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WASHINGTON — The estimated price tag for the war in Iran so far has jumped to $29 billion, up from the $25 billion figure given at the end of April, a senior Pentagon official revealed Tuesday. Jules Hurst, acting under secretary of Defense who serves as the de facto chief financial officer at the Pentagon, told the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense that the higher amount came from a further crunching of the numbers. “The Joint Staff team, with the comptroller team are constantly looking at that estimate, and so now we think it’s closer to [$]29 [billion],” Hurst said....

President Trump and Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said in separate interviews on Sunday that the war against Iran was not over, seeming to undermine messaging from the Trump administration last week that the conflict had run its course. The interviews further compounded confusion about a military campaign marked by shifting goals and messaging since the American-Israeli attacks on Iran began in late February. Mr. Trump, in an interview released by the syndicated news show “Full Measure,” said Iran had been defeated militarily. Yet when asked if it was accurate to say that combat operations were “over and done,” he...

@benshapiro has renamed the “Horseshoe Right.” They’re now simply the “New Left.” They believe: 🔘The constitution is antiquated and should be updated or replaced 🔘 America is a nefarious force in the world & our service members are war criminals 🔘 America’s enemies (Russia, China, Iran, etc.) are the good guys 🔘 Capitalism is corrupt & govt power is the solution 🔘 Americans can be divided by race into victims and victimizers Ben says they “have NOTHING in common with traditional conservatism, and they have nearly EVERYTHING in common with their new friends on the left.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I18-4lPkYzM

An IDF soldier was seen placing a cigarette into the mouth of a statue of the Virgin Mary, in a Christian village in southern Lebanon, in a photo shared online on Wednesday. After identifying the soldier, the Israel Defense Forces said he will be disciplined. In response to a query, the IDF said that it “views the incident gravely and emphasizes that the soldier’s conduct completely deviates from the values expected of its troops.” An initial inquiry conducted by the IDF found that the photo was taken in the village of Debel several weeks ago, although it was only shared...

OK. I have been doing my best to read the Trump tea leaves, figure out the Art of the Deal, and parse all the information out there so that I can figure out Donald Trump's strategy in the Iran War. I thought I had a good handle on it, and until the past few days, Trump's behavior accorded pretty well with my overall theory. Trump's strategy appeared to have been to pressure Iran into full and complete capitulation on the issues of nuclear weapons, ballistic missiles (which exist to make attacking Iran nearly impossible), and to get the Strait of...

She is the loudest, most aggressive pro-Israel voice in Donald Trump's orbit. So when Laura Loomer leaned in close to the President two months ago and warned him that the American public was giving up on the Jewish State, his two-word reply landed like a thunderclap, carrying an ominous message for Benjamin Netanyahu. 'You're probably going to be the last pro-Israel President we ever have,' Loomer recounted telling Trump, in an interview with the New York Times. Trump, she says, replied: 'You're right.' The White House pointedly did not deny the exchange. Spokeswoman Anna Kelly instead offered a boilerplate response...

The UK’s new ambassador to the US has described Keir Starmer as having been “on the ropes” over the Peter Mandelson scandal and said it is Israel rather than Britain that has a “special relationship” with the White House. Christian Turner, who took office in February to replace Mandelson as the UK’s most senior diplomat in Washington, made the remarks privately to a group of students visiting the US in the same month he was appointed. His remarks are embarrassing for Downing Street because they emerged in the same week that the king is carrying out his state visit under...

Continued failed diplomacy is only a deferral of catastrophe. Cognitive dissonance is in the air once again. Failed former Obama and Biden national security and foreign policy apparatchiks, Democrats in Congress, assorted globalists in Europe, pro-CCP influence peddlers, the European descendants of Neville Chamberlain, and the legion of legacy media talking heads have been doing their damnedest to undermine the long-delayed rescue operation of the Iranian people, who have been held hostage by a theocracy-driven autocracy since 1979. And that is exactly what Operation Epic Fury is: the rescue of the downtrodden and long-oppressed Iranian people from a tyrannical regime....

Two Israeli soldiers have been pulled from combat duty and given 30-day jail sentences after one photographed the other swinging what appeared to be a sledgehammer at the head of a statue of Jesus in southern Lebanon, the Israeli military said on Tuesday. Other troops who stood by but did nothing to intervene, the military said, have also been summoned and could face disciplinary action. The military replaced the damaged statue with a gleaming new sculpture of the crucifixion of Christ and released a photo of it. The extraordinarily swift administration of military justice by Israel was a tacit acknowledgment...

President Trump posted 4/19/26, on True Social: “Whether people like Israel or not, they have proven to be a GREAT Ally of the United States of America. They are Courageous, Bold, Loyal, and Smart and, unlike others that have shown their true colors in a moment of conflict and stress, Israel fights hard, and knows how to WIN! President DJT” April 19, 2026 Donald J. Trump

President Donald Trump announced a U.S. blockade on the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday. Trump made the announcement in a post on his Truth Social account, blaming the failure to reach a deal with Iran during talks in Pakistan this weekend. "So, there you have it, the meeting went well, most points were agreed to, but the only point that really mattered, NUCLEAR, was not. Effective immediately, the United States Navy, the Finest in the World, will begin the process of BLOCKADING any and all Ships trying to enter, or leave, the Strait of Hormuz," Trump wrote. "At some point,...

