Good morning. I’m Corinne Straight, and this is AlterNet America.
Trump posted himself as Jesus Christ after attacking the Pope. Pete Hegseth has quietly replaced every Black and female general at the top of the military with white men. Democrat Eric Swalwell’s campaign for California governor has collapsed under sexual assault allegations from four women. And even towns in deep red areas are locking the water meters on ICE detention warehouses to keep them from being built.
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Now, let’s get into it.
Trump Thinks He’s Your Savior. The Pope Would Like a Word.
On Orthodox Easter, Donald Trump followed a bizarre rant against Pope Leo XIV with an AI-generated image depicting himself as Jesus Christ. This is politics in 2026.
The image, posted to Truth Social late Sunday night, features Trump depicted as Christ healing a hospital patient. His hands gleam with divine light, flanked by an American flag, bald eagles, the Statue of Liberty, and the Lincoln Memorial.
Trump listed his reasons for disliking the Chicago-born pontiff in a separate 334-word screed, hitting the usual notes: crime, foreign policy, the Radical Left. He also claimed that Leo was only elected because the Church believed an American pope would be best positioned to deal with him, and that “if I wasn’t in the White House, Leo wouldn’t be in the Vatican.”
The Pope, for his part, was unbothered. Aboard the papal flight to Algiers at the start of an 11-day trip to four African countries, Leo told reporters that he had “no fear” of the Trump administration or of speaking out about the Gospel.
It is worth noting that in the image, Trump is healing the sick. He has not, in two terms, managed to lower the cost of insulin. But in AI art, anything is possible.
Pete Hegseth Has Built Himself an All-White, All-Male Command
The Pentagon’s official position is that promotions are based on merit. The actual pattern at the Pentagon looks somewhat different.
Acting on inclinations he expressed before taking office, Pete Hegseth fired multiple senior officers — all Black or women — who were then replaced with white men. He has since left the U.S. military without a single woman at a four-star rank, overseeing a force that is roughly 20% female and 43% people of color.
It goes deeper than the high-profile firings. Hegseth has taken steps to block or delay promotions for more than a dozen Black and female senior officers across all four branches of the military, with some officials raising concerns that officers are being targeted because of their race, gender, or perceived affiliation with Biden administration policies.
Among the attributes cited for removing officers from promotion consideration: past support for COVID vaccines, association with diversity programs, or ties to former Joint Chiefs Chairman Mark Milley, whom Trump views as a political enemy.
Former Navy commander Theodore Johnson put it plainly: Hegseth “came into office promising to turn the military into a color-blind meritocracy — it is neither color-blind nor a meritocracy.”
The Pentagon called it fake news. Presumably from a building where journalists are now required to be escorted at all times, so they can’t find out it’s fake news.
Eric Swalwell’s Campaign Is Over. So Are His Excuses.
He was ahead in the polls. He had the unions. He had the name recognition. He had, as of Friday morning, every reason to believe he was going to be the next governor of California.
Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell said Sunday he would withdraw from the California governor’s race in the wake of allegations of sexual misconduct that led to a nearly immediate campaign collapse. Staffers quit, and prominent Democrats urged him to drop out.
The San Francisco Chronicle and CNN published reports late last week in which four women accused Swalwell of sexual misconduct. The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office confirmed it is investigating an allegation of sexual assault the woman said took place in New York City in 2024.
Fifty-five former staffers have since signed a public letter calling on him to drop out and resign from Congress, writing that they “stand unequivocally” with the accuser who came forward.
According to the California Democratic Party, the deadline has already passed to remove Swalwell’s name from the primary ballot. Which means California Democrats will be voting for a man who has already left the race, in a state where the top-two system could theoretically put two Republicans on the November ballot if Democrats fracture badly enough.
Trump Country Doesn’t Want Trump’s ICE Detention Centers Either
The administration’s plan to convert warehouses into immigration detention facilities at a cost of roughly $38 billion has run into resistance almost everywhere it has tried to build them. And yes, that means everywhere.
Social Circle, Georgia — located mostly in Walton County, where Trump won more than 70% of the vote in 2024 — has put a lock on the water meter at ICE’s planned facility. It will stay there until ICE demonstrates it can operate without overburdening the local water and sewer systems.
A separate facility in Oakwood, Georgia purchased for $68 million would require at least 180,000 gallons of water per day, which is several times more than the 6,800 the warehouses were designed for. Oakwood’s city manager said he first learned of the project when a warehouse supervisor told a city inspector to clear the job site for the new owners.
Georgia is not alone. Maryland, Michigan, and Pennsylvania have all filed lawsuits or blocked water and sewage access to purchased warehouse sites. Utah capped water use at a fraction of what would be needed. A Republican senator from Mississippi pushed back. Deep-red Oklahoma forced a retreat.
It is possible that a $38 billion detention expansion would have gone more smoothly if someone had told the towns about it. We will never know, because nobody did.
A Note From AlterNet America
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We don’t have that problem because we don’t have that person. Our subscribers are the whole business. That means our only obligation is to the people reading, so we can cover the water meter in Social Circle, the generals whose promotions got quietly blocked, and the president posting himself as Christ without calculating how any of it lands with billionaires.
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Thanks for reading, and we’ll see you tonight.
POSITIVE STORIES YOU MAY HAVE MISSED:
‘The JD Vance Effect:’ Viktor Orban’s Defeat In Hungary Sparks Mockery of US VP. JD Vance traveled to Budapest last week to campaign for Viktor Orbán, calling him “wise and smart” and a model for the continent. Hungarians promptly threw Orbán out of office by the largest margin in post-Communist history. Social media has since coined the term “the JD Vance Effect” to describe the pattern of outcomes swinging decisively against anyone he publicly endorses, which at this point includes Orbán, the Iranian peace talks, and the AfD in Germany.
Court rules in favor of 4 men deported by the US to Africa and denied lawyer meetings for 9 months. The Trump administration has been deporting migrants not to their home countries but to Eswatini, Africa’s last absolute monarchy, and paying the kingdom $5.1 million to take them. Four of those men were held in a Swazi prison for nine months before a court finally ruled they had the right to meet with a lawyer. Eswatini authorities had argued the men had no right to legal counsel because they hadn’t been charged with a crime there.
Boise Responds to Idaho Pride Flag Ban With Creative Display. After Idaho passed a law banning Pride flags from government properties, Boise Mayor Lauren McLean was forced to take down the Pride flag that had flown above City Hall for over a decade. On Trans Day of Visibility, no less. The city’s response was to wrap the flagpoles themselves in rainbow colors and hang a new rainbow-emblazoned banner reading “City of Boise: Creating a city for everyone.”
US appeals court declares 158-year-old home distilling ban unconstitutional. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has struck down the nearly 158-year-old federal ban on home distilling. It ruled that the Reconstruction-era law, which subjected violators to up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine, was an unconstitutional overreach of Congress’s taxing authority. The court found a certain irony in the government’s position: the ban didn’t collect taxes on home distilling, it simply prevented any distilling from happening.
