U.S. and Iranian officials met in Switzerland Sunday ahead of negotiations to solidify the tentative peace deal between Washington and Tehran and bring about an end to the U.S. war against Iran, but according to one expert, President Donald Trump and his administration are ignoring a pressing issue that risks blowing up talks before they’ve even started.“I'd be surprised to be that optimistic,” said Richard Haas, former policy director at the State Department, during an appearance Sunday on MS NOW when asked about his thoughts on the likelihood of peace talks succeeding.The pressing issue, Haas warned, was Israel’s ongoing bombardment and occupation of Lebanon, which since March has killed nearly 4,000 Lebanese, wounded close to 12,000 and sparked a humanitarian crisis affecting more than one million people. In the first clause of the tentative peace deal agreed to by Washington and Tehran, a provision explicitly calls for Israel to end its military operations in Lebanon.“What happens if and when Iran demands that Israel vacate Lebanon altogether, that Israel not go back into Lebanon?” Haas said. “That is going to be something of a red line for Israel, and the question is what does the United States do? Do we put pressure on Israel, or do we tell Iran 'no way?' So there's no way you can solve the Lebanon issue once and for all, this has been an open problem for decades and it's going to continue to be one of the many things that's going to really bedevil these negotiations going on.”Trump has tried to pressure Israel to halt – or at least shrink – its military operations in Lebanon, but has been refuted by Israel each time.
President Trump said the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool is “probably” going to be drained for repairs after a recent algae bloom and instances of peeling paint following his administration’s major renovation of the Washington landmark. “We met with contractors today, will probably be forced to release and drain much of the water in order to…
On Monday, Trump announced beginning concepts of a plan to discuss an outline of understanding on how to end the war in Iran. It was Trump’s 39th such announcement since he started the war.Israeli leaders, ostensible partners in Trump’s war, are now convinced that Trump’s MOU with Iran makes Obama’s 2015 Iran nuclear deal look perfect in comparison, after Trump tore that deal up, calling it "a deal at the highest level of incompetence" and "the worst deal ever negotiated." Obama’s 2015 deal featured highly detailed, multi-decade uranium enrichment caps and verification protocols, while the core mechanisms of Trump’s MOU remain unfinalized and deferred for 60-days. Although Trump’s MOU may pause the fighting he started, it has not established any permanent, legally binding nuclear dismantlement or the long-term inspection protocols Trump initially demanded, and it includes a plan to hand Iran up to $300 billion in damages. The biggest achievement will be the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, which, of course, is simply a return to the prewar status quo.Fox News, after promoting Trump’s attacks on the 2015 Iran deal, reported the MOU saying, Trump “deserves credit for bringing this conflict to this point.” Fox News manipulated Trump into Iran Fox may be reluctant to criticize an end to a costly war it encouraged. Fox News and its hawkish hosts played an aggressive role in pushing Trump toward greater military force in Iran — a troubling dynamic critics call a "doom loop" between the White House and the network, a self-reinforcing feedback cycle where the administration's grievances and policies prioritize media spectacle over governance, which in turn shapes presidential policy and messaging.As early as June 2025, Fox talking heads pushed for war with Iran, encouraging Trump into open conflict. Mark Levin reportedly helped push the June 2025 U.S. strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities by convincing Trump over lunch that the country was just days away from getting a nuclear weapon. When a fragile ceasefire was declared in April 2026, rather than celebrating, many Fox voices including senior security analyst Jack Keane and host Brian Kilmeade demanded it be broken. These voices agitated for the Trump administration and Israel to resume aggressive bombing campaigns rather than continue diplomatic negotiations, demanding Trump restart the war and, in their words, "finish the job." Host Ainsley Earhardt even told Trump that Americans were supportive of escalating aggression in Iran, which was not true.Sean Hannity, Brian Kilmeade, and Jesse Watters all floated the idea of flooding Iran with small arms to provoke an uprising. Kilmeade, one of the network's most prominent hawks and co-host of Fox & Friends, proposed relentless U.S. strikes against Iranian targets to "open up the strait," "grab the uranium," and "target bad actors," an apparent embrace of assassination. Other Fox News hosts also pushed Trump to seek regime change in Iran, hosting retired Gen. Keith Kellogg, who called for "putting boots on the ground" and for the U.S. to seize Iranian territory. This was not commentary or news, it was Fox