And so once more we’re at war. Central Command announced yesterday afternoon it had conducted “a series of powerful strikes against Iran to impose heavy costs for targeting and attacking commercial shipping crewed by innocent civilians in an international waterway. . . . a clear violation of the ceasefire.”

The reasons various parts of the administration provided for these strikes were stultifyingly stupid. One official told Axios’s Barak Ravid, “As President Trump and the administration have repeatedly affirmed, the MOU in effect with Iran is entirely performance-based. Iran will only reap benefits if they exhibit good behavior.” Another unnamed administration official told NewsHour correspondent Nick Schifrin that Iran has “clearly demonstrated they’re not listening. We’re turning up the volume.”

Usually when these anonymous quotes about more intense fighting appear, President Trump quickly tries to calm the markets. But in this case, even he seemed to concede that the ceasefire had ended, albeit while also inviting negotiations for a new ceasefire. From his remarks overnight:

To me, I think it’s over. I don’t want to deal with them anymore. They’re scum. You know what scum is? They’re scum. They’re sick people. They’re led by sick people. And they’re vicious, violent people. And if they had a nuclear weapon, they’d use it. As far as I’m concerned, it’s over. I’ll speak to our negotiators. They want to negotiate. They’re good people. Steve Witkoff. Jared Kushner. But they have to come back to me. As far as I’m concerned, it’s just a waste of time dealing with them. . . . There’s something wrong with them, they’re coo-coo. As far as I’m concerned, it’s over. . . . They can talk, but I think they’re wasting their time. They’re a bunch of lying guys.

One doesn’t have to read that many books to learn that bombs are remarkably inarticulate ways of sending messages, considering they always say the same thing and sometimes kill the people you want to receive the message. But if there were any administration that might actually be more articulate with high explosives than with words . . . Happy Wednesday.

Join Mark Hertling and Ben Parker for Command Post live at 10:30 a.m. EDT today on Substack and YouTube.

Did These Men Deserve to Die?

by William Kristol

“The cruelty is the point,” Adam Serwer memorably wrote six years ago. That was during Donald Trump’s first term in office. In his second term, the cruelty remains the point. But it has now been institutionalized and routinized in key agencies of the federal government. Trump’s personal and performative indecency has become an entire administration’s sustained and systematic indecency.

Yesterday morning, NBC News reported on the sudden death earlier this year of an Afghan national in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Mohammad Nazeer Paktiawal, 41, had fought for a decade alongside U.S. Special Forces in Afghanistan. He was evacuated when U.S. troops pulled out in 2021 and entered the U.S. legally. He became a truck driver, worked at a market and bakery, and had requested asylum to remain here. That claim was pending when ICE seized him for deportation at his home in Richardson, Texas, on the morning of March 13, as he was getting his children ready for school.

Paktiawal died the next day in ICE custody. His death certificate says he died from “an adverse drug reaction” to an unidentified substance which triggered anaphylaxis and exacerbated his asthma, and his death was ruled an accident. We do know from his wife that he relied on an inhaler for asthma. We also know that ICE agents rejected her attempt to give them the device when he was taken into custody. We also know that Texas authorities have refused to release his autopsy report, arguing its disclosure would interfere with a pending criminal investigation.

Mohammed Nazeer Paktiawal was not a criminal. He was not here illegally. He was a threat to no one—except perhaps the Taliban. There was no reason for ICE to detain him—except to meet its arrest and deportation quotas. There is no reason for most of the fifty deaths in ICE detention during Trump’s second term except that the Trump administration is unsparing in pursuit of its mass deportation agenda, an agenda that is as irrational as it is cruel.

Soon after this NBC news report appeared, news broke of another death, this one yesterday morning, on the streets of Houston.

Here’s the Department of Homeland Security’s announcement of what happened:

On July 7, 2026, at approximately 6:50 AM CT, ICE law enforcement attempted to conduct a vehicle stop as part of a targeted enforcement operation to arrest an illegal alien. The driver of the vehicle, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo—an illegal alien from Mexico—attempted to evade arrest. From information we are receiving, he rammed an ICE law enforcement vehicle, refused to follow multiple verbal commands, and weaponized his vehicle in an attempt to run over an ICE law enforcement officer resulting in our officer firing his weapon in self-defense.

The driver was struck, and emergency services were immediately contacted. The driver was transported to the hospital where he passed away from his injuries. DHS-OIG is leading an investigation into the agent-involved shooting. FBI Houston is leading an investigation into the potential assault on a federal law enforcement officer. This is a developing situation, and we will update the public when more information is available.

As of now, DHS has provided no evidence for the claim that Araujo “weaponized his vehicle.” No details, no video, no firsthand testimony with a name attached. Just a vague reference to “information we are receiving.” But the claim of a “weaponized vehicle” is a familiar one. This is the