'BradCast' 4/9/2026 ( Iran War, broken promises, growing failures, MAGA buckles)

You didn't get a wall. You didn't get any arrests. You didn't get Drain the Swamp or America First. You didn't get any new infrastructure, no $5,000 doze check. You didn't eliminate your national debt or get any help buying a new home or help with lower grocery prices or gas prices. It's quite the opposite, in fact. You didn't get a $2,000 stimulus check or affordable health care or any accountability for the Epstein files, which he promised when he said he was going to release them all to the public. And you damn sure didn't get any, no more wars. Now, what you got was conned. And you're too fucking embarrassed to admit. I think Texas Trey on TikTok is right. That's why. I got the feeling that something right. No one. I'm so scared in case I fall off my chair. And I'm wondering how I'll get down the stairs.

From Pacifica Radio on Los Angeles, this is The Bradcast, as heard on KPFK, 90.7 FM in L.A. and on dozens of other fine affiliate stations. On both the public airwaves and the Internet surround the country and the world, blanketing planet Earth. I'm Brad Friedman, your friendly investigative blogger, journalist, troublemaker, muckraker, and all-around, swell fellow, says me... From bradblog.com, thank you so much for joining us today. It is always greatly appreciated. We have got way, way too much to get to today, way more than I can possibly get to, including Desi Doyen's latest Green News report. Hello, Desiree. Hey, yes, what? Too much to cover in one day? Yeah, we'll see. How unusual. We'll see how that goes. We'll see if we get to play your Green News report after all or not. You know, that's the first thing to go. Oh, we will we? We'll see. Oh, look, what a surprise. It has happened again this week. A group of new accounts on the prediction marketplace app called Polly Market made highly specific, very well-timed bets on whether the U.S. and Iran would reach a ceasefire specifically on April 7, resulting in hundreds of thousands of dollars in profits for these brand new customers. It's as if they knew about it in advance or something. I don't know. As AP reports, these bets were made, even though in the hours before a two-week ceasefire was announced on Tuesday, President Donald Trump's rhetoric had escalated sharply and there were few signals that a ceasefire was imminent. Early in the day, Trump had issued a genocidal warning on social media that, quote, a whole civilization will die tonight. If Iran didn't meet his demand to open up the Strait of Hormuz by his 8 p.m. Eastern Time deadline that day. But an analysis of publicly available blockchain data from Pollymarket by AP shows that at least 50 accounts or wallets as they are known. placed substantial yes bets on Tuesday just before Trump announced the ceasefire in a truth social post at around 6.30 p.m. Eastern time that day. These were the first bets ever made on the system by these particular wallets. And boy, talk about beginner's luck, huh? Huh. One of these wallets, for example, created Tuesday around 10 a.m. Eastern Time placed roughly $72,000 in bets at an average price of 8.8 cents. The buy-in for each bet ranges from $0 to $1 each, reflecting a $0 to $1. 100% chance of what users think might happen. This polymarket user then cashed out when it did happen for a cool profit of $200,000. Wow.

One story after another like this. One wallet was created 12 minutes before Trump's post declaring the ceasefire made $31,908 of yes bets. Public blockchain data cannot identify who controls those new wallets. Only polymarket has access to that, though I suspect that I don't know, the DOJ or the SEC or someone could subpoena that information if Trump's DOJ or Trump's SEC. really actually wanted to. Congressman Blake Moore, Republican of Utah, who has introduced legislation to regulate these prediction markets, released the statement on Wednesday saying, quote, it's highly unlikely that these are good faith trades. It's much more likely that these are... insiders with access to information ahead of the public. Without some kind of restrictions, there is nothing stopping government or military officials from profiting from their positions. Correct. As unseemly and abhorrent as all of this sounds, it is. As far as I can tell for the moment, at least on the federal level, entirely lawful. If Donald Trump himself made that bet on himself 12 minutes before his announcement or if his kids did it or anyone else inside the White House, apparently they're breaking no laws in doing so. Nice grift if you can get it. This week's pattern of newly created polymarket accounts placing strategic, very well-timed bets, mirrors earlier episodes on the platform. Newly created accounts placed large wagers just hours before the surprise January capture of Venezuelan president, Nicholas Maduro, and made hundreds of thousands of dollars in profit. Similar, small clusters of accounts have also repeatedly profited from well-time bets on military actions involving Iran, like they've got an inside line or something. Bipartisan groups of senators as well as representatives have introduced legislation that would broaden the definition of insider trading so that it would include prediction markets like this. But they sure don't seem to be in hurry to get any of it passed, do they? Even the two biggest platforms in the industry themselves, Kalshi and Polymarket, have said that they need to broaden the definition of insider trading on their platforms. Said Todd Phillips, a professor at Georgia State University, who was written on prediction markets and the industry's regulations. He said, quote, this is why these markets need regulation. We can't have people trading with insight information and expect other traders are going to be okay with it. going to be okay being in these markets. Well, for the time being, they apparently seem to be just fine with it. These online betting platforms are raking in billions of dollars with no end in sight. Donald Trump Jr., who serves as a paid advisor to both polymarket and Kalshi.