television personalities directly shaping foreign policy at the highest level.The doom loop is dangerousWhat makes this dynamic especially fraught is the structural relationship between Fox and the Trump administration. Trump has appointed more than two dozen former Fox News hosts into administration positions, blurring the line between media and government in an unprecedented way. When Trump calls into Fox & Friends, he is not just doing an interview — he is engaging a network with an inherent interest in promoting conflict and spectacle. Fox hosts also manipulate Trump with hyperbolic praise: when Trump ordered military strikes on Iranian nuclear sites, Sean Hannity said the strikes would "go down in history as one of the greatest military victories," while other hosts claimed Trump deserved "six Nobel Peace Prizes" and a spot on Mount Rushmore. Trump went on to demand—and expect— both honors.Fox's lockstep promotion of Trump's war reflects the network's calculated plan to keep MAGA enraged and engaged. War framed as a righteous confrontation with a Judeo-Christian undertones is good television. It generates ratings, emotional investment, and brand loyalty. It is what happens when the line between journalism and political advocacy dissolves. A network that functions as an echo chamber for a sitting president, with hosts who propose military strikes rather than analyze them, and treats war as a network ratings strategy, has abdicated its responsibility to the public and should be held to account. The feedback loop between Fox and the White House helped produce a war that cost American lives, roiled the global economy, and left our allies disgusted. Even if Trump’s MOU miraculously holds, analysts predict the global economy will take months and even years to recover.
Donald Trump asked the public to celebrate ICE as misunderstood heroes Saturday, and veteran White House correspondent Brian Karem answered with a single word: "LIE."The president had posted what he framed as a poll, declaring that "ICE has been abused by the Fake News Media at levels never seen before." He called the agents "Great Patriots who work hard, and do a fantastic job in a very hostile environment," and blamed the criticism on "the Dumocrats and the Fake News." Karem, a longtime reporter who has sparred with multiple administrations from inside the briefing room, was not interested in the patriotic framing."ICE ignores due process and hides behind masks as if they're the KKK riding through the south during the 1920s," Karem wrote, before invoking two names that have become central to the case against Trump's immigration crackdown. "Renee Good and Alex Pretti were fatally shot in Minneapolis during the Trump administration's 'Operation Metro Surge'." His conclusion was blunt: "ICE are not patriots. They're criminals."The history behind those names is not in dispute. Renée Good, a 37-year-old US citizen and mother, was shot and killed by an ICE agent on January 7 while in her car. Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old US citizen and intensive care nurse at a Minneapolis VA hospital, was shot multiple times and killed by Customs and Border Protection officers on January 24 while filming agents with his phone. Both deaths occurred during Operation Metro Surge, the aggressive enforcement campaign that drew more than 3,000 arrests, mass protests, a Minnesota general strike, and a homicide ruling from the county medical examiner in Pretti's case.What followed deepened the controversy Karem was pointing to. Minnesota officials sued the administration for withholding evidence in the shootings, accusing federal authorities of shielding the agents involved. Local police chiefs and the Hennepin County sheriff condemned the operation, with one calling the agents' conduct "not just only wrong, but illegal." The administration has defended the shootings as self-defense and declined to release the agents' names.That record is what makes Trump's "Great Patriots" framing so combustible. The president is asking Americans to rally behind an agency whose officers killed two of their fellow citizens months ago, in killings still tangled in lawsuits and stalled investigations. Karem, who has spent a career being told by presidents that the press is the enemy, simply refused to let the rebranding pass unchallenged.LIE. ICE ignores due process and hides behind masks as if they're the KKK riding through the south during the 1920s.Renee Good and Alex Pretti were fatally shot in Minneapolis during the Trump administration's "Operation Metro Surge".ICE are not patriots. They're criminals. https://t.co/p6mH6O2IbJ— Brian J. Karem (@BrianKarem) June 21, 2026
