On this day in 1937, the German airship Hindenburg, the largest dirigible ever built, burst into flames over Lakehurst, New Jersey, killing 36 passengers and crew and leaving survivors terribly injured. Thanks to one of the first coast-to-coast radio broadcasts, NBC announcer Herb Morrison’s live lament, “Oh, the humanity!” itself went down in history.

Good morning! Andrew here. We’re told Donald Trump’s war in Iran is “a favor to the world.” His administration wants to be “helpful.” Why aren’t more people acting like it? And why does the president appear to be pulling back on his latest “gift” for all, “Project Freedom?”

In today’s ‘First Draft,’ has Trump helped too much? Plus, MAGA collects scalps in Indiana, “border czar” Tom Homan promises more mass deportations, and Abdul El-Sayed and Graham Platner find an AIPAC message they can get behind.

Subscribe now

The Gift Giver

*Trump disembarks from Air Force One on May 3, 2026. Photo by Roberto Schmidt/Getty Images.*

According to Donald Trump and his top administration officials, his disastrous and illegal war with Iran has been one big gift – to Americans, to Iranians, and to people all over the world.

Take Project Freedom, Trump’s plan to have the US guide stranded commercial boats through the Strait of Hormuz, a step necessary because Iran closed the narrow waterway at the start of the war, choking off the flow of oil, sending energy prices soaring, and throttling the global economy.

Subscribe now

Trump called Project Freedom “a humanitarian gesture.” And on Tuesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio called it “a favor to the world,” explaining: “It’s their ships that are stranded. It’s their fuel supplies that are stranded… It’s the fertilizer that they need for their food and crops that’s stranded … not our fertilizer, their fertilizer.”

Yes, the Strait of Hormuz was open before Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launched their reckless war – and sure, people are now dealing with drastically higher oil prices, and the prospect of shortages of fuel and food.

But let’s keep in mind what Rubio said Tuesday: “We want to be helpful.”

Project Freedom is just one more way in which the US has tried to help people out with this war in Iran – thanklessly, we might add. And why is that?

First Draft: Trump Wants the World to Know He…

Comments on this post are for paid subscribers