President Donald Trump, in an interview released Wednesday, confirmed an earlier report that he criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as “crazy," and says he's “a little bit perturbed” that Israel’s fighting with Hezbollah in Lebanon is holding back peace talks with Iran.
The Trump administration is sticking with a deal to permanently drop tax claims against Trump, an extraordinary flex of executive power that could help shield the president from further examination of his finances and legal conduct, even as it scraps a $1.8 billion fund to compensate the Republican president's allies amid a fierce political backlash.
Trump's endorsements helped end the political careers of two senators and a congressman deemed insufficiently loyal, but he couldn't lift Rep. Randy Feenstra to victory in Iowa’s Republican primary, setting up a Democratic opportunity to pick up a governorship. See other AP coverage of Tuesday's primary results here.
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Rubio says Iran retains drone capabilities, but they’re not as robust
Democratic Rep. Dina Titus of Nevada pushed Rubio to explain Iran’s military capabilities. Trump and others claim American forces have decimated the Islamic Republic’s military, and yet ships are still being attacked in the Strait of Hormuz, she said.
“So is the war still on or is the war off?” Titus asked.
Rubio acknowledged that Iran still has small boats with machine guns as well as some drone capabilities. But he said Iran lacks the ability to attack targets with swarms of drones as it once did.
Titus noted that the U.S. military has been using expensive weapons systems to take down the drones. Rubio said “that needs to change.”
Democrat shows Rubio videos of Trump with his eyes closed, says ‘something is wrong’
California Rep. Ted Lieu displayed several clips of what he described as Trump sleeping while Rubio spoke during Cabinet meetings, saying they reflect concerns about the president’s health. The short clips show Trump with his eyes closed on several instances during meetings from the last few months.
“I’m going to ask you to come clean with the American people and the White House as well: There’s something wrong with Donald Trump’s health or cognitive abilities,” Lieu said.
In response, Rubio said, “I don’t even know how to respond to that other than to tell you that it’s absurd and ridiculous.”
Mullin doesn’t back down from threats to pull CBP officers from airports
Mullin was asked about his threat to remove Customs and Border Protection officers from airports in cities that don’t typically cooperate with federal immigration enforcement.
Mullin said he isn’t “punishing” places dubbed sanctuary cities by the Trump administration.
But he blamed those cities for “refusing to allow local and state enforcement officers to respond when we called” and said he needs to protect his staff. “If that means I gotta pull them out of Customs and Border Protection from processing international flights, I will,” Mullin said.
Mullin did not say when he might implement his threat, which has sparked criticism from the travel industry for its potential to cause chaos just ahead of the World Cup.
GOP congressman tells DHS secretary to use more discretion in ICE arrests
In a rare example of a Republican criticizing the Trump administration’s deportation program, Rep. Carlos Gimenez urged Mullin to put more emphasis on apprehending violent criminals.
“I think you need to use your discretion a little bit more as to who is being deported, who’s being arrested, etc. Let’s go after the worst of the worst,” said Gimenez, whose South Florida district has a large heavy Cuban population.
Referring to a comment from Democratic Rep. Lou Correa, Gimenez said it’s unacceptable that ICE recently failed to take six criminal suspects into custody in Orange County, California.
Mullin said ICE only has 48 hours after defendants are booked into local jails to take them into custody, a difficult deadline if not immediately informed of arrests.
“There’s no excuse for it, but we just don’t have the resources to get there like we need to,” Mullin said.
‘MAHA’ movement flexes its power in Iowa, overcoming Trump’s choice
The power of Trump’s endorsement helped end the political careers of Sens. John Cornyn of Texas and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky. But even though Trump jumped into Iowa’s Republican primary by backing Rep. Randy Feenstra for governor, GOP voters nominated Zach Lahn instead.
Democrats nominated Rob Sand, whose rural roots are rare among Democrats. Sand also is a proven winner in a Republican-leaning state, having been elected twice as auditor.
Lahn was not well known in Iowa politics when he launched his campaign in November, but he built support among conservatives by championing a total ban on abortion, keeping liberal ideology out of public school classrooms and developing a following with the “Make America Healthy Again” movement, which opposes the Trump administration’s embrace of pesticides.
Iowa Democrats rally behind former Paralympian in marquee Senate race
Democrats stunned by how Trump has remade American politics have spent the past decade debating which type of candidate is best positioned to energize voters and win elections, not moral victories.
Iowa marked the latest stop in this sometimes agonizing conversation.
The party’s establishment supported Josh Turek, a state representative who presented a compelling personal biography that included competing for the United States in four Paralympics. State Sen. Zach Wahls had offered himself as a more disruptive figure, refusing to back Chuck Schumer of New York as the Senate Democratic leader if he were elected.
