I hoped President Trump’s post was fake. It is not. Let me be clear - I am not a reflexive critic suffering from TDS unable to give credit where credit is due. Unlike @SenMarkey or @sethmoulton, I don’t let partisan politics blind me to reality. I give credit to the President for securing our border and stopping the flood of illegal migrants - something @JoeBiden could’ve done but chose not to. I give credit for deregulating our business and energy markets. Credit for persuading multi-billion and trillion-dollar companies to invest in America and bring manufacturing home. Credit for peace deals. Credit for No Tax on Tips and No Tax on Overtime - genuine middle-class relief. Credit for 4.3% real GDP growth in Q3 of 2025, outperforming every forecast. Credit for new stock market highs fueled by investor confidence in deregulation and corporate tax stability. Credit for achieving meaningful energy independence by rolling back EPA overreach, fast-tracking permits, surging domestic oil and gas production, and driving gas prices below $3 in 43 states by late 2025. Credit for the boldest nuclear modernization in a generation - reforming the NRC and deploying advanced SMRs to strengthen our power grid. Credit for a 56% drop in fentanyl trafficking at the southern border by designating cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. Credit for mediating a second Gaza ceasefire, and for the Houthi truce that reopened Red Sea shipping lanes. Credit for reciprocal tariffs that took U.S. customs revenue from $40 billion to over $160 billion in a single year. Credit for DOGE identifying billions in wasteful federal spending. Credit, as @mcuban noted, for fast-tracking domestic medicine production and the Most-Favored-Nation drug pricing order - finally making sure Americans don’t pay more for prescriptions than citizens in other developed countries. That is a record that can be easily defended. But I cannot - and will not - defend what I saw posted tonight. Threatening to bomb power plants and bridges in Iran is not a strategy. It is a catastrophe in the making: for Iran, for the region, and for every American who fills up their gas tank, heats their home, or runs a business. The Strait of Hormuz carries roughly 20-30% of the world’s seaborne oil. If that waterway stays closed - or if strikes trigger a broader escalation - oil prices don’t just rise. They spiral. We’re talking $150-$250 a barrel. Gas at $6. Diesel surging - which means every truck that moves goods across this country gets more expensive. Groceries. Medicine. Building materials. Everything. The inflation this administration worked hard to tame comes roaring back and this time and it won’t be blamed on COVID supply chains. It will be a war-tax paid by working Americans, every single day, at every single pump and checkout line. The global economy cannot absorb a sustained oil shock without consequences that reach every corner of the world and every household in Massachusetts. And then there’s the human cost cheerleaders, like @marklevinshow, @benshapiro, and @LindseyGrahamSC, refuse to discuss. They’ve spent years telling Iranians to rise up against the mullahs. But you can’t rise in the dark. You can’t organize without water. You can’t overthrow a regime when you are simply trying to survive. Bombing power plants and civilian infrastructure doesn’t liberate the Iranian people - it breaks them. It drives them toward the very regime we want them to reject. Levin amplifying this post on Easter Sunday - gleefully, enthusiastically - tells you everything about whose interests he is actually serving. It’s not America’s. And it is not the Iranian people’s. I believe in peace through strength. I believe in protecting American lives and American economic security. I believe a great nation exhausts every alternative before it chooses the path of maximum destruction. That’s not weakness. That’s America 🇺🇸 First.(John E Deaton)