From rally gunfire to White House shooting, threats against President Trump continue to mount
The White House Correspondents' Dinner shooting is the latest in a growing series of security threats and incidents involving President Donald Trump.

The Justice Department (DOJ) faced heavy scrutiny after its botched release of Jeffrey Epstein-related files earlier this year, largely for failing to properly redact victim-identifying information – but on Sunday, veteran journalist Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez flagged one redaction in particular that suggested, she argued, something more troubling than incompetence.In its release of millions of Epstein-related files, the DOJ made some redactions that went beyond the scope of what was permitted, while in other instances, failed to make redactions that were required by law, such as when they revealed the identity of one prominent Epstein survivor who claimed to have been named “500 times,” exposing her once anonymous identity to the world.In one redaction, however, which Valdes-Rodriguez described as the “redaction that speaks,” President Donald Trump’s face was intentionally obscured.“When the DOJ released the final tranche of Epstein files in early 2026, its stated policy was clear: redact women to protect victims. The faces of men would not be redacted unless it was technically impossible to redact the woman without obscuring the man beside her,” Valdes-Rodriguez wrote in a report published Sunday on her Substack.“One exception was made. In a text message exchange between Steve Bannon and Epstein, a news photograph of Donald Trump had his face covered with a black box. There was no woman in the image requiring protection. There was no stated justification. There was only the black box, applied by a Justice Department that reports to Donald Trump.”The redaction, Valdes-Rodriguez argued, was telling given the absence of any other individuals in the photo in question, and hinted at something far more deliberate than the chaotic mishandling that characterized the rest of the DOJ's release of Epstein-related files.“While this doesn’t prove there is much more damning photo and perhaps video evidence of Trump in the files – and perhaps elsewhere, in the hands of whomever Epstein worked for, or whomever took over for that entity – the order to redact Trump could only really come out of either a mistaken belief he was a child sex trafficking victim, or a mandate to protect him at all costs,” Valdes-Rodriguez wrote.
The White House Correspondents' Dinner shooting is the latest in a growing series of security threats and incidents involving President Donald Trump.
Meet the Press Moderator Kristen Welker joins Hallie Jackson on Sunday TODAY to discuss Republicans raising concern over what’s included in President Donald Trump’s potential peace deal with Iran. "Really witnessing an extraordinary week of divisions between the president and his own party, all raising questions for Republicans about his priorities as we get deeper into this midterm election cycle,” Kristen says.
Trump insists US won’t rush talks with Tehran after rebukes from Republicans, including Ted Cruz and Lindsey GrahamRepublican hawks have issued a rare rebuke of Donald Trump over his planned peace deal with Iran, describing it as a “disaster” and questioning why the US president launched the war in the first place.Allies of Trump who strongly backed his controversial decision to order war on Iran alongside Israel urged him to “hold the line” this weekend, despite mounting economic costs and no sign of progress on many of the the initial objectives set out by his administration. Continue reading...
Donald Trump took to Truth Social Sunday morning to praise what he called a "much more professional and productive" relationship with Iran — the same country he spent years branding the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism."Our relationship with Iran is becoming a much more professional and productive one," Trump wrote, describing ongoing nuclear negotiations as proceeding in "an orderly and constructive manner."The statement landed with considerable whiplash for anyone who followed Trump's career. In 2018, Trump withdrew from the Obama-era nuclear deal and launched a "maximum pressure" campaign of crushing economic sanctions against Tehran. In January 2020, he ordered the assassination of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani, the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Quds Force, in a drone strike at Baghdad's international airport — an act that brought the two countries to the brink of open war.Now, in his second term, Trump finds himself in the position of negotiating his own nuclear deal with the same government — and praising the relationship in terms his predecessor might have used.The post also contained a swipe at Barack Obama — using his full middle name, a longtime Trump dog whistle — calling the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action "one of the worst deals ever made by our Country" and "a direct path to Iran developing a Nuclear Weapon."But in the very same post, Trump described his own negotiations in terms nearly identical to what Obama-era diplomats might have said: both sides taking their time, getting it right, no rushing, proceeding carefully toward a verifiable agreement.The contradiction did not go unnoticed. Earlier Sunday, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo — Trump's own top diplomat during his first term — warned that the deal being floated "seems straight out of the Wendy Sherman-Robert Malley-Ben Rhodes playbook," referring to key architects of Obama's Iran deal. White House communications director Steven Cheung responded by telling Pompeo to "shut his stupid mouth."Trump closed his post with a notable flourish, suggesting that Iran might one day consider joining the Abraham Accords — the normalization agreements between Israel and several Arab states that Trump brokered in his first term.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called President Donald Trump “the best friend Israel has ever had in the White House” as he spoke out Sunday morning against the shooting near the White House, but stayed mum on the current Iran peace deal. Two people were shot outside the White House on Saturday evening when a […]
Iran is pushing back on parts of a tentative deal being negotiated by the Trump administration that could put an end to the war between the two countries. President Trump on Saturday evening announced the two sides were moving close to a deal. Iranian officials have acknowledged the talks, and have even said there has…
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) is pushing back on fellow Republicans who have criticized an emerging deal being negotiated by the Trump administration to end the war with Iran. Paul, who has criticized the war while joining with Democrats to support War Powers Resolution votes to curb President Trump’s actions, said those criticizing Trump should give…
Donald Trump's Truth Social post praising negotiations with Iran as "productive and professional" triggered an immediate backlash Sunday — not from Democrats, but from his own most fervent supporters, who accused him of repeating Barack Obama's mistakes and demanded military destruction of the Iranian regime instead."You cannot trust anything that Iran signs — it doesn't matter whether it is a good deal on paper or not," wrote one supporter in a reply that gained traction on the platform. "Neville Chamberlain had a great deal with Hitler, how did that turn out? I understand that the spin will begin on trying to convince people that you didn't pull an Obama, but you can't fool your base. They trusted you and you have now alienated your most vocal and rabid supporters."The same commenter, identified as "Patriot and Retired Air Force," added a stinging verdict: "You are off the pedestal and merely a better alternative than them. Sad!" — deliberately echoing Trump's own signature putdown back at him.The replies were thick with calls for military action rather than diplomacy. "Level them, they can't be trusted," wrote one MAGA user. "Anything they sign won't be worth the paper it's written on. Take them out now!" Another demanded "unconditional surrender" as "the only option," arguing that "leaving the current Radical Islamic Regime in power is a LOSS for the U.S."Others drew the Obama comparison directly. "Lifting sanctions is as bad as Obama," wrote one commenter. Another called for the elimination of the IRGC entirely rather than any negotiated settlement.An Iranian-American commenter cut to the heart of the base's frustration: "Any agreement with this criminal regime makes you no different from Barack Obama. Anyone who shakes hands with criminals is no different from Barack Obama — finish your job via military, not a deal with criminals."The revolt on Truth Social mirrors a broader rupture that has been building in conservative circles over Trump's Iran diplomacy. Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo — Trump's own top diplomat in his first term — warned Saturday that the deal being floated "seems straight out of the Wendy Sherman-Robert Malley-Ben Rhodes playbook," a reference to the architects of Obama's 2015 nuclear agreement. White House communications director Steven Cheung responded by telling Pompeo to "shut his stupid mouth."Trump's post insisted his deal is "THE EXACT OPPOSITE" of Obama's approach and vowed the blockade of Iran would remain "in full force and effect" until any agreement is "reached, certified, and signed." But for a slice of his base that spent years calling for regime change, the optics of any deal, on any terms, appear to be a bridge too far.