A U.S. State Department foreign service officer was fatally shot by a Virginia state trooper Sunday following a stabbing incident on Interstate 495 in Fairfax County. Jared Llamado, 32, was found holding a knife at the scene of a traffic crash after allegedly stabbing four women and a dog. Virginia State Police said Llamado died from his wounds, as did 39-year-old Michelle Adams, and the dog. Three other women sustained serious knife wounds and are recovering. The State Department confirmed Llamado worked as a foreign service officer in a technology role for approximately 1.5 years. The department expressed condolences to those affected by the tragedy. Police investigated the incident, which stemmed from a traffic accident, and determined it was unrelated to terrorism.
President Donald Trump said he had given an order to cut off "all trade with Spain" after its leaders refused to allow bases in the country for attacks on Iran.
During an event at the White House on Tuesday, the U.S. president was asked which European countries had not been helpful with Operation Epic Fury.
"But some of the European countries, like Spain, have been terrible," Trump said. "In fact, I told Scott to cut off all dealings with Spain."
"And now Spain actually said that we can't use their bases," he continued. "And that's not all right. We could use their base if we want. We could just fly in and use it. Nobody's going to tell us not to use it. But we don't have to."
According to Trump, Spain was "unfriendly" to his efforts to strike Iran.
"So we're going to cut off all trade with Spain," he revealed. "We don't want anything to do with Spain."
President Donald Trump said Tuesday that Israel did not pressure the United States to launch strikes against Iran.
Trump was meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and speaking about the conflict with Iran at the White House when he took questions from reporters inside the Oval Office. He claimed that Iran's navy, air force and radar technology had been "knocked out."
"I might have forced their hand," Trump said. "You see, we were having negotiations with these lunatics and it was opinion that they were going to attack first. They were going to attack if we didn't do it. They were going to attack first, I felt strongly about that, and we have great negotiators, great people, people that do this very successfully and have done it all their lives very successfully. And based on the way the negotiation was going, I think they were going to attack first and I didn't want that to happen."
Trump's comments somewhat differed from Secretary of State Marco Rubio's remarks on Monday about how Israel claimed Iran was planning to attack. Trump appeared to say he had pushed for the strikes instead.
"So if anything I might have forced Israel's hand but Israel was ready, and we were ready, and we've had a very, very powerful impact because virtually everything they have has been knocked out now," Trump said.
Trump commented that Iran has targeted Arab countries that were neutral, targeting civilians and hotels, but now those countries have planned to fight back.
"They hit countries that have nothing to do with what's going on... which shows you the level of evil that we're dealing with," Trump said.
Q: Did Israel force your land to launch these strikes against Iran?
TRUMP: No. I might've forced their hand. It was my opinion that these lunatics were gonna attack first. pic.twitter.com/KcDmIbI6Vr — Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 3, 2026
An analyst Tuesday suggested that the Texas primaries could signal a major shift nationally among key voting blocs in the Democratic Party.
Jim Messina, former White House deputy chief of staff for operations, described in his new Substack piece what Democrats should keep in mind heading into the midterms and the next presidential election. Messina argued on MS NOW Tuesday morning that Democrats need to build a stronger relationship with young men in an effort to stop losing their votes in elections, advocating that progressive strategists should look at TikTok, streaming, cryptocurrency, sports, betting and prediction markets as paths to reaching this group.
"If you look at the issues, you know, Dems bled young voters in historic numbers in the last presidential [election]," Messina said. "And I think there's a view in my party that we just need to get on a couple Joe Rogan podcasts or we need to hang out with tech bros and it will all be fine. It's really just about, you know, figuring out social media. And I think it's deeper than that. Right now we're the party saying 'No' to a bunch of things that young male voters like and do every day, like video games, like sports betting, like prediction markets, like crypto, and they look at this and say, 'You're saying no, to all these things, maybe you're saying no to me, too.'"
Messina argued that it's not just about culture — it's about Democrats taking a look at their overall strategy.
"And I think best when we go back to the Clinton days or the Obama days of being pro-innovation, pro-new things, pro-things getting better and right now we're starting to be in this kind of, you know, being perceived by these voters as a nanny state," Messina said. "And someone who's saying, 'No, you can't do these things.' And I think that's a really dangerous place to be. And so, we need to stop talking, and listen to these young voters, and meet them where they are, not where we want them to be."
