Guard Your Heart Against What You Want to Believe
Life during Trumptime 4/20/26 - 4/26/26
The week began with a shooting in Mexico and ended with an attempted shooting in Washington, DC, but it was an argument about AI and Iran in the middle that has stayed with me.
On April 20, Eyal Yakoby posted a picture on X of eight women he claimed Iran soon planned to hang. The next day, Donald Trump shared a screenshot of Yakoby’s post and called for the release of the women. On April 22, Trump claimed his request had been honored.
“I have just been informed that the eight women protestors who were going to be executed tonight in Iran will no longer be killed,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social. “Four will be released immediately, and four will be sentenced to one month in prison. I very much appreciate that Iran, and its leaders, respected my request, as President of the United States, and terminated the planned execution.”
Iranian news sources and social media accounts said the women were fake, AI-generated simulacra that had duped the President. The Telegram channel for Iran’s judiciary court said it was all fake news and word spread online that Trump had been fooled by AI.
The truth is stranger. As Mahsa Alimardani outlined in Tech Policy, at least six of the eight women pictured are real. Some of them have been arrested and one is, or was, facing the death penalty.
“This dynamic is not only about what AI can produce. It is also about the doubt AI creates around content that is entirely real. Two days earlier, on April 7, he had reposted authentic footage of Iranian casualties, footage that did not need fabrication. Underneath, one reply read: ‘With Central Casting, AI, and the manipulation and manufacturing of headlines that get inorganic reach on social media has made me question everything. Nobody is innocent here, and I don’t want American tax payers to fund NATO or be involved in the Middle East at any capacity.’
“That reply is the dynamic’s logical endpoint. Faced with an information environment in which authentic and synthetic content sit indistinguishably side by side, audiences do not become better at telling them apart. They withdraw. The pattern on display here is not disinformation in the conventional sense; the underlying events are real. It is propaganda: real cases packaged with synthetic, unverified, or instrumentalized material in service of a political agenda. The damage is not the falsehood. The damage is that real human rights cases, propagandized this way, look fabricated.”
4/20/26
Twenty-seven year old Julio César Jasso Ramírez wounded 13 people and killed a Canadian woman before shooting himself during a mass shooting at a pyramid in Mexico. This was, from what we can tell, a shitpost shooting influenced by American murderer culture. Authorities found an AI-generated picture of Ramírez posing with Columbine killers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold “among his effects.” The shooting occurred on the 27th anniversary of the Columbine massacre.
In the Strait of Hormuz, another cruise ship slipped through the American and Iranian blockades.
4/21/26
The Guardian published an interview with Ecuadorian fishermen who survived a drone strike by US forces in the Pacific Ocean.
“The crew of the patrol boat spoke English to each other, and used a translator to address the Ecuadorians. “From the moment we arrived on the US patrol boat, they were pointing guns at us, shouting: ‘Get in, get in,’” said Palacios, 54. “They handcuffed us, put hoods over our heads and pushed us around. We were terrified they were going to kill us.”
According to the crew’s account, they were held for several hours by the US vessel before being transferred to a Salvadorian patrol boat and, after several more days at sea, eventually to El Salvador, where they were taken to a military base and questioned. Later they were handed over to immigration authorities and taken to a UN shelter.
Back home, their families conducted a desperate search, frustrated by the silence and lack of official information surrounding their disappearance. The fishers were eventually returned to Ecuador, where they were released without charge.”
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced that the flu vaccine would now be optional for servicemembers. “The notion that a flu vaccine must be mandatory for every service member, everywhere, in every circumstance, at all times, is just overly broad and not rational,” Hegseth said. “Our new policy is simple: If you, an American warrior entrusted to defend this nation, believe that the flu vaccine is in your best interest, then you are free to take it; you should. But we will not force you.”
Disease scholars don’t agree on where the Great Influenza of 1918 began, but one popular theory states it started at Fort Riley in Kansas among American soldiers. The cramped living conditions and pre-modern hygiene of barracks life were a perfect incubation ground for the pandemic.
That flu would go on to kill 600,000 Americans and tens of millions worldwide.
Virginia voters approved a Democrat authored gerrymandering plan. If left unchallenged, the redistricting could net Democrats four additional seats in Congress.
4/22/26
Trump fired Secretary of the Navy John C. Phelan and promoted Hung Cao to take his place.