He seems to be cool with it, and the Trump administration's DOJ has actually sued states like Illinois and Connecticut and Arizona in order to block them from applying state gambling laws to these platforms, which are clearly about gambling, not prediction markets. Arguing the feds when suing to block these states have argued that they are financial markets, that they're akin to futures exchanges, and therefore they are regulated by the federal government's commodity futures trading commission or CFTC, where the administration. can, of course, assure that no action is taken whatsoever against whoever these insiders may be, who seem to know exactly what Trump is going to do at any given moment and have been making millions of dollars off of it somehow. Of course, without insider information, all we have to go on in these things is publicly available news on the war where the administration continues to try and gaslight the public. I was going to say the American people, but in fact tries to gaslight the world. Though I do not think it is going very well. For the administration in that regard. I know they act like everything is swell, but I think the American people, including Trump's own supporters, just may be finally on to him this time. Maybe. No matter how hard Fox News is working to cover all of that up. The big ceasefire that a lucky few folks with newly created polymarket accounts were suddenly able to win tens of thousands of dollars on has been on shaky ground since it was first announced on Tuesday night. We covered in detail on yesterday's broadcast what a terrible deal it appears to be for the U.S. right now and for the world. And what a great deal it appears to be for... Iran, who will apparently be allowed to retain control of the Strait of Hormuz and all of the shipping that passes through it, they can charge ships $2 million to do so, none of which they were able to do before the war. And how the current agreement includes zero restrictions on Iran's production of missiles or attack drones or even nuclear weapons and the enrichment of uranium, as Trump has periodically pretended, was the reason for his wildly ill-considered war, which has cratered markets, at least for those who didn't get an inside line to make bets on gambling apps and has spiked oil and gas prices for the world.

On Wednesday, Iran closed the strait almost immediately in response to Israel's massive bombing campaign against Hezbollah forces in southern Lebanon, which, according to both Iran and the Pakistani mediators who helped broker the ceasefire, was supposed to have been included. Lebanon was supposed to have been included under the ceasefire agreement. Washington and Israel, which invaded Lebanon last month in parallel with the war on Iran, says Lebanon is not, in fact, covered by Trump's ceasefire, but Iran and Pakistan both say that it was explicitly a part of the original deal. A Pakistani source told Reuters that Pakistan was working on ceasefires as well for Yemen. where Israel has also hit Iran-aligned forces. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday that he is seeking talks now with Beirut, a day after the worst bombardment of the war killed more than 300 people in Lebanon as part of a massive bombing campaign that drops on 100 bombs in 10 minutes. On the first day of the supposed ceasefire placing Trump's entire deal as bad as it is in jeopardy. Since then, there has been no sign that Iran was lifting its near total blockade of the strait, which has caused the worst disruption to global energy supplies in history, according to Reuters. As predictable as all of this was, at least to anybody other than a power mad, mentally deteriorating president who is psychologically broken enough to believe that he can simply will anything into reality and that he needn't pay any attention whatsoever to experts who actually know things. In a defiant statement, Iran's supreme leader, Muktaba Khomeini, said on Thursday that Iran was not seeking war but will not forfeit its rights. The statement attributed to Khomeini was read on state TV, though he has not been seen in public since he took over from his father who was killed on the first day of the war. In the first 24 hours of the ceasefire, just a single oil products tanker and just five dry bulk carriers sailed through the strait. That typically accommodated 140 ships a day prior to the war. That accounting for around a fifth of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas flows. And all of this comes as both Trump and Iran have been declaring victory. Well, you can decide for yourself who, if either of them, is closer to correct on that score. But Trump has not achieved, as Reuters observes today, the aims that he announced at the beginning of the war, namely to eliminate Iran's ability to attack its neighbors. They can still do that. They have still been doing that. To destroy its nuclear program.

