March
- Amari
- 16 hours ago
- 4 min read
Trump's Billion Dollar Gamble
Last February, The Trump admin began a war with Iran that has claimed the lives of 1000 Iranian Civilians, 200 children, and 13 U.S service members. As of March 24th the United States has spent $25 Billion on the war in Iran, and gas prices have skyrocketed. What is even more alarming is the Trump administration requested another $200 Billion for the war from congress.
- It begs the question, what domestic programs could this money have been implemented on other than a pointless war?
American Progress compiled a list of possible programs that the money could go toward instead.
They also laid out a chart of price increases as well from the start of the war, and as we can see prices drastically rose.
America faith in elections at an all time low
According to a new poll by PBS News/NPR/ and Marist, the faith Americans have in elections is at an all time low. "Only 2 thirds of Americans two-thirds of Americans say they are confident their state or local government will run a fair and accurate election, a drop of 10 percentage points from the month before the 2024 presidential election. The percentage who expressed confidence is at the lowest it's been since Marist first asked this question in 2020." (Pbs.org).
This concern is from multiple factors of the administrations priorities such as calling upon congress to take up arms against many federal voter protections and policies, but the most potent concern is the Save Act, which has a controversial requirement that requires people who wish to vote to provide proof of citizenship to be allowed to vote. Critics argue that this will deter people from voting all together and is baseless since in order to vote, you need to be a citizen anyway. "It is already illegal for noncitizens to vote in federal elections. Rick Hasen, director of the Safeguarding Democracy Project at UCLA School of Law, said documented cases of noncitizen voter fraud are extremely rare."(Pbs.org) The Save Act passed the house in February, but was shot down by the Senate in a conjoining immigration bill by a vote of 48-50. 4 Republicans joined the Democrats in rejecting the measure. A new version has passed the House of Representatives, but has not been voted on by the Senate yet.
"While Trump has said the SAVE America Act is an "88% issue with ALL VOTERS," this latest survey finds Americans are more conflicted about the competing issues of voter access and preventing ineligible votes from being cast. Nearly 6 in 10 respondents say it is more important to make sure everyone who wants to vote can do so; 41% say their bigger concern is making sure no one votes who is not eligible. The divide has remained relatively stable since 2021. Independents are 7 percentage points more likely in this poll to prioritize voter access." (Pbs.org).
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/americans-are-increasingly-worried-about-voting-new-poll-shows
Pentagon School Strike
In the beginning of the Iran war, the Pentagon carried out a strike against a school in Iran that killed over 180 people, over 100 children.
" President Trump said on 7 March that in his "opinion" Iran was to blame for the Minab strike, without providing evidence. Days later, when asked about video showing a US Tomahawk hitting the military base next to the school, he said: "I haven't seen it" and claimed without evidence that Iran had Tomahawk missiles. On 11 March, when asked about reports that an initial military probe had found that the US hit the school, Trump said: "I don't know about it". Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth was asked by the BBC on 4 March about the strike and said: "All I can say is that we're investigating that. We of course never target civilian targets".(BBC.com)
Congressional officials have been hammering the administration and Pentagon for answering to the strike and how it happened. "Dozens of students were killed in the first strike on the school. Dozens more were killed after a second strike, called a “double tap” by the military. Imagery assessed by The New York Times showed that multiple precision strikes hit at least six Revolutionary Guards buildings along with the school.
The strikes were the worst civilian casualty incident caused by the U.S. military since 1991" (NY Times). https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwy2482pn0lo , https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/17/world/europe/trump-iran-school-us-strike-minab.html
Currently, U.S Senators are attempting to block Pete Hegseth's travel funds until they receive the overdue reports to lawmakers about the deadly school strike. (https://www.military.com/senators-seek-to-block-hegseth-travel-funds-until-pentagon-releases-report-on-iran-school-strike
US Hottest March on Record
March of 2026 had one of the hottest temperatures recorded going back 132 years.
"Six of the nation’s top 10 most abnormally hot months have been in the last 10 years. This February, which was 6.57F above 20th-century normal, was the 10th highest above normal.
“What we experienced in March across the United States was unprecedented,” said Shel Winkley, a meteorologist with Climate Central, a non-profit science research group.
“One reason that’s so concerning is just the sheer volume of records, all-time records that were set and broken during that time period,” April 2025 to March 2026 was the warmest 12-month period on record in the continental United States, according to Noaa.
On 20 and 21 March, about one-third of the nation felt unseasonable heat that would have been virtually impossible without human-caused climate change, Climate Central calculated." https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/apr/09/hottest-march-on-record
Kristi Noem Fired
On March 5th, Kristi Noem was fired by Donald Trump to be replaced by Sen. Markwayne Mullin. She served as the Homeland Security Secretary since the start of his second term. Noem "will be moving to be Special Envoy for The Shield of the Americas, a "new Security Initiative in the Western Hemisphere". The firing comes after Noem faced severe opposition of her handling of mass deportation. Over 3000 people were detained, cities were under mass protests and duress, and two citizens were killed by ICE agents.
" During Noem's time helming the 250,000-person agency, DHS was at the center of an ambitious effort to arrest, detain and deport 1 million people without legal status per year. DHS data released in the fall shows the department deported 605,000 people and has a historic high number of people in immigration detention."
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