Democrats could have an opportunity, with the Texas primary as the first test, to see how Democrats and Republicans perform among young men, along with another key voting bloc: Latinos. Both groups broke support for Vice President Kamala Harris, voting instead for Trump. What comes next in Texas could reveal more about what could happen in November — and how Democrats reach these voters.
"Yeah, this is the mostexciting primary we've hadso far," Messina said. "What I'm going to belooking at, two things: are the young men comingback? Are they voting at all?Because that's a reallyimportant number, but moreimportantly in Texas, where arethe Latinos going? When youlook at some of these specialelections Dems are gettingback the young voters andback the Latino votersthat Donald Trump rented in2024.This will be a reallyinteresting night because youhave both like really hotlycontested, Republican primary and a Democratic primary, and so when you and I look at the numbers tomorrow, we're goingto look and see where the Latinos are going. And ifthe Latinos are starting tocome back to the Democratic Party in Texas of all places,that is a very goodsign for the Democratsin the midterm elections."
An employee of the U.S. State Department was reportedly shot to death by a Virginia state trooper after four women and a dog were stabbed.
According to the Virginia State Police, the trooper arrived at the scene of a crash on I-495 on Sunday to find Jared Llamado, 32, holding a knife. The trooper also said that four women and a dog had suffered stab wounds.
A State Department spokesperson told WTOP that Llamado was employed as a foreign service officer.
"We are aware of the tragic incident that involved a Foreign Service Officer and occurred on Sunday, March 1, in Fairfax County, Virginia. We extend our deepest condolences to all those affected by this tragedy," the department said in a statement.
Llamado and one of the stabbing victims, 39-year-old Michelle Adams, died of their wounds, police said. The dog was also reportedly killed.
Three of the women were said to be recovering from serious knife wounds.
Llamado's LinkedIn page indicated that he had worked at the State Department in a technology role for about 1.5 years.
Police did not believe that the incident, which followed a traffic accident, was related to terrorism.
Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) presented Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem with evidence that she was not telling the truth after she claimed she had not blamed her statements about the killings of protesters on White House adviser Stephen Miller.
During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Tuesday, Noem told Kennedy that the FBI was investigating the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, two protesters killed by DHS agents. The senator was curious about why she had called the dead demonstrators domestic terrorists.
"I believe at the time you said these were acts of domestic terrorism, is that right?" Kennedy asked.
"Sir, in answer to questions at the press conference that afternoon, it was that it appeared to be," Noem said. "And as I've said previously in this hearing, is that we're getting information from a chaotic scene on the ground and relaying information to the American people."
"Okay. Now, again, those videos are public people can draw their own conclusions," Kennedy noted. "What got my attention was that you, you blame those statements on Mr. Stephen Miller at the White House. Did you not?"
"No, sir, I did not," Noem stated. "And in fact, where you're seeing that is in a news article of anonymous sources. And anonymous sources say a lot of things, but it is, I've never said that at all."
"Well, here's what you said on the record," Kennedy shot back. "I'm going to read your words, quote, everything I've done, I've done at the direction of the president and Stephen."
"Sir, where did you see me say that at? You read that in a news article with no sources?" Noem demanded.
"You said it on the record on January 27th of 2026," Kennedy explained. "Did you, did I read your words accurately?"
"I enjoy working with the president, and with Stephen Miller, and that day we were working to get as much information to the American people as possible," Noem deflected.
"Do you think it was fair to blame Mr. Miller?" Kennedy pressed.
"Sir, I did not do that," Noem insisted. "You're reading from a newspaper article with anonymous sources."
"Are you denying that you said that?" the senator wondered.
"Sir, I'm not going to speak to that situation that is relayed on anonymous sources that no one has heard me say that," Noem said.
"It was you!" Kennedy remarked, pointing at the secretary. "They're quoting you on the record saying it's Stephen's fault."
An analyst revealed the difficult challenge ahead for President Donald Trump as the war in Iran now enters its fourth day.