That apparently continues. The uranium that they have highly enriched is still there and to make it easier for Iranians to topple their government, which there is now no sign of whatsoever. Iran still possesses missiles and drones that can hit its neighbor and a stockpile of more than 900 pounds of uranium enriched to near weapons grade. They started enriching it to near weapons grade only after Donald Trump during his first term tore up the Obama-era anti-nuclear agreement that was working in Iran. Iran's rulers survived the superpower onslaught with no sign of organized opposition and demonstrated their ability to exert control of the strait. So it's going great. Nonetheless, Trump and the White House and the White House PR department at Fox News will continue to try and gaslight you and the world that it's all going great according to plans. It's perfect thanks to the great ten-dimensional thinker and deal maker and peacemaker and the greatest businessman to ever walk the planet Earth, Donald Trump. Well, you know. You can't really be accused of failing to achieve your objectives when you never actually said what those objectives were in the first place. But I do realize, you know, it can be nonetheless dispiriting for many people to see, you know, Donald Trump and the White House and Fox and everyone else pretending that perfect. He totally meant to do this. It's all going great. Because, you know. How can it be that so many continue to be fooled by this jackass? Well, the truth is, fewer and fewer are being fooled every day. Or at least those who know that they have been fooled and have been playing along, more and more of them, I think, are saying, nope, not going to do that anymore. Earlier in the week, we detailed some of the massive blowback that Trump was getting from some of his own formerly top MAGA supporters with huge fan bases like Tucker Carlson, who, as Axios describes it today, in an article headlined, Maga Media's Great Unravelling, delivered a 43-minute monologue on Monday, framing Trump's Iran rhetoric as morally corrupt and even, quote, evil. Alex Jay Jones, the corrupt far-right conspiracy theorist who spent years supporting and defending Donald Trump, he was, or at least pretended to be overcome with emotion on air, pretend or otherwise, as he called the president, a quote, dementia risk who must be removed from office. Candace Owens, another apparently disillusioned Trump loyalist with millions of podcast followers, called the president a, quote, genocidal lunatic and demanded Congress and the military intervene.

Former rep Marjorie Taylor Greene, Republican of Georgia, once among Trump's most devoted MAGA allies in Congress, called his rhetoric, quote, evil and madness on Tuesday and demanded his removal via the 25th Amendment. She continued to make her case later in the week on CNN on Thursday against Trump and against her former colleagues in Congress who refused to speak up and against the president. I think I'm one of the few honest. Republicans willing to talk about it. Everyone else is just afraid to speak out against the president because they're terrified of having an ugly truth social. post dropped on them or a primary challenge like what's happening to Thomas Massie supported by dark money from billionaires that don't even live in Thomas Massie's Kentucky, the 4th District of Kentucky. That's what other Republicans are terrified. So they won't speak up. They're cowards. Any Christian serving in Congress or serving in the Senate and serving in the administration really needs to take pause and ask themselves, as a Christian, do you really support the president calling for the annihilation, calling to wipe out an entire civilization of people? And I don't think you should, because that's not what Jesus said, and that's not what Christianity is all about. So, yeah, according to Axios today, the architects of Maga's media empire are in open revolt against Donald Trump. Maga is revolting? You've been saying that for years. Trump's political strength has always depended less on party institutions than on decentralized media ecosystem, podcasters, streamers, and activists who translate his message to millions of loyal voters. Axios reports. At the start of Trump's second term, that coalition was unified. They were powerful and certain and believed that he would deliver for them. Now, however, the movement's most powerful voices are working to keep Trump in check, if not bring him down outright, accusing him of betraying the America First promises that built the movement. Each defection taken alone could be dismissed. Together, they could represent an existential threat to Maga. The revolt extends beyond the Maga Purists to the constellation of podcasters and comedians and Manosphere influencers who helped normalize Trump with younger, less ideological voters back in 2024. Joe Rogan, the podcast Titan, who delivered perhaps the most consequential Trump endorsement of 2024, is called the Iran War, quote, insane.