Phelan was a capital management guy, an ardent fundraiser for Trump during his third presidential bid and husband to a former Dallas Cowboys cheerleader, and an Epstein flight enjoyer. He fell out of favor with Trump because he couldn’t do the impossible: launch new battleships named for the President by 2028. The first of the new ships is to be named the USS Defiant and Trump wants them built in the United States with American steel. Phelan told him that was impossible and that the Navy should use the shipyards of Europe.
Cao, Phelan’s replacement, has already pledged to get the job done to Trump’s specifications. Cao, unlike Phelan, is a Navy veteran. He has tried and failed to win election to the House and Senate in Virginia, said that Monterey, California was beset by witches, and once claimed to have been blown up in combat despite never receiving a Purple Heart of Combat Action Ribbon.
4/23/26
Axios reported that Iran’s military was spotted deploying mines in the Strait of Hormuz. Trump responded in a post on Truth Social.
“I have ordered the United States Navy to shoot and kill any boat, small boats though they may be (Their naval ships are ALL, 159 of them, at the bottom of the sea!), that is putting mines in the waters of the Strait of Hormuz. There is to be no hesitation. Additionally, our mine ‘sweepers’ are clearing the Strait right now. I am hereby ordering that activity to continue, but at a tripled up level!”
4/24/26
During a Pentagon Press conference, TMZ DC asked Hegseth if he’d consider changing the “Department of War” to the “Department of Peace.”
“It’s a great question, actually,” Hegseth said. “You go from defense to war because you want to be proactive about peace through strength. I gave a speech in front of generals about what the ethos of the War Department is all about because I want it to go through every echelon of this department. It means something, it’s not just words. And when you fight a war the right way, the idea is that on the other side you bring about peace. That is what we’d like to see the most. In fact I once did a video about the one institution that should win the Nobel Peace Prize every single year is the United States Military.”
The Department of Justice announced it was bringing back death by firing squad as a punishment for federal crimes. The announcement was part of a broader policy of pursuing the death penalty in certain cases.
“The prior administration failed in its duty to protect the American people by refusing to pursue and carry out the ultimate punishment against the most dangerous criminals, including terrorists, child murderers, and cop killers,” Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a press release. “Under President Trump’s leadership, the Department of Justice is once again enforcing the law and standing with victims.”
4/25/26
Cole Thomas Allen attempted to breach security at the White House Correspondent’s Dinner while carrying a shotgun and several other weapons. Allen got to the floor above a room where Trump, JD Vance, and several cabinet members mingled with celebrity journalists. Footage from the evacuation created several viral moments.
Cameras caught CAA agent Michael Glantz calmly eating a salad during the chaos. “I have a bad back. I couldn’t get on the floor, and if I did get on the floor, they’d have to bring in people to get me off the floor. And No. 2, I’m a hygiene freak. There was no freaking way I was getting in my new tux on the dirty Hilton floor. It was not happening,” Glantz told The New York Times when it asked why he didn’t go for cover.
4/26/26
In the aftermath of the attempted shooting, the press and public dug through Cole Tomas Allen’s internet history looking to understand what had happened. CNN pointed out he loved video games. The National Review declared he’d found a “safe space for left-wing extremism” on Bluesky. Right wing provocateur Chris Ruffo laid blame at the feet of left-wing blogger Will Stancil.
Trump and his allies said this latest assassination attempt was proof that the President needed a new ballroom at the White House. “This event would never have happened with the Militarily Top Secret Ballroom currently under construction at the White House,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social. “It cannot be built fast enough! While beautiful, it has every highest level security feature there is plus, there are no rooms sitting on top for unsecured people to pour in, and is inside the gates of the most secure building in the World, The White House. The ridiculous Ballroom lawsuit, brought by a woman walking her dog, who has absolutely No Standing to bring such a suit, must be dropped, immediately. Nothing should be allowed to interfere with with its construction, which is on budget and substantially ahead of schedule!!!”
Senators Lindsey Graham, Katie Britt, and Eric Schmitt introduced legislation to fund construction of the ballroom to the tune of $400 million. “Our bill supports his effort by providing funding to build this ballroom and keep future Presidents, their Cabinet, guests, and other world leaders safe,” Britt said in a press conference announcing the bill.
In polls, Americans overwhelmingly rejected building the ballroom.
On Sunday Night, 60 Minutes aired a 13 minute interview with the President about the shooting. It posted the full, uncut, 40 minute interview on YouTube. As always, it’s worth watching the full Trump ramble if you have the time.