On Easter morning, President Trump issued perhaps the strongest threat to the despotic Iranian regime that he has ever put forth, as he warned they had better open the Strait of Hormuz. “Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran,” Trump stated clearly targeting those vital infrastructure pillars. “There will be nothing like it!!! Open the F**kin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell – JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah. President DONALD J. TRUMP.” https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/116351998782539414 In mid-March, Iran claimed to have formally closed the Strait of Hormuz, which is a 21-mile-wide chokepoint through which toughly 20% of the world’s oil flows. On March 21, Trump warned, “If Iran doesn’t FULLY OPEN, WITHOUT THREAT, the Strait of Hormuz, within 48 HOURS from this exact point in time, the United States of America will hit and obliterate their various POWER PLANTS, STARTING WITH THE BIGGEST ONE FIRST!” The West has viewed the Strait of Hormuz as a non-negotiable strategic priority, consistently meeting Iranian threats with a policy of “freedom of navigation” enforced by military might. The precedent for this response was firmly established during the “Tanker War” (1984–1988). When Iran began mining the waterway and attacking commercial vessels, the U.S. launched Operation Earnest Will, reflagging Kuwaiti tankers and providing direct naval escorts to ensure global oil flows remained uninterrupted. Whenever Tehran utilized the Strait as a “bargaining chip” to protest sanctions—most notably in 2011 and 2019—the U.S. and its allies responded by deploying massive carrier strike groups and forming international maritime constructs (such as Operation Sentinel). The legal basis for these responses has consistently relied on the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, which limits sovereign interference in international transit. Historically, any Iranian attempt to disrupt the roughly 20% of the world’s oil supply has been characterized by the West not merely as a regional dispute, but as a global economic provocation that justifies direct military intervention against Iranian naval infrastructure.

This article is part of Upstream, The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you. *** For most Christians who observe Lent, the 40-day period before Easter is a time of prayer and fasting, often from an indulgence such as sugar, alcohol, or time on social media. But for some young men, a month and a half of abstention from creature comforts is not enough. Catholic men across the country are spending three months taking cold showers, praying for an hour each day, and giving up sugar, alcohol, and excess screen time all at once. Aidan Kunath, a 30-year-old dad from Cincinnati, has been doing the Exodus 90 challenge with a group of guys for four years now. He heard about it from a friend and decided to try it out with other men from the International Order of Alhambra, a Catholic fraternal group of which he is a member. This year, 14 men are doing the challenge with him, several of whom have done it all four years as well. The point of the program, Aidan told The Daily Wire, is “trying to live a life intentionally that opens you up to a better relationship with God.” Jamie Baxter founded Exodus 90 in 2015 after a literal mountaintop experience in college. His parents converted to Catholicism when he was a child, and his father inspired Baxter at the end of a grueling hike to pursue the faith in a powerful way. He founded Exodus 90 so men can “become who they are, more like who they have been created to be by their Heavenly Father.” Men across America are looking for direction. When Netflix documentaries and countless op-eds are decrying the toxic “manosphere,” yet the broader culture seems to want to dismiss men or turn them into women, Exodus 90 may be more relevant than ever. So what is it, exactly? The program consists of 90 days of prayer, fellowship, and asceticism — a time of giving up easy, comfortable things to leave more space to focus on faith. “It is normal for men to be distracted, addicted, and enslaved by so many things today,” the program’s website says in a mission statement. “Alcohol. Pornography. Social media. Sports. Gambling. Work. Comparison. Achievement. Wealth. Legacy. It is so normal, in fact, that society’s stereotypes of men are often associated with the very idols that plague them. What is uncommon in our time is men who are free.” Jamie’s brother, Doyle Baxter, head of product at Exodus 90, credits the program with bringing him out of substance abuse and back to faith. What he initially saw as a “creative, entrepreneurial endeavor” became a transformative experience for him in 2017. “My own Exodus experience is very much one of coming to the program seeking its freedom from the pharaohs who lorded over me and ultimately finding it,” he told The Daily Wire. The Exodus 90 site claims that as many as 250,000 men in 80 countries have gone through the program. Doyle says that although almost 90% of the participants are Catholic, participants come from various backgrounds. One of his favorite groups that he has been in included two Catholics, two protestants, two atheists, and two agnostics. “It remains probably the most powerful fraternal experience I’ve had,” he says. “Everybody was approaching that with their own different and unique perspectives.” Participants pay for an app, which has two tiers, with the basic tier offering scripture readings and reflections, guidance through Exodus 90 and other seasonal challenges, and spiritual guides and resources. The website offers student discounts, a contact for those who cannot afford the $90/year basic fee, and an offer of your money back “if you do not experience greater freedom.” To achieve that freedom, the men will give up a lot, including “snacking between meals,” “unnecessary purchases,” and eating meat on Wednesdays and Fridays. “The one that gets a big headline for a lot of people is cold