Silver linings: Christian nationalists denied, Elon eats it, and more

Proof that not everything is so bleak

Welcome to a Friday edition of Progress Report.

I’m sitting in an airport right now and we’ve got a long newsletter tonight, so I’ll keep this intro short. We’ve got good news, amazing stats, election updates, legislative wins, and some mind-boggling Medicaid analysis, and more!

Let’s get to it!

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I’m not going to lie: I didn’t think it would be easy, but it took even longer than anticipated to put together a solid list of positive political news stories and updates. You don’t need me to tell you this, but things have been pretty bleak!

That being said, we’ve got a nice mix of court cases, legislation, poll results, and promising developments, proving that not everything is hopeless.

Schooled: The American public education system received multiple stays of execution on Thursday, providing relief from a right-wing onslaught that has already proven so devastating.

First, the Supreme Court issued a split decision in the dispute over the nation’s first religious public charter school, a surprise ruling that affirms — at least for now — one of the few remaining firewalls between church and state.

After last month’s oral arguments, it looked for all the world like the conservative supermajority would reverse the Oklahoma Supreme Court’s decision to block financial support to St. Isidore Virtual Charter School. As I’ve covered extensively, such a reversal would have opened the door to religious public schools, a key goal of the Christian nationalist movement. Instead, Justice Amy Coney Barrett recused herself from the case, likely due to her connections to plaintiff’s attorneys, and the court deadlocked.

The decision was issued in an unsigned order and unaccompanied by any explanation, but it’s likely that Chief Justice John Roberts, who pushed both sides’ attorneys during oral arguments, sided with the court’s three liberals. It’s an enormous win, but it may prove fleeting, because split decisions don’t set precedent and there’s no doubt that a similar case will pop up again soon.

Still, it looked dire enough just a few weeks ago that this is worth celebrating, especially given how central this case was to the twisted long-term plans of people like Leonard Leo. The overarching goal has been to invert the definition of religious liberty so that instead of protecting people from the tyranny of an official state-sanctioned faith or preserving the private rights of religious minorities, it forces the state to expend public resources on religious organizations and prioritize faith over other rights.

This is why they are not content to stop at school privatization, even though it’s been a jackpot for private religious schools and will continue to funnel more and more money to extremists. What they really want is a total takeover of all schools, establishing full state legitimacy for religious-run institutions and legalizing discrimination. One of the sticking points in the Oklahoma case was that St. Isidore’s, the Catholic charter school, claimed the right to deny entry to students based on religion, parents’ gender and sexuality, and other protected attributes.

So, no, it’s not good news that these lunatics are amassing power across the country, but it sure is a relief that their prize case has been shut down and they’ll have to start all over again.

Meanwhile, a federal judge on Thursday blocked the Trump administration’s attempts to destroy the Department of Education. District judge Myong Joun issued a preliminary injunction against the firing of 2,000 DOE employees and forbid the transfer of responsibility for student loans to the Small Business Administration — at least for now.

Once again, the administration’s inability to act with anything approaching subtlety or stop itself from trolling its enemies has come back to haunt White House lawyers, whose excuses about “efficiency” were scarcely believable.

Autopilot off a cliff: The Cybertruck, Tesla’s ugly social outcast mobile, is officially a giant flop.

The numbers are ugly:

• Just 2,000 units sold in April

• A mere 46,000 total sold since the vehicle’s launch in late 2023

• A 45% depreciation in value after just one year; the average depreciation of a new car is 30% over two years

• Tesla sales fell 71% in the first quarter of 2025.

The market is never wrong!

Solidarity Wow: I don’t think I’ve ever seen poll numbers quite as dramatic or astounding as these.