U.S. Representative Daniel Goodman (D-NY) responded to a Wall Street Journal article entitled ‘Behind Trump’s Public Bravado on the War, He Grapples With His Own Fears’, which reported that military advisers excluded President Donald Trump from the command room on Good Friday after an American jet had been shot down in Iran, with two airmen missing.
According to the article, “Aides kept the president out of the room as they got minute-by-minute updates because they believed his impatience wouldn’t be helpful, instead updating him at meaningful moments, a senior administration official said.”
[NOTE: On Easter Sunday, Trump wrote on social media: “Open the [expletive] Strait, you crazy [expletive], or you’ll be living in Hell.”]
The commander-in-chief was excluded from commanding a military operation because he was acting so crazy.
Think about that.
Trump is not well. We need the 25th amendment before something really bad happens on US soil. https://t.co/PbzWgStK3B
— Daniel Goldman (@danielsgoldman) April 19, 2026
Goodman wrote on social media: “The commander-in-chief was excluded from commanding a military operation because he was acting so crazy. Think about that. Trump is not well. We need the 25th amendment before something really bad happens on US soil.”
President Trump’s White House Communications Director Steven Cheung replied to Goodman: “Think about this: you, a sitting U.S. congressman, getting duped by fake news. Just imagine how easily you might be compromised.”
Think about this: you, a sitting U.S. congressman, getting duped by fake news.
Just imagine how easily you might be compromised. https://t.co/HCLvdp33Nn
— Steven Cheung (@StevenCheung47) April 20, 2026
Christine Villaverde, who ran in the 2024 Republican primary for North Carolina Secretary of State, also took the report seriously, replying to Goodman: “When the people legally obligated to follow the Commander-in-Chief decide he’s too dangerous to be in the room during a live combat operation, that’s not a workaround — that is frightening.” And others, including former Congresswoman and one-time Trump acolyte Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican, have also suggested that the President be removed via the 25th Amendment.
Trump, who always decries the media as purveyors of fake news, had special condemnation for the Wall Street Journal — owned by longtime Trump ally Rupert Murdoch‘s News Corp. — calling the WSJ, in one of his most recent Truth Social posts, “the absolutely horrendous and disgusting Wall Street Journal.” See post below, in which the President effectively claims that any news pertaining to the Iran war not delivered by his administration is fake, as Cheung says the command room exclusion story is.
Trump critics are responding to Cheung’s “fake news” claim with reminders that Trump’s credibility is an easy target, especially after he recently claimed he thought he was “a doctor” in an AI-generated portrayal he shared showing him as a Christ-like figure.