On the menu today: Once again, we are asking for your support with our spring webathon. Once we’re done with that business, the president believes the war is proceeding on schedule, a small smidgen of good news on gasoline prices, and Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner finds lebensraum in the latest poll result.
Spring, and NR’s Webathon, Has Arrived
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It has not been a slow start to 2026. The year began with a lightning-fast U.S. operation in Venezuela that captured dictator Nicolás Maduro on January 3. Our contributor Elliott Abrams wrote on January 2, “Today there are serious internal discussions about how to staff the cabinet once Maduro is gone and González is sworn in, how to organize free elections in which traditional parties including the Chavista party will be able to compete fairly, how to pay the armed forces and win their loyalty, and all the other critical moves a new government must make early on.” Either Abrams is spectacularly well sourced, or he’s clairvoyant and I want him to tell me the Powerball numbers.
Then on February 28, we began another, much larger, and still ongoing war against the Iranian regime. National Review’s April print issue — which was posted online February 19; print issue cover dates are always later than when they arrive on newsstands — featured detailed analysis and essays about then-potential strikes against Iran from Noah Rothman and former national security adviser John Bolton.
Bolton wrote, “Striking key instruments of state power like air defenses, IRGC headquarters and bases, the Basij militia (Iran’s version of the colectivos), the nuclear and ballistic missile programs, and naval assets in the Gulf would reduce both the regime’s capacity for domestic repression and its threats externally.”
Noah wrote, “When it comes to Iran, however, Trump’s posture has not fluctuated. His administration deserves credit for logically concluding that the characterological changes we seek in the Iranian regime will come about only through its implosion. We are approaching a climax. . . . Trump spent a decade bending the arc of history toward this point. He stands on the threshold of a new era. If the past is prologue, he will cross it.”
Now, that’s not quite picking a perfect NCAA Tournament bracket, but that’s seeing ahead of the curve.
Meanwhile, on the home front, President Trump got fed up Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem for suggesting in her Senate Judiciary Committee testimony that he gave advance approval of a taxpayer-funded $220 million ad campaign contract that was subcontracted to one of her allies, and replaced her with Oklahoma Senator Markwayne Mullin. You read about that from our Audrey Fahlberg at 8:42 a.m. on March 5. By that afternoon, Noem was out. DHS is thinking of canceling the luxury jet that Noem had ordered for herself; that’s another scoop from Audrey. In fact, just about everything Audrey writes is an eye-opening scoop; you should be clicking on her byline the moment you see it.
Monica Cannon-Grant, a Black Lives Matter activist who was named “Bostonian of the Year” by the Boston Globe, was ordered to pay back every dime she stole from her nonprofit, unemployment benefits, and other fraudulent practices, amounting to almost $225,000. You will not find coverage of this scandal more thorough than that of our Kamden Mulder.
Similarly, no one is covering the Trump administration lawsuit against Harvard University for failing to protect Jewish students from harassment after October 7 better or more thoroughly than our Abigail Anthony. And I would be remiss if I didn’t remember “Forgotten Fact Checks,” the regular feature from our Brittany Bernstein, taking a close look at when the mainstream journalism gets the facts wrong, and, I know this is going to shock you, but those errors often make the Democrats look better!
There are other fine publications and websites out there. But no other will feature Noah making the case for what’s going right in the war against Iran, right alongside Michael Brendan Dougherty pointing out what’s going wrong. Some people are annoyed by the fact that NR, while thoroughly a publication of the right, publishes a variety of views on the hot topics of the day. Those who think strong disagreements are some strange new deviation from established tradition here at National Review are . . . not familiar with this publication’s illustrious history.
We have a clear, overarching conservative philosophy, but it covers a lot of perspectives — hawks and noninterventionists, those who are on the more libertarian side and those who are more socially conservative. From where I sit, the debates within our pages are a lot more thought-provoking than what you find elsewhere.
Speaking of elsewhere, you may have noticed that in recent years, I’ve been to some strange and far-off places — Ukraine, Syria, India, Taiwan, Transnistria. If you’re going to attend a National Review event where I’ll be, let me know ahead of time, I’ll let you try on my bulletproof vest that your donations helped purchase. Warning: That thing is a pain in the neck to lug around.
And we cover a lot more than politics — art museums, and baseball, and roller coasters. On any given weekday, National Review publishes anywhere from 25 to 45 articles, columns, newsletters, reviews, essays, and Corner posts, and that’s separate from videos like the ones from Caroline and Rich, or the podcasts like The Editors or Charlie Cooke’s podcast or The McCarthy Report or the music-focused Political Beats or David L. Bahnsen’s Capital Record.
We produce a lot, and we don’t have a billionaire to help us out. (If you’re a billionaire and would like to help us, please reach out.)
Every time we have had a webathon, you, the readers, have come through, and helped make me look like an effective communicator and salesman in front of the suits. As of this writing, 134 generous supporters have donated $21,304 to our cause. Please help me look good and make those numbers higher by the end of Thursday.
And now, on to the morning news.
White House Envisions Iran War to End Before Mid-May
There are those who would argue a president shouldn’t set a timetable for military operations, or at least be as vague as possible about it, because you never know what’s going to happen in a war. Setbacks, delays, and mistakes are just about inevitable.
Back on March 3, President Trump said: “We projected four to five weeks, but we have capability to go far longer than that. We’ll do it.”
This is the 27th day of the war. I would prefer the U.S. military operations continue longer than projected and achieve their objectives, than to meet the deadline and leave some part of the mission unfinished. This morning, the Wall Street Journal reports that the president believes the war effort is on schedule:
Nearly one month into the war, the president has privately informed advisers he thinks the conflict is in its final stages, urging them to stick to the four-to-six-week timeline he has outlined publicly, according to people familiar with the matter. White House officials planned a mid-May summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing with the expectation that the war would be concluded before the meeting begins, some of the people said.
Don’t Look Now, but There May Be a Tiny Bit of Good News on Gas Prices . . .
AAA national average gas price, Monday: $3.95
AAA national average gas price, Tuesday: $3.98
AAA national average gas price, Wednesday: $3.98
AAA national average gas price, this morning: $3.98
The national average gas price actually went down two-tenths of a penny between Wednesday morning and this morning. Maybe gasoline prices have hit a ceiling?
ADDENDUM: Up in ze state uff Maine, vif und Blitzkrieg attack, Graham Platner und his SS tattoo hast seized a 55 percent to 28 percent lead over Governor Janet Mills, according to the latest Emerson poll. The poll also shows Platner ahead of incumbent Republican Susan Collins, 48 percent to 41 percent. No doubt, those poll results will have Platner supporters ready to raise a furor.
Back in 2020, on Halloween, Emerson completed its last poll of the Senate race in Maine that year, showing Democrat Sara Gideon ahead of Collins, 48 percent to 42 percent.
Collins won, 51 percent to 42 percent.