President Trump directed the U.S. military not to conduct new strikes in Iran on Friday, breaking a nearly two-week streak of daily attacks, two sources with knowledge of the decision said.Why it matters: The president's directive came after he approved daily strikes over the previous 13 days. It is unclear if Trump's order on Friday was a one-off or whether the lull will continue. Trump's decision reflects both his willingness to provide more space for diplomacy and a recognition that — short of a return to major combat operations — the current level of U.S. strikes has reached the limit of its effectiveness. If Trump orders a return to strikes, the U.S. military can mobilize on relatively short notice. The U.S. military is still preparing plans for a possible return to major combat operations, but Trump hasn't given orders to move in that direction, the sources said. The White House did not respond to a request for comment.Driving the news: Every afternoon for the last two weeks, Trump has approved strike plans submitted by the military. They were conducted within hours.On Friday, Trump received a similar plan but did not give a green light. Instead, he directed the military not to conduct strikes, the sources said. Shortly after he gave the Friday directive, Trump told reporters at the White House that he has the option of continuing strikes or even escalating them, including "knocking out everything they have." But he made clear that he thinks the "smarter strategy" is to "make a deal" with Iran. "We're talking to [the Iranians] right now. I think they're getting more and more serious as the days go by. We're locked and loaded and ready to go, but we're talking to them," Trump said. Later on Friday, during his remarks at the White House Correspondents Association dinner, Trump said he didn't think Iran is ready to make a deal at the moment, "but I'm willing to listen." State of play: Trump's order to hold fire was given several hours after an Omani delegation arrived in Tehran Friday for talks on a new arrangement to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.Two regional sources with knowledge of the negotiations said progress has been made in the talks and that an agreement between Oman and Iran could be reached over the weekend. President Trump would then have to decide whether to accept the proposed deal.
Iran's leaders are fighting each other almost as much as they're fighting the West, with some senior politicians scrambling to save US talks while the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps leans into the renewed war, regional sources told The Post.
Iran-backed Houthi rebels announced Saturday they fired missiles and drones toward Saudi Arabia, claiming retaliation for Saudi attacks on Yemen’s coastal city of Hodeida. Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree, the militant group’s spokesperson, said in a social media post that the Houthis executed two military operations “in response to this blatant and criminal aggression” from Saudi…
MS NOW anchor Katy Tur and panelists tried to puzzle through President Donald Trump’s tone-deaf reaction to voters’ economic suffering, but the conclusion they reached was that Trump doesn’t care to please voters. Instead, he has other plans.New Yorker writer Susan Glasser pointed out that Trump appears criminally unaware of polls and incapable of adjusting his behavior on expensive tariffs or the inflationary results of his Iran war to help either himself or his party in November.“… Trump's policies are extremely unpopular,” said Glasser on a Friday’s “Moment with Katy Tur,” explaining that his historic lows are worse going into the midterm elections than in his first term. “Even in Trump's first term, he was personally polarizing and unpopular. But a lot of people had the view that this former businessman was somehow going to be good for the economy. And consistently people would say, ‘well, maybe I don't like him, or I'm not sure, but he's been good for the economy,’ and that helped to float him through … a politically problematic moment of his first presidency. This time, what you have is a situation where, again, he's very unpopular. Over 60 percent of voters in many polls right now are saying they don't approve of his job as president, but even more of them don't approve of the job he's doing on the economy.” This includes more than Democrats and Republican leaning independents, Glasser added. Even Republicans are softening on the president on the crucial question of the economy.“And trump is giving them almost nothing,” Glasser said. “Not only is he raising prices, in effect with his policies, he has taken to saying affordability is a made-up hoax. He says the Democrats invented this word and it's not even true. It doesn't mean anything. And, you know, it's not a very good way to get the voters empathy if you're saying basically ‘stop whining.’”“I get you on that,” said Tur. “It's not just that … he doesn't want to admit that affordability is a problem or is something that Americans have been concerned about for a long time. It's the optics of what he's focused on and what he's doing physically in some spaces as well.”Tur then played video of Trump’s gilded Oval Office, taken by White House Deputy Chief of Staff Dan Scavino.“It's like Louis XIV vomited all over the Oval Office,” said Tur. “I mean, I honestly think … Louis the 14th would look at this and say, ‘this is too much.’ There is so much gold in this room that that I don't know who he thinks he's impressing by this because the American public, if they're telling everybody that their top concern is affordability, if they're being asked to pay more for Donald Trump's war, they're being asked to pay more for his … tariffs, etc. Everything is going up. And they look at the White House and this man is obsessed with pasting gold medallions to everything, optically I don't understand that.”“Why do it,” demanded Tur. “If you say he believes he just has this faith in tariffs, fine. But then why add to all of that by turning the Oval Office into a gilded mausoleum, and then also telling everybody that affordability is a hoax?To this, Glasser said Trump has no cause to win votes of popularity among American voters because he plans to snatch power through other means.“Trump has become very expert over his decade in power in the Republican Party, at repeating lies over and over again. And the fact that he's ceding the ground now so far in advance of the election this fall and already saying ‘it's rigged’ before anyone's ever cast any vote, I think that's what we need to pay attention to, frankly,” said Glasser. - YouTube youtu.be
A Fox News columnist efforts to defend President Donald Trump Saturday morning saw him unwittingly align himself with the Black Lives Matter movement. Mike Davis, founder of an organization that purports to "fight lawfare" on Trump's behalf, told Fox News readers they should be outraged by police brutality. "If a police officer unlawfully beats a suspect without cause and violates his civil rights, that officer should face legal accountability," Davis told conservatives. Davis made this call for police accountability as protesters take to the streets in Madison, Wisconsin, where Corey Ruiz was tackled, tased, kicked and fatally shot three times Wednesday. While police say Ruiz, 38, pulled a knife, protesters who have taken to the streets contend the force was excessive. About 200 protesters marched through Madison Thursday night chanting "Black Lives Matter" and "These killer cops have got to go."His weeping mother told the media, "They took my baby from me." So why did Davis alert his readers to the problem of police brutality? Jack Smith — the special counsel who brought criminal charges against Trump, ahead of his 2025 reelection, on charges he mishandled classified documents and tried overturn the 2020 presidential election."Holding him accountable is not a threat to law enforcement; it is consistent with the rule of law," Davis said of his hypothetical violent officer. "The same applies to rogue prosecutors like Smith."He tried and failed to alter the outcome of the 2024 presidential election by prosecuting President Trump across two jurisdictions on two absurd indictments," Davis claimed. "It is inconceivable how holding him legally accountable for that conduct would threaten the Justice Department."
Maine Democrats on Saturday are poised to announce their nominee to replace Graham Platner in the race to unseat incumbent Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine). Former state Sen. Troy Jackson is the likely pick. Platner withdrew his bid earlier this month following allegations of sexual abuse. Meanwhile, President Trump has issued warning after warning to Iran…
The Sentencing Project highlights the perverse consequences of the felony murder rule, a vestige of British law that still prevails in federal courts and all but two states.
