The Cost of Keeping Secrets

On Mother’s Day, we honor truth-tellers and expose the men who bury it under war, wiretaps, and whispered deals.

Good morning! On this Mother’s Day, a moment of gratitude for the ones who carry it all. The meals, the grief, the bills, the fear. The quiet labor of stitching things back together while political arsonists rip them apart. The mothers who lead households through inflation and war, who raise children in a nation governed by tantrums and tyrants. Today, we honor them. And then we tell the truth.

Let’s begin in Geneva, where Trump emerged from U.S.-China trade talks claiming a “total reset” and “great progress”, a classic Trumpism, meaning nothing of the sort happened. Behind closed doors, the Chinese reportedly refused to break bread with the American delegation, declined working meals, and, judging by state media, responded to Trump’s 145% tariffs with fury, not flexibility. One Chinese editorial called the tariffs a “flagrant contravention of global order.” That’s diplomat-speak for get lost, clown.

Trump floated the idea of “reducing” tariffs to a mere 80%, as if that were an act of generosity rather than a grenade with a bow on it. Meanwhile, Chinese consumers aren’t spending, Korean factories are bracing for impact, and American importers are panic-buying before the next tariff wave lands like a piano on their heads. It's not a deal. It’s economic cosplay with real-world consequences.

Back home, the Trump administration is too busy hemorrhaging national security secrets to notice. This week, we learned that hackers breached TeleMessage, the platform used by senior Trump officials to store backups of encrypted chats, including sensitive communications involving Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. What’s more, the hackers also accessed deportation flight manifests from an ICE-contracted airline, including names linked to transfers to El Salvador’s infamous mega-prison.

And who thought merging every federal database into Elon Musk’s techno-fascist sandbox called DOGE would end well? Turns out, centralizing the digital identities of 300 million people into one fragile archive might not be “efficient” so much as catastrophically reckless.

Meanwhile, the world’s diplomatic community is begging for peace.

From Kyiv, President Zelensky responded to Putin’s latest stunt, a proposed sit-down in Turkey, with cautious restraint. “There is no point in continuing the killing even for a single day,” Zelensky said, reiterating Ukraine’s demand for a 30-day ceasefire. France and Germany agree: no talks without silence. First, the guns must stop. Then the talking can begin.

In his first Sunday mass, even Pope Leo called for an end to all wars.

And yet, in The Hague, we confront a deeper rot. ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan, once hailed for seeking arrest warrants against Israeli officials over alleged war crimes in Gaza, is now under investigation for serial sexual assault. The accusations, detailed in horrifying testimony reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, include coerced sex across continents, manipulation, threats, and pressure campaigns to silence the victim “for the sake of Palestine.” One woman, trapped in fear and loyalty, allegedly withheld her story to preserve the court’s ability to act on Gaza.

Let us be clear: the evidence against Netanyahu may be solid. But if the court’s moral compass is held hostage by its own leadership, then even the just becomes tools of the corrupt.

Which brings us to Pam Bondi. Trump’s Attorney General, once handed the Epstein files “on her desk,” was just caught on undercover video telling a stranger at lunch that the delay stems from “tens of thousands of videos… all with little kids.” Not in court. Not in a press briefing. To a woman posing as a nanny.

This sting wasn’t the work of progressive journalists, but James O’Keefe, the far-right provocateur now furious that Trump’s team seems to be slow-rolling the Epstein investigation to protect their own. Even Alex Jones called it a cover-up. Even MAGA-aligned Rep. Nancy Mace is demanding full release.

Why? Because the breadcrumbs lead straight to Mar-a-Lago. Trump’s name is in Epstein’s contact book. He’s on flight logs. There’s footage of him partying with Epstein, pointing out underage girls, and whispering into his ear like the DJ of Hell’s prom night. And when asked point-blank about releasing the files, Trump mumbled something about “phony stuff” and “not wanting to hurt people.” Sure.

The victims deserve justice. Instead, they get binders of recycled PR and a political machine more interested in damage control than truth. As one Epstein survivor tragically took her own life this month, MAGA influencers were busy holding empty binders labeled “Epstein List” at the White House like it was cosplay for QAnon prom.

And in case you thought this administration couldn’t stoop lower, let’s close with science.

On Friday, Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency oversaw the elimination of the NSF’s Division of Equity for Excellence in STEM. The team responsible for expanding access to science and engineering for underrepresented groups has been purged. Seventy employees were laid off. Hundreds of grants canceled. The mission statement? Scrubbed from the website.

This is retribution. It’s the erasure of opportunity, of progress, of the possibility that the next Einstein might grow up in a rural school or on a reservation or in a refugee family. It’s a government so consumed with control, it’s willing to burn the future to protect the past.

So this Mother's Day, as the world asks for peace and transparency, the United States offers leaks, lies, and locked drawers. Mothers raise children in a country that gaslights its way through genocide, shields abusers in suits, and calls it patriotism.

Let the record show: it’s not just the files that are sealed. It’s the soul of the nation.