Donald Trump has sweeping plans for a second administration. Here’s what he’s proposed

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Trump's gut-check

Photo illustration: Allie Carl/Axios. Photo: Brian van der Brug/Getty Images

President Trump's hard-line approach sometimes softens, Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen write in a "Behind the Curtain" column. Last week, he appeared to buckle — under pressure from farm interests, as conveyed to him by Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins — on his steadfast demand for the deportation of anyone who's in the U.S. illegally. He took to Truth Social to say some workers here illegally, working on farms or hotels, are actually "very good, long time workers." Those are the same undocumented workers ICE is rounding up, often in front of cameras, to lock up and ship away. But hard-ass Trump resurfaced this week, vowing to target those same "very good, long time workers" across America's biggest cities, run by Democrats. Why it matters: Trump, in private, is clearly wrestling with the political realities of long-time workers who paid taxes and committed no crimes (after coming here illegally) getting deported by the millions. ⚠️ His economic advisers are warning him of hotels, restaurants, landscaping, construction and meatpacking companies going belly up. Republican senators are warning about families getting torn apart and local businesses and services shuttering. Polls are showing broad support for locking up criminals and locking down borders — but much deeper division on going after people who played by U.S. rules after coming here illegally. As Axios reported last month, the hardest of the hard-liners — White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem — want all undocumented immigrants expelled, regardless of economic and political consequences. That's the current position. But don't be surprised if the position softens, because Trump himself softens. ? State of play: For now, the enforcement pendulum has swung back in favor of the very hard line of Miller and Noem — meaning raids at farms/hotels/restaurants. Within the White House, Rollins' move that initially led Trump to back off raids on farms, hotels and restaurants angered some top aides, notably Miller, the architect of Trump's immigration and deportation policies. Column continues below.

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Part 2: "Constant pressure" to ease off

President Trump watches workers install a new flagpole on the South Lawn yesterday. Photo: Ken Cedeno/UPI/Bloomberg via Getty Images Some GOP lawmakers and activists believe the debate over immigration enforcement is far from over, Jim and Mike write. These sources note that Trump has already changed his mind twice, and that we haven't yet seen the true economic impact from waves of immigrant arrests. ?️ Steve Bannon — the powerful MAGA podcaster, and top aide in Trump's first term — believes the president once again could be swayed to go easy on such economically crucial industries. "There's constant pressure. There are constantly people coming to him," Bannon said yesterday at a press breakfast hosted by the Christian Science Monitor. "He's someone that takes the business community's interests in mind," Bannon added, referencing Trump's career in hotels and construction. Bannon also said that within the right-wing populist movement, Trump is actually a "moderate." ? Behind the scenes: Axios reporters are hearing about low morale within ICE. The agency is being stressed by the demands by Miller and Noem that agents arrest 3,000 immigrants a day nationwide — a quota that many within ICE don't believe is achievable. Some agents are stressed by the tactics some of their colleagues are using in making arrests. Others are disheartened by the response that masked, heavily armed agents have received in several communities. We've also heard that some ICE agents are afraid of being fired for not meeting arrest quotas — the agency still hasn't hit the 3,000-per-day goal. ?️ What we're watching: Senate Agriculture Committee chair John Boozman (R-Ark.) told Axios he plans to meet with Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins again soon to discuss the worksite raids issue. In the meantime, he's been fielding complaints from farmers across the country. "A lot of their workforce have questionable papers, and so they're concerned," Boozman said. "When you get mixed signals, it breeds uncertainty. So it's hard for businesses to plan," he added, echoing the concerns many businesses have expressed about Trump's tariff policies. Axios' Brittany Gibson, Stef W. Kight and Hans Nichols contributed reporting.

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⚡ Trump's big strike question

A key question that's on President Trump's mind these days, according to his advisers: If the U.S. joins Israel's war and drops its massive bunker busters, will they actually destroy Iran's most heavily fortified nuclear facility?

• Why it matters: Trump's doubts yesterday about the certainty of success are one reason he was still questioning whether to move forward with a strike, Axios' Barak Ravid and Marc Caputo write.

Trump wants to make sure such an attack is really needed, wouldn't drag the U.S. into a prolonged war in the Middle East — and most of all, would actually achieve the objective of destroying Iran's nuclear program, U.S. officials say.

? Zoom in: If Trump enters the war, it almost certainly would be to destroy the Fordow uranium enrichment site, which is built into a mountain south of Tehran.

• It's at the top of Israel's target list. But Israel lacks the 30,000-pound bunker-buster bombs needed to destroy it from the air, along with the B-2 bomber aircraft to carry them. The U.S. has both within flying range of Iran.
• Israeli officials fear that if Fordow survives the war, Iran's nuclear program will, too.

Behind the scenes: Trump has specifically asked his military advisers whether the Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) would destroy Fordow, a U.S. official said.

• Pentagon officials told Trump they're confident it would, according to the official. But it's not clear Trump was totally convinced.
• MOPs have never been used on the battlefield, though they went through several tests during development, current and former U.S. officials say.

? The other side: Israeli officials believe Trump will decide in favor of a U.S. strike, but contend they could cause significant damage to the Fordow facility even if forced to go it alone.

• Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Ambassador to Washington Yechiel Leiter hinted in recent interviews that the Israel Defense Forces have options beyond just airstrikes.
• One could be a risky commando raid. Israeli special forces conducted such an operation last September, albeit on a smaller scale, when they destroyed an underground missile factory in Syria by planting and detonating explosives.

Now that Israel has full control of Iran's air space and has dealt a heavy blow to Iran's military, that option appears less extreme than it otherwise would.

• A U.S. official said the Israelis told the Trump administration that while they may not be able to reach deep enough into the mountain with bombs, they may "do it with humans."

 

?? A member of the French Parliament said he was denied a visa to enter the U.S. Pouria Amirshahi, a leftist lawmaker, had planned to meet with progressive U.S. officials to discuss life under President Trump, The New York Times reports (gift link).

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National Guard

A federal appeals court has granted a request from President Trump to maintain control of roughly 4,000 National Guardsmen from California. In an unsigned ruling, the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals rejected arguments by Gov. Gavin Newsom that the president had violated federal law when he seized control of part of the state’s militia to quell anti-ICE protests in Los Angeles. Last week, senior US District Judge Charles Breyer ruled that Trump had not satisfied any of the requirements that must be met to call up a state’s National Guard and that the demonstrations did not constitute an insurrection. More legal wrangling over how Trump is using the guardsmen is expected during a hearing this afternoon.

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Second War Breaks Out in Trump’s Dysfunctional Administration

While everyone was focused on the battle over Iran a brand new fight erupted.

