Trump’s Iran war message marked by exaggerated threats and shifting, contradictory goals
CNN
In the weeks leading up to President Donald Trump’s decision to strike Iran and in the frenetic days since, the president and his administration have offered several evolving explanations — at times exaggerated or at odds with US intelligence — to justify why the attacks were necessary and what the US ultimately hopes to achieve.
“We’re very clear-eyed,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth assured Monday about the Trump administration’s war with Iran. He said it had “clear objectives” and assured that the mission “is very, very clear” to American soldiers.
Nearly 6 in 10 Americans disapprove of the US decision to take military action in Iran, as most say a long-term military conflict between the two nations is likely, according to a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS.
Many outspoken conservative opponents across social media have rallied around the words of one influential figure to express their concern: the late activist Charlie Kirk.
President Donald Trump told CNN in a nine-minute phone interview Monday morning that the US military is “knocking the crap” out of Iran – but the “big wave” is yet to come.
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Tuesday’s primary in North Carolina’s 4th District offers one of the first national tests of what kind of leaders Democrats want to send to Washington.
In the wee hours of Sunday morning, as Buford’s Backyard Beer Garden in Austin, Texas, prepared to close for the night, revelers and bar staff were interrupted by the sound of gunshots. The suspected gunman may have had a connection to terrorism in the wake of the US attack on Iran, according to law enforcement officials.
In Georgia, a hospital closed its maternity ward. In New Hampshire, a health center shuttered. And in Iowa, a hospital system laid off dozens of employees and closed a clinic.
A man stabbed four people, one fatally, before he was shot and killed by a Virginia trooper on a busy interstate near Washington, DC, authorities said.
During a crisis like what is now unfolding in the Middle East, a president receives a net assessment prepared from intelligence and military sources. It might evaluate the balance of forces, leadership dynamics and strategic calculations — without making policy recommendations. Its purpose is clarity: a baseline from which decisions can be made.
As gala-goers in gowns and tuxedos were dancing the night away inside Mar-a-Lago’s ballroom Friday evening, a very different scene was unfolding on the other side of the rambling estate in Palm Beach, Florida.
The death of a nearly blind refugee in Buffalo, New York, days after Border Patrol agents dropped him off at a coffee shop alone, has prompted an investigation into the circumstances of his final days and drawn sharp criticism from the mayor, who called the incident “deeply disturbing.”
A major Second Amendment case pending at the Supreme Court is firing up marijuana legalization advocates who fear the Trump administration’s defense of a 1968 gun ban could expose millions of recreational pot users to prosecution, even as a growing number of states relax their cannabis laws.