showers,” Aidan says. “You start in January, and we’re in Cincinnati, so the water’s pretty cold. That’s the one that can really drag on you. The big thing I emphasize with my guys, though, is the disciplines are only there to build this relationship with God. They’re closing things to open up the door to your relationship with God.” There can be exceptions to the rules, though. “You’re going to run into situations where you’re gonna have to break them not to be socially weird,” Aidan says. “If you go out with your wife to celebrate something, don’t just make her get a dessert and stare at her judgmentally.” Aidan says otherwise slipping up on the restrictions is not a big deal, but the most important thing is to get that full hour of prayer. Strict or not, these rules are not about self-help. “One of the things that is so important to understand about Exodus is that from the outside, it’s really easy to have a straw-man perspective of what we’re up to,” Doyle says. “Especially in the men’s space today, there can be this perception that you are just doing hard things because they’re hard. We try to go much deeper than what might be apparent on the surface. We don’t talk about discipline as much as we talk about asceticism. We’re talking about taking up practices that are not primarily about becoming a more disciplined person; they’re about being a more Christlike person.” Importantly, this challenge isn’t meant to be done alone. The program encourages daily check-ins with one partner in the group and weekly meetings with the whole cohort (the official site recommends six to eight people). “I think that’s a big thing that’s missing from Catholic men and fraternity, the idea of men in community,” Aidan says. “I don’t think there are a lot of opportunities where we can actually talk to each other in that serious way.” He says the men in his group don’t just talk about the challenge, but about their marriages, their prayer lives, and other personal subjects. And there are fight club rules: “One big dynamic of the group is whatever is shared within the group, you can’t talk about outside of the group,” Aidan says. “I think having that opens up a lot of guys.” Getting through the time-consuming, intensive program is no small feat, which is why, at the end of Lent every year, Aidan and his group start celebrating at midnight on Easter morning. After Easter Vigil at their local parish, they throw a party at Aidan’s brother’s house, complete with cereal, sweets, and beer. Aidan’s treat of choice is Cap’N Crunch Crunch Berries. Already looking forward to next year, Aidan says his group is unique in the number of men who have done the program year after year. He says a lot of guys see Exodus 90 like basic training: a tough exercise that you complete just once. “But based on my experience with previous Exoduses — and I think the human experience, right? — it’s very easy if you’re not guarded to lose that prayer practice pretty quickly,” he says. “Exodus, at least for us, refreshes it.”

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump will promote Harmeet Dhillon to one of the top slots in the Department of Justice, The Daily Wire can first report, a next step in the shake-up that began with the ousting of Pam Bondi as attorney general. The president plans to nominate Dhillon to be associate attorney general, a move up from her position as the head of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, a source familiar said on Saturday evening. Stanley Woodward, who held the leadership position, resigned from the department earlier on Saturday, the source said. The move marks a major move up the Justice Department ranks for Dhillon, who was sworn in as Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division in April 2025. The news comes amid reshuffling of top DOJ officials following the president’s decision to remove Bondi. Trump met Bondi before his Wednesday evening speech and told her that she was being replaced, The Daily Wire reported earlier this week. Todd Blanche is serving as the acting attorney general, and could remain in that role for quite some time, a source familiar with the president’s thinking shared on Saturday, noting that the president has no plans to nominate anyone else right at this time. Trump has been said to be ruminating over appointing Lee Zeldin to the role, and conservatives close to the president have floated the likes of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Utah Sen. Mike Lee, and Dhillon herself. Pam Bondi, US attorney general, during a swearing-in ceremony in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Tuesday, March 24, 2026. Photographer: Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Images The president made the decision to remove Bondi in part because he was frustrated with the lack of criminal prosecutions of Democrats who committed lawfare against him, a second federal source shared. Another federal source familiar with the Bondi firing pushed back on this characterization, telling The Daily Wire: “Attorney General Bondi’s outside enemies knew that she had no lack of zeal or skill in prosecuting cases of weaponization. They just stood to benefit from a changing of the guard.” The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Daily Wire. Prior to the time at the Justice Department, Dhillon made a name for herself in the conservative movement through her work at her legal firm, Dhillon Law Group, where she represented Americans like pro-life undercover journalist David Daleiden and detransitioner Chloe Cole in free speech and civil rights cases. She was also a major force in Republican  campaign and election law. “Among her many notable cases, Ms. Dhillon brought legal challenges against the University of California, Berkeley over its free speech policy, against an Antifa organization for an assault on a conservative journalist, against several states for their restrictive responses to Covid-19, and against various large tech companies for a host of civil rights issues,” her DOJ bio states.