The Trump-appointed director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency has ignited an intragovernmental civil war with a series of tweets calling for the resignation of the Federal Reserve chair.

Businessman Bill Pulte launched his campaign against Jerome Powell on Wednesday with a tirade calling on Powell to lower interest rates, shortly before it was announced that the Federal Reserve would not be changing interest rates this month.

He wrote, “Because President Trump has crushed inflation, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell needs to lower interest rates today, and if not Chairman Powell needs to resign, immediately. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac can help so many more Americans if Chair Powell will just do his job and lower rates.”

Over the course of the next day, Pulte posted an additional eight tweets calling on Powell to resign. In one, he used his position as chairman of government-backed mortgage financiers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to point the finger at Powell’s failure to lower interest rates that is hurting the housing market.

In another, he claimed that Powell had no clue what he could do for the housing market and was “not listening to the people who help lead“ it. As a result, needed to resign.

In response to an article from The Hill about his crusade, Pulte explained his repeated calls for Powell to resign. “He is hurting Americans and hurting the mortgage market, which I am responsible for regulating.”

The latest conflict comes as Republicans find themselves embroiled in another civil war over the Trump administration’s handling of the Israel-Iran conflict, with figures like Tucker Carlson and Steve Bannon urging Trump to avoid involving the U.S. in another war in the Middle East.

Pulte was eventually joined by President Donald Trump, who posted on TruthSocial, “Too Late—Powell is the WORST. A real dummy, who’s costing America $Billions!”

Trump followed with a longer missive, writing on Thursday morning, “‘Too Late’ Jerome Powell is costing our Country Hundreds of Billions of Dollars. He is truly one of the dumbest, and most destructive, people in Government, and the Fed Board is complicit. Europe has had 10 cuts, we have had none. We should be 2.5 Points lower, and save $BILLIONS on all of Biden’s Short Term Debt. We have LOW inflation! TOO LATE’s an American Disgrace!”

Trump nominated Powell for the position of chairman in 2017, breaking from tradition by naming a new appointee rather than reappointing the previous chair, Janet Yellen. Powell was then nominated to a second term by President Joe Biden in 2022.

Pulte, meanwhile, was nominated to the role of director for FHFA in January, and was confirmed in March. Soon after being sworn in, he ousted several board members and named himself chairman of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. He also appointed a SpaceX employee to the board of Fannie Mae and placed 35 workers on administrative leave without advance notice.

Powell had responded negatively to Trump’s proposed tariff scheme earlier this year, cautioning that it could lead to higher inflation and slower growth. This prompted Trump to post on TruthSocial, “Powell’s termination cannot come fast enough!” while also telling reporters in the Oval Office, “If I want him out, he’ll be out of there real fast, believe me.”

Despite these threats, according to The New York Times, the president is aware that attempting to remove Powell from his position could further damage an already volatile market. While Federal Reserve chairs are nominated by the president, as Powell was by Trump in 2017, the question of whether they can then be removed by the president is a legally complex and politically fraught one; Trump firing Powell could be seen as compromising the political independence of the Federal Reserve.

Of the Federal Reserve’s decision, Powell said on Wednesday that he and his colleagues preferred to keep interest rates unchanged as they wait to see the economic impact of Trump’s tariffs.

At a press conference, Powell said, “It takes some time for tariffs to work their way through the chain of distribution to the end consumer.” He continued, ”We’re beginning to see some effects, and we do expect to see more of them over coming months.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/second-civil-war-breaks-out-in-trumps-dysfunctional-administration/?

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Trump says he’ll decide whether US will directly attack Iran within 2 weeks President Donald Trump said Thursday he will decide within two weeks whether the U.S. military will get directly involved in the conflict between Israel and Iran given the “substantial chance” for renewed negotiations over Tehran’s nuclear program. Read more.

What to know: Trump has been weighing whether to attack Iran by striking its well-defended Fordo uranium enrichment facility, which is buried under a mountain and widely considered to be out of reach of all but America’s “bunker-buster” bombs. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he trusted Trump would “do what’s best for America.”

RELATED COVERAGE ➤ A week into their war, Israel and Iran launch new strikes even as diplomatic effort gets underway   Europeans see a window for diplomacy as they meet Iran’s top diplomat   Fact Focus: Israeli strikes on Iran nuclear sites pose limited radiation risks

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Appeals court lets Trump keep control of National Guard troops deployed to Los Angeles An appeals court on Thursday allowed Trump to keep control of National Guard troops he deployed to Los Angeles following protests over immigration raids. The decision halts a ruling from a lower court judge who found Trump acted illegally when he activated the soldiers over opposition from California Gov. Gavin Newsom. Read more.

Why this matters: In its decision, a three-judge panel on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously concluded it was likely Trump lawfully exercised his authority in federalizing control of the guard. “The undisputed facts demonstrate that before the deployment of the National Guard, protesters ‘pinned down’ several federal officers and threw ‘concrete chunks, bottles of liquid, and other objects’ at the officers. Protesters also damaged federal buildings and caused the closure of at least one federal building. And a federal van was attacked by protesters who smashed in the van’s windows,” the court wrote.   Trump celebrated the decision on his Truth Social platform, calling it a “BIG WIN.” Newsom welcomed one aspect of the decision: “The court rightly rejected Trump’s claim that he can do whatever he wants with the National Guard and not have to explain himself to a court,” Newsom said. “The President is not a king and is not above the law.”

RELATED COVERAGE ➤ ICE raids and their uncertainty scare off workers and baffle businesses   Federal immigration agents asked to leave Dodger Stadium parking lot, team says   Trump extends TikTok ban deadline for a third time, without clear legal basis   On Juneteenth, Trump complains about 'too many' holidays   Some US restaurants and servers oppose Republicans’ ‘no tax on tips’ budget proposal   Acting head of civil rights agency defends decisions undercutting transgender workers   Supreme Court clears the way for temporary nuclear waste storage in Texas and New Mexico   Senate Republicans hold hearing on Biden’s mental fitness as Democrats boycott   Democrats look to 1st Trump midterms for 2025 races and 2026 momentum   Sig Sauer, faced with lawsuits over a popular pistol, gets protection in New Hampshire   A Border Patrol agent died in 2009. His widow is still fighting a backlogged US program for benefits   Florida officials let public universities free up millions to pay student-athletes   Democrats in Virginia have a hefty fundraising advantage heading into November general election   Former US ambassador to Ukraine who resigned in protest launches run for Congress in Michigan

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Judge orders Columbia University protester Mahmoud Khalil freed from detention

A federal judge on Friday ordered the U.S. government to free former Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil from the immigration detention center where he has been held since early March while the Trump administration sought to deport him over his role in pro-Palestinian protests. Read More.