based on what he ran on and said that supporters feel, quote, betrayed. Theo Vaughn, another comedian who hosted Trump on his podcast during the 2024 campaign, said that the U.S. and Israel, not Iran, are, quote, the effing terrorists. Well, that's not a good look. Tim Dillon, a comedian with another huge following, called Trump's America First Promise quote, the greatest con in history. Oh, do you think, Tim? Great. You couldn't have figured that out before you helped put the guy in office? Super genius? Whatever. At this point, we will take our allies wherever we can find them, I guess, before this madman really does blow up an entire civilization. Matt Walsh, the prominent Daily Wire commentator, welcomed Attorney General Pam Bondi's firing last week as long overdue, citing the administration's, quote, bungled handling of the Epstein files. Which, by the way, many people had after these last, what is it, five, six weeks of war at this point had already begun to forget about until Melania decided to come out at the White House apparently today and say she had nothing to do with Jeffrey Epstein, didn't know him, didn't, wasn't his friend, wasn't abused by him, whatever it was that she said. For some reason that apparently neither Donald Trump nor the White House knew she was actually going to do. So she single-handedly brought Epstein files back into the news cycle. Thank you, Melania. It is greatly appreciated. Everyone had forgotten about it until Melania did that. So well done, girl. I'll go watch your movie now. Probably not. Anyway, also, Mike Cernovich, one of the most popular MAGA influencers on X, has railed against alleged insider trading, declaring this week that the, quote, corruption within the Trump administration has demoralized me in a way my enemies never could. So that's all from, you know, Trump's personal elite influencers. How about the rank and file maga grunts on the ground? Like the ones who hang out at Trump's failing social media site called Truth Social. The money-losing operation at the core of Trump's so-called Trump Media Group or something, which once sold on the New York Stock Exchange for about $100 a share. But has been in the single digits for the past couple of months now after many of Trump's truest believers lost their entire livelihoods buying into this thing, betting that they'd actually get a piece of his fortunes somehow by buying into a scam social media company. How about those grunts? How are they feeling about their hero today?

Once ultra-maga, Trump supporters fume about Iran on truth social. The New York Times reports today. The people logging into truth social each day tend to count themselves among the most ardent supporters of President Trump and his MAGA movement. In recent weeks, however, even some in the echo chamber have turned against his actions in Iran. The Times reports. Thousands of users on the social media platform, which Trump created in 2022, have responded to the president's drumbeat of posts with a mix of frustration, disbelief, and outrage. They have written that they feel betrayed by the expanding war in Iran and ashamed when Mr. Trump used an expletive on Easter to make demands of the Iranian government. One user who uses the handle Ultra Maga King describing himself as a, quote, committed anti-leftist, now says in comments responding to Trump himself, quote, you're utterly destroying your presidency with this nonsense. It's probably too late to correct course at this point. A shameful waste of a great start, said Ultra Maga King. The responses on truth social, numbering in the tens of thousands, notes the Times offer a snapshot of simmering criticism from the right that has intensified in recent weeks over Trump's decision to go to war with Iran. While polling suggests that Republicans still broadly support the war, unease and anger are bubbling up on Trump's own platform, the paper found, where his most devoted supporters can interact with him, at least virtually, providing a glimpse of views of his political base. An analysis by the New York Times of more than 40,000 comments on Trump's posts. Show the depths of the discontent over the war. More than half of those responding to Trump's warnings on Tuesday morning that Iran's, quote, whole civilization will die were deeply critical of those comments. One user who indicated on their profile page that they support, quote, President Trump 100% wrote that Trump had demonstrated a, quote, lust for blood. A quote, Trump-loving conservative wrote that such threats would destroy the president's legacy, quote, I'm honestly heartbroken, the user added. Only a quarter of the comments on that thread were supportive of Trump on his own media site in response to his own posts. including posts praising Mr. Trump's backbone and asking him to finish the job. Just a quarter said that. The other three quarters were not happy. One who calls himself authentic America, whose profile says American who loves my country and freedom. God is our only hope. I put my trust in him. The truth will set us free. I love the Lord above all. Trump won.

