Day: March 26, 2026

No Kings and 11 Attempts by Democrats to Fund TSA Blocked by Trump As He Tries To Force His SAVE Act on Senate Republicans 

We begin with the upcoming “No Kings” rallies across the country on Saturday, the third of which is likely to be bigger with anti-war sentiments swelling the ranks although the Iran war is not the focus of the organizers. We discuss growing grassroots activism against the multiple MAGA disasters tearing us down at home and abroad with airports clogged as travelers wait in long lines watched over by ICE goons while Trump stops 11 attempts by Democrats to fund TSA, trying to force Republicans to shoehorn the voter-suppression SAVE Act into Senate DHS funding negotiations. Joining us is Jeremi Suri, who holds the Mack Brown Distinguished Chair for Leadership in Global Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin, where he is a professor of history and public affairs. He is the co-host of the podcast “This is Democracy” and the author and editor of a number of books including The Impossible Presidency: The Rise and Fall of America’s Highest Office and most recently, Civil War by Other Means: America’s Long and Unfinished Fight for Democracy. He has an article at his Substack Democracy of Hope, “Iran Is Winning, So Far.”

Will Congress Balk at Hegseth’s Extra $200 Billion and Trump’s Extra $500 Billion on Top of a $Trillion Defense Budget?

Then we examine whether a congress that automatically approves Pentagon spending on a bipartisan basis will balk at the extra $200 billion Hegseth wants for the Iran war and the extra $500 billion Trump is asking for on top of the trillion dollar defense budget already approved. Joining us is William Hartung, a Senior Research Fellow at the Quincy Institute. His books include Prophets of War: Lockheed Martin and the Making of the Military-Industrial Complex, and his latest book is, The Trillion Dollar War Machine: How Runaway Military Spending Drives America into Foreign Wars and Bankrupts Us at Home. He has an article at Forbes we discuss, “$200 Billion For The Pentagon Means A Longer War and More Wasted Funds.”

Trump Postpones His Summit With Xi While Cutting Off Persian Gulf Oil China Depends On

Then finally, as Trump postpones his summit with China’s Xi while cutting off Persian Gulf oil China depends on, we speak with Frank Dikötter, a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and Chair Professor of Humanities at the University of Hong Kong. He is the author of a number of books including The Discourse of Race in Modern China and People’s Trilogy which documents the lives of ordinary people under Mao. His latest book is Red Dawn Over China: How Communism Conquered a Quarter of Humanity.