Key points: >Consumer confidence plunged to a record low in April as fears mounted over rising energy prices and the broader impact of the Iran war, according to a University of Michigan survey. >The drop in sentiment coincided with a sharp spike in inflation expectations, with respondents seeing prices up 4.8% in a year from now, a full percentage point rise from the March reading. Consumer confidence plunged to a record low in April as fears mounted over rising energy prices and the broader impact of the Iran war, according to a University of Michigan survey Friday. The university’s headline...

Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump All U.S. Ships, Aircraft, and Military Personnel, with additional Ammunition, Weaponry, and anything else that is appropriate and necessary for the lethal prosecution and destruction of an already substantially degraded Enemy, will remain in place in, and around, Iran, until such time as the REAL AGREEMENT reached is fully complied with. If for any reason it is not, which is highly unlikely, then the “Shootin’ Starts,” bigger, and better, and stronger than anyone has ever seen before. It was agreed, a long time ago, and despite all of the fake rhetoric to the contrary - NO...

Megyn Kelly on "Piers Morgan Uncensored" discussed the damage sustained by the Trump political coalition, the global economy, and U.S. allies, after 40 days at war with Iran. “The question is now not, who has Trump lost. The question is who remains," she said about the MAGA coalition. "He’s underwater with men, including young men and young people. The young person coalition that Charlie Kirk delivered to the president is gone. They’ve abandoned Donald Trump." "These battles in the Middle East have been fought now for 20-plus years, and we continue to learn the same lesson over and over. It’s...

Iran’s parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, accused the U.S. on Wednesday of violating the two-week ceasefire agreement. “The deep historical distrust we hold toward the United States stems from its repeated violations of all forms of commitments — a pattern that has regrettably been repeated once again,” Ghalibaf said in a statement posted on social media. Three parts of Iran’s 10-point ceasefire proposal have been violated, Ghalibaf said. The violations are Israel’s continued attacks on Lebanon, the entry of a drone into Iranian airspace, and the denial of the Islamic Republic’s right to enrich uranium, he said. “In such situation,...

Iran has once again closed the Strait of Hormuz, blocking oil tankers from transiting the waterway, in retaliation for Israeli strikes on Hezbollah, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-tied outlet Fars News reported on Wednesday. Oil tankers attempting to transit the strait received threatening messages from the Iranian Navy, according to several shipping sources. "Any vessel trying to travel into the sea ... will be targeted and destroyed..." the message, which was received by several vessels, said. This is a developing story.

Israel and the United States have finalized a comprehensive list of strategic targets to be struck in Iran should the Islamic Republic fail to meet the requirements of US President Donald Trump’s looming ultimatum, two sources confirmed to The Jerusalem Post. Agreement on the target list follows a series of intensive high-level discussions aimed at synchronizing the American and Israeli responses to Tehran’s continued defiance. In addition to the finalized list of objectives, operational coordination between the US military and the IDF has been completed. The final touches on the joint operational plan were made during a meeting last Thursday...

Ted Cruz endorses article accusing Traditional Catholics of being ‘parasites’Traditional Catholics are in the firing line in an article Ted Cruz described as 'the best and most comprehensive explanation of what we're fighting.'On Sunday, March 15, Senator Ted Cruz retweeted a long anti-Catholic X essay by the Republican Zionist account “Insurrection Barbie,” stating:READ every word of this.It’s the best & most comprehensive explanation of what we’re fighting.In the essay, which runs over 8,000 words, the author claimed that the Republican Party was being taken over by a small bloc of Catholics and undermining its support for “Christian Zionism.”A chief influence...

Iran’s leadership is facing an escalating internal power struggle as the country’s economy edges toward collapse, with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) increasingly consolidating control, according to an analysis by Iran International. The report describes what it calls the most significant political upheaval in Iran since the 1979 revolution, driven by a convergence of war, economic crisis, and a growing leadership vacuum. Together, these pressures are pushing the system away from its traditional balance between civilian government and unelected power centers toward what the analysis characterizes as a more overtly military-dominated structure. At the center of the tensions is...

Former White House adviser and key figure in the MAGA movement, Steve Bannon, has called on the United States Department of Homeland Security to deport Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's son, Yair, and send him to fight in Iran. “Netanyahu's kid down in Miami, turf him out tomorrow,” Bannon said. Similarly, on February 28th, a site was launched with the URL ‘DraftBarronTrump.com,’ a satirical site with fabricated quotes from the Trump family hailing Barron Trump’s bravery and how he should enlist to fight against Iran. A draft would require approval from both the president and Congress, and the US has not...