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Good morning,

I have a question for other parents reading. The little one is in a big arts & crafts phase at the moment, and she's creating a voluminous body of work. Drawings, paintings, collages, the works. Most of it is fairly pedestrian, if we're being honest. But there are some glimmers of artistic talent in there, especially her intriguingly abstract self-portraiture. My question is, are you supposed to save all this stuff? It can't all fit on the fridge. But I also can't bring myself to throw away any of her work, even the "tree series"... which is just a bunch of green scribbles that (let's be honest) ain't winning her any awards. Then again, if she turns out to be Picasso, her early stuff might be valuable...

So if you thought President Trump threatening civilizational annihilation while standing next to the Easter Bunny was the most bananas thing that would happen this week, allow me to point you to the following story, first reported in The Free Press, about a senior Pentagon official threatening the Vatican's US ambassador to the point where Pope Leo cancelled an upcoming trip to the US out of fear for his safety. Yes, the first American pope feels unsafe visiting his home country because of how out-of-control and belligerent the current administration has become. Another one of those stories I'd relish telling the 10-year coma survivor. At one point, per the FP's reporting and confirmed by the well-regarded Letters from Leo newsletter, Under Secretary Elbridge Colby summoned Cardinal Christophe Pierre to "lecture" him that the US can do whatever it wants in the world, and the Catholic Church better get on board. One official in the meeting reportedly picked up a 14th century weapon to make a point about the "Avignon Papacy", a period in the 1300s when the pope moved out of Rome under the influence of the French monarchy. That exchange is what reportedly led the Holy See to decline the White House's invitation for Leo to come home for the big 250th celebrations this summer. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say when an administration feels the need to threaten the pope, they have lost all moral standing. That’s actually demonic behavior.

As for the war — shocker! — the ceasefire doesn't appear to have ceased the fire. Iran is pissed because Israel continues to bombard Lebanon, with 100 airstrikes on Beirut yesterday alone that killed some 200+ people. I'm sure we'll be told all those people were Hezbollah terrorists hiding among civilians, so there's nothing the IDF could do other than flatten entire neighborhoods to get them, women and children be damned.

Look at it this way, President Trump just got a ceasefire with Iran — to his credit — and how did our partners in the war react? By immediately unleashing hell on the counterparty's biggest proxy, doing everything in their power to ensure the ceasefire wouldn't have time to take hold. Now Iran is keeping the Strait of Hormuz closed in retaliation, threatening to scuttle this whole thing. And we are put in an unwinnable position, once again, where we now have to negotiate against ourselves by trying to keep Israel from screwing this up, and the way to do that is to get them to stop bombing Iran's ally in Lebanon. So, we are effectively doing Iran's work for them, because they hold the keys to the door we need opened, which is Hormuz. All of this embarrassment, humiliation and absolutely cucked behavior just to get to the status quo ante of Feb. 27. I mean... this is an unbelievably FUBAR'ed situation Donald Trump got himself into here. And the fact that it's our "greatest ally" that put us in this position is just the icing on the cake. They will study this in war colleges for decades to come.

So, what about the Democrats? Has anyone seen one lately? The lesson that has been internalized by the opposition party has clearly been to just shut up and get out of Trump's way as he destroys his presidency and legacy without their help. That's probably a good strategy for now, but eventually any of these chuckleheads who want to run for president are going to need to come up with some solutions to these problems. The DNC kicks off its spring meeting in New Orleans today. We'll probably get a land acknowledgement or two, maybe a decree about the need to protect the MMIWG2SLGBTQQIA+ community (that's a real acronym, btw). What they actually should do is put every elected Dem on the record, taking a position on how they are going to detach us from our suicidal partnership with Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli government before it ends in a nuclear exchange. Because let's be clear, that is what Israel wants. If they could drop a tactical nuke on Tehran tomorrow and get away with it, they would. And they've got a heel in the White House who is incapable of telling them no.

