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The top US military commander for the Middle East says he has presented US President Donald Trump with military plans to strike Iran and is prepared to do if so ordered. “I have provided the secretary of defense and the president a wide range of options,” Central Command head Gen. Michael Kurilla says during testimony before the House Armed Services Committee. Kurilla was responding to Representative Mike Rogers of Alabama, the chairman of the committee, who asked if CENTCOM was prepared to respond with overwhelming force if Iran does not permanently give up its nuclear ambitions. “I take that as...

LOS ANGELES - As anti-ICE protests enter a fifth day in Southern California, President Donald Trump is doubling down on his decision to deploy thousands more troops to Los Angeles despite fierce opposition from California Gov. Gavin Newsom and local officials, including Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass. What we know: In a Truth Social post on Tuesday, Trump defended his decision to deploy the National Guard to LA, claiming if he hadn't, "that once beautiful and great city would be burning to the ground right now." "If I didn’t "SEND IN THE TROOPS" to Los Angeles the last three nights,...

“He can’t be as honest and candid as he was with me when he didn’t have Donald Trump as his boss,” Massie said. “He’s got his job is to sell this bill, and he’s trying to put lipstick on a pig, and Rand Paul and I are pointing out it’s a pig.”

President Trump has long mused about using troops to crush violent protests or riots in blue-state cities. He is now moving to do so in Los Angeles.Setting up a rare use of military force on domestic soil, President Trump ordered the Pentagon on Saturday night to send at least 2,000 National Guard troops to respond to protests in Los Angeles set off by his immigration crackdown.Mr. Trump has long mused about using military force on domestic soil to crush violent protests or riots, fight crime and hunt for undocumented migrants — a move that his aides talked him out of...

President Trump has ordered the California National Guard to secure Los Angeles from the anti-ICE rioters, despite the vocal objections of Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom and LA Mayor Karen Bass. It’s the first time in 60 years that the commander-in-chief deployed a state’s National Guard without the governor’s blessing, and members of the Trump administration are saying the move is justified because the protests represent a “violent insurrection” against the country. “This is a violent insurrection,” White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller posted Saturday night. Vice President JD Vance also used the word in describing the riots: “Insurrectionists carrying...

Federalizing the National Guard in response to ICE protests risks bloodshed—which is exactly what this administration wants.

Donald Trump warned Elon Musk on Saturday that he faces “very serious consequences” if he funds Democratic candidates following the pair’s epic public bust-up this week. The warning, delivered in an interview with NBC News scheduled to broadcast on Sunday, follows days of feuding and threats after Musk called Republicans’ budget legislation an “abomination”. Trump told interviewer Kristen Welker his relationship with the tech mogul was over and warned Musk against choosing to fund Democrats after spending close to $300m in support of Trump’s re-election last year. “If he does, he’ll have to pay the consequences for that,” Trump told...

President Trump warned Saturday that his former ally Elon Musk will face “very serious consequences” if he starts bankrolling Democratic candidates for office after their nasty public split over a Republican spending bill working its way through Congress. “If he does, he’ll have to pay the consequences for that,” Trump told NBC News’ Kristin Welker in an interview. “He’ll have to pay very serious consequences if he does that,” the president added. “Is there anything else you just want people to know about the status,” Welker asked. “No, not at all. We’re doing great,” Trump replied. “The bill is great....

Amid the messy ongoing divorce between the president and the world’s richest man, this much is already clear: Donald Trump has sole custody of the House GOP. Republican lawmakers are making clear that, if forced to choose, it’s Trump — not Elon Musk — they’re sticking by as leaders race to contain the fallout for their “one big, beautiful bill.” Even Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, who helms a House panel inspired by Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency initiative, blasted Musk’s public attacks on Trump as “unwarranted” and criticized his “lashing out on the internet.” “America voted for Donald...

The bromance between Elon Musk and President Donald Trump seems to be over. And now Musk is flirting with the idea of new party that could represent "the 80% in the middle," he posted on X. But who would join Musk-led party? And, can a third party actually succeed? Republicans, Democrats and Independents like Musk as much — or as little — as they like Trump. In April, before the feud between the president and the world’s richest person began, approval ratings for Trump and Musk were very similar, according to multiple polls. For instance, an April poll by the...

