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Foreign. Hello, this is Michael Moss. Heather Cox Richardson is unable to read the letter today, so I will be reading it in her place. April 20, 2026 late Saturday evening, Josh Dawsey and Annie Linsky of the Wall Street Journal reported that Trump was so unstable and angry and after learning on April 3 that Iranians had shot down an American jet, that his aides kept him out of the room as they received updates, simply telling him what was going on at important moments. The journalists describe an erratic president who entered the war after Israel's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu convinced him the Iranian people would support such strikes, and after his successful extraction of Venezuela's president Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Celia Flores, convinced him the military could pull off another quick victory. He seemed to believe that if his gamble worked, he would be saving the world. But while the strikes did indeed kill Iran's top leaders and badly damaged its military, the Iranians closed the Straits of Hormuz. Trump did not foresee this outcome, although he was warned of it. He told his team that the Iranian government would give up before it closed the strait, and if it did manage to close the strait, the US Military would handle it. The journalists report that Trump has marveled at the ease with which the strait was closed. Once the strait was closed, the president flipped back and forth between demanding other countries help reopen it and insisting the US didn't need any help between wanting to fight and calling for negotiations. On April 5, Easter morning, after the recovery of the second airman, he turned to trying to scare Iranian leaders into reopening the strait and ending the conflict, warning, open the F strait, you crazy or you'll be living in hell. He added an Islamic prayer to be as insulting as possible. He later told senior administration officials that, like his threat that a whole civilization will die tonight was improvisational, officials told Dawsey and Linsky. Seemingly unable to figure out how to find a way out of the war, Trump has told aides he wants to focus on other topics and shifted his attention to fundraising events for the midterms or details for his ballroom. Clara Ince Morse and Dan diamond are of the Washington Post offered proof of Trump's growing enthusiasm for his ballroom, noting that he has called public attention to it on about a third of the days this year, mentioning it less than tariffs or Iran, but more than healthcare, insurance or affordability. And his focus on it has increased as the year has progressed. On Friday, April 17, after Israel and the government of Lebanon agreed to a ceasefire, Iran opened the Strait of Hormuz to commercial, but not military vessels. Trump declared the strait was completely open and ready for business and that Iranian leaders had agreed to everything, including never to close the Strait of Hormuz again. But Iran's chief negotiator posted on social media that Trump had made seven claims in an hour and that all seven of them were false. Iranians said that if the US Continued its blockade of Iranian ports, as Trump said it would, they would close the strait again. On Saturday they did, firing on a tanker and two other vessels, all of which left the encounter safely. Yesterday, Trump announced on social media that the USS Spruance intercepted an Iranian flag cargo ship, the Tuska, as it tried to pass the US Naval blockade of Iranian ports. According to Trump, the US Navy stopped them right in the tracks by blowing a hole in the engine room and then took control of the vessel. Trump posted, we have full custody of the ship and are seeing what's on board. Senator Chris Murphy, a Democrat of Connecticut, posted, we are spending billions to keep our entire Navy in the strait to fecklessly fail to open a waterway that wasn't closed until Trump's pointless war of choice closed it. He's just burning your tax money. The two week ceasefire between the US and Iran, begun on April 7, expires on Wednesday, April 22. On Friday, Trump said, maybe I won't extend it, but the blockade is going to remain. Maybe I won't extend it, so you have a blockade and unfortunately we'll have to start dropping bombs again. Today Nick March of the BBC explained the fact pattern behind the general suspicion that someone is engaging in insider trading over Trump's war announcements. After matching the president's market moving statements to the trade volume on a number of financial markets, March found a consistent pattern of spikes. Just hours or sometimes minutes before a social media post or media interview was made public, March notes a similar spike over Trump's announcement of his Liberation Day tariffs of last April. A new NBC News Desk Decision Desk poll out yesterday show showed that 63% of Americans disapprove of Trump's job performance, while only 37% approve. 50% say they disapprove strongly, a sign that they will be highly motivated to vote in the midterms. 67% of Americans disapprove of Trump's handling of Iran, including 54% who strongly disapprove. This morning, Trump's social media account responded to the bad news of the weekend, including the Wall Street Journal story, by dismissing it. Israel never talked me into the war with Iran, the account posted the results of October 7th added to my lifelong opinion that Iran can never have a nuclear weapon. Did I watch and read the fake news, pundits and polls in total disbelief? 