Democratic voters united behind Turek, who will face Republican Ashley Hinson in November.
Oil rises toward $100 as U.S.-Iran ceasefire wobbles
Oil prices are rising Wednesday following the latest flare-up in fighting to threaten the U.S.-Iran ceasefire, and U.S. stocks are stalling near their records.
The S&P 500 slipped 0.3% from its all-time high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 339 points, or 0.7%, as of 10:15 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.3% lower.
Weighing on the market was a climb of 1.1% for the price of a barrel of Brent crude to $97.07. It rose after the U.S. military said Iran fired missiles toward Kuwait and Bahrain. The United States said it then struck an Iranian military ground control station on an island in the Strait of Hormuz. Hope seems to be remaining on Wall Street that the United States and Iran will ultimately reopen the strait.
Trump talks up pairing of Vance and Rubio as a team in 2028 election
Trump praised the possibility of Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio running as a ticket in the 2028 presidential election.
"They’re both very talented,” Trump said on the “Pod Force One” podcast. “I like them together. You know, it’d be great. I don’t know how you beat them if they’re together. That would be a great team.”
The president has previously talked up this combination. How Vance and Rubio feel about it is unclear. “They’d have to agree to it, right?” Trump said.
There is still “a long time left” before the 2028 presidential election, Trump cautioned. But he said he observes how his aides and Cabinet officials interact and called the relationship between Vance and Rubio “good.”
Markwayne Mullin says DHS ready for ‘complicated’ World Cup security operations
The Homeland Security secretary said his agency is ready to help protect security at World Cup games across the U.S., but still has “a lot of work to do” ahead of the first game June 12 in Los Angeles.
“I feel very comfortable where we’re at, and we feel like we have a zero-fail mission. But it’s going to be complicated,” Mullin told the House Committee on Homeland Security on Wednesday.
Millions of fans will be coming to the U.S., for the equivalent of “78 Super Bowls in 38 days,” he said, and “we have some very complicated countries that are going to be playing each other that have a tremendous amount of dislike against each other.”
He credited state and local officials at host sites for their cooperation with federal agencies, and said “I hope when FIFA is over, we can show that we can work together and continue to keep our cities and our streets safe.”
Rubio hopes for joint Israel-Lebanon statement on peace after new round of political talks
The secretary of state says he hopes the latest round of high-level political talks between Israel and Lebanon will result in a joint statement on ending hostilities.
In testimony before lawmakers that started Wednesday shortly after the Israeli and Lebanese ambassadors to the U.S. began meeting at the State Department for a second day of negotiations, Rubio said the aim of the talks is to “produce a joint statement and an action plan on a track for security in that country, independent from Hezbollah, independent from nefarious influence.”
The conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, which is not participating in the talks, has become a major sticking point in efforts to end the war in Iran. Wednesday’s discussion is the fourth between the two countries and follows a meeting focused on security issues that was held at the Pentagon on Friday.
Rubio says Trump administration was aware and prepared for Iranian retaliation
On the second day of back-to-back Capitol Hill hearings, Rubio was pressed by a senior Democrat on whether he warned Trump about the scope of Iran’s response if the U.S. were to strike.
“Did you warn President Trump, before the Iran war began, that this conflict would drive up cost on gas, food, travel and the president? Yes or no?” asked Rep. Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
“The president and the full administration was aware that there would be consequences to action,” Rubio responded. “But the consequences of Iran having a nuclear weapon were worse.”
Rubio’s comments come despite reporting that Trump and U.S. officials underestimated Iran’s retaliation to an attack, including its closure of the Strait of Hormuz and strikes on Gulf countries. The president himself has previously said no one thought Tehran would close the critical waterway.
Bessent says he’s unable to comment on IRS plan to give Trump audit immunity
Wyden questioned Bessent on whether the Trump administration would drop the IRS plan to confer audit immunity on Trump, as part of a settlement agreement to end the president’s $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS.
Wyden referred to acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s Tuesday testimony to lawmakers that the Trump administration is scrapping plans for a $1.8 billion fund that would have compensated allies of the Republican president.
Wyden asked Bessent: “Does the IRS audit immunity given to Trump, his family, and his businesses still stand?”
“There’s continuing litigation and I’m unable to comment on ongoing litigation,” Bessent said.
Treasury Secretary to be grilled over Trump’s IRS settlement
Setting the tone for a hearing scheduled to examine Treasury’s budget, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said in his opening remarks that lawmakers would question U.S. Scott Bessent on the IRS plan to drop any probes of Trump, his family or the Trump organization over whether they have paid their fair share of taxes.
The administration has dropped plans to create a $1.8 billion fund to compensate the Republican president’s allies, but is sticking with a deal meant to resolve Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service. The U.S. is “forever barred and precluded” from examining or prosecuting Trump, his sons and the Trump organization’s current tax examinations, according to a one-page Justice Department document.