James Carville has a survival strategy for anyone still working inside Donald Trump's White House, and it boils down to two words: start leaking.On the latest episode of his Politics War Room podcast, the veteran Democratic strategist delivered a blunt appeal to administration staffers, urging them to protect their own reputations before the history of Trump's second term gets written. "Save Yourself! Save Yourself, now!" Carville declared, before adding his prescription: "Leak, leak, and more leaks."Carville framed the advice as a matter of self-preservation rather than loyalty, arguing that the insiders who cooperate with reporters tend to come out looking better in the long run. "When the history is written, the leakers always do better," he said. He was characteristically crude about the position those aides already find themselves in, telling them they are "already covered in" filth and that the only way to improve their standing is to "leak more."His comments came as he discussed "Regime Change," the forthcoming book from reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan, set for release June 23. Early excerpts describe a White House riddled with leaks, infighting, and recurring crises. Carville summarized the portrait it paints in his own unsparing terms, calling the administration a collection of "stumbling, bumbling" fools and pointing to the volume of damaging disclosures already flowing out of Trump's orbit. "Look at the number of people that are leaking!" he said, claiming aides are so eager to protect themselves that they "leak everything about him."Carville reserved particular attention for the administration's younger officials, whom he prodded to join the exodus of information. "You got to get on the train," he said, describing his unexpected interest in advising what he dismissively called Trump's "little ambitious" staffers. His closing instruction left little to interpretation: "Everything that you know, every stupid thing that he says, every grotesque, horrible, nasty habit he's got, leak it."The strategist paired the leak campaign with a striking prediction about the president's future, asserting that Trump would be "gone by April of next year" and describing him in deeply unflattering physical terms, claiming the president "doesn't even know where he is" and "can't get out of a chair."Whether any West Wing aides take the advice is another matter, but Carville's larger point was that the leaking has already begun and is unlikely to stop. In his telling, the smartest people left in the building are the ones quietly deciding which secrets to hand over first.
First Lady Melania Trump fought against Trump's overhaul of the White House and lost, according to commentators.During an episode of the Daily Beast Podcast, host Joanna Coles and Hugh Dougherty, the executive editor of The Daily Beast, went over more revelations in the book Regime Change, an account of the Trump White House by journalists Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan.Last year, Trump paved over the Rose Garden. According to Dougherty, the book reveals that the First Lady's team relayed that she was "very unhappy" with the changes, and only secured a few compromises, like getting Trump to keep the rose bushes."It turns out he wanted to pave over the whole lot," Dougherty said, relaying details from the book. "He wanted the roses gone as well."A similar scene unfolded with the demolition of the East Wing, which Trump tore down to make way for a ballroom. Trump's team knew "that this was not going to make the First Lady happy, but it still went ahead," according to Dougherty."I think there's a lot to digest about their marriage," Dougherty said, adding that he has questions about "what came back from the First Lady's team? Is that how they communicate? There's lots more to know."Coles and Dougherty also talked about details that came up in the book about Melania and Trump's separate bedrooms and descriptions of how White House staff "have to clean up because he leaves discarded detritus from his fast food habit on the floor," Dougherty said.
President Donald Trump has engaged in something of a martial “arms race” with First Lady Melania Trump, New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan revealed in their forthcoming book “Regime Change,” one that involves the president pillaging gold from the White House hallways in his effort to “have the better room,” The Times reported.As has been previously reported, Trump and Mrs. Trump sleep in different rooms – Trump, according to the forthcoming book, sleeps in what’s been called the “living room,” and Mrs. Trump, in the master bedroom at the White House complex. Trump’s self-imposed challenge of having a superior living quarters, however, has led to an odd but frequent occurrence.“To this end he was said to have removed gold pieces that his wife had selected for the hallway and brought them into his own bedroom to sleep among them, like a magpie nesting with [bottle tops],” writes The Times’ Will Pavia. “Melania, according to one biographer, prefers light colors, and lots of whites, while her husband goes for darker furnishings and, apparently, for all of the gold stuff she put in the hall.”The frequent snatching of Mrs. Trump’s hand-picked hallway décor comes after, Pavia noted, Mrs. Trump’s offices were destroyed by her husband’s White House ballroom project, something the president himself had admitted the first lady was “not happy about."“Those keeping score might also note that the president had demolished her offices, along with the entire East Wing of the White House, to make way for a ballroom, and that he had paved over the Rose Garden,” reads the Times’ report.