The city of Houston’s official X account deleted a post referring to Good Friday as a “spring holiday” after backlash from government officials and others on the platform. “Due to the Spring holiday weekend, City of Houston offices will be closed on Friday, April 3,” the now-deleted post said. “Today is Good Friday. Sunday is Easter. It isn’t a ‘Spring holiday weekend,’” Rep. Troy Nehls (R-TX) wrote in response. “It’s a time when Christians across the nation reflect on the crucifixion and resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. The City of Houston should be ashamed.” Today is Good Friday. Sunday is Easter. It isn’t a “Spring holiday weekend.” It’s a time when Christians across the nation reflect on the crucifixion and resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. The City of Houston should be ashamed. pic.twitter.com/Q6fUVtMQwu — Congressman Troy E. Nehls (@RepTroyNehls) April 3, 2026 “It’s okay to acknowledge Christian holidays,” Libby Emmons, editor in chief of The Post Millennial, wrote. Newsmax host Todd Starnes posted a side-by-side comparison of the city’s Good Friday post and Mayor John Whitmire’s post celebrating the Muslim holiday Eid al-Fitr — and noted the clear difference in tone. “Notice the difference in how Houston City Hall celebrates a Christian holiday compared to a Muslim holiday,” Starnes wrote on X. Notice the difference in how Houston City Hall celebrates a Christian holiday compared to a Muslim holiday. pic.twitter.com/CHKbrOf2TK — toddstarnes (@toddstarnes) April 2, 2026 “Wishing those who celebrate, a joyful and blessed Eid al-Fitr,” the Houston Mayor’s Office account posted in acknowledgment of the Muslim holiday. “May this occasion bring peace, prosperity, and renewed gratitude.” At the time of publication, the city had not yet posted anything recognizing Easter other than a repost from the city’s health department warning about the risks of contracting bird flu while handling eggs. The account has recognized Easter in previous years. The city has also posted about the Muslim holiday Ramadan. Republican state Rep. Tom Oliverson called the difference in the city’s posts “embarrassing.” “Be better,” Oliverson wrote on X. “Today is Good Friday, not Spring Holiday.” The city’s post is still up on Instagram, with the vast majority of comments on that platform also criticizing the city’s wording. “Spring Holiday” is listed as an official city holiday on Houston’s calendar that falls on Good Friday. In 2027, “Spring Holiday” — and Good Friday — will fall on March 26.

NASA astronaut Victor Glover is earning widespread praise from conservatives after rejecting identity politics in favor of what he described as a shared human achievement during the historic Artemis II mission. Glover, one of four astronauts aboard the first crewed lunar mission in more than 50 years, addressed the cultural weight surrounding the mission during a pre-launch press event, particularly its designation as the first to include both a woman and a black astronaut on a lunar assignment. While acknowledging the importance of representation, Glover made clear he sees the mission in far broader terms. “I love that, but I also hope we are pushing the other direction … that this is just — this is human history,” Glover said. “It’s the story of humanity — not black history, not women’s history.” The remarks quickly gained traction online, especially among conservative commentators. NASA pilot Victor Glover CLAPS back after being asked what it means to be the first black man to visit the moon: “It’s the story of humanity, not black history, not women’s history, but that it becomes human history.” “I also HOPE we are pushing the other direction that one day… pic.twitter.com/0ctJfiWVRE — RedWave Press (@RedWavePress) April 2, 2026 Radio host Dana Loesch praised Glover’s framing, calling him “ridiculously qualified” and applauding what she described as his rejection of “the commie tactic of CRT — prioritizing identity politics over all else.” “He’s not going to allow the attempted perversion of unity to undermine how this was a real achievement for America and humanity,” Loesch added. Australian commentator Drew Pavlou echoed that sentiment, writing, “Victor Glover is a good man. In my view he is a hero of American and Western civilisation.” Clips of Glover’s comments were widely shared by conservative figures, with many highlighting his emphasis on unity and merit over demographic firsts.  Glover’s perspective also aligns with a broader ethos expressed by his fellow crew members. Astronaut Christina Koch noted that progress should be measured by equal opportunity, saying, “we are at a time when everyone gets to work equally hard to achieve that dream,” while Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen emphasized that “anybody who shows up and is able to contribute something meaningful can be part of this mission.” Born in Pomona, California, Glover graduated from Ontario High School before earning a degree in general engineering and three master’s degrees. He went on to serve as a U.S. Navy test pilot, logging more than 3,500 flight hours across over 40 aircraft, including the F/A-18 Hornet, Super Hornet, and EA-18G Growler, while completing 24 combat missions and more than 400 carrier landings. Selected by NASA in 2013, Glover later served as pilot on SpaceX’s Crew-1 mission and spent 168 days aboard the International Space Station. Glover has also stood out for his openness about his Christian faith, which he has described as inseparable from his career in aviation and spaceflight. After returning from the International Space Station, he noted that NASA supported his ability to take communion weekly while in orbit. “I was able to worship in space,” he said, calling it an important part of his “faith walk even while I was off the planet.” In interviews, Glover has repeatedly emphasized that faith and science are not in conflict, but deeply connected. “My career is fed by my faith,” he said. “Anytime I do something that’s pretty risky, I pray — before I fly, every time I fly. Definitely when you go sit on top of a rocket ship.” That perspective has produced some of his most widely shared one liners: “We need Jesus, whether on Earth or circling the Moon,” and, paraphrasing a military saying, “There are no atheists on top of rockets.” For Glover, the wonder of space exploration itself points to something greater. He has spoken about referencing the “beauty of creation” in conversations with colleagues at NASA, adding that he sees no contradiction between scientific discovery and belief in God. “I believe in both,” he said. “And I don’t find them to be in conflict.” As Artemis II pushes humanity back toward the moon, Glover’s message, grounded in faith, service, and a focus on shared human achievement, has resonated far beyond the mission itself.