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Good morning, Wake Up Right fam! Trump thinks he's Jesus. The Pope thinks he's Obama. The robots are taking over. And it's only Tuesday!
More on all of this and more in today’s newsletter.
📈 Inflation hit 3.3% in March, highest in two years
📊 54% say U.S. war against Iran has been successful
🎩 On this day in 1865, Booth shot President Lincoln
Trump and the Pope trade jabs
President Donald Trump and Pope Leo XIV are locked in an escalating political showdown, with the pontiff openly criticizing the administration's immigration and military strategy and Trump firing back with personal attacks on the pope's judgment and faith.
The details: The conflict began last September, when Leo criticized Trump's immigration strategy, questioning whether supporters of the "inhuman treatment of immigrants in the United States" could truly call themselves "pro-life."
Escalation: In recent weeks, Leo condemned the war in Iran, writing on X: “God does not bless any conflict. Anyone who is a disciple of Christ, the Prince of Peace, is never on the side of those who once wielded the sword and today drop bombs.”
Trump responded to the attack on Truth Social, writing: "Pope Leo is WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy… Leo should get his act together as Pope, use Common Sense, stop catering to the Radical Left, and focus on being a Great Pope, not a Politician.”
Not so fast: While Leo pushes a pacifist reading of the Gospels, Scripture itself makes room for war.
Ecclesiastes 3:8 reminds us there is "a time for war and a time for peace" — suggesting conflict isn't inherently sinful but part of the natural order God himself ordained.
In Matthew 10:34, Jesus declared: "I did not come to bring peace, but a sword" – a warning that following God's truth would bring division and conflict, not comfortable harmony.
Worth noting: Leo's own father, Louis Prevost, served in the U.S. Navy and participated in the D-Day landings at Normandy on June 6, 1944. War
Behind closed doors with Democrats: Leo recently held a closed-door meeting with David Axelrod – Obama's longtime chief political strategist. Both Leo and Obama grew up on Chicago's South Side.
Trump's no saint: In the midst of this feud, Trump posted an AI-generated image on Truth Social depicting himself as a Christ-like figure. He deleted it after severe backlash from his own supporters, who called it blasphemous. Trump claims he thought the image depicted him as a doctor.
The numbers: A Fox News poll conducted in March found that 48% of Catholic voters approve of Trump's job performance, while 52% disapprove, which is notable since he won Catholics by a 12-point margin in 2024.
Real talk from G: Under the Biden regime, Catholic Charities USA received over $2 billion in federal grants to support resettling illegal aliens. Trump’s immigration enforcement. So, it’s fair to wonder if the Pope's attacks are rooted in theology or politics.
He’s certainly no Urban II.
CNBC says investors have "nowhere to hide." But one exclusive platform just posted a 22.9% net return. Here's how to get in.
Despite an exciting bull run, gold fell 25% from its January peak.
Bloomberg's Marcus Ashworth said it this week: "No more reliable safe havens."
But Masterworks has been offering fractional investments well outside the norm. Typically those exclusive to the ultra-wealthy.
One of those was an Elizabeth Peyton painting. Total net return to hundreds of their members: 22.9%. Typically 3-10 years, this rare turnaround took just a few weeks.
That's sale number 27. Net annualized returns on sales like 14.6%, 17.6%, 17.8%.
So, despite macro turmoil, the art market has been trending up.
U.S. auction sales jumped 23.1% last year. The $1mm-$5mm segment grew 40.8% in value.
Few people know this. But postwar and contemporary art grew 10.2% annually with near-zero correlation with the S&P 500 over the last 30 years.*
Masterworks lets you invest in shares of works featuring Banksy, Basquiat, Picasso, and more.
70,000+ members. $1.3 billion across 525+ works.
*According to Masterworks data. Investing involves risk. Past performance not indicative of future returns. See important disclosures at masterworks.com/cd.