Well, seems now to be flagging in his support, at least for Trump, writing, quote, Mr. President, you are losing me as a supporter with this kind of behavior. I've supported you for so long, and I'm just to my point where I am ready to wash my hands of supporting you. I have been put through a lot of garbage for supporting you since 2016. Trump drew stronger bukes for his expletive-filled post on Easter Sunday, which threatened to destroy the country's power plants and bridges and was punctuated with a mocking praise be to Allah. Hundreds of critical responses followed that. Quote, even if it was a joke, you're actually so immature. It's sad. And I voted for you twice and stick up for you all day long on Facebook, wrote one account with the username Trump Will Save Us, 2024. Quote, ashamed today that I voted for you in 2016, 2020, and 2024, again, after God saved your life in PA. Very sad, said older than dirt 12. Three-time Trump voter. wrote Stone Cold Rock in reply to Trump, adding, but you have gone off the deep end. No Dem Lib, who says she is Maga, not Republican, and quote Christian trying to do God's will, wrote, I don't suspect this, I don't support this kind of talk. It's Easter. What's wrong with you? I voted for you three times. What the hell is wrong with you? His announcement that he had reached a deal on a two-week ceasefire did little, apparently, to assuage the critics. The analysis showed thousands of comments criticized Trump for backing down on his threat while receiving Little in return. Cannot win for losing among your own pool of duped followers, A, Mr. Art of the Deal? Now, I'm highlighting this, not to say that his support and his movement is cratering. It might be, but that remains to be seen. I'm highlighting this because I think there's a tendency for a lot of people out there to see his support as it's, you know, sort of portrayed or characterized on television and his, you know, his White House briefings carried out every day on cable news, etc. As if he's somehow invincible. with the majority of the nation supporting him or thinking that he's doing a great job, et cetera, when none of that is the case. And I realize that it can be kind of dispiriting. All of these stories sort of taken on their own, there are dots that are not generally connected by the corporate media. And it's one of the reasons that we have focused so much, for example, on the various special elections and so forth over the past year, where his party is losing in race after race after race, seeing seat after seat after seat flipped from red to blue.

even in some of the reddest areas of the nation. And, you know, while we don't cover them much, his polling, his approval ratings over the past year have gone from bad to worse. Now they're sitting in the mid to lower 30s in general, particularly on the economy. With most of those polls, having been in the field before his new war and the precipitous rise in gas prices, which show no real sign of slowing for quite a while, even if the ceasefire holds and the straight is opened back up and we will see if that happens. But all of these dots connected. Add to them the millions who turn out for the various no-king's protests. All of these dots connected do not illustrate a healthy presidency, much less a healthy president. They suggest an administration that is in decline, perhaps in free fall, though that remains to be seen. We've still got a long way to go here just until November, for that matter. for the critical November midterms. But over the next three years, if he somehow manages to stay in office, much less stay alive at the rate that he seems to be deteriorating, in my opinion, we've got a long way to go. So you should know in the meantime that you are not alone in any of this, that you are no, you are not crazy. They are the crazy ones. They are the liars. But the people who understand that and who see this man as a monster is growing. It is not shrinking. It is growing. Including among many of those who once supported him, who were at once among his most supportive. You know, and at least those who don't have to run for office this year anyway, those people who are too cowardly in Congress to speak out, but the others who are the most supportive of him, many of them are turning. Whether the big media elite that you know their names or the people who hang out in that sewer that is true social. There are other signs as well. After just 14 months of President Trump's return to the office, polling released on Monday found that a majority of likely U.S. voters support now impeaching him a historic third time. This from Common Dreams. One poster called this poll, quote, an unprecedented result this early in a presidential term. Lake Research Partners conducted the poll March 26th to March 30 for our friends over at Free Speech for People, the legal advocacy group that has launched a campaign to quote impeach Trump again. And as part of that effort.

Free Speech for People has so far gathered more than a million supportive signatures at their ImpeachTrump Again.com site. I think that's the address. And they have publicly detailed over 25 grounds for such an impeachment. Overall, 52% of all voters, a majority, said that they support impeachment at this point. That includes 84% of Democrats, 55% a majority of individuals. a healthy majority, and even 14% of Republicans think that he should be impeached and removed from office. Just 40% oppose. Said David Merman of Lake Research Partners in a call with reporters, quote, the result is quite striking. It's a clear majority. It's a solid majority and it reaches across all demographics and across party lines as well. He said that, quote, this appears to be the earliest in a presidential term that you've seen a majority of Americans in favor of impeachment. Meanwhile, Newsweek also notes the notorious prediction markets. Yes, those markets where Trump administration insiders appear to be making a fortune, they are also showing an increasing chance of Trump being removed from office. The chances of. Quote, the chances of President Donald Trump being impeached and removed from office reached a record high in Kalshi's prediction markets on Tuesday this week amid his threats to Iran. The likelihood of impeachment and removal climbed to 27% on Kalshi on Tuesday, the highest point since Trump returned to office in January of 2025. And while it's amusing, of course, to see all of this, to watch Trump's own most ardent supporters in the media, in the manosphere, on his failing social media side, it's amusing, of course, to see them all sort of, you know, come to regret their vote, come to see what so many of us had been trying to help them understand so long ago. In fact, there are some folks out there who were duped into supporting this clown in no small part because he promised them things over and over and over. For example, that he would cut their gas prices and their home energy prices by 50% in his first year in office. Well, many of those people are now facing very real pain because they fell for that promise. And in fact, many of them are deep in the reddest parts of Trump country. Some of those stories and Desi Doyen's latest not unrelated Green News report. Coming up next on the broadcast, I'm Brad Friedman. Don't touch that dial.

