DAY AHEAD - My Daily Editorial Note
April 10, 2026
The Epstein files controversy hasn’t been politically fatal for the Trump Administration, but it sure has been a debilitating chronic condition.
The First Lady reinflamed the issue. As the day begins, we’re waiting to see some things. Like… many things
1) Do we get a better sense of what alleged “smears” and “lies” Melania Trump was referring to? Is there a new allegation or report about to drop?
2) Does Congress take the First Lady up on her unsolicited suggestion that they hold “hearings” to platform Epstein survivors? After the First Lady spoke, one Epstein survivor texted me to say this feels like “putting the burden back on survivors.” As a reminder, Congress need not get the Administration’s suggestion/blessing/permission to hold a hearing.
Some Democrats pounced. Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA), ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, responded by saying “We agree with First Lady Melania Trump’s call for a public hearing with the survivors…. We encourage Chairman James
Comer to respond to the First Lady’s request and scheduled a public hearing immediately.”
3) Does this make Pam Bondi’s absence more noticeable when Tuesday arrives – and she no-shows the deposition at the House Oversight Committee? Does it raise the pressure on Trump’s GOP allies in Congress to force the issue and get Bondi to sit at the witness table?
There’s other news beyond the Epstein files. Lots of it.
I’m going to watch today to see if we get more of context and details about next week’s talks to help broker a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon. Israel has unleashed fresh attacks against Hezbollah.
The ongoing attacks have put a strain on the US-Iran ceasefire, which remains intact, but really, really fragile this morning.
Ken Harbaugh, a former Navy pilot, said he remains surprised that anyone in the Administration, including Trump, didn’t foresee Iran clamping down on the Strait of Hormuz.
Per an ABC News report, the military attacks in – and against – Iran have killed more than 3,000 people in that country.
Lots of other threads to pull today
1) I’ll be tracking to see if Secretary Pete Hegseth and the Defense Department attempt another new “press policy” to make it more difficult for journalists to cover the agency and the war. For a second time, a federal judge has overruled a tightening of Pentagon press rules. It was a pretty damning opinion from DC federal judge Paul Friedman. The opinion said, “The attempt by the Secretary of Defense to dictate the information received by the American people, to control the message so that the public hears and sees only what the Secretary and the Trump Administration want them to hear and see. The Constitution demands better. The American public demands better, too”
Judge Friedman also said the Trump Administration cannot “take steps to circumvent the Court’s injunction and expect the Court to turn a blind eye. But that is exactly what the defendants have done by closing the Correspondents’ Corridor and imposing an escort requirement.”
Here’s the 20-page opinion
https://ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show_public_doc?2025cv4218-55
2) Oregon’s Governor, Tina Kotek, is signing a law to protect immigrant communities. The law would require school district boards and governing bodies of institutions of higher education to adopt policies that address how the school district or the institution of higher education will respond when a federal immigration authority enters school property or a campus.
3) Don’t forget we’re now less than 200 days until early voting in some states. Iowa’s Democratic party has just sent out a blast email about a new analysis from the Cook Political Report. The analysis says “The battle for Iowa’s governorship is officially a barnburner.” Democrats are salivating over such a prospect. Though – they’ve been burned by optimism in Iowa before. (Think: 2024 Presidential survey)
4) Check out this inquiry sent by a group of governors, including Illinois’ JB Pritzker, Delaware’s Matt Meyer, Indiana’s Mike Braun and Pennsylvania’s Josh Shapiro to PJM Interconnection, which oversees the grid that manages electricity for 65 million people across 13 states and D.C. They want electric utilities to ensure *data centers* help absorb the cost of increased usage… and not leave the burden on consumers.
Electricity costs are SUCH a big retail issue. New Jersey’s gubernatorial race included lots of focus on it in 2025. Mikie Sherrill pressed the issue. She’s now the governor.
5) Speaking of costs… Senate Small Business Committee Democrats have released a report today, arguing gas prices have spike $1.16/gallon since the war started
6) Just 48 hours after a big win for a Democratic-supported judge candidate in Wisconsin, another local Wisconsin Republican is retiring from the state legislature, rather than face-re-election.
7) In its latest court filing defending the White House ballroom project, the Trump Administration claims the East Wing was “dilapidated, infested, and structurally unsound”
They’re still going round-and-round with historic preservationists who’ve sued to halt the project. A judge’s order to halt the work takes effect next week.
I’m on duty all weekend. Standing by.
Data centers should just help with their costs they must pay completely for their costs.
Regarding the WH not seeing closing the strait coming: for years there have been numerous “think tank” discussions of the consequences of attacking Iran, and they’ve pretty much followed the script: retaliatory attacks on other countries in the Mideast and closure of Hormuz. Absolutely nothing new or surprising there: Ray Charles could have seen it coming.