Trump calls for special prosecutor to investigate 2020 election, reviving longstanding grievance

President Donald Trump on Friday called for the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate the 2020 election won by Democrat Joe Biden, repeating his baseless claim that the contest was marred by widespread fraud. Read More.   Price check Economists issued dire predictions after President Donald Trump launched his tariff campaign just a couple weeks into his second term, saying that prices would rise sharply. But that tariff-induced inflation spike hasn’t materialized — not yet, anyway. Too many holidays? Trump criticized "non-working holidays" on Juneteenth and called for fewer federal holidays, saying the time off costs America billions of dollars in losses and is damaging the US economy. Here's what the numbers show.   ☢️ Iran: No talks until bombing stops Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told his European counterparts today that Iran will not negotiate directly with the U.S. as long as Israel continues its military campaign, Axios' Barak Ravid reports. The meeting marked the first in-person engagement between Iran and Western powers since Israel launched its war a week ago. ?️ Where it stands: The meeting ended with no breakthrough, but European diplomats told Axios the Iranians appeared more open than in previous talks to discuss not just limits on their nuclear program, but also a range of non-nuclear issues. Araghchi told the European ministers that Iran is willing to restrict its uranium enrichment in a manner similar to the 2015 nuclear deal, which Trump scrapped in 2018. Go deeper. ⚖️ A federal judge ordered the release of Columbia graduate Mahmoud Khalil, who has been held in federal detention for more than three months even though he has not been charged with a crime. Judge Michael Farbiarz said he was persuaded Khalil's detention was unlawful retaliation for his pro-Palestinian speech. Go deeper.

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Trump says Harvard has acted ‘appropriately’ and deal could soon be announced

President Donald Trump said Friday that Harvard has “acted extremely appropriately” during negotiations that could soon result in a deal, signaling a possible major shift in his administration’s efforts to target the university.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/06/20/politics/harvard-trump-potential-deal?

Mahmoud Khalil released from Ice detention after more than three months

Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil was released from US immigration detention, where he had been held for more than three months over his activism against Israel’s war on Gaza.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/20/mahmoud-khalil-release-federal-judge?

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What to Wear (Illustration by The Atlantic. Sources: Getty; Michael M. Santiago / Getty.)

View in browser As a member of ICE, you may be wondering: How are the people we thrust into our vans supposed to know that we are, in fact, acting under color of law and not just kidnapping them? Can I really do this job while wearing either an Army uniform that I have assembled myself in a confusing, over-the-top way or the same T-shirt I just wore to my failed custody hearing? Sure! Here’s what to wear to let everyone who interacts with you know that you are an agent of ICE! Do we have a uniform? No. Uniforms show that you are part of something and that there is someone to call if anyone interacting with you has a complaint. A uniform indicates that you are not a rogue criminal seizing someone’s mom and hurling her into an unmarked van without reading her her rights: You’re an officer of the law doing that. Who are they going to call about some guy in an ill-fitting T-shirt and long shorts? Why, behind that face covering, he could be the billionaire Mark Zuckerberg! Better treat him as though he is worth billions and accountable to no one, just in case! If you’re wearing a uniform, people will be disappointed when you fail to show them an arrest warrant before entering their place of work. If you’re not wearing a uniform of any kind, they won’t know whether to be disappointed until it’s too late! If you decide to wear some sort of uniform anyway (Army Surplus? January 6 Surplus? Your choice!), you can still send the message that you intend to be accountable to no one by wearing a face covering. A face mask can say so many things: “I’m trying to do my part to protect those around me,” or  the exact opposite. A balaclava can say, “I’m skiing!” or, “I’m about to commit a jewelry heist,” depending on how you accessorize it. The point is, we want you to feel free to express yourself! ICE believes in freedom of expression, except for graduate students who want to lead protests or write op-eds. Your clothing should tell a story about you! Just not who you are or that you are acting in any kind of official capacity. Wear a pink button-down, a shirt, a jacket, and some sort of backwards hat. Wear something that looks like what Ben Affleck would wear if he were really going through it and was visiting the Dunkin’ drive-through on foot. Wear something that, if you showed up at a costume party in this outfit, would make people say, “A soldier, but wrong somehow, like he’s in a video game,” or, “Did I see you at Charlottesville?” If the person you are shoving into a van has any inkling that you are an officer of the law, you are doing it wrong. You should look like someone who is going to Home Depot because you forgot something (what you forgot was an arrest warrant for your next stop). As Coco Chanel said, whenever you assemble an outfit, before you leave the house, look in the mirror, and take one thing off! Specifically, your badge identifying you as an officer of the law. Coco collaborated with the Nazis. Remember, the right ensemble and accessories can say: I’m accountable to the people of the United States, and we are still operating under rule of law. So before you get dressed each morning, think about the message you want your outfit to send. It shouldn’t be that. Read more of Alexandra’s work: Donald Trump’s super-special 79th was not super special. So, what did I miss?

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A New War

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President Donald Trump has done what he swore he would not do: involve the United States in a war in the Middle East. His supporters will tie themselves in knots (as Vice President J. D. Vance did last week) trying to jam the square peg of Trump’s promises into the round hole of his actions. And many of them may avoid calling this “war” at all, even though that’s what Trump himself called it tonight. They will want to see it as a quick win against an obstinate regime that will eventually declare bygones and come to the table. But whether bombing Iran was a good idea or a bad idea—and it could turn out to be either, or both—it is war by any definition of the term, and something Trump had vowed he would avoid.

So what’s next? Before considering the range of possibilities, it’s important to recognize how much we cannot know at this moment. The president’s statement tonight was a farrago of contradictions: He said, for example, that the main Iranian nuclear sites were “completely and totally obliterated”—but it will take time to assess the damage, and he has no way of knowing this. He claimed that the Iranian program has been destroyed—but added that there are still “many targets” left. He said that Iran could suffer even more in the coming days—but the White House has reportedly assured Iran through back channels that these strikes were, basically, a one-and-done, and that no further U.S. action is forthcoming.

(In a strange moment, Trump added: “I want to just say, we love you, God, and we love our great military.” Presidents regularly ask God to bless the American nation and its military forces—as Trump did in his next utterance—but it was a bit unnerving to see a commander in chief order a major military action and then declare how much “we” love the Creator.)

Only one outcome is certain: Hypocrisy in the region and around the world will reach galactic levels as nations wring their hands and silently pray that the B-2s carrying the bunker-buster bombs did their job.