What the public hears on the public airwaves matters. At the broadcast, we do our best to bring you accurate news and analysis on the issues that actually matter, and we do it all independently without corporate or political influence. But we can't do it without you, now more than ever. Please help us stay on your public airwaves by going to bradblog.com slash donate to help keep us going. That's bradblog.com slash donate. And thanks. Almost heaven West Virginia Blue Ridge Mountains Shandandah River Life is old there older than the tree You know, I really wish I had more time for this story today because it's really hope that folks in states like West Virginia who are being hurt so badly by what Trump is doing. And what Republicans have been doing to them now for so many years is just crushing. Welcome back. It's the Bradcast, Brad Friedman from Bradblog.com. When Trump ran again for office in 2024, he promised over and over and over and over again that he would cut the price. of gas and utilities, electric bills, by 50% during his first year in office. As he collected dozens of examples of this. But here's just a few of them just to give you an idea. Under the Trump economic plan, we will cut your energy prices in half within market down. And you can get very angry at me if we don't do it. Within 12 months, your energy prices will be cut in half. If you vote for me, I will cut your energy and electricity prices in half within 12 months. We're going to cut them down in here. My plan will cut energy prices in half or more than that within 12 months of taking office. That means we're going down. and getting gasoline below, $2 a gallon, bring down the price of everything from electricity rates to groceries, airfares, and housing costs. Your energy bills will be one-half. What they are right now. 50%, 5-0. So listen, I will cut your energy prices in half. 50%, 5-0. Cut them in half. Within 12 months of taking office. What a freaking liar. Yes. He had no plan, of course, for any of that, and such that he did have a plan to drill baby drill and dig baby dig to expand the use of costly dirty fossil fuels while gutting the remarkable growth of clean, renewable energy like solar and wind and battery storage technologies. None of that would lower prices for people.

Drill baby drill, it would make it more expensive. Add to that the cost of quickly expanding data centers for AI, which nobody really asked for, but which Trump supports 100% and refuses to put any kind of restrictions on whatsoever, all of it is a recipe for spiking energy prices for the American people. And yet... Good people in the reddest of red states like West Virginia believed his promises that he would lower their energy bill in the first year. Mark it down. And now they are paying an extraordinary price as detailed in a fantastic feature story today from AP's Margie Mason. I will link to the whole thing when I post today's show tonight at bradblog.com. And I hope you will check it out because it's both maddening and heartbreaking. Just a bit of it for you. Every month, Rebecca Mikalski. Takes a deep breath before opening her electric bill. She is disabled. She lives on a fixed income and heating her small house this winter has been staggering. Her February charge was $940.8. More than her monthly disability check. It makes no sense. She turns the lights off during the day, and she only burns one lamp with an energy-efficient bulb in the living room at night, but she keeps falling further and further behind on payments. In desperation, she took out alone after getting a cut-off notice during an extended Arctic blast that kept the state's heaters cranking when temperatures regularly dipped below zero. She's taken to social media demanding answers alongside thousands of other West Virginians, including those who have been posting screenshots of their monthly charges. They are angry and perplexed over soaring utility costs that are sometimes surpassing rents and mortgages. And one of the most energy-rich yet poorest corners of America, where families have been forced to choose now between paying for food or heat. President Donald Trump, as part of its campaign pitch to, quote, make America affordable again, promised to cut Americans' electricity bills by half. Well, it hasn't worked out. Instead, electricity increased 4.8% in February nationwide and piped natural gas prices rose 10.9% both compared with a year earlier. That surpassed inflation even before the attacks on Iran by the U.S. and Israel sent energy costs ballooning.