“Secretary Bessent owes the committee an explanation of what the Treasury knows about the dirty settlement, that’s because his department was involved from beginning to end,” Wyden said.
Report: Disruption of Mideast energy supplies into next year would slam global economy
A prolonged disruption of energy supplies from the Middle East due to the Iran war would deal a severe blow to the global economy, sending some countries into recession and spreading inflation and higher unemployment, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said in a report Wednesday.
Hardest hit would be Asian economies that depend on crude oil, fuel and natural gas from the Persian Gulf, and poorer countries where people spend more of their incomes on fuel and food, the OECD said. The report analyzes two scenarios:
1. Prolonged disruption: Global growth slows from 3.4% last year to 2.1% this year and 1.8% in 2027, potentially pushing some economies into or close to recession.
2. Time-limited disruption, in which energy production and Gulf shipments start to return to pre-war levels in the middle of this year: Growth would slow to 2.8% this year and rebound to 3.1% next year.
Another day of questions for Homeland Security secretary
Markwayne Mullin is in Congress again, this time in the House, after fielding fierce questions from skeptical Democratic senators over his short tenure leading Homeland Security.
As Mullin walked into the hearing room Wednesday, protesters in the hallway could be heard yelling that he’s an “embarrassment.”
Democrats slammed Mullin on Tuesday over his department’s immigration policies and accused Immigration and Customs Enforcement of mistreating detainees at a facility in New Jersey.
Mullin pushed back, saying that officers were following laws set forth by Congress and defended treatment of migrants at Delaney Hall.
Rubio begins second day of congressional hearings
Secretary of State Marco Rubio is facing questions from lawmakers for the first time this week since the Iran war was launched in late February.
The focus of Wednesday's House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing is the State Department budget. But it’s likely to veer into issues concerning the Iran war, arms sales to Taiwan and an Ebola outbreak in Africa.
Trump’s hosting streak meets America’s 250th birthday and the World Cup
When nearly all the scheduled musical performers pulled out of a concert series marking America’s 250th anniversary, Trump responded by making himself the headlining act of the Great American State Fair.
That put to rest any possible scenario where a president who has built his personal and political persona on seizing the spotlight might cede the stage to avoid overshadowing a celebration bigger than himself — like, for example, the World Cup, where he said he’ll present the golden trophy to the winning team.
From his reality shows to the hours he’s spent entertaining at events to his evident pride in showing off his properties to his overhaul of the White House, Trump can be a gracious, personable and highly watchable master of ceremonies. But he also tends to make every event about himself.
Trump thinks Todd Blanche will become his permanent attorney general
Asked in an interview if acting attorney general Todd Blanche would get the post full-time, Trump said, “I think he will.”
The president said his former personal attorney is doing a “very good job” at the Justice Department. He told the “Pod Force One” podcast that he did not have any other candidates in mind.
“I wanted to see how he’s received,” Trump said of Blanche. “And he’s done a very good job. But I’ve known him a long time.”
Blanche has been the deputy attorney general and became the acting leader of the Justice Department in April after the departure of Pam Bondi as attorney general.
Blanche would need to be nominated and confirmed by the Senate to shift from acting to the official attorney general.
Trump says that Iran’s supreme leader is involved in peace talks
The U.S. president said that Iran’s supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei, who succeeded his father, is “involved” in peace talks for ending the war.
“They have a lot of respect for him,” Trump said in an interview with The New York Post’s “Pod Force One.”
Trump said Khamenei is not doing well to do injuries sustained in an airstrike, but “they say he’s giving approval because that’s the way it has been for a long, long time.”
The president added, “We seem to be getting along quite well,” but said he had not previously thought about meeting with Khamenei until he was asked about the possibility in the interview.
Trump said the U.S. had gone through two “sets” of Iranian negotiators who were now gone, as well as some of the third set of Iranian negotiators.
Trump says US blockade of Strait of Hormuz could continue through a summer of elevated gasoline prices
The president said in a podcast interview that oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz could be blocked through the summer, as the extent of progress in peace talks with Iran remain unclear.
Trump said he thought it was “unlikely” that the strait would stay closed that long, but he acknowledged to The New York Post’s “Pod Force One” that the U.S. blockade stopping tankers with Iranian oil could go through the Labor Day holiday on Sept. 7.
“I don’t know. I mean, I think it could be (closed through Labor Day), but I think it’s unlikely. I think that we’ll have it. I think this will resolve itself fairly quickly,” Trump said.
Continued shortages of oil and natural gas could keep global prices elevated and inflict levels of inflation on the U.S. and other countries that could hamper growth.