Beyond that, the most optimistic view is that the introduction of American muscle into this war will produce a humiliating end to Iran’s long-standing nuclear ambitions, enable more political disorder in Iran, and finally create the conditions for the fall of the mullahs. This may have been the Israeli plan from the start: Despite Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s warnings about the imminence of an Iranian nuclear-weapons capability and the need to engage in preemption, this was a preventive war. The Israelis could not destroy sites such as Fordow without the Americans. Israeli military actions suggest that Netanyahu was trying to increase the chances of regime change in Tehran while making a side bet on dragging Trump into the fray and outsourcing the tougher nuclear targets to the United States.

The very worst outcome is the polar opposite of the optimistic case. In this bleak alternative, the Air Force either didn’t find, or couldn’t destroy, all of the key parts of the Iranian program; the Iranians then try to sprint across the finish line to a bomb. In the meantime, Tehran lashes out against U.S. targets in the region and closes the Strait of Hormuz. The Iranian opposition fades in importance as angry Iranian citizens take their government’s part.

One dangerous possibility in this pessimistic scenario is that the Iranians do real damage to American assets or kill a number of U.S. servicepeople, and Trump, confused and enraged, tries to widen his war against a country more than twice the size of Iraq.

Perhaps the most likely outcome, however, is more mixed. The Iranian program may not be completely destroyed, but if the intelligence was accurate and the bombers hit their targets, Tehran’s nuclear clock has likely been set back years. (This in itself is a good thing; whether it is worth the risks Trump has taken is another question.) The Iranian people will likely rally around the flag and the regime, but the real question is whether that effect will last.

The Iranian regime will be wounded but will likely survive; the nuclear program will be delayed but will likely continue; the region will become more unstable but is unlikely to erupt into a full-blown war involving the United States.

But plenty of wild cards are in the deck.

First, as strategists and military planners always warn, the “enemy gets a vote.” The Iranians may respond in ways the U.S. does not expect. The classic war-gaming mistake is to assume that your opponent will respond in ways that fit nicely with your own plans and capabilities. But the Iranians have had a long time to think about this eventuality; they may have schemes ready that the U.S. has not foreseen. (Why not spread around radiological debris, for example, and then blame the Americans for a near-disaster?) Trump has issued a warning to Iran not to react, but what might count as “reacting”?

Second, we cannot know the subsequent effects of an American attack. For now, other Middle Eastern regimes may be relieved to see Iran’s nuclear clock turned back. But if the Iranian regime survives and continues even a limited nuclear program, those same nations may sour on what they will see as an unsuccessful plan hatched in Jerusalem and carried out by Washington.

Diplomacy elsewhere will likely suffer. The Russians have been pounding Ukraine with even greater viciousness than usual all week and now may wave away the last of Trump’s feckless attempts to end the war. Other nations might see American planes flying over Iran and think that the North Koreans had the right idea all along: assemble a few crude nuclear weapons as fast as you can to deter further attempts to end your regime.

Finally, the chances for misperception and accidents are now higher than they were yesterday. In 1965, the United States widened the war in Southeast Asia after two purported attacks from North Vietnam; the Americans were not sure at the time whether both of these attacks had actually happened, and as it turns out, one of them probably had not. The Middle East, moreover, is full of opportunities for screwups and mistakes: If Trump continues action against Iran, he will need excellent intelligence and tight organization at the Pentagon.

And this is where the American strikes were really a gamble: They were undertaken by a White House national-security team staffed by unqualified appointees, some of whom—including the director of national intelligence and the secretary of defense himself—Trump has reportedly frozen out of his inner circle. (Given that those positions are held by Tulsi Gabbard and Pete Hegseth, respectively, it is both terrifying and a relief to know that their influence may be limited.) The American defense and intelligence communities are excellent, but they can function for only so long without competent leadership.

Trump has had preternatural luck as president: He has survived scandals, major policy failures, and even impeachment, events that would have ended other administrations.The American planes dropped their payloads and returned home safely. So he might skate past this war, even if it will be hard to explain to the MAGA faithful who believed him, as they always do, when he told them that he was the peace candidate. But perhaps the biggest and most unpredictable gamble Trump took in bombing Iran was sending American forces into harm’s way in the Middle East with a team that was never supposed to be in charge of an actual war.

Related:

• American democracy might not survive a war with Iran.
• Isn’t Trump supposed to be anti-war?

ps:That's the problem with making promises!! Can't always keep them the way you'd like!! Every president has made promises that they couldn't keep!!!!! That's just life!

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U.S. enters war

President Trump's decision to intervene directly in support of Israel's effort to dismantle Iran's nuclear program marks a historic escalation in the Middle East.

• Why it matters: It's a move fraught with risks, and one that Trump and many of his predecessors had sought to avoid, including through diplomacy with Iran, Axios' Barak Ravid and Zachary Basu report.

The latest: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters this morning the U.S. war against Iran is "not open-ended" and is "not about regime change," stressing that Saturday's U.S. military strikes were strictly targeted at Iran's nuclear program.

• Vice President Vance flatly denied that the U.S. is at war with Iran, telling NBC's "Meet the Press" instead: "We're at war with Iran's nuclear program."

But the unprecedented U.S. strikes on Iran have plunged both countries — as well as Israel, the Middle East and the wider world — into a state of deep uncertainty and danger.

• "Anything can happen in conflict, and we acknowledge that. But the scope of this was intentionally limited," Hegseth said when asked if the U.S. was prepared for a "protracted" war.

Inside the strikes: The mission — dubbed "Operation Midnight Hammer" —was carried out primarily by seven B-2 stealth bombers, each with two crew members, who flew 18 hours east from the U.S. and "linked up with escort and support aircraft," Joint Chiefs chairman Gen. Dan Caine said.

• Several B-2 bombers, which were detected by flight radar and reported by the media yesterday, flew west from Missouri over the Pacific as part of a "deception effort."

At approximately 6:40 p.m. ET, or 2:10 a.m. Iran time, the lead B-2 bomber dropped two "massive ordnance penetrators" — 30,000-pound bunker-buster bombs — on Iran's underground Fordow nuclear facility.

• The remaining bombers hit their targets with a total of 14 bunker-busters, with all three Iranian nuclear sites struck between 6:40 p.m. and 7:05 p.m. ET. Tomahawk missiles also struck the Isfahan nuclear site.

Caine said about 75 precision-guided weapons were used. More than 125 US aircraft participated, including "dozens and dozens of air refueling tankers" and reconnaissance and surveillance planes, plus a guided missile submarine.

Today's New York Times banner headlines, in print and online.

All three Iranian targets sustained "severe damage," but the assessment to determine whether Iran still has some nuclear capability is ongoing, the officials said. Trump claimed last night that Iran's key uranium enrichment sites "have been completely and totally obliterated."

