Rand Paul pushes back on GOP criticisms of Trump-Iran tentative deal
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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…
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…
Donald Trump posted an image Sunday morning on Truth Social depicting former President Barack Obama and several of his top national security officials dressed in orange prison jumpsuits, in what appears to be a direct threat against a former president and his allies.The image, styled as a Brady Bunch-style grid of mugshots, showed Obama — labeled "Barack Hussein Obama" — alongside former CIA Director John Brennan, former FBI Director James Comey, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, former National Security Advisor Susan Rice, former UN Ambassador Samantha Power, former Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett, and former Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes, who was labeled 'Ben "Hamas" Rhodes.' The graphic was captioned with, "The Shady Bunch.""This is a bad (Sick!) group of people," Trump wrote. "Very destructive to our great Nation. Caused tremendous damage through Weaponization! President DJT"The post comes as Trump's Justice Department has moved aggressively against perceived political enemies. Trump has repeatedly suggested — without evidence — that Obama-era officials engaged in illegal surveillance and other misconduct against his 2016 campaign, a conspiracy theory his supporters refer to as "Obamagate."
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.
Several top Democratic candidates in the midterms are airing scathing ads linking their Republican foes to the Jeffrey Epstein scandal — betting that the Trump administration's reluctance to release the Epstein files still resonates with voters.Why it matters: Democrats are mostly focusing on high prices, health care and Trump's war against Iran, but some also are trying to tie Republicans to the late sex offender as part of a broader message accusing the GOP of protecting the corrupt elite.Zoom in: In the hotly contested Ohio Senate race, Democrat Sherrod Brown has spent nearly $1.5 million on TV ads slamming his GOP rival, freshman Sen. Jon Husted, for previously taking donations from Epstein financial client Leslie Wexner, according to the ad-tracking firm AdImpact.In fact, the only two ads Brown has aired this year have attacked Husted over Epstein, per AdImpact.Husted spokesperson Amy Natoce told Axios the campaign has "donated all available funds" from Wexner "to an anti-human trafficking charity."Husted's campaign has also noted that Brown previously accepted donations from Wexner's wife. Wexner, for his part, has said that Epstein conned him.Graham Platner, the presumptive Democratic nominee in the Maine Senate race — a must-win contest for the party's hopes of gaining a majority in the Senate — also is making anti-Epstein messaging part of his strategy to unseat Republican Sen. Susan Collins.In a six-figure TV ad, Platner accuses Collins of selling out voters to "the president and to the Epstein class," as an old video of Epstein and Donald Trump flashes across the screen.In Georgia's Senate race — one of the GOP's best opportunities to flip a seat this year — Sen. Jon Ossoff (D) likewise has argued in speeches and media interviews that Trump's administration is made up of "the Epstein class."What they're saying: Rep. Ro Khanna, a California Democrat who spearheaded the push to release the Epstein files alongside Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), feels vindicated by the anti-Epstein ads."The establishment class thought I was crazy when I first pushed to release the Epstein files," he told Axios. "They said nobody would care. Nobody would vote based on it.""What they missed is that Epstein goes to the core of what people hate about Washington: a rigged system where the rich and powerful play by different rules."Republican National Committee spokesperson Kiersten Pels responded to a request for comment by accusing Democrats of hypocrisy because of their own ties to Epstein: "The same party now trying to weaponize Epstein to distract from their own failed policies spent years cashing Epstein-linked checks.""Their outrage is nothing more than cynical political theater from a party with no message and no credibility," she added.Zoom out: Democrats and their allies in state and federal races this cycle in Wisconsin, Tennessee and New Mexico also have aired ads tying their rivals to Epstein, or mentioning him while making a larger anti-Washington argument.It's unclear whether such spots will resonate with voters. Despite loud voices on the right bashing Trump over his handling of the Epstein files, Massie was unable to use the issue to rally many Republicans to his side.Massie was targeted by Trump's political machine and lost his bid for reelection in last week's GOP primary.Even so, many Dems believe an anti-Trump, anti-GOP Epstein argument will register with the overall electorate.The other side: Some critics have argued that the phrase "Epstein class" is an antisemitic dog whistle. Others have pushed back on that notion and pointed out that Jewish politicians, such as Ossoff, are among those saying it.The intrigue: Democrats aren't just slamming Republicans over their supposed ties to Epstein — they're bashing fellow Democrats, too.In New Mexico's gubernatorial election, an outside group ran negative advertising linking ex-Interior Secretary Deb Haaland (D) to Epstein. Her Democratic opponent, former Bernalillo County District Attorney Sam Bregman, also said in a spot, "Unlike others, I'm not in the Epstein files."Haaland aired a six-figure ad that pushed back, calling her opponents' claims "lies."A local news station reported that the outside group's ad was "false" and "misleading."
