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The Trump administration refuted a claim Monday that a U.S. warship transiting the Strait of Hormuz was forced to retreat after being struck by Iranian-launched missiles, a denial that several critics called into serious question.

“I suspect that a US Navy ship was, indeed, hit and the Pentagon is playing wordsmith because they are attempting to avoid escalation,” argued geopolitical analyst Brandon Weichert. “We have exhausted all military options.”

Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) faced backlash after he used the death of Nicole Brown Simpson to mock Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) over the abrupt shutdown of Spirit Airlines.

In a Monday post on X, Lee shared a photo of O.J. Simpson and Brown Simpson, suggesting that Warren killed Spirit Airlines in the same way that many people believe the former football player murdered his wife.

Democrats are feeling good about taking back control of JD Vance's old Senate seat in Ohio.

The one-time swing state has leaned heavily Republican in recent elections, but Democrats believe thing might be different in November because President Donald Trump won't be on the ballot, and they sense voters have soured on his second term in the White House and will take out their frustration on GOP candidates, reported The Guardian.

By Andrew Caggiano, President, New Jersey State Association of Chiefs of Police

The stadium lights will be blinding; the crowds electric. And somewhere along the New Jersey Turnpike, in a hotel room booked under a fake name, a young person will be dreading a stranger’s knock at the door.

Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy took to Fox News Monday to boast about reliability of U.S. aviation under his watch, claiming the United States to have the “safest skies in the world” – a poorly timed remark that coincided with a split screen showing video of a plane that struck a pole in New Jersey on Sunday.

“We have the safest skies in the world here in the United States,” Duffy claimed, appearing on Fox News’ “Fox & Friends.”

President Donald Trump's deepening unpopularity is dragging down Republican chances with crucial swing voters, according to CNN's Harry Enten.

The 79-year-old president remains underwater in public opinion polling with most demographic groups, and Enten told "CNN News Central" that he's struggling with a key voter bloc that Republican congressional candidates will need in November.

U.S. District Court Judge Ana Reyes warned of "serious consequences" if the Trump administration failed to get her approval before renovating a Washington, D.C., golf course.

In federal court on Monday, the D.C. Preservation League argued that President Donald Trump should not be allowed to take over the East Potomac Golf Links for renovations. For months, crews have dumped debris from the destruction of the White House's East Wing at the golf course.

Comments made by acting Attorney General Todd Blanche during two Sunday cable show interviews with regard to the prosecution of former James Comey likely delighted the former FBI director’s lawyers.

That is the opinion of former state attorney of Palm Beach County, Florida, Dave Aronberg, who was amused on “Morning Joe” that Blanche put himself in the position of having to awkwardly explain the reasoning for going after Comey one year after he posted a picture of seashells spelling out “8 6 4 7,” which the DOJ insists was a threat against Donald Trump.

Concerns are growing among Senate Republicans that Mike Johnson “has lost control of his conference,” potentially making his leadership a major “liability” in the upcoming midterm elections, The Hill reported Monday.

“It’s not like these things are hard,” said Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND), according to The Hill. “That’s the thing. I feel like the Senate has teed up things fairly easily for them, even to the point where if they don’t like it, they can blame us. And they still haven’t taken the opportunity to actually govern, and I do think it’s hurting the brand. The House is rowdy.”

Donald Trump Jr. was reminded that the White House was not his "dad's house" after he shared that he was having a "sleepover" with the commander-in-chief.

On Monday, the president's son shared a video of himself exiting Marine One with luggage for a stay at the White House.

With his newly announced Project Freedom – a naval operation commencing Monday to provide security for vessels traversing the Strait of Hormuz – President Donald Trump “made a public bet,” international security expert Robert Pape argued on Monday, one that has only two likely outcomes: a major military escalation or “humiliation in full view of the world.”

“He is betting that Iran will not strike a ship under American protection. If Trump wins the bet, the United States stabilizes the corridor,” Pape, a professor of political science at the University of Chicago, wrote in an analysis published on his Substack. “If it fails even once, Washington must escalate – or accept humiliation in full view of the world.”

Early voting for the May 16 election began Saturday with confusion over whether all the races listed on the ballot are still taking place.

Even motivated voters who showed up within the first few hours said they weren’t quite sure whether the U.S. House elections were still happening.

The author of a definitive examination of the Iranian Revolution is warning that Donald Trump's unprovoked war on Iran was not only a catastrophic strategic failure — it has also exposed America and its allies to a terrifying new vulnerability that terrorist groups and hostile regimes now know how to easily exploit.

In a column for the New York Times, Scott Anderson, author of "King of Kings: The Iranian Revolution: A Story of Hubris, Delusion and Catastrophic Miscalculation," argues that the Pentagon's Operation Epic Fury should be relabeled "Operation Colossal Blunder."

Rather than sparking a popular uprising against Tehran's regime or forcing its capitulation, the American and Israeli bombing campaign backfired spectacularly," Anderson wrote, Instead, Iran discovered it could weaponize its geographic advantage by threatening to shut down the Strait of Hormuz — a vital global shipping lane — and send the world economy into chaos.

"There are now only two outcomes to the conflict: either the kind of wholesale destruction of Iran that Mr. Trump posited, or a settlement that will leave the government intact and empowered, and a blustering American president humiliated," Anderson wrote.

The standoff has revealed a devastating reality about modern warfare. While critical sites like the White House can be made drone-proof through defensive measures, large-scale defensive shielding is impossible — as Israel has discovered with its much-vaunted Iron Dome air defense system, which has proven repeatedly vulnerable to Iranian attacks.

Trump's demonstration of American military limits has effectively handed hostile actors a blueprint for future blackmail. Every geographically strategic chokepoint in the world — the Panama Canal, the Suez Canal, the Strait of Gibraltar, and even airspace over New York — is now vulnerable to attack by any hostile force capable of building a weaponized drone and willing to accept the consequences.

According to Anderson, "Alarmist? Think of some of the apocalyptic regimes or murderous guerrilla groups of the recent past — the Baader-Meinhof Gang in West Germany, or the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, or bin Laden’s Al Qaeda — and imagine what they might have done with a $2,000 weaponized drone."