• "We believe we achieved destruction of capabilities" at the Fordow uranium enrichment site — Iran's toughest target, built into a mountain and deep underground — Hegseth said.

In a historic address from the White House last night, Trump warned that the U.S. still has many targets left in Iran, and that the military will "take them out within minutes" if peace with the Islamic Republic "doesn't come quickly."

• Trump posted on Truth Social: "ANY RETALIATION BY IRAN AGAINST THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA WILL BE MET WITH FORCE FAR GREATER THAN WHAT WAS WITNESSED TONIGHT."

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps threatened today to respond with strikes against U.S. forces in the Middle East.

• "We have repeatedly stated, the number, dispersion, and size of U.S. military bases in the region are not a strength, but have doubled their vulnerability," the IRGC said in a statement. The IRGC said the response "to the terrorist regime of America" will be "beyond the understanding and calculations of the aggressor."

Iran's foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said Tehran "reserves all options to defend its security," speaking at a news conference in Istanbul.

• He said Iran isn't interested in diplomacy at the moment. "The U.S. crossed a very big red line. We will respond according to our right. The U.S. betrayed diplomacy and betrayed negotiations. They only understand the language of force," he said.

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? Behind the scenes

Map: The New York Times In the days leading up to the strike, President Trump and his team became increasingly convinced that diplomacy had run its course — and that military action would be necessary to eliminate Iran's nuclear program, Axios' Barak Ravid reports. The big picture: Trump, whose "America First" base has been deeply divided on whether to join Israel's war, has remained steadfast in one position: Iran must never be allowed to obtain a nuclear weapon. The president publicly announced Thursday that he would make a decision "in the next two weeks" to give Iran a final chance to negotiate, but strike preparations accelerated over the weekend. ? The intrigue: Trump made a last-ditch push to avoid U.S. intervention last week, exploring a backchannel meeting with Iranian officials in Istanbul, brokered by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The president was willing to send White House envoy Steve Witkoff and Vice President Vance — or even attend the talks himself if necessary. But the effort collapsed when Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who was in hiding over fears of Israeli assassination, couldn't be reached to authorize the meeting. Photos: The White House ? Rare glimpse inside Situation Room: The White House posted photos of some of the officials who joined President Trump yesterday as the operation unfolded. They include (clockwise from top center): White House chief of staff Susie Wiles with Dan Caine, chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff ... Vice President JD Vance ... CIA Director John Ratcliffe (documents digitally blurred by White House for security reasons) ... SecDef Pete Hegseth ... and SecState Marco Rubio (who doubles as national security adviser). Go deeper.

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Judge rules Trump administration can’t require states to help on immigration to get transport money

BOSTON (AP) — A federal judge on Thursday blocked the Trump administration from withholding billions of dollars in transportation funds from states that don’t agree to participate in some immigration enforcement actions.

https://apnews.com/article/ice-immigration-lawsuit-sean-duffy-e386d0f659e49fe57a02edeafb1da6da?

Self-Proclaimed “Peacemaker” Drags U.S. Into Another War

Heeding the request of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Donald Trump dispatched U.S. warplanes to bomb Iran.

https://theintercept.com/2025/06/21/iran-israel-united-states-war/?

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Trump is Dropping F-Bomb about Tucker Carlson for ‘Slaughtering’ Cruz: Biographer

Tucker Carlson and Tulsi Gabbard are headed under the bus, according to Michael Wolff.

Donald Trump turned on Tucker Carlson in the hours before striking Iran, brushing off MAGA isolationists to stage what a “vanity bombing,” his biographer Michael Wolff has revealed.

Trump’s intelligence director Tulsi Gabbard, meanwhile, is the designated scapegoat, Wolff told The Daily Beast Podcast.

Publicly, Trump was inconsistent and noncommittal about his stance on U.S. involvement in the Israel-Iran conflict, right up until he announced on Saturday that the military had bombed three Iranian nuclear sites. According to Wolff, that same flip-flopping was going on behind the scenes, and Trump “dithered right up until the last minute.”

“The White House... are out trying to frame a case that this has been underway, that this is a plan, that this strategy has rolled out in a methodical fashion,” Wolff told host Joanna Coles.

“This is not true at all, this is completely made up,” he added.

According to Wolff, author of Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, Trump watched the explosive interview between Tucker Carlson and Senator Ted Cruz that aired on the former Fox News host’s show on Wednesday, and for a short time afterwards, leaned towards siding with Carlson’s isolationist camp. Carlson, Steve Bannon and Marjorie Taylor Greene have been some of the most vocal MAGA opponents of U.S. intervention in the regional conflict.

“Thursday, he was Tucker-Bannon, and he had seen Tucker’s interview with Ted Cruz where Ted Cruz got massacred,” Wolff said. “That was very much a there-but-for-the-grace-of-God moment for him.”

But come Friday, Wolff claimed, Trump changed course after speaking with hawkish congressional Republican leaders, who got it into his head that he would look like a “winner” if he took action.

“So by Friday afternoon, it was literally—in a whole series of phone calls— it was ‘f--- Tucker,’" he said, noting Carlson’s role as the “point person representing the MAGA objection” to the move.

“Then the tenor of the phone calls was him saying, ‘I think I’m gonna look very good if I do this,’” he added, branding the precision strikes on Iran a “vanity bombing.”

As for Gabbard, who recently backpedaled after Trump called her intelligence on Iran’s nuclear capabilities “wrong,” Wolff says she’s “toast.”

“The head that will roll here is hers,” said Wolff.

“That’s what everybody inside the White House is clucking over her,” he added. “She’s the one—if there is MAGA blame to go around—it’s going to fall on her.“

“And there’s a lot of now, backpedaling, ‘he never liked her, she was forced on him.’ This is also, by the way, not true,” he went on.

Gabbard testified to Congress in March that Iran was not actively pursuing a nuclear weapon.

When a reporter brought that up to the president on Friday, asking him what evidence he has that Iran is building a nuclear weapon, Trump said his own intelligence community, and Gabbard herself, were wrong.

Gabbard quickly walked her comments back, claiming her March remarks were taken out of context and that her intelligence suggests Iran could produce a nuclear weapon “within weeks to months.”

The White House did not immediately return a request for comment on Wolff’s claims about Carlson and Gabbard.

It did, however, pointedly post a picture on Sunday night showing Gabbard in the Situation Room a day earlier, following speculation she had been absent.

Trump’s base has been splintering since Israel launched its surprise attack on Iran last Friday, with days of public quarreling between prominent MAGA figures.

Shortly after Israel’s initial attack, Carlson accused Trump of being “complicit.” Trump publicly lashed out, but claimed on Wednesday he’d since received an apology call.

