What Happened Today – March 23, 2026

Donald Trump cast a mail ballot for a Florida special election while demanding Congress pass a law to make mail voting illegal.

He never solves problems he can still use. Republican senators pitched him a plan Sunday night to end the five-week DHS shutdown by funding everything except ICE. Trump rejected it. No deal until Democrats pass the SAVE America Act, he said. His own party calls the voting restrictions bill unrealistic because they can’t pass it. But Trump needs the airport lines. They’re the only leverage he has to force through a bill that can’t pass on its own. That’s what he did running for president, when he killed a Republican-led border deal because he needed a border crisis.

The Iran war follows the same logic. He extended his bombing deadline five days and told reporters a deal was close, that there were “major points of agreement.” Iran’s Foreign Ministry said there is no dialogue between Tehran and Washington. They called his claims an effort to reduce energy prices and buy time. It worked. Oil prices dropped while stock markets rallied. The war is in its fourth week. A dozen American service members are dead, along with more than 1,500 Iranians. That’s the cost of keeping a problem alive because it’s useful to you.

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