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Lindsey Graham: "The liberation of Cuba is upon us." "We are marching through the world." "Cuba is next."

The Trump administration on Wednesday sent Congress a long-awaited supplemental funding package to help cover the cost of the Iran war. The administration is asking for about $87.6 billion to address "urgent needs" related to the Iran war, as well as other funding to respond to the Ebola outbreak in Central Africa and provide support for American farmers. The request will face an uphill battle and puts vulnerable Republicans in a politically tricky position, since backing it could be seen as support for the unpopular war. It's all but certain to face stiff opposition from Democrats, putting its passage in...

This week the national average dipped below $4/gallon for the first time since March. This is an auspicious sign for Trump and his political fortunes, but to Iran hawks on the right, it comes at an unacceptable price. Fox News host Mark Levin, a usual Trump booster, is gravely disappointed that Trump seems to be abandoning his hopes for a regime change in Iran in order to salvage the midterm elections, and his own presidency. Neoconservative columnist David Harsanyi has turned against both Trump and Vice President J D Vance with blind fury for not pursuing the war further and...

Key Senate Republicans are raising concerns about a reported peace deal being negotiated with Iran, arguing it would be a disaster for the United States that would make meaningless the war launched by President Trump nearly three months ago. “The rumored 60-day ceasefire — with the belief that Iran will ever engage in good faith — would be a disaster,” Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, wrote in a post on social platform X. He said the effects of the joint military operation between the U.S. and Israel titled “Operation Epic Fury” would “be...

It’s hard to think of a time when the United States suffered a total defeat in a conflict, a setback so decisive that the strategic loss could be neither repaired nor ignored...The initial failure in Iraq was mitigated by a shift in strategy... Defeat in the present confrontation with Iran will be of an entirely different character. It can neither be repaired nor ignored...The Strait of Hormuz will not be “open,” as it once was. With control of the strait, Iran emerges as the key player in the region and one of the key players in the world... Far from...

Sizable minorities on both the left and the right want America to intervene in fewer foreign conflicts and to exercise more restraint in foreign policy. In the 2006 midterm elections, antiwar voters contributed to the Republicans’ loss of both houses of Congress. They also helped defeat Hillary Clinton in the 2008 Democratic presidential primary contest and the Republican nominee, John McCain, at that year’s general election. While McCain styled himself a “maverick,” the label could be more accurately bestowed upon the anti-interventionist Republican Ron Paul, who shocked the GOP establishment by showing that an unstinting critic of the Iraq War...

Instead of fighting over a 21-mile-wide bottleneck forever, we cut a new channel through friendly territory. A dozen thermonuclear detonations and you’ve got a waterway wider than the Panama Canal, deeper than the Suez, and safe from Iranian attacks. ...

NOW - Lindsey Graham pleads with Trump to join the Israeli military fighting in Lebanon

President Trump told The Post Monday that he’s not ruling out sending US ground troops into Iran “if they were necessary” — adding that Operation Epic Fury was “way ahead of schedule” by taking out dozens of Tehran’s top officials. “I don’t have the yips with respect to boots on the ground — like every president says, ‘There will be no boots on the ground.’ I don’t say it,” Trump said after launching strikes Saturday to decapitate Iran’s military and political leadership. “I say ‘probably don’t need them,’ [or] ‘if they were necessary.'” Trump told the Daily Mail on Sunday...

Donald Trump will not rule out putting troops on the ground in Iran while warning that the next 'big wave' of strikes is impending. The President said on Monday that he would allow for US service members to enter Iran 'if they were necessary.'

Last June when the United States targeted Iran’s nuclear facilities in a series of coordinated airstrikes with Israel, President Trump boasted that “Iran’s key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated.” He said that on the day of the operation, which hit the enrichment facility at Fordow, buried under a mountain, as well as sites at Natanz and Isfahan.In the ensuing days and months, Trump repeated this claim, saying that Iran’s nuclear facilities and capabilities had been “obliterated.” In August he said, “We obliterated … the future nuclear capability of Iran.” In October he said, “Well, they don’t...

The United States has directed its military forces in the Middle East to prepare for potentially extended operations against Iran, positioning them for action should President Donald Trump order strikes on the Islamic Republic. It remains unclear whether Trump will pursue a diplomatic solution or move toward military action against the Iranian regime. Speaking to U.S. forces at a base in North Carolina on Friday, Trump said it has "been difficult to make a deal." "Sometimes you have to have fear. That's the only thing that really will get the situation taken care of," Trump told the U.S. troops. White...

“Energy is the chokehold to kill” the Cuban regime, said a person familiar with the discussions. The Trump administration is weighing new tactics to drive regime change in Cuba, including imposing a total blockade on oil imports to the Caribbean country, three people familiar with the plan said Thursday. That escalation has been sought by some critics of the Cuban government in the administration and backed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, according to two of the three people, who were granted anonymity to discuss the sensitive discussions. No decision has been made on whether to approve that move, but...

Many of the troops and ships once at the president’s disposal have shifted to the Caribbean.The Trump administration has insisted it has numerous military options to deploy against Iran if the regime uses force against demonstrators. But that menu is far more limited than it was even a year ago. The U.S. troops and ships that were once at the president’s disposal have shifted to the Caribbean. A major American defense system sent to the Middle East last year has returned to South Korea. And administration officials say there are no plans for the movement of major assets. The president...

@LindseyGrahamSC Mr. President: your decisive leadership in isolating this regime economically through your actions today are most impressive. Your promise to have the protestors’ back and put the regime on notice that you will not tolerate the killing has led to the largest outpouring of demonstrators against this fanatical regime since its founding. Mr. President: I believe the Iranian regime has crossed red lines. They are killing their people in large numbers and mocking your leadership. It is now time to take decisive military action — no boots on the ground – going after those who do the killing. Make...

President Donald Trump is set to be briefed by top aides this week as he plots out the level of his response to the Iranian regime's brutal crackdown against citizen-led protests. Trump's top military and diplomatic staffers, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, and Joint Chiefs Chair Gen. Dan Caine, are anticipated to be present at the meeting, per the Wall Street Journal. The meeting comes as Trump is understood to be considering further US involvement in the region, but no final decisions are expected to emerge until after Tuesday's scheduled meeting. Putting U.S. troops'...

Bolton says he is pleased Maduro has been captured but stresses that Maduro alone does not represent the full regime. He says Trump’s team must remove other who control the weapons, the courts, and the Cartels. ...

President Donald Trump said on Friday, January 2, that the United States is "locked and loaded" to respond if Iran kills protesters, prompting Tehran to warn that intervention would destabilize the region. Protesters and security forces clashed in several Iranian cities on Thursday, with at least six reported killed, the first deaths since the unrest escalated.

The US House of Representatives voted to pass a negotiated version of the National Defense Authorization Act on Wednesday, sending the Pentagon spending bill to the Senate for final approval. This bill was negotiated with Democrats in the House and the Senate, resulting in a bipartisan vote that some MAGA firebrands opposed.Per Fox:An earlier procedural vote on the legislation just barely passed 215–211 at the 11th hour after four Republicans: Reps. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla, Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., all changed their votes from no to yes. All Democrats voted no on the procedural...

Sean Davis @seanmdavOne of the things that drives me nuts about the current era of political conversation and speech-policing is that nobody is ever honest about the end goal of certain tactics. So let’s just lay it out: the war against Tucker is actually a proxy war against J.D. Vance.It is being waged primarily by interventionists who hate the foreign policy realism of the Trump era, hate that J.D. has embraced it, and desperately want to either get rid of J.D. or bully him into doing what they want. The war on Tucker is designed to be a warning shot...