Carlson has not yet publicly weighed in on Trump’s decision to drop bombs on Iran.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/what-donald-trump-really-thinks-about-tucker-carlson-and-tulsi-gabbard-michael-wolff/?

ps:Throwing more people under the bus!! It's amazing that you can't even disagree with this person, and if you do your in his dog house for sure!! Well we'll see for how long, because if there start kissing his rear end they'll be back on his good side!!!!!

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Trump’s Strange God Talk Has People Concerned

The president’s multiple mentions of “God” in his Saturday address raised eyebrows among his critics.

The people are worried about the president.

In a Saturday evening address, where he confirmed the U.S. had struck three Iranian nuclear facilities, it was President Donald Trump’s repeated mention of “God” that stood out to several of his critics.

At the end of his four-minute address, Trump said, “I want to just thank everybody, in particular, God. I want to just say we love you God, and we love our great military, protect them. God bless the Middle East, God bless Israel, and God bless America.“

Many on the left were quick to point out how insincere Trump sounded, particularly given Trump’s own relationship with religion. During his first term, a Pew Research Center survey found that most Americans didn’t see Trump as particularly religious, with only 7 percent of American adults viewing him as “very religious.”

Critics included Democrat Gen Z streamer Dean Withers, who tweeted, “No Trump, God Doesn’t Want Another War in the Middle East you Delusional F--k. Resign.” Another user highlighted the fact that Trump mentioned Israel before he mentioned the U.S., tweeting, “Trump ended his press conference saying God bless Israel before he even said God bless America. That should tell you everything you need to know.”

Others posted reaction images to Trump’s message from God’s perspective, including a GIF of Denzel Washington slamming a door in someone’s face and an image of a woman throwing her hands up in defeat.

Several users compared Trump to the anti-Christ, while others argued that his comments sounded as dry and devoid of meaning as a generic yearbook signature. One X user wrote, “This must be the most forced and uncomfortable ‘Thank you, God’ ever spoken in world history.”

One user felt Trump’s mention of God was significantly more sinister, tweeting, “This man started a new war and is already invoking religion to manipulate his base into it. This man is a insane sociopath.”

Trump could be looking to the early 2000s for inspiration, when President George W. Bush claimed that he was on a mission from God when he invaded Afghanistan and Iraq.

In 2003, Bush reportedly told a Palestinian delegation at an Israeli-Palestinian summit held in Egypt, “I am driven with a mission from God. God would tell me, ‘George go and fight these terrorists in Afghanistan.’ And I did. And then God would tell me ‘George, go and end the tyranny in Iraq.’ And I did.”

He continued, “And now, again, I feel God’s words coming to me, ‘Go get the Palestinians their state and get the Israelis their security, and get peace in the Middle East.’ And, by God, I’m gonna do it.”

Trump’s relationship with religion has been complicated. He was brought up by a Presbyterian mother and the family often attended services conducted by the Rev. Norman Vincent Peale, who wrote The Power of Positive Thinking, at Manhattan’s Marble Collegiate Church, which is in the Reformed Church. After attending a Catholic college—Fordham University in the Bronx, New York—for two years, he transferred to the secular U. Penn.

In his first presidency he declared he was now a non-denominational Christian and in both presidencies he has rarely attended church in any form, including most recently on Easter Sunday, when he golfed. Images of him holding a Bible upside down after dispersing a peaceful crowd outside the White House were widely mocked. His third wife Melania has described herself as Catholic but not been seen attending a Catholic church. However Trump has relentlessly pursued evangelical voters, inviting evangelical pastors to the White House to lay hands on him, and using the language of that version of Christianity.

After his attempted assassination in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July 2024, he claimed that God had saved his life and said, “I was saved by God to make America great again. I believe that.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trumps-strange-god-talk-has-people-concerned/?

ps:Well we'll see, because with God all things are possible, but if he doesn't ask for guidance he won't be receiving any!!

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?️ Scoop: Trump plans victory lap for Big Beautiful Bill

President Trump's team huddled yesterday to discuss a victory tour for shortly after July 4, following what they hope will be passage and signing of his Big Beautiful Bill, a White House source with direct knowledge tells Axios' Mike Allen and Marc Caputo.

• Why it matters: A top Trump aide pointed out that this will likely be seen as Trump's first big move of the 2026 midterm cycle. Republican control of the House is at acute risk.

✈️ Trump's top aides are planning a whole-of-government mobilization, with the president, Vice President Vance and top cabinet officials doing a lap around the country, visiting target states and congressional districts.

• The bill has passed the House but faces hurdles in the Senate. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) says he won't let senators leave for the Fourth of July recess until the bill passes.
• It'll be a puzzle, but the White House expects the bill to pass. With Trump looking strong abroad, expect a rally-around-the-chief effect among congressional Republicans.

? Behind the scenes: The West Wing is in a triumphal mood after this weekend's U.S. attacks on Iranian nuclear sites, and the Trump-brokered ceasefire agreement between Israel and Iran.

• At 6 a.m. this morning, Trump was scheduled to leave the White House for a two-day trip to a NATO summit in the Netherlands, where he's expected to bask on the world stage.

Reality check: Republicans privately express lots of doubts about holding the House. And for all the overseas wins, Trump's poll numbers outside Republicans could depend on whether voters' daily lives are more affordable.

• The White House source told us: "Tough hasn't stopped us before."

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Trump is trying to script the perfect ending to war in Iran. Will the rest of the world go along?

President Donald Trump wanted the American intervention in the Middle East to end with the satisfying tidiness of a prime-time season finale. Trump even gave the conflict a definitive name — “THE 12 DAY WAR." Now the question is whether the rest of the world will follow the script that he has laid out. Read More.   Justice Department official suggested ignoring court orders on deportations, whistleblower claims A top Justice Department official suggested the Trump administration might have to ignore court orders as it prepared to deport Venezuelan migrants it accused of being gang members, a fired department lawyer alleged in a whistleblower complaint made public Tuesday. Read More.

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Homeland Security

President Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced numerous appointments to an advisory council inside the Department of Homeland Security on Tuesday. Some of the experts Trump tapped for the council include his former personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, former campaign adviser Corey Lewandowski, right-wing political commentator Mark Levin, and Chris Cox, a chainsaw artist who founded the political group Bikers for Trump. The council provides “real-time, real-world and independent advice on homeland security operations.”

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What’s in and out of Trump’s big bill as Senate races to meet Fourth of July deadline Republicans who have majority control of the House and Senate are finding that their push to move fast and change things — namely cuts to federal government programs including Medicaid and SNAP food stamps used by millions of Americans — is easier said than done. Read more.

