How Trump quietly made the historic decision to launch strikes in Iran
CNN
By the time President Donald Trump was milling about his golf club in New Jersey on Friday evening, the planes were about to be in the air.
By the time President Donald Trump was milling about his golf club in New Jersey on Friday evening, the planes were about to be in the air. To onlookers at the club, Trump showed little anxiety about his decision to authorize airstrikes on three Iranian nuclear facilities that could have profound ramifications both on US national security and his own presidential legacy. The B-2 stealth bombers carrying 30,000-pound bunker busters were preparing to take off at midnight from their base in Missouri, destined for Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan. Another set of planes was heading west, a deliberate attempt at misdirection as Trump demanded complete secrecy for his momentous decision. As Trump escorted around Sam Altman, the chief executive of OpenAI, to an event for new members being held in one of the clubhouse’s dining rooms, he was loose and — at least in public — in an easygoing mood, people who saw him said. “I hope he’s right about the AI,” Trump joked at one point, gesturing to his guest. Twenty-four hours later, Trump was in the basement Situation Room at the White House, wearing a red “Make America Great Again” hat as he watched the strikes he had approved days earlier, codenamed “Operation Midnight Hammer,” play out in real time on the facility’s wall of monitors.
In homes across America, the gifts have been opened, wrapping paper and bows strewn about living rooms.
Congressional Republicans have yet to break the record for most retirements in a single year, but some say it’s only a matter of time before widespread frustration with the current state of Washington leads to a tipping point as many in the party head for the exits.
A traffic stop outside of Baltimore Wednesday ended with an undocumented man shot and another injured after US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents allege the driver of a van drove directly at officers, prompting them to open fire.
The host of the Kennedy Center’s annual Christmas Eve jazz performance canceled Wednesday’s concert, citing the board of trustees’ move to rename the facility for both the 35th president and President Donald Trump.
The phone rings. Would your 10-year-old like to speak with the president? He’s tracking Santa Claus from his living room in Palm Beach.
Nasry “Tito” Asfura, a conservative politician backed by US President Donald Trump, has been declared the winner of the Honduran presidential election, narrowly edging out right-leaning centrist Salvador Nasralla in a contest marked by allegations of foreign intervention and voting irregularities.
The Justice Department on Wednesday said it has uncovered over a million more documents potentially related to the Jeffrey Epstein case and may need “a few more weeks” to process and release them to the public.
Eighteen Democratic-led states and the District of Columbia filed a lawsuit Tuesday challenging a new Trump administration policy seeking to bar transgender care for minors at federally-funded hospitals.
Wassail — from a greeting meaning “be in good health” — evokes some kind of ancient holiday tradition. But its particulars, like the spiced beverage, can be cloudy.
A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration’s attempt to reallocate federal Homeland Security funding away from states that refuse to cooperate with certain federal immigration enforcement.
When the Justice Department released a first batch of Jeffrey Epstein files on Friday that included photographs of former President Bill Clinton, White House officials raced to amplify the importance of the new documents.
One year ago this week, Joe Biden was president. I was in Doha, Qatar, negotiating with Israel and Hamas to finalize a ceasefire and hostage release deal. The incoming Trump team worked closely with us, a rare display of nonpartisanship to free hostages and end a war. It feels like a decade ago. A lot can happen in a year, as 2025 has shown.
Two people are dead and others are missing after a fire and explosion tore into a nursing home on the outskirts of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, spurring local responders, bystanders and staff to rush the elderly population to safety, Gov. Josh Shapiro said.