The Lead
Call Congress and Pull the Plug on the War Drive, The Human Species May Not Have Another Chance
by Stewart Battle (EIRNS) — Apr. 13, 2026
One may have been tempted to think that U.S. President Donald Trump had already sunk to his lowest depths over the recent period. After all, the past 14 months has been a veritable rollercoaster of cacophony and crises that have gone from bad to worse. However, the world has again been surprised by how low Trump can sink, after outrageous back-to-back-to-back announcements over the past 36 hours.
On Sunday, April 12, Trump posted a vicious attack on Pope Leo XIV, whose criticisms of the President’s illegal war against Iran and aggressive behavior generally has clearly gotten under Trump’s skin. Pope Leo is “Weak on Crime, Weak on Nuclear Weapons, [and] does not sit well with me,” Trump posted on Truth Social.
The President has now not only insulted the 2 billion Muslims in the world, but has added the more than 1.4 billion Catholics worldwide as well. The remarks drew swift criticism from governments and religious leaders globally, including one particularly relevant response from the undersecretary of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Culture and Education, Antonio Spadaro, who wrote on X: “If Leo were irrelevant, he would not merit any comment. Instead, he is invoked, named, opposed—a sign that his words matter. This is where the Church’s moral force emerges. Not as a counter-power, but as a space in which power is judged by a standard it does not control.”
Later in the day on Sunday, Trump posted an AI picture of himself as Jesus Christ, with an American flag, bald eagles, and fighter jets in the background. The implication was so twisted and offensive that even some of Trump’s strongest supporters said that he had crossed the line. The image was later taken down from the President’s social media pages, but not without seriously raising the question as to Trump’s mental fitness to hold office.
All this is only the latest charade in a world that stands on the brink of nuclear war. Negotiations between the U.S. and Iran broke down on Sunday as Vice President JD Vance announced the U.S. was walking away after Iran refused to “accept our terms.” This not only puts the already-fragile ceasefire in jeopardy of collapsing, but Trump later announced a new American blockade on the Strait of Hormuz, warning that the U.S. is “locked and loaded” if Iran attempts to evade it. Oil prices immediately rose again on Monday. But more importantly, if actually enforced, this could put the U.S. into direct confrontation with China, which buys large amounts of oil from Iran, introducing an entirely new element into this war. Russia has already announced its intention to send another oil tanker to Cuba, after having already sent one earlier this month.
These actions represent an unacceptable threat to all of humanity, and require an unprecedented mobilization to intervene. The most efficient action is activating the Congress’ power of the purse, which, if wielded, could stop all funding for further military activity in Southwest Asia. Independent candidate for U.S. President Diane Sare has released a statement calling on individuals around the world to place targeted phone calls and messages into Congress on this subject. She writes:
“It is easy to posture on the question of impeachment or invoking the 25th Amendment, and many representatives are eyeing the November midterm elections, but such actions will be too late. Billions of people on this planet depend on the U.S. Congress acting now to stop this war.
“As attorney [Bruce] Fein writes, ‘Congress can brandish the power of the purse to end President Donald Trump’s unconstitutional attack on Iran, a criminal war of aggression as defined by the postwar Nuremberg Tribunal. Congress ended the Vietnam War through the power of the purse.…’”
Congress is expected to vote on a War Powers resolution Wednesday April 15, which is an excellent opportunity to act on this initiative.
At the same time, there are two powerful forces acting upon the situation as if from above. Or, as Spadaro put it, from “a space in which power is judged by a standard [the political actors on stage] do not control.” This includes the recent successful landing of the Artemis II mission, which, for the first time in 50 years, reminded the world that our destiny lies far beyond the borders of our small planet. As the astronauts have begun to communicate, this mission has the power to evoke a higher oneness among mankind, a concept which has been unnaturally attacked through decades of pessimism and degradation, but one which is an innate idea within every person.
The other one is the profound occasion of the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States, the memory of which could serve to remind Americans of their true anti-imperial history at a time when their nation holds the key between a fundamentally different world and an oncoming thermonuclear World War III. Wielding this history, as EIR has begun to do in reprinting key historical studies of the true history leading up to the American Revolution, is the crucial ingredient needed to take the U.S., and the world, off its current path of self-destruction.
Contents
New World Paradigm
Strategic War Danger
- Trump's Blockade of Iran Now Underway (↓)
- International Response to Trump's Blockade (↓)
- Iranian Statements Display a Combination of Defiance and Openness (↓)
- Trump Blockade Is 'Compounding the Economic Damage' of the War (↓)
- Trump Lashes Out at Pope Leo and Posts Bizarre 'Trump-as-Christ' Image (↓)
- Orbán Lost the Elections in Hungary (↓)
Collapsing Imperial System
U.S. and Canada
- America's Inability To Produce Is Shutting Down New Data Centers (↓)
- Trump's War Has Already Reversed Americans' Recent Wage Gains (↓)
Harley Schlanger Update
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