Bombs, Passports, and Seashells
Life during Trumptime 4/27/26 - 5/3/26
What is air power for?
Since World War II, air power enthusiasts have touted the success and possibility of air power. It’s a seductive promise: that you can defeat an enemy in a war without committing ground troops. Reality and history don’t bear out that promise. What’s happening between the US and Iran right now is just another datapoint.
Air power boosters often bring up NATO’s 1999 bombing campaign against Kosovo as proof of the promise. Professor Robert Pape, author of Bombing to Win, has an excellent post on his Substack about why Kosovo proves the opposite of what air power enthusiasts claim.
“Within days of the bombing, Serbian ground forces accelerated operations on the ground in Kosovo. What Western intelligence would describe as ‘Operation Horseshoe’ evolved rapidly. Units that had numbered in the hundreds expanded into tens of thousands of troops, including mechanized columns moving methodically along Kosovo’s road networks in a sweeping arc — a horseshoe-shaped advance designed for visibility as much as control. Civilians saw it coming. They could do nothing to stop it—because the enemy always gets a say when air power is the only coercive tool, as I explain in Bombing to Win.
“The result was mass displacement on a staggering scale. Mechanized units moved from town to town. Families fled on tractors and on foot, carrying what they could. Border crossings into Albania and Macedonia were overwhelmed. At night, Kosovo glowed from burning homes.
By late spring, roughly 800,000 to 1 million Kosovar Albanians—nearly half the population—had been driven from their homes. Thousands were killed; many more were wounded or brutalized. What had been framed as a limited air operation to prevent humanitarian catastrophe now coincided with its dramatic acceleration.”
4/27/26
An interactive article in the Sunday New York Times chronicled the disappointment of Trump voters.
“We were made a lot of promises during the election. I know that it’s only been a year and a half, but I don’t think I’ve really seen much progress toward even moving toward what he said he was going to do, such as tax breaks or, let’s see, helping with the education system. I feel like he just defunded a lot of the education systems, the schools. I don’t know why he made so many promises,” said 26-year old Franceska.
“I thought he’d learned his lesson, and was going to prove to everybody he learned from his mistakes, and he was going to turn the country around and he was going to be a stellar president. But it’s turned out to be a horror movie. I was so wrong with the vote for him,” said 62-year old Jose.
4/28/26
The State Department is planning to issue limited editions US passports with Trump’s face on them.
“As the United States celebrates America’s 250th anniversary in July, the State Department is preparing to release a limited number of specially designed U.S. Passports to commemorate this historic occasion. These passports will feature customized artwork and enhanced imagery while maintaining the same security features that make the U.S. Passport the most secure documents in the world,” the State Department told The Bulwark.
Fox News published a mock up of the design, which includes Trump’s face hovering over the Constitution and American flag. His signature, in gold, below.
A federal grand jury indicated former FBI Director James Comey. He’s been charged with two offenses: threatening to kill Trump and communicating that threat via Instagram. The charges stem from a May 2025 Instagram post that depicted seashells on a beach arranged to spell out “86 47.”
“James Comey disgracefully encouraged a threat on President Trump’s life and posted it on Instagram for the world to see,” current FBI director Kash Patel said in a press release about the indictment. “As the former Director of the FBI, he knew full well the attention and consequences of making such a post. This FBI and our DOJ partners pursued a rigorous investigation that followed the facts—and now Mr. Comey will be held fully accountable for his actions.”
4/29/26
As negotiations between Iran and the US continued, Trump posted an inflammatory meme on Truth Social. “Iran can’t get their act together. They don’t know how to sign a nonnuclear deal. They better get smart soon!” He said above an AI-generated picture of himself in aviator glasses holding an assault rifle while explosions destroyed a Middle Eastern landscape behind him, a visual allusion to Tony Stark in Iron-Man.
While Trump posted, the oil market spiraled, peace-talks stalled, and Iranian authorities executed protestors. United Nations human rights officials said that 21 people have been executed since the start of the Iran War and 4,000 more have been arrested.
4/30/26
Trump signed bipartisan legislation that funded the Department of Homeland Security, officially ending a months-long shut down. The Congressional dispute over the budget began in February in the aftermath of the murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis. TSA agents went without pay, air travel wait times increased, and the White House deployed ICE agents to airports. Democrats demanded reforms of various DHS connected agencies and Republicans refused. Republicans in Congress “threw a fit,” according to Speaker Mike Johnson “and were able to pass a budget “with no crazy Democrat reforms.”
On various social media platforms, Trump endorsed a place to change the name of ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) to NICE (National Immigration and Customs Enforcement.) It appears the name change is moving forward.
5/1/26
Trump made good on a threat to withdraw American troops from bases in Europe. The Pentagon announced the removal of 5,000 of its 36,000 troops in Germany. This will be a significant reduction of American soldiers in Europe and a blow to the US ability to project power in the Middle East.
The withdrawal announcement came days after German Chancellor Friedrich Merz criticized Trump’s prosecution of the war in Iran in front of high school students. “An entire nation is being humiliated by the Iranian leadership,” he said. Trump has also threatened to withdraw troops from Spain and Italy.
Just before noon, Trump posted a picture of himself as a fifth head on Mount Rushmore on Truth Social. Three minutes after 11PM, the President posted an AI-generated photo of himself, JD Vance, and Marco Rubio, swimming in the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.
5/2/26
Negotiations continued between Tehran and the White House. On Saturday, Pakistan delivered a 14-point peace proposal, itself a counter-proposal to a 9-proposal from the United States. “I’ll let you know about it later. They’re giving me the exact wording now,” Trump said while boarding Air Force one.
“I will soon be reviewing the plan that Iran has just sent to us, but can’t imagine that it would be acceptable in that they have not yet paid a big enough price for what they have done to Humanity, and the World, over the last 47 years,” he later said in a post on Truth Social.
Spirit Airlines, a much maligned and surreally beloved budget airline, suddenly shut down. Spirit had struggled for years, but the recent massive spike in oil prices due to the Iran War was the final nail in the coffin. The airline attempted to get a bailout from the White House, but could not reach a deal.
“Americans will soon be paying a billion, or two or three, dollars a year for plane tickets in the aftermath,” Spirit attorney Marshall Huebner said during bankruptcy proceedings.
5/3/26
Rudy Giuliani, America’s Mayor, former advisor and personal lawyer to Trump, the man who sweated it out during the Four Seasons Total Landscaping press conference that ended Trump’s second election bid, was hospitalized with pneumonia.
“Mayor Rudy Giuliani is currently in the hospital, where he remains in critical but stable condition. Mayor Giuliani is a fighter who has faced every challenge in his life with unwavering strength, and he’s fighting with that same level of strength as we speak,” Ted Goodman, Giuliani’s spokesperson said in a post on X.
His illness was bad enough that a Catholic Priest reportedly administered last rites.
“Our fabulous Rudy Giuliani, a True Warrior, and the Best Mayor in the History of New York City, BY FAR, has been hospitalized, and is in critical condition. What a tragedy that he was treated so badly by the Radical Left Lunatics, Democrats ALL — AND HE WAS RIGHT ABOUT EVERYTHING! They cheated on the Elections, fabricated hundreds of stories, did anything possible to destroy our Nation, and now, look at Rudy. So sad!” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.