DADDY WARBUCKS: The Pentagon and White House are preparing to request $200 billion more from Congress to fight the undeclared war against Iran.  President Trump said, “It’s a small price to pay to make sure that we stay tippy-top.”

  The sum is nearly a quarter of the current defense budget and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth did not say how long that money would last. He and the President have suggested that the war would last a few weeks and week four begins tomorrow. The Pentagon revealed that week one cost $11.3 billion.

  “Obviously, it takes money to kill bad guys,” Hegseth said during a news conference yesterday. “As far as the $200 billion, I think that number could move.”

  Alaska Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski, one of the few who displays any spine against President Trump, told reporters that the administration needs to do a little more engagement with Congress. Trump never asked approval to go to war.  “You just can’t come up here with an invoice and say, you know, ‘pay this’ and expect to have great cooperation going forward,” she told reporters.

  Democrats are asking what happened to the government that couldn’t afford anything. Sen. John Hickenlooper of Colorado said; “With that kind of money, we can fund universal pre-K in every state in this country. We can get to universal health care coverage. We could have free school meals for every child.”

THE WAR ROOM: A US F-35 fighter jet made an emergency landing at an American air base in the Middle East after it was struck by what is believed to have been Iranian ground fire. The $100 million jet would be the first hit by Iranian fire, although a “friendly” Kuwaiti jet early in the war mistakenly shot down three US F-15s at about $60 million a pop.

  The F-35 incident came after President Trump and Pentagon Press Secretary Pete Hegseth have repeatedly claimed that bombing has suppressed all of Iran’s air defenses. Trump said just yesterday, “We have nobody shooting at us.” 

  Today Iran hit a major oil facility in Kuwait.

HOOP DREAMS: Professional women’s basketball players reached a contract deal this week that finally puts them in the big leagues for making money. The WNBA is growing in popularity and seems to have the cash.

  Minimum salaries will be about $600,000 with the stars getting up to $1.4 million. Under the six-year deal, the players will receive 20 percent of the gross league and team revenue.

TOO REAL: The Walt Disney Company cancelled the upcoming season of “the Bachelorette” after the show’s star Taylor Frankie Paul was revealed in a video violently attacking her ex-boyfriend in front of her young daughter.

  Word broke in recent days that Paul was under investigation for domestic violence, then the tabloid outlet TMZ posted the video in which she beats and kicks the man, Dakota Mortensen, before throwing metal stools at him.

  “In light of the newly released video just surfaced today, we have made the decision to not move forward with the new season of ‘The Bachelorette’ at this time,” a Disney spokesperson said in a statement.

  The divorced Paul rose to fame in the show “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” in which she suggested she had experimented with swinging. Disney, in fact, cast Paul knowing she had been arrested for domestic violence, but the video evidently was too much reality for a so-called reality show. 

THE REGIME:

— During a meeting with Japan’s prime minister in the Oval Office yesterday, President Trump answered a question about the US surprise attack on Iran with a joke about Pearl Harbor. “We didn’t tell anybody about it because we wanted surprise,” he said. “Who knows better about surprise than Japan, OK? Why didn’t you tell me about Pearl Harbor, OK? Right?”

  Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi kept her composure.

— Twenty-four states along with a dozen cities and counties have sued the Trump administration for its decision to relinquish the government’s legal authority to fight climate change.

  President Trump claims climate change is a hoax and he is dismantling environmental regulation. The states argue that the Environmental Protection Agency acted illegally when it rescinded the 2009 scientific conclusion that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases threaten public health. The so-called endangerment finding was the legal basis for regulation of emissions from automobile tailpipes, smokestacks, oil and gas wells, and other sources of pollution.

— The nomination of Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin to run the Department of Homeland Security advanced yesterday after Pennsylvania Democratic Sen. John Fetterman crossed party lines and voted for the man he described as a friend.

— FBI Director Kash Patel told Congress that a group of agents who investigated  President Trump while he was out of office were fired for unspecified ethical violations. At least two agents have sued claiming they were fired for “political retribution.” 

— Members of the Commission of Fine Arts voted yesterday to put President Trump’s likeness on a “commemorative” gold coin. In the President’s campaign to put his name and face on everything he touches, the 24-karat coin would depict him leaning on a desk scowling with clenched fists. It has been tradition that no living president puts his likeness on currency.   

THE SPIN RACK: Authorities in Barcelona recovered from the Mediterranean the body of University of Alabama student James Gracey, who went missing after being last seen at a popular seaside nightclub. Gracey had been on spring break visiting friends. Investigators said the death appeared to be accidental. — The temperature in Martinez Lake, Arizona hit 110 yesterday, the highest temperature ever recorded in March in the US.

 BELOW THE FOLD: Filings in litigation reveal that Oracle billionaire Larry Ellison is nicknamed “Bad Doggy” even though he does not have a rap album. 

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