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican of South Carolina, and others jumped in front of the camera, to present a bill to appropriate $400 million of taxpayer money to build the ballroom.

Republican loyalists in the House have also called for public funding of a ballroom. Late last night, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche filed a motion to dissolve the court's preliminary injunction stopping the construction of the ballroom, although the court did not stop the construction of the bunker underneath the proposed edition. The motion begins, the National Trust for Historic Preservation is a beautiful name, but even their name is fake, because when they add the words in the United States to the National Trust for Historic Preservation, it makes it sound like a governmental agency, which it is not. It goes on from there, insisting for seven pages that the lack of a ballroom endangers Trump. Chris Geidner of Law Dork called the motion deranged. The administration's focus on the ballroom seems to echo Trump's insistence after his first inauguration

that the crowd at that inauguration was bigger than that at President Barack Obama's. Anyone could see that was a lie, but Trump and his administration officials clung to it. Forcing supporters to accept a lie as reality is a key tool of authority. making it harder for them to reject the next lie and so on. The claim that Democrats are calling for violence, when in fact it has been Trump calling for executing those he believes are his enemies, follows that pattern exactly. But there is at least one other story behind the administration's insistence on building Trump's ballroom. The man desperately needs a win. His war in Iran has settled into a humiliating stalemate in which Iranian leaders appear to be calling the shots.

Speaking to German students on Monday, German Chancellor Friedrich Mears said the U.S. clearly has no strategic plan and that the entire nation is being humiliated by the Iranian leadership. Gas prices are at their highest level in four years, with the average U.S. price for a gallon of regular at $4.18. Economist Paul Krugman noted in his substack today that the world is currently using oil that it had in storage, but when that runs out, prices will rise enough to get rid of the demand for about 11 or more million barrels of oil a day.

Krugman illustrated his article with a picture of an egg in a vice. On Saturday, April 25th, Gordon Lubold, Courtney Kubay, Moshe Gaines, and Natasha Lebedeva of NBC News reported that the damage inflicted on American military bases, radar systems, aircraft, warehouses, and infrastructure in the Gulf region was far worse than the administration has told the public and will cost up to $5 billion to repair. On Sunday, Democratic Senators Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Kelly of Arizona and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts responded to reports from survivors that

the U.S. military post in Kuwait, where six service members died and at least 20 more were injured, was unprotected. One of the injured soldiers told CBS News that Defense Secretary Pete Hagsith's statement that a drone squeaked through was false. I want people to know the unit was unprepared to provide any defense for itself, the service member said. It was not a fortified position. The senators asked Hegseth to explain by May 11th why the post did not have protection against drones and who was responsible for that lack. Yesterday, Missy Ryan, Vivian Salama, Michael Scherer, and Nancy A. Yusuf of the Atlantic published a piece that echoed others by indicating that Vice President J.D. Vance is distancing himself from the Iran debacle, in this case by questioning

whether Hegseth is providing Trump accurate information about the war. An article in the Hill by Alexander Bolton said Republicans are losing confidence in Hegseth as he hollows out the ranks of senior military officers. The Republican-dominated Congress is not helping Trump look competent. The short-term extension of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, expires on April 30th. The House of Representatives was also scheduled to address the Farm Bill, a multi-year bill addressing farm and nutrition policies. Finally, the House is long overdue in funding the Department of Homeland Security, which has now been operating without appropriations for more than 70 days. The Senate unanimously passed a measure to fund most of DHS on March 27th,

but Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican of Louisiana, has yet to take it up. Republican infighting kept a rules package that would advance the measures bottled up in committee yesterday, but this evening the Rules Committee advanced the three measures out of committee. As Emily Brooks of the Hill noted, it's not clear the necessary rule will pass the House, which has to happen before the measures themselves can come to a vote. Johnson can afford to lose only two Republican votes on the rule, and already members are expressing reservations about voting yes. And so, Trump and his loyalists are trying desperately to demonstrate their dominance.

Just today, Benjamin Parker of the bulwark reported that the State Department is finalizing plans to put an image of Trump's face, in U.S. passports that are issued from the Washington, D.C. passport agency. They are already minting a $1 coin with his face on it, issuing a gold commemorative coin with his face on it, and putting Trump's face on national park passes. Also today, the Pentagon asked Congress to change the name of the Defense Department to the Department of War, making formal the change administration officials informally made last year. This change, accentuating Trump and Hegsett's focus on a warrior ethos,

instead of the defensive alliances the U.S. has enjoyed since World War II, will cost taxpayers $52 million. Trump has also ramped up his attacks on those he perceives to be enemies. Today, the Federal Communications Commission, or FCC, announced it is reviewing ABC's licenses after late-night comedian, and Jimmy Kimmel made a joke about First Lady Melania Trump last Thursday. Trump loyalist Brendan Carr, who, as Daniel Arkin of NBC News notes, frequently attacks media organizations, chairs the FCC.

The administration has also gone after former FBI director James Comey again. A federal grand jury in North Carolina has indicted him for making a threat to take the life of and to inflict bodily harm upon the President of the United States. In that, he publicly posted a photograph on the Internet social media site Instagram, which depicted seashells arranged in a pattern making out 86-47, which a reasonable recipient who is familiar with the circumstances would interpret as a C-Shells, serious expression of an intent to do harm to the President of the United States. That is, Comey's posting a picture of seashells on a beach, arranged in the pattern of 86-47,

in slang, 86 means to get rid of something, and Trump is the 47th president, was a threat against Trump's life. The grand jury also issued a warrant for Comey's arrest. Comey has been a thorn in Trump's side since the beginning of his first term when Comey refused to drop the FBI investigation into the ties between Trump's 2016 campaign and Russian operatives. Trump fired him. Then, in September 2025, under then-attorney General Pam Bondi, the Department of Justice charged Comey with lying to Congress. But a judge dismissed the case saying that Lindsay Halligan, the prosecutor who brought it, had been appointed. appointed illegally. Now, acting Attorney General Blanche appears to be curing favor with Trump by going after Comey again. In July 2025, Trump also fired Comey's daughter, Maureen Comey, from her job as assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York.

Maureen Comey specializes in prosecuting white-collar crime and corruption. She led cases against sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his associate Gilaine Maxwell. Comey moved to private practice, but sued over her firing. The Department of Justice tried to get the case moved from court to the Merit Systems Protection Board, which has come under the sway of the Department of Justice itself, but today a judge kept the case in court, saying it was not a routine firing.

Maureen Comey was, by all accounts, an exemplary assistant United States attorney. In her nearly 10 years working at the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, she was assigned some of the country's highest profile cases, and she consistently received the highest accolades from superiors and peers alike, the judge said. Flailing on multiple fronts,

Trump is so desperate to demonstrate dominance that this afternoon, at about 3.30, the official social media account of the White House posted a picture of Trump and King Charles, who is in the U.S. on a state visit, with the caption, Two Kings. James Comey had his own answer to Trump's aspirations to authoritarianism. Well, they're back, he said in a video today. This time about a picture of seashells on a North Carolina. Carolina Beach a year ago. And this won't be the end of it. But nothing has changed with me.

I'm still innocent. I'm still not afraid. And I still believe in the independent federal judiciary. So let's go. But he added, it's really important that all of us remember this is not who we are as a country. This is not how the Department of Justice is supposed to be. And the good news is we get closer every day to restoring those values. Keep the faith. 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.