So these huge increases had nothing to do with the war in Iran. They were already locked in under, yes, Donald Trump's policies. The nonprofit power lines found that residents are not likely to get a break anytime soon because new gas and electricity rate hikes requests could affect more than 80 million Americans. Quote, it's breaking me and there's nothing that can be done for it unless the president does something Mikalski said about her skyrocketing power bills, adding that she no longer supports Trump, good for her. And she adds, and I don't see him doing it, doing anything. He's had plenty of time, she said. Increased demand, extreme weather and events, upgrading and maintaining aging infrastructure and rising natural gas prices are pushing electricity bills higher AP reports. Rising energy costs, including gas pump sticker shock now topping an average of $4 per gallon nationally, could further be exacerbated by the war in Iran, along with the Trump administration's push to export high volumes of liquefied natural gas. to export it, which in turn depletes domestic supply and, of course, raises the prices for... People like Ms. Mikalski in West Virginia. Exactly as we predicted. If you export it, then you're going to reduce the supply domestically, raising the prices for everyone, which is why so many people were saying, don't do that. And he's been so proud of it. And he's been telling, you know, Europe, don't buy from the Middle East anymore. We have plenty of natural gas here. Don't worry about the Strait of Hormuz. Just buy it from us. Apparently the people in West Virginia will be happy to pay for it. AP reports residents deep in Trump country of West Virginia have gone from having the cheapest electricity rates nationwide back in 2005 to experiencing one of the fastest increases in the country far outpacing the national average. All in a place where people are living atop vast deposits of coal, oil, and gas. But these folks put Republicans in charge of just about everything in the state over that same period of time. West Virginia clings to aging coal-fired electric plants. More than anywhere else in the country, about 87% of all production in West Virginia is still coal. It's supermajority, Republican-led government. There are only 11 Democrats in the House and Senate. They have doubled down on this reliance on coal, blaming past Democratic administrations for a war on coal.

Fueled by increased federal regulations and restrictions while Trump poses for photo ops with coal miners at the White House and regularly touts beautiful clean coal. Well, that beautiful clean coal is coming apparently at a great price in West Virginia. All of this, when cleaner, cheaper, alternatives are available. West Virginia has steadfastly under Republican control refused to change and its own residents are now paying an enormous price. They have been for quite some time. In West Virginia, all 55 counties voted for Donald Trump back in 2024. How do you all feel about that now? Do you even know who to blame? The state's average household electricity rate per kilowatt hour has surged 73%. Natural gas has increased 51%. Water has risen. 45%. Between 2015 and 2025. That, according to West Virginia's Public Service Commission, a three-member panel, it includes a former power company lobbyist and the former head of the State Coal Association appointed by the Republican Governor and charged with approving rate hikes. Huh, do you suppose the former power company lobbyist and the former head of the State Coal Association are going to keep approving these rate hikes? What are the odds of that? Mikalski, who uses a walker to get around, said that she tries not to run anything in her house that can suck any electricity, including her air condition in the summer. But she simply cannot turn off the heater in the winter. During the past year, her statements totaled over $5,000. She lives alone, small house, runs one light bulb at night, and she's paying $5,000 over the past year for energy. She asked family for help to pay the bill this winter, but she said she is now out of options. She knows what's next. Quote, they come and cut off your power. Then you're sitting in the dark. And I see that happening, she said. And I think for a lot of other people, it's going to happen to. And I will note here that Donald Trump just submitted his new budget to Congress. I think it was last Friday, wasn't it? Yep. He wants to increase spending on the Pentagon to, I think, one and a half trillion dollars. And wants to help pay for that by cutting domestic programs among them. Just like last year, he's asking Congress to kill the LIHEAP program. And you may or may not have heard of it. It stands if I'm, tell me if I'm getting this right. Low income heating and energy assistance program. Yes. Lieheap. It helps people pay for their heating bills and their air conditioning bills, which is increasingly important in the summertime.