AI just became dangerous
Gif by bbccapital on Giphy
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Fed Chair Jerome Powell just pulled every major bank CEO into an emergency meeting – not over inflation or interest rates, but over an AI model so powerful its own creators won't release it to the public.
Set the table: Anthropic's newest model, Claude Mythos, is being called the first AI system that could bring down a Fortune 100 company, cripple swaths of the internet, or penetrate national defense systems.
During testing, Mythos found bugs in every major operating system and web browser – some dating back decades – and successfully exploited them on the first attempt 83% of the time.
Anthropic warned: “The fallout – for economies, public safety, and national security – could be severe.”
Call to action: Bessent and Powell convened Wall Street's top executives at Treasury headquarters to make sure they understood the threat.
Who was there? Citi's Jane Fraser, Goldman Sachs' David Solomon, Morgan Stanley's Ted Pick, Bank of America's Brian Moynihan, and Wells Fargo's Charlie Scharf. JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon was invited but couldn't make it.
Too dangerous to release: Anthropic has privately warned U.S. officials that Mythos makes large-scale cyberattacks significantly more likely. The company is so concerned that it's refusing a public release – instead rolling out limited access to about 40 vetted organizations like Apple, Google, and Nvidia so they can address security vulnerabilities in advance.
The debate: Some security experts argue it should be widely released – not just Anthropic's chosen partners – so all companies can patch vulnerabilities.
Reality check: If an AI can find and exploit flaws that went undetected for 27 years, every bank, hospital, and power grid running legacy software is a target. Starting… now.
🚢 The U.S. imposed a blockade on the Strait of Hormuz on Monday, preventing all vessels traveling to or from Iranian ports from using the sea route. Read more.
🚨 Democrat Rep. Eric Swalwell announced he will be resigning from Congress amid a number of sexual misconduct allegations that have arisen in recent days against him. Read more.
🧑⚖ President Trump’s $10 billion defamation lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal over a story on his alleged ties to Jeffrey Epstein was dismissed by a federal judge, but the judge gave him until April 27 to refile. Read more.
🏛 A federal appeals court ruled that construction on Trump's White House ballroom can continue through at least April 17, handing the president a temporary win in the fight over the privately-funded addition. Read more.
🤖 Meta is building an AI clone of Mark Zuckerberg that can interact with employees in his place — with the CEO personally testing and training the digital likeness. Read more.
🚗 DoorDash made a McDonald’s delivery to the White House to mark the one-year anniversary of Trump’s no-tax-on-tips policy, with the President staging the event to celebrate the win for gig workers. Read more.
🍸 A U.S. appeals court declared a nearly 158-year-old federal ban on home distilling unconstitutional, calling it an unnecessary and improper means for Congress to exercise its power to tax. Read more.
⚕ A revolutionary pancreatic cancer drug showed it doubled the length of survival among patients to a median of 13.2 months compared to 6.7 months with chemotherapy. Read more.
🪩 Model-actress Ruby Rose has accused singer Katy Perry of sexually assaulting her two decades ago at a nightclub. Read more.
🎟 StubHub will refund $10 million to consumers and revamp how it displays ticket prices after the FTC accused it of deceptively advertising live-event tickets without fully disclosing mandatory fees upfront. Read more.
🎥 Conservative journalist Savanah Hernandez is violently assaulted by anti-ICE protestors. Watch. Here’s the angle from her camera. Watch.
🎥 Trump responds to anger over the AI photo he posted that depicted him as Jesus. Watch.
🎥 Trump uses DoorDash to order McDonald’s to the White House. Driver says she saved “over $11,000” thanks to ‘No Tax on Tips.’ Watch.
🎥 Stephen Miller goes NUCLEAR on new bi-partisan push for AMNESTY. Watch.
🎥 Reporter confronts the slob governor of Illinois over a student killed by an illegal alien. Watch.
🎥 What would you do if this maniac showed up at your door? Watch.