Why this matters: The top priority for Republicans is preventing what they warn would be a massive tax hike when the tax breaks they put in place during Trump’s first term, in 2017, expire.   The bill also funds deportations, a border wall and Trump’s heroes garden.   To help partly offset the lost tax revenue, Republicans are seeking to cut back some long-running government programs — Medicaid, food stamps, and green energy incentives.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤ House shelves effort to impeach Trump over Iran strikes   Trump administration postpones classified briefings for lawmakers on Iran   Presidents vs. Congress: Trump is only the latest to test the War Powers Act   A whirlwind 48 hours: How Trump’s Israel-Iran ceasefire agreement came together   Trump administration authorizes $30 million for Israeli-backed group distributing food in Gaza   US carrier strike group embarks on a scheduled deployment amid Middle East tensions   Live updates: Trump meets with NATO allies   NATO leaders hark back to the Cold War as they meet to hike defense spending   Rep. Robert Garcia elected top Democrat on Oversight panel, setting new path for party’s opposition   Court orders Trump administration to facilitate another deported man’s return from El Salvador   Trump administration asks Supreme Court to clear the way for a South Sudan-bound deportation flight   What to know about ‘Alligator Alcatraz,’ Florida’s immigration detention site in the Everglades   Federal judge orders Trump administration to release EV charger funding in 14 states   Lawsuit challenges billions of dollars in Trump administration funding cuts   Americans’ take on the economy sours in June and, after a brief respite, continues to slide   Wisconsin Supreme Court delivers win for environmentalists in fight over ‘forever chemicals’   How US adults’ views on same-sex marriage have changed since the Supreme Court’s 2015 ruling

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Trump, 79, Melts Down in Incoherent Rant About ‘Hero Pilots’

The president attacked the media for reporting on the initial intelligence assessment on Iran.

President Donald Trump accused the media of demeaning the military after the initial U.S. intelligence report on Iran leaked.

The president did not deny the existence of the preliminary assessment or its content, which suggested the strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities resulted in limited damage, but he insisted it was wrong.

He also claimed to have spoken to one of the pilots, who told him it was a “perfect” bomb drop.

Trump first harangued reporters with claims that they attacked the brave men and women who carried out what was an operationally successful mission on Saturday night to drop the bombs and exit Iran without being fired on.

“They were maligned and treated very bad, demeaned by fake news CNN,” Trump claimed on Wednesday.

The media did report on the U.S. intel assessment, but it did not demean pilots who carried out the mission.

He continued minutes later when he repeated his claim that the reports criticized the men and women who carried out the mission.

“They’re the best shots in the world. They call them shots, that’s what they are, and wait a minute, and I just hope you can give them the respect they deserve because they came home to fake news and like gosh, oh gee, there was hardly any damage,” Trump said of the pilots.

The early intelligence undermining Trump’s repeated claims that the sites were obliterated came from the Defense Intelligence Agency within the Pentagon.

When a reporter again tried to bring up the assessment at his press conference, the president fired back, “You should be proud of those pilots, and you shouldn’t be trying to demean them.”

The reporter, Kelly O’Donnell from NBC News, tried to cut in that she was trying to ask about the intel assessment, and no one was trying to demean the pilots, but Trump kept going.

“You know what, you should be praising those people instead of trying to find something,” Trump said. “By getting me, by trying to go and get me, you’re hurting those people. They were devastated.”

“I got a call from Missouri, big state that I won three times by a lot, and I got a call that the pilots and the people on the plane were devastated because they were trying to minimize the attack, and they all said it was a hit,” the president claimed.

The U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities in Operation Midnight Hammer on Saturday were a major logistical feat that involved careful planning and execution.

The B-2 stealth bombers, each with two crew members, took off from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri early Saturday and refueled midair multiple times as they made the eighteen-hour journey over more than 7,000 miles to Iran.

Before entering Iran, the B-2s were also accompanied by fighter jets and recon aircraft.

Once over Iran, the bombers struck the nuclear sites at Fordo and Natanz while a submarine launched missiles striking Isfahan.

The B-2s then began the long journey back to the U.S. with multiple aerial refueling points along the way.

The entire mission took roughly 36 hours to execute round-trip. Join Chiefs of Staff Chair Gen. Dan Caine said the bombers were able to carry out the mission over Iran undetected.

When Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth spoke at the press conference, the former TV personality also attacked reporters and accused them of trying to hurt the president even as they tried to ask about the early assessment from his own department.

Hegseth praised the team that carried out the mission, but quickly turned to blasting the leak. He did not dispute that the assessment existed or its content, but he did say it was early.

“If you want to make an assessment of what happened at Fordo, you better get a big shovel and go really deep,” he declared.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-79-melts-down-in-incoherent-rant-about-hero-pilots/?

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Hegseth and Rubio Grudgingly Admit Bomb Intel Leak Is True

The leak cast doubt on Trump’s claim that his strikes on three Iranian nuclear sites resulted in “obliteration.”

Two of Donald Trump’s top allies admitted a bombshell leak about the Iran strikes was true Wednesday.

But they then attacked leakers behind the release of the intelligence report that undercut the president’s claims about the success of U.S. strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

Speaking on Wednesday in the Netherlands, where Trump is attending a NATO summit, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio mounted an aggressive counteroffensive after a leaked preliminary Pentagon assessment said the bombings likely only set back Iran’s nuclear ambitions by a few months. Trump had claimed the strikes amounted to a “total obliteration.”

At the press conference, Hegseth said the information was likely leaked for political purposes and said the FBI is conducting an investigation into the matter.

“We are doing a leak investigation with the FBI now, because this information is for internal purposes—battle damage investigation—and CNN and others are trying to spin it to try and make the president look bad when this was an overwhelming success,” Hegseth said.

“When you talk to the people who built the bombs, understand what those bombs can do, and deliver those bombs, they landed precisely where they were supposed to,” Hegseth went on. “And given the 30,000 pounds of explosives, and capability of those munitions, it was devastation underneath Fordow.”

Over the weekend, Trump authorized strikes on three Iranian nuclear sites—Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan—using 30,000-pound ‘bunker-buster’ bombs, which Trump claimed had devastated Iran’s nuclear program. But reports of a secret early intelligence assessment suggested the attacks likely set Iran’s nuclear program back by only a matter of months rather than destroying it completely.

The Daily Beast has reached out to the Pentagon for comment.

“The amount of munitions—six per location—any assessment that tells you it was something otherwise, is speculating with other motives, and we know that, because when you actually look at the report—by the way, it was a top secret report—it was preliminary, it was low-confidence, so you make assessments based on what you know,” Hegseth said, also apparently apparently referring to the New York Times coverage of the report by claiming it said the damage was “moderate to severe.”