On that note, I know we owe everyone a new podcast episode. I’ll have something up on the feed Friday, but in the interim check out my interview with Brandon Stanton, the creator and photographer behind the wildly popular Humans of New York project, for Newsweek’s Newsmakers series. It’s a nice palate cleanser from all this talk of holy and nuclear war. That conversation is below.

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Carlo Versano is Newsweek's Director of Politics and Culture. He has in-depth knowledge and experience covering a range of topics and stories over a 20-year career in the news business. Carlo joined Newsweek in 2024 after a stint at The Messenger. Before that, he was an Emmy-winning producer at NBC News. He is a graduate of the University of Richmond and the New School. You can get in touch with Carlo by emailing [email protected].

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Brandon Stanton never planned on becoming New York City's unofficial chronicler. He was a bond trader in Chicago who lost his job at 26, suddenly unmoored from the identity he had built to cover up what he describes as "a lot of shame"—about drug addiction, about flunking out of college, about feeling perpetually behind. When his job disappeared, so did the persona he had been cultivating. What remained was a simpler question: What do I actually want to do all day?

The answer was photograph people. And what better place to do that than New York. 

Watch now. ⬅

By Sam Stevenson

The Florida Democrat who flipped President Donald Trump’s backyard has told Newsweek her party cannot rely on momentum alone in the midterms, warning that "nothing replaces doing the work."

Fresh off flipping a long‑held Republican district that includes Trump’s sprawling 17-acre Mar-a-Lago Club, Emily Gregory says her colleagues must stop looking for shortcuts ahead of the midterms.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt answered my question on NATO during the briefing Wednesday. 

I asked whether the United States was still considering leaving the alliance.

She told me, “It’s something the president has discussed and I think it’s something the president will be discussing with Secretary General Rutte and perhaps you’ll hear directly from the president following that meeting this afternoon.”

Watch the entire exchange here.

Trump posted on Truth Social Wednesday evening about NATO, just hours after meeting Rutte at the White House: “NATO WASN’T THERE WHEN WE NEEDED THEM, AND THEY WON’T BE THERE IF WE NEED THEM AGAIN. REMEMBER GREENLAND, THAT BIG, POORLY RUN, PIECE OF ICE!!! President DJT”

Meanwhile, Rutte went on CNN after his meeting and was asked about the possible withdrawal, he admitted that “there is a disappointment clearly” from Trump. But, Rutte also said that the president was also listening carefully to his arguments. Notably, there were no big open-press events for Rutte’s meeting with Trump, as there typically have been when he comes to town.

For now, the United States remains part of NATO. But the messaging coming from the administration suggests that may not be the case for long.

I sat down with Saikat Chakrabarti, the progressive strategist considering a run for Nancy Pelosi's San Francisco seat, and he didn't mince words: the Democratic Party is out of step with voters.

We talked about his plan to challenge top Democratic leaders—including Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer—in 2028. His argument is straightforward. "The way you win a general election is you have a party that's campaigning on the needs and the issues that most people want you to campaign on," he told me. Anti-corruption measures poll at 90 percent. Defense budgets that bloat to $900 billion poll nowhere. Yet the party keeps caving.

I pressed him on Democratic failures since November. Chakrabarti was specific: they capitulated on ACA subsidies, they let the massive defense budget pass without a fight, and they squandered leverage on ICE funding. "The only way we hold ICE accountable right now is to claw back the money that's been given to ICE," he said.

I also brought up the personal attacks he's faced—questions about his residency and voting history in San Francisco. According to Chakrabarti, these are establishment pushback. "That's what you get when you threaten the status quo," he said.

The Democratic Party has become so unpopular it's polling lower than Donald Trump among its own voters. His bet on 2028: "If you never even try to fight, you don't know what you can win."

“The Government of Spain will not applaud those who set the world on fire just because they show up with a bucket.”

—Spanish PM Pedro Sánchez on the ceasefire.

Newsweek is part of the Trust Project, which focuses on honesty, accuracy and fairness in journalism. Read more about our best practices. To get in touch with our newsroom with suggestions on how to point out possible errors, please contact us at [email protected].