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US President Donald Trump has been weighing the possibility of declaring victory against Iran without achieving a nuclear deal, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday, citing US officials. According to the officials, Trump privately floated the idea to his senior aides. If the US can keep Iran's nuclear program in check and traffic resumes in the Strait of Hormuz, then Trump would be more likely to extend the ceasefire "indefinitely," the officials told WSJ. In recent weeks, the president told senior aides privately that Tehran is "likely unable to revive its nuclear work," after Operation Midnight Hammer caused heavy...

After prominent antisemitic podcaster Tucker Carlson visited the Oval Office in January, a White House official told Jewish activist Shabbos Kestenbaum, “Just trust the plan.” It was also the approach that Israelis took toward the president on most issues. Trump and his advisers — especially top envoy Steve Witkoff — might occasionally have said things that confused Israel and even undermined its interests, but they trusted that he was a president who could distinguish good from evil, and was not about to be pushed around by Iran and friends.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sunday that Russian President Vladimir Putin has already lost his invasion of Ukraine, which Blinken says he remains confident will come out victorious in the war. “And the reason that I remain very confident in Ukraine’s ultimate success, which is that they’re fighting for their country, for their future for their freedom, the Russians are not,” Blinken told ABC’s Jonathan Karl on “This Week.” “And keep in mind, Putin has already lost in what he was trying to achieve. He was trying to erase Ukraine from the map and its independence, subsume it into...

>How real is the deal? We may not know for a couple of weeks yet (if not longer) but recent talks between China and the United States have resulted in an initial announcement that Beijing will prioritize closing the trade gap with the U.S. by purchasing significantly greater amounts of goods. Included in the few details offered thus far is a plan to increase both agricultural and energy exports from America. While China’s Foreign Ministry disputed some of the target amounts, the rest of the announcement looks as if it may soon become a reality. (CNN) Both parties said in...

China has agreed to “meaningful increases” in its purchase of U.S. agriculture and energy exports to help reduce the U.S. trade deficit, both countries said Saturday after wrapping up two days of high-stakes trade talks in Washington. A joint statement released by the White House said negotiators from both sides found “consensus on taking effective measures to substantially reduce the United States trade deficit in goods with China.” “To meet the growing consumption needs of the Chinese people and the need for high-quality economic development, China will significantly increase purchases of United States goods and services,” the statement said. “This...

Paul Wolfowitz, a former senior George W. Bush administration official and one of the chief Iraq War architects, said on Tuesday that the U.S. “won” the war in Iraq. When asked his thoughts about the current situation in Iraq and whether the war was a mistake, Wolfowitz replied, “We have won it—in 2009.” […] Iraq is now facing a terrorist insurgency from a Sunni extremist group, and critics blame the Obama administration for not working hard enough to secure an agreement. “I think we could have had one if we wanted it,” Wolfowitz said of the agreement. …

Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney said he thinks U.S. troops will be able to come home from Iraq if the temporary increase of troops proves successful. Alerts Romney said he hopes Gen. David Petraeus' review of U.S. strategy in Iraq will show progress in the Iraq. If that happens, he expects the military to decrease the number of troops in the field. "If we see the troop surge is working what that will mean is, that we will be able to start to pull back our troops and replace our troops with Iraqi troops," Romney told WKXL. "That's something that has...

Bush will deliver a "major speech" speech Thursday on the progress of the war in Iraq and the broader conflict against terrorism, the White House said Wednesday. Bush will deliver his remarks at 10:10 a.m. "Over 30 percent of the Iraqi troops are in the lead on these offensive operations. We've got troops embedded with them, and that's an important part of the training mission," he said. Bush to give greater detail White House press secretary Scott McClellan characterized Bush's planned remarks Thursday morning as a "major speech" that will address the connection between Iraq and the broader war against...