Sorry you drank the Kool Aid

A reader sends an email. I didn't love it, but it got me thinking.

A reader wrote to me recently:

Your lie about Trump requiring Passport to vote showed that you are not to be trusted due to your blind and misguided hatred towards Trump. I am fed up with misinformation from the left and choose not to waste any more of my time.

Please remove me from your reader list and make sure your accounting system does not charge additional fees for my subscription. Sorry you drank the Kool Aid.

No, this wasn't the most charitable reader email ever, but I have reasonably thick skin. And, I went back to look at what they took issue with.

Obviously (I hope it's obvious), I don't "lie" in this newsletter. But was it possible I might have made a mistake?

Let's see what was going on here.

• On March 25 at 5:34 p.m., the White House posted an executive order saying citizens would have to show citizenship to register to vote, which could be proven with (a) a U.S. passport, (b) a REAL ID or a military ID showing citizenship, or (c) "a valid government-issued photo identification if such identification indicates that the applicant is a United States citizen or if such identification is otherwise accompanied by proof of United States citizenship."

• In the March 26 newsletter, I included a link to an AP article about the order -- and yes, it does look like I made a mistake. Because although it's true that most REAL IDs, military IDs, and other government IDs don't actually show citizenship (there are some minority exceptions), that doesn't mean -- as I suggested -- that the only way around this would be to use a passport.

• Finally, in the March 27 newsletter, I corrected myself from the day before -- but only because I'd incorrectly written that "119 Americans" don't have passports. That was supposed to be, "119 million Americans."

Anyway, add all of this together, and it seems I did in fact miss something:

Theoretically, it seems someone could use a combination of, say, a driver's license and a birth certificate, or else a driver's license and a naturalization certificate, to meet the criteria here.

Worth mentioning: Executive orders aren't legislation, and this whole thing would likely be subject to all kinds of legal challenges.

Also, I suspect a state that wanted to comply with this in the least strenuous way possible could say they're simply going to accept a person's statement that they're a citizen as proof. There's nothing that says they couldn't.

Setting that aside, however, our reader pointed out a mistake in their own way, and I'm happy to correct it.

I'm also happy to realize that maybe we don't really risk disenfranchising 119 million Americans all at once!

So, why take up today's entire newsletter with this? Why not just run a correction?

Or else why not do what a lot of other people might have done -- which is just to cancel the subscription and ignore it?

I think it comes down to a big issue I've faced since starting this newsletter, and frankly even more so since last November and January.

This administration by design produces multiple big stories every single day. Since I also write every day, I'm rarely sure how to handle breaking news like:

"Oh, by the way, just as I was putting the newsletter to bed yesterday, the president issued a 2,853-word executive order promising big changes to U.S. election law."

Part of the issue might be settled by my previously stated plan to dedicate certain subjects to certain days of the week, so that both you as readers and me as the guy behind it all can know what's coming.

I'll have to accelerate that as soon as I return from vacation later this month.

In the meantime, I think that when I find mistakes, I have to move as quickly as I can to fix them. And occasionally to devote an entire newsletter to the issue, so people understand that I take it seriously.

By the way, I don’t like Kool-Aid. Never did as a kid, even.

Keep those reader comments coming! (Although, if people wanted to assume a bit of good intent, I wouldn't object.)

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7 other things worth knowing today

• The U.S. will impose a 10%, across-the-board tariff on all imports, and even higher rates for other nations the White House considers bad actors on trade, President Trump said at the White House on Wednesday. The new plan, unveiled at a Rose Garden event, is a combination of two proposals debated by aides in recent days—universal tariffs or country-by-country rates.

  The plan represents a fundamental rethinking of U.S. trade policy on a scale not seen since the post-World War II era. (The Wall Street Journal)

• Three American citizens who were sentenced to death over a failed coup attempt in the Democratic Republic of Congo have had their sentences commuted to life imprisonment. The three Americans were among 37 people condemned to death last September after taking part in a May 2024 attack on the government that was streamed live and included a gun battle near the presidential palace. (New York Times)

• Amid growing fallout over Elon Musk’s involvement in the Trump administration, Tesla’s sales fell a staggering 13 percent in the first quarter of 2025 year over year. It was Tesla’s worst production and delivery report in three years. (The Verge)

• Amazon reportedly has made a bid to buy TikTok, the popular video app that is in danger of being banned in the U.S. if it can't reach a deal that would separate it from its Chinese owner, theoretically by Saturday. (Los Angeles Times)

• The FBI received a record number of new agent applications in Director Kash Patel’s first full month leading the bureau, with the flood of law enforcement job-seekers nearly doubling the monthly average since 2016. There were 5,577 new FBI agent applications submitted in March. The last time the bureau saw a monthly figure even close to that number was April 2016. (Fox News)

• What do Julia Child, Paul Revere, and Harriet Tubman all have in common? Each played a crucial role in the clandestine world of espionage and intelligence. Though we might know them for their shows, fashion, or fiction, each of these famous figures on our list once led double lives in the shadowy world of espionage. (Mental Floss)

• Val Kilmer, best known for movies such as 1986's Top Gun and 1995’s Batman Forever, has died. He was 65 years old. His daughter said he died of pneumonia on Tuesday, April 1. He was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2014 and later recovered, she added. Kilmer made his final appearance on film in 2022's Top Gun: Maverick, a sequel to the 1986 classic. Kilmer briefly appeared in the film, sharing a poignant moment with Tom Cruise onscreen. (People)

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Thanks for reading. Photo by Piotr Chrobot on Unsplash. See you in the comments!