THE WAR ROOM: President Trump posted a series of social media messages in effect declaring that the Iran was is all over but the shouting without having a certified agreement to show for it.

  Trump declared that the Strait of Hormuz  is open, “will no longer be used as a weapon against the World!” and that Iran “has removed, or is removing, all sea mines!” He told CBS News that Iran had agreed to “everything.”

  Iran, or at least parts of its leadership, disagree. Today they say that the strait will remain under their military control until the US lifts its blockade of Iranian shipping. Iran is reported to have fired on at least one ship today.

   Iran’s chief negotiator and speaker of its Parliament, said on his own social media feed that Trump made seven false claims all in one hour. Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said the US would not make progress in negotiations with what he described as lies.

   Iran’s foreign minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi said the strait would be open only  “for the remaining period of cease-fire” for ships that adhere to a route “coordinated” by Iran. Only a trickle of ships has passed through, one of them an unoccupied cruise ship.

  And while declaring that the strait is “open,” Trump continues to block Iranian shipping to pinch off their oil income.

  Trump also claimed that, “The U.S.A. will get all Nuclear ‘Dust,’ created by our great B2 Bombers.” What he means by that is known only to him. No one knows what “nuclear dust” is. Iran still has a stockpile of enriched uranium, which they said as late as yesterday that they are not giving up.

  Trump took the time to condemn the press for not praising him. “They are desperately looking for a reason to criticize President Donald J. Trump on the Iran situation, but just can’t find it,” he said. “Why don’t they just say, at the right time, JOB WELL DONE, MR. PRESIDENT.”

MONEY: The Dow Jones jumped close to 900 points yesterday and oil prices took a slide on optimism that Trump’s declarations of success are real.

  The S&P 500 has risen almost 10 percent so far this month and is 4 percent higher than it was before the US and Israel attacked Iran on February 28th.

  Kyla Scanlon writes in The NY Times that the financial markets are shrugging off the risks of the Iran war and the artificial intelligence bubble because they believe they will always be saved. 

  She says: “Markets are not properly pricing risk, because they really don’t have to. They have assumed that the U.S. government will not allow them to implode, and that assumption is putting the world economy at stake. What’s more, the new rescuer investors are counting on — artificial intelligence — is vulnerable to the exact risks markets are ignoring.”

FROM ON HIGH: Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas in a speech this week said that progressivism, “unimpeded state power” as introduced to American thinking by President Woodrow Wilson, cannot co-exist forever with the  Constitution. This is interesting coming from a justice who voted to give the president near blanket immunity from criminal prosecution.

   Nonetheless, what Thomas said at the University of Texas at Austin reveals his religiosity and the pre-disposition he has in interpreting the law. He said, “Progressivism seeks to replace the basic premises of the Declaration of Independence and hence our form of government. It holds that our rights and our dignities come not from God but from the government.”

INFINITE SCROLL: 

— President Trump agreed to take part in a marathon reading of the Bible led by a conservative activist who once ran for Congress in Texas and describes the event as “a national reading of God’s law.” Trump has claimed the Bible is his favorite book but has been unable to name a passage he likes.

— A record 29 people have died in ICE custody since October, the start of the federal government’s fiscal year, surpassing 2004’s  previous record toll of 28, according to government data. Deaths have risen along with detentions, up 70 percent compared to the first year of the Biden administration.

— State and local prosecutors in Minnesota this week became the first to charge an ICE officer with two counts of second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon for his actions during a traffic stop.

  The target of the stop told investigators that an SUV passed him on the shoulder, tried to cut him off, and the driver pointed a gun at him. One person in the car being stopped said they believed there was a “crazy person driving down the road aiming guns at people.” 

  The ICE officer in question, 35-year-old Gregory Donnell Morgan, Jr. of Maryland, is being sought by Minnesota authorities. 

THE OBIT PAGE: Kevin Klose, a veteran journalist who as president and chief executive of National Public Radio turned it into a news reporting powerhouse, died at age 85 of Alzheimer’s disease.

  Previously a reporter and editor at The Washington Post with no fundraising experience, Klose took over at NPR in 1998, doubled its audience as well as its endowment, notably landing a $230 million gift from Joan B. Kroc, widow of McDonald’s hamburger chain founder Ray Kroc. 

THE SPIN RACK: A federal judge blocked Nexstar Media Group’s $6.2-billion acquisition and control of its rival, Tegna, that has united the country’s two largest television station groups.

  Judge Troy Nunley ruled that “Nexstar must permit Tegna to continue operating as a separate and distinct, independently managed business unit from Nexstar” and that “Nexstar must put measures in place to maintain Tegna as an ongoing, economically viable, and active competitor.”

BELOW THE FOLD: American Airlines rejected a merger offer from United. They don’t want to pay the baggage fees.

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