He added that he believes the damage was more likely “severe and obliterated,” decrying what he claimed is a “political motive” in the leak.

Rubio struck a more combative tone, criticizing leakers as “professional stabbers.”

“On this stuff about the intelligence—this is what a leaker is telling you the intelligence says,” he said. “That’s the game these people play. They read it and then they go out and characterize it the way they want.”

Rubio said that a “conversion facility” Iran would need to make a bomb has been “wiped out. He then conceded that “anything in the world can be rebuilt,” but argued “now we know where it is, and if they try to rebuild it, we will have options there as well.”

Hegseth and Rubio’s diatribe against the leak came after they were involved in an embarrassing leak of their own. They were both included in the Signal group chat in which sensitive details about the administration’s secret plans to strike targets in Yemen were discussed, without anyone realizing that a journalist had also been inadvertently added to the group.

Trump, meanwhile, conceded that the report was “correct,” but insisted that Iran’s nuclear plans had been set back by “decades.” He also angrily lashed out at “scum” who revealed the report.

“CNN is scum, MSDNC is scum, the New York Times is scum. They’re bad people, they’re sick,” Trump raged to reporters on Wednesday.

“What they’ve done is they’ve tried to make this unbelievable victory into something less,” Trump went on. “The generals and all of the people who did a good job, they get demeaned by these idiots at CNN, who can’t get ratings. The place is dying, nobody even wants to waste their time going on any of their shows, so they form what [sic] The New York Times, which is dying also. Without Trump, you wouldn’t have a New York Times.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/pete-hegseth-and-marco-rubio-scramble-to-smear-leakers-who-embarrassed-trump/?

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Dems Call BS on Secret Briefing Being Canceled After Bombshell Iran Leak

A leaked intelligence assessment contradicted the president’s claim that Iran’s nuclear program had been “obliterated.”

Democratic lawmakers are not buying the White House’s excuse that classified briefings on President Donald Trump’s strikes on Iran have been postponed due to scheduling conflicts.

Originally separate briefings for the House and Senate were scheduled to be held on Tuesday, but now they’ve been pushed back to Thursday for the Senate and Friday for the House.

The official reason for the delay is so Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth—both of whom are attending the NATO summit in The Hague with Trump—can attend, but some Democrats think it’s because reports have emerged that the strikes weren’t as successful as Trump originally claimed.

“There is a legal obligation for the administration to inform Congress about precisely what is happening,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. “What are they afraid of? Why won’t they engage Congress in the critical details?”

Other Democrats accused the administration of overstating the mission’s success and drew parallels to the Iraq War.

“I’m very concerned about [Trump] distorting, manipulating, and even lying about intelligence,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen told Axios. “We’ve been here before. We went to war in Iraq under false pretenses.”

“I think we might be less worried about that had we not seen an administration lie us into a war in Iraq in 2002,” Sen. Tim Kaine also told the outlet.

The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.

The president announced on Saturday night that American warplanes had dropped massive “bunker buster” bombs on Iran’s Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan nuclear sites, marking the U.S.’s entry into the Israel-Iran conflict.

“I can report to the world that the strikes were a spectacular military success,” Trump said in a weekend address. “Iran’s key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated.”

But a leaked initial report by the Defense Intelligence Agency, an arm of the Pentagon, found that Iran’s uranium stockpile was not destroyed during Saturday’s attack and its centrifuges were left largely intact. That would mean the strikes only set Iran’s nuclear program back by a few months.

The administration also carried out the strikes without congressional approval, which the Constitution requires except in cases of an imminent threat to the U.S.

The last intelligence lawmakers received was Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard’s March testimony that Iran was not building a nuclear bomb, according to the AP.

The Trump administration has denied the preliminary intelligence assessment and fumed at the news outlets that reported on it.

“FAKE NEWS CNN, TOGETHER WITH THE FAILING NEW YORK TIMES, HAVE TEAMED UP IN AN ATTEMPT TO DEMEAN ONE OF THE MOST SUCCESSFUL MILITARY STRIKES IN HISTORY,” Trump wrote in a late-night post on Truth Social.

Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell wrote in a post on X, “This is a preliminary, low confidence report and will continue to be refined as additional intelligence becomes available. We are working with the appropriate authorities to investigate the unauthorized disclosure of classified information.”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt called the assessment “flat-out wrong.”

Democrats, however, aren’t convinced.

“The real reason [for the delayed intelligence briefing]?” Rep. Pat Ryan told Axios. “He claims he destroyed ‘all nuclear facilities and capability.’ His team knows they can’t back up his bluster and BS.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/dems-call-bs-on-secret-briefing-being-canceled-after-bombshell-iran-leak/?

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How Trump's big bill could change the US immigration system

President Donald Trump’s spending cuts and border security package would inject roughly $150 billion into his mass deportation agenda over the next four years, funding everything from an extension of the United States’ southern border wall to detention centers to thousands of additional law enforcement staff. Read More.   Trump judicial nominee Emil Bove denies advising lawyers to ignore court orders A top Justice Department official nominated to become a federal appeals court judge said Wednesday that he never told department attorneys to ignore court orders, denying the account of a whistleblower who detailed a campaign to defy judges to carry out President Donald Trump’s deportation plans. Read More.

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?️ Trump limits Congress' access to intel

The Trump administration plans to limit the sharing of classified information with Congress, Axios' Marc Caputo scoops.

• It's a response to the leaked intelligence assessment that said the U.S. had only set Iran's nuclear program back by a few months.
• "We are declaring a war on leakers," a senior White House official said, adding that the FBI is also investigating yesterday's leak.

? The other side: Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said the leak is "unacceptable and should be fully investigated," but that it's "also unacceptable for the administration to use unsubstantiated speculation" to "justify cutting off Congress."

ps:Of course he will!! He doesn't want the real truth to come out!!!!!

Iranian Nuclear Program

Iran’s parliament voted yesterday to suspend cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency. The bill requires approval from the country’s unelected 12-person Guardian Council—and Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei—to go into effect.    There are competing claims about the impact of US military strikes on Iran’s nuclear program. President Donald Trump maintains the strikes set Iran’s program back decades, downplaying a leaked US intelligence report suggesting a monthslong delay. Trump said he will meet with Iranians next week for negotiations but that a deal is not necessary to degrade Iranian capabilities. Iran claims it moved its uranium stockpile out of nuclear facilities ahead of the strikes and now plans to accelerate enrichment. The country maintains its program is peaceful.   Separately, Trump touted progress in ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas. Dozens of people were reported killed in Gaza while waiting for aid this week. Seven Israeli soldiers were killed in a bombing yesterday. See live updates here.