Mike Levin

You have got to be kidding me. The State Department is putting Donald Trump’s scowling face on the U.S. passport. His signature in gold. Superimposed over the Declaration of Independence, a document literally written to get away from this exact behavior. No sitting president has ever done this. Coins, park passes, battleships, and now your passport. The man cannot find a surface he will not slap his name or face on. This is not patriotism. It is vanity.

The Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act, and within hours Louisiana halted voting that was set to begin Saturday. This is not a drill. Pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. We must win this fight.

Mike Johnson sold Republican health care cuts as a crackdown on undocumented immigrants. It was a lie from day one. Undocumented immigrants were never eligible for Medicaid or ACA subsidies. Here’s what’s actually happening: Premiums have more than doubled on average, ACA enrollment is down 1.5 million, and the Urban Institute projects 4.8 million Americans will lose coverage in 2026. Democrats warned about every bit of this. Johnson did it anyway. nytimes.com/2026/05/01/bus…

The Pentagon is pulling about 5,000 American troops out of Germany. The trigger wasn’t strategy. It wasn’t allied burden-sharing. It was a personal feud between Trump and Chancellor Merz over the Iran war. Vladimir Putin couldn’t have written a better script himself. npr.org/2026/05/02/g-s…

This is your reminder that Trump and Republicans are spending billions of your tax dollars on an unauthorized war in Iran and Stephen Miller’s ICE agenda while gutting Medicaid, slashing SNAP, and driving up your health care costs.

Just left the San Diego Labor Council May Day march. Thousands of working people standing together for fair wages, safe workplaces, and the dignity of work. The 8-hour day, the weekend, overtime, child labor laws, none of it was given. It was won. That fight isn’t over. Happy May Day.

Kash Patel spent 10 months investigating a seashell photo before making an arrest. He has spent more than a year refusing to arrest a single Epstein client named in the files. That is the choice. That is the priority.

This administration found $25 billion for a war in Iran you didn’t vote for. They also found $24 million for a Pentagon contract benefiting Eric Trump’s defense firm. But they can’t find a dollar to lower your healthcare costs or your rent.

I have said it before, and it has never been more true. The labor movement is the last line of defense against the erosion of America’s middle class. The 40-hour week. The weekend. Safe workplaces. A living wage. None of it was given. All of it was won, by workers who organized, marched, and refused to back down. That fight is not history. It is happening right now, in warehouses and classrooms, on picket lines and shop floors, against an administration determined to gut the protections generations fought for. This May Day, do not just honor the sacrifices of those who came before. Stand with workers. The middle class does not defend itself.

The President just claimed it’s “totally unconstitutional” to ask Congress for permission to wage war. He has it exactly backwards. Article I is not a suggestion. The power to declare war belongs to Congress. Period. We are 60 days into an unauthorized war. American servicemembers are in harm’s way. And the President is telling you the Constitution does not apply to him. To my Republican colleagues: this is the moment we must reclaim Article I authority. Vote to end this war. History is taking attendance. Your grandchildren will ask what you did. “I was scared of a primary” is not a good answer.

Nobody voted for this. 60+ days of unauthorized war in Iran. Peace talks stalled. Costs rising for every American family. Voters asked for lower costs and better wages. The president delivered a war nobody asked for and a bill nobody can afford. #TrumpsGasCrisis nytimes.com/2026/04/28/bus…

The President started an unauthorized war with Iran, and Eric Trump just landed a $24 million Defense Department deal. And a company in Don Jr.’s portfolio just secured a $620 million Pentagon loan. Maybe it’s a coincidence. More likely it’s corruption.

This is your reminder that Trump and Republicans are spending billions of your tax dollars on an unauthorized war in Iran and Stephen Miller’s ICE agenda while gutting Medicaid, slashing SNAP, and driving up your health care costs.

The Justice Department has identified 384 naturalized Americans it wants to strip of citizenship. Officials are calling this the “first wave.” The American people deserve answers about who these 384 people are and why they were chosen. We need to know whether the list was assembled on the merits or on prejudice. What are the specific grounds being cited for each case? Is there a pattern by country of origin, religion, or ethnicity? Is there a pattern by political affiliation or by support for causes this administration dislikes?  For context, between 1990 and 2017 the government filed an average of just 11 denaturalization cases per year. What is happening now is a different operation entirely, one that pulls experienced prosecutors off healthcare fraud, civil rights, and procurement fraud cases to go after Americans who already took the oath. Naturalized citizens are not second class Americans. They earned their citizenship and the Constitution protects it. Before a single case is filed, the Justice Department owes the public a straight answer about how this list was built and who is on it. nytimes.com/2026/04/23/us/…

Today, Pete Hegseth told the Senate Armed Services Committee that “the 60-day clock pauses or stops in a ceasefire” and therefore the Iran War is not subject to Congressional authorization. Here’s why he’s flat wrong: The War Powers Resolution says the President has 60 calendar days to get approval from Congress or end the fighting. The U.S. Navy is blockading Iranian ports right now. You cannot claim the fighting is “paused” while American warships are stopping Iranian ships by force. Those two things cannot both be true. In the decades since this law was written, no president of either party has ever tried this argument. Not Reagan, either Bush, Clinton, Obama, Biden, or even Trump in his first term. Hegseth made it up because the deadline is tomorrow and he’s looking for an easy way out. Susan Collins crossed the aisle today and said the 60-day clock is “not a suggestion. It is a requirement.” Pete Hegseth does not get to rewrite the law because following it is inconvenient. The clock does not pause. Tomorrow is the deadline.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ wsj.com/politics/polic…

If you didn’t see Pete Hegseth’s testimony yesterday, here’s my summary: He blustered. He deflected. He played to an audience of one. I am proud of my Democratic colleagues who refused to let him off the hook. Congress has not authorized this war. 13 American service members have been killed. Hundreds more have been injured. The war has already cost $25 billion, with another huge supplemental expected. Gas prices keep climbing as the Strait of Hormuz remains contested. There is no articulated strategy. There is no exit plan. There is no legal authority. My colleagues asked the questions the Constitution requires us to ask. Hegseth answered with arrogance and contempt.He is totally unfit to serve as Secretary of Defense. He never should have been confirmed, and for the good of our country and our brave service members, he should resign. wapo.st/4cUME2z

60 days. That is how long American forces have been at war with Iran without authorization from the United States Congress. Today, the clock written into the 1973 War Powers Resolution runs out. Tomorrow, this war becomes flatly illegal. The Constitution is not subtle on this point. Article I, Section 8 gives Congress, and only Congress, the power to declare war. The Founders put that pen in our hands on purpose. They had just fought a revolution against a king who decided on his own when his subjects would bleed. They were not about to hand that power to one man in Washington. President Trump has done exactly what the Founders feared. He launched a major military campaign with no authorization for use of military force and no honest case made to the American people. We will fight this on every front. Legislatively, I will keep voting for every War Powers Resolution that comes to the floor and pressing Republican colleagues who once claimed to care about executive overreach. In the courts, members of Congress have standing to sue when the executive nullifies our constitutional role, and that option must be on the table the moment this deadline passes. This is not about whether Iran is a bad actor. This is about whether one man gets to start a war on his own. The answer, in America, has always been no. nytimes.com/2026/04/22/us/…