So it might help people like Mikalski from freezing to death next winter. And yet Donald Trump is asking Congress to kill the program. And he tried to do the same damn thing last year. And thankfully, Congress said no, I think, to that demand. Yes, he also tried to do it in his first term. Congress also said no. So, you know, pay attention, West Virginia. Please pay attention if you can. You know, we've got a great affiliate out there that I hope is paying attention, W-E-F-R in Fairmont. Pay attention. Know who to blame. Know what action to take. It's not the action that you have been taking for the last decade or so. Because those people don't care if you live or die. So as noted, I wish I could share more of this great AP story. I will link to it from bradblog.com when we post the show tonight. But man, as the rest of the nation is beginning to understand finally, maybe how they were taken in by the world's greatest con man, perhaps in history. And the Republican sycophants who play along with them, you know, they were taken in by them as well. I hope that folks in the deepest red parts of this country, like West Virginia, finally begin to realize how they have been conned, but how they are now needed to step up, how they can do something about this, how they can step up and turn this disaster around, yes, beginning this November and not a moment too soon. And to that end, not unrelatedly, let's get to it. Our latest Green News report. Peron is still holding up hundreds of oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz. Oil and gas supply still locked up amid unsettled ceasefire. Damage to the agriculture supply chain is already done. Plus, new forecasting shows we could have the strongest El Nino. Ever, ever recorded this year. Heads up, a Super El Nino is brewing in the Pacific Ocean that will boost extreme weather. All of those extremes and more straight ahead from bradblog.com. I'm Brad Friedman. And I'm Desi Doyen. Stand by for six minutes of independent green news, politics, analysis, and snarky comment. At $4 a gallon, gas is now officially more expensive than milk. Yeah. And everyone laughed when I bought my milk-powered car. This is your Green News Report. Yes, I'm a proud owner of a Toyota Mamory.

In other news, the Trump administration announced a major restructuring that effectively guts the U.S. Forest Service Wildlife Research Division. Forest Service headquarters will be relocated from D.C. to famously anti-public lands, Utah, and 57 wildfire research stations in 31 states will be shuttered, right as ongoing heat and drought set up a potentially historic wildfire season this summer. We're shutting. down wildfire research stations. Yep. Unbelievable. Finally, buckle up. Forecasters warn that a powerful El Nino is brewing in the shockingly warm waters of the Pacific Ocean, maybe as soon as this summer. Because sea surface temperatures in the Pacific are so unusually warm due to man-made global warming, it could deliver the strongest El Nino in a century, dramatically amplifying global weather impacts with more intense heat waves, droughts, storms, and floods. However, El Nino's generally tend to reduce Atlantic hurricanes striking the U.S. That is good news for vulnerable states, especially with Trump's degraded FEMA severely curtailing disaster assistance and funding. Buckle up? I'm running out of buckles. For much more on all of these stories and the ones we couldn't get to today, check out our website at greennews.bradblog.com. I'm Brad Friedman. And I'm Desi Doyen. And this has been your Green News Report. Buckle up. Better buckle up. Buckle up. I am well buckled. At this point, I am like in a straight jacket of buckles at this point. Well, just on a serious note, however, it's a good time to, you know, look around your home, look around your community and make sure that you are prepared. Because as we know, extreme weather strikes very suddenly. And if you're not prepared, you can often be caught off guard. And that is just something that is an opportunity to take care of now before everybody else is also trying to take care of. And you make a great point that. FEMA has just been gutted. I mean, FEMA ain't coming. You get in trouble this year? I don't think FEMA is coming at all. And you're not wrong about that. I think I saw a statistic from Axios, I believe it was, that said that particularly there is a political partisan divide over which states get assistance. 83% of so-called red states have gotten their FEMA requests fulfilled, only about 20% in so-called blue states. Yep. Yeah. It's not great. Yeah, he wants to got it everywhere. He doesn't care. Anyway, we'll talk about that another day. Got to get out. Thanks again, Desiree Doyen, our producer, thanks to all of you for spending a portion of your day or night with us. If you missed any portion of today's show or you want to give it another listen or share it with someone you know or love or hate. You can do it for free at bradblog.com. While you're there, please do consider hitting a donate button to help us stay on your public airwaves to try to do what.

we try to do here every day. Bradblog.com slash donate. We'll get you right there. Drop me email if you like. I am Bradcast at Bradblog.com. And on the social medias, especially Blue Sky, you will find me at the Bradblog. And you'll find the delightful Desiree at Green News Report. Go say hello to her there. We will see it all of the above. Until we see her next week, I'm Brad Friedman. Good luck, world. Buckle up for safety, buckle up. Buckle up for safety. Always buckle up. Put your mind at ease. Tell your riders, please get your seatbelts, buckled everybody, buckle up. The National Safety Council says if you don't have seatbelts, get them. If you do have seatbelts, use them.