90% of what they say are lies and made up stories and the polls are rigged much as the 2020 president was rigged. Just like the results in Venezuela, which the media doesn't like talking about. The results in Iran will be amazing. And if Iran's new leaders regime change are smart, Iran can have a great and prosperous future. President DJT over the weekend, David S. Cloud, Alexander Saidi and Nick Timiros of the Wall Street Journal reported that officials from the United Arab Emirates or UAE have asked Treasury Secretary Scott Besant and Treasury and Federal Reserve officials if the US Will provide a financial backstop for the UAE if the Iran war continues to damage its economy. Meanwhile, over the weekend, Senator Jon Ossoff, a Democrat from Georgia, reminded an audience that Jared Kushner, Trump's son in law, is on the Saudi payroll for $2 billion, a reference to the $2 billion a Saudi sovereign wealth fund controlled by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, or mbs, has invested in Kushner's private equity firm and now he's leading American diplomacy in the Middle east, apparently while at the very same time asking princes and sheikhs across the Arab world to give him billions more. If you're watching this online, don't take my word for it. Look it up for yourself. Can you imagine a normal sitting US Ambassador just hitting up Saudi Grand Prince Mohammed bin Salman for billions of dollars? But he's a Trump, a royal, a princeling. The rules are for us, not for them. And it's not just Jared getting in on the action. A company owned in part by Eric and Don Jr. Has been pitching Gulf kingdoms on its drone interceptors during this war, the Financial Times reported. Pete Hegseth's broker looked to buy defense fund before Iran attack I'll tell you what, never before have we seen so little effort to hide so much corruption. The Mar A Lago mafia has taken American corruption to spectacular new heights. This afternoon, Trump's account posted I'm winning a war by a lot. Things are going very well. But things were not going very well on Friday. Sarah Fitzpatrick published an article in the Atlantic that portrayed Federal Bureau of Investigation or FBI Director Kash Patel as a poor manager who was terrified he is going to lose his job and whose overuse of alcohol, tendency to disappear and purges of FBI agents who had investigated Trump endanger our national security. After Patel's behavior in the locker room of the U.S. men's Olympic Hockey team, during which he was filmed shouting and chugging a beer. Ryan J. Reilly, Gordon Lubold and Kathryn Doyle of NBC News reported that Trump was unhappy with Patel over the incident. Shortly afterward, Patel directed the FBI to fire at least half a dozen FBI employees who had been connected to the 2022 search of Mar A Lago, the Trump Organization's property in Florida, where Trump was storing classified documents he retained after his first term. Over the weekend, Patel seemed to try again to curry favor with the president. He told Fox News Channel host Maria Bartiromo that the Department of Justice is about to make arrests related to the 2020 presidential election that Trump insists falsely was rigged. We have the information that backs President Trump's claim, patel said this morning. Patel sued the Atlantic and Fitzpatrick for $250 million for publishing a sweeping, malicious and defamatory hit piece full of obviously fabricated allegations. The suit says, director Patel does not drink to excess, and this has not and has never been a source of concern across the government. The Atlantic says, we stand by our reporting on Cash Patel and we will vigorously defend the Atlantic and our journalists against this meritless lawsuit. Scott McFarlane of Midas Touch notes that the discovery phase of this defamation lawsuit, during which parties testify under oath, could be quite something. And yet, at the end of the day, it was Trump's secretary of Labor, Laurie Chavez de Rimmer, who abruptly resigned after accusations that she has abused her position, drinks on the job, and has had an affair with a subordinate. An investigation into her conduct was nearing its completion. She is the third person to leave Trump's cabinet. All are women. When asked about Patel's fitness for office, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said, kash Patel is deeply unqualified, deeply unserious, and his behavior is deeply un American, and he should no longer be the FBI director. That shouldn't surprise anyone that I hold that view because he never should have been confirmed to begin with. And we have to stop putting all the blame on the people who nominated this incompetent, toxic, malignant individual. What about the people who confirmed him? And it's extraordinary to me that Senate Republicans confirmed people like Kristi Noem, Pam Bondi, Pete Hegseth, RFK Jr. And Cash Patel, all of them deeply unserious and and deeply unqualified. And now the country is paying the price because of the individuals that Donald Trump chose to nominate as part of the Trump cartel that's now doing great damage to the nation. And the fact that Senate Republicans like helpless sheep went along with it all. Letters From An American was written by Heather Cox Richardson. It was produced at Soundscape Productions, Dedham, Massachusetts, recorded with music composed by Michael Moss.