@RepThomasMassie The house has a 72 hour rule which requires the bill to be posted 72 hours before passage. BUT the Speaker circumvented this rule with a “managers amendment” that re-wrote and added substantial portions of the bill as it went through the rules committee the night the bill was passed. There’s another House rule which requires a day to pass before voting on a bill after the rules committee has modified it. Would you believe the House voted to suspend that so-called “same day rule”?! 😳 This means the final language of the bill was released only a few...

If you have walked the deep political weeds with us, you will likely remember the warnings. Thomas Massie, Chip Roy, Rand Paul and other fellow republican travelers will join with Elon Musk and the alligator emoji network to oppose President Trump as soon as they can get back into the minority.There is an intention behind this alignment of interests, which includes the Tech Bros (and Sea Island), that ends with a Vance-DeSantis promoted effort in 2028. The only thing standing in their way is MAGA. As a result, MAGA must be fractured.The money center behind the strategy is working on...

President Donald Trump says he would back raising taxes on the richest Americans to help pay for his domestic agenda...Trump also proposed closing the "carried interest loophole," a feature of the tax code taken advantage of by Wall Street investors, NBC News reported.

House Republicans are trying to find the right cocktail of tax reductions and new revenue to pass President Donald Trump's "big, beautiful bill" by Memorial Day. No taxes on tips is politically popular and is a key campaign promise of the president, but a coalition of deficit hawks could block that if the GOP fails to find revenue to cover the gap. That is why the president pushed House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., this week to raise taxes on the super rich. Trump is considering allowing the rate on individuals making $2.5 million or more to increase by 2.6%, from...

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Friday slammed U.S. President Donald Trump's trade policies and sweeping tariffs, saying they harm multilateralism as he met with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Moscow. -snip- "The latest decisions by the U.S. president to unilaterally put tariffs on trade with all countries in the world undermine the great idea of free trade and strengthening multilateralism," Lula said during a bilateral meeting with Putin. The leftist leader said he intends to strengthen Brazil's strategic partnership with Russia, citing "political, commercial, cultural, scientific and technological interests" as he sees room to increase trade.

President Trump appeared to acknowledge Wednesday that toy shortages are possible as his tariff hikes ripple through the economy. The CEOs of Walmart, Target and Home Depot privately warned him last week about the likelihood of product shortages and price spikes. "Somebody said, 'oh, the shelves are gonna be open,'" Trump told reporters Wednesday. "Well, maybe the children will have two dolls instead of 30 dolls, and maybe the two dolls will cost a couple of bucks more."

Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), a prominent populist congresswoman and Trump-ally, voiced concerns in a long Friday post on X about the state of the Trump administration, criticizing the current position of the administration on Iran, Ukraine, as well as a host of domestic issues. “I campaigned for no more foreign wars,” Greene wrote. “And now we are supposedly on the verge of going to war with Iran.” Greene was also highly critical of the so-called “Minerals Deal” between the U.S. and Ukraine, opining: And on top of that, now we are told that we have signed a deal for mineral...

Australia’s Anthony Albanese claimed a historic second term as prime minister on Saturday in a dramatic comeback against once-resurgent conservatives that was powered by voters' concerns about the influence of U.S. President Donald Trump. Peter Dutton, leader of the conservative Liberal party, conceded defeat and the loss of his own seat - echoing the fate of Canada's conservatives and their leader whose election losses days earlier were also attributed to a Trump backlash. [snip] Albanese would be the first Australian prime minister to win a consecutive term in two decades. He said Australians had voted for fairness and "the strength...

Feb. 28 was one of the darkest days for Ukraine since Russia’s invasion three years earlier. An Oval Office visit by President Volodymyr Zelensky meant to win favor with President Trump turned into a televised shouting match, prompting Mr. Trump to banish his guest from the White House without even serving him a planned lunch. Mr. Trump was already a deep skeptic of U.S. support for Ukraine. But after the disastrous meeting with Mr. Zelensky, he accelerated his diplomacy with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, drafting a peace plan to end the war in Ukraine that offered major concessions...

President Donald Trump on Friday said he is "taking away" Harvard's tax exempt status. "It's what they deserve,” he said in a Truth Social post. The decision will likely face legal challenges. Harvard’s president has said revoking the university's tax-exempt status would be unlawful and endanger "our ability to carry out our educational mission." Trump previously called for Harvard to lose its tax exempt status after the university said it would not comply with the administration's series of demands, including actions on antisemitism and the use of DEI on campus.