In an interview on MS NOW's Morning Joe with David Ignatius, columnist and associate editor of The Washington Post, and Shashank Joshi, defense editor at The Economist, Joshi discussed the Trump administration's mixed messaging about objectives for the military strikes in Iran, including regime change, then "imminent threats" from Iran against Israel and the push to stop Iran from developing ballistic missiles.
"What we heard yesterday from Dan Caine, from Secretary Rubio, from Secretary Hegseth,others, was a very,very different set ofaims narrowly focusedaround Iran's missileprogram," Joshi said.
The war aims, such as regime change, could take weeks, Joshi explained.
"Now that, I think, can be donein a short period of time,they can degrade missilestockpiles, and we've alreadyheard the Iranians the Israelis say they havedestroyed about half of the Iranian missile launchesthat Iran's able to bring tobear and I think you couldhave really longlasting and severe damagedone to Iran's missileprogram by the end ofthis week," Joshi said. "There's no doubt about it.But the problem is, youwould still have an Iranled by individuals who aremore hardline in somerespects than theleaders who have been killedby the strike so far.You have, you know, a newleader of these Islamic Revolutionary Guard, calledVahidi, who is this man? Well,you know, David is, you know,he is a former head of theexpeditionary,IRGC. He was associated with the bombingof a Jewish cultural centerin Argentina in the1990s. This is not a regimethat will be more moderate,more pragmatic, moredeterred than that, of Ayatollah Khamenei."
Despite the killing of Khamenei and the dismantling of Iran's weapons, the problem over Iran's leadership will still remain.
"Andso, I still think at the endof this week, eventhough enormous damage mayhave been done to Iran'smissile program, includingthe supply chain, theexplosives, the guidancesystems, you will still havethe political problemsitting in Iran over regime, thatcast this incredibleU.S. missile shadow over the Persian Gulf, and I think the Trump administration willfind it very hard toarticulate that and framethat as some kind ofdecisive win," Joshi added.
The strikes have wiped out the regime, but it could take time for Iranians to reform their government.
"But I think the focus of these first three days of operations have been on Iran's missile forces, Iran's navy and nuclear and missile sites as well as political leadership," Joshi said. "I think if you are going to give the Iranian people the confidence to say, 'if we go back onto the streets in a week's time and we want confidence, we are not going to be gunned down in the same way.' I think what you need to see is an Israeli and American set of strikes over the next four or five days that systematically break down Iran's domestic security apparatus."
But history could repeat.
"I think that is a very hard thing to do, and I think that President Trump will face the dilemma between doing that and upholding his commitment to the Iranian people that he has made and sucking himself into a longer campaign, but it'll, he should remember the case of George H.W. Bush in 1991, who, as you will recall at David and others, called upon the Iraqi people to rise up in 1991 after the first Gulf War and the Shias in the south and the Kurds in the north did so, and they were massacred by Saddam Hussein," Joshi said. "That should be, I think a very, very cautionary tale for American strategy today."
President Donald Trump acknowledged that his decision to attack Iran was at least partially motivated by efforts to assassinate him.
The 79-year-old Trump ordered airstrikes against Iran over the weekend that killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and the Washington Post reported that he gave an interview Sunday night suggesting that decision was connected with two two cases of alleged Iranian murder-for-hire attempts that were charged by U.S. federal prosecutors.
“I got him before he got me,” Trump told ABC News on Sunday night. “I got him first.”
Iran had plotted to kill Trump in 2024 in retaliation for a January 2020 airstrike that killed Gen. Qasem Soleimani, and federal prosecutors charged two cases involving Iran that appear to be unrelated to two assassination attempts while he campaigned for a second term two years ago.
"They tried twice," Trump told ABC News.
The White House did not provide evidence to back Trump's claims, saying the "plots to assassinate President Trump are just one reason" to "eliminate terrorists like Ayatollah Khamenei," but Trump's ambassador to the United Nations, Mike Waltz, said the efforts to kill the U.S. president were part of a broader pattern that justified the war.
“It is responsible for a series of unprovoked armed attacks against the United States and Israel, violations of the UN charter, and threats to international peace and security across the Middle East,” Waltz said Saturday at an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council. “It has even attempted to assassinate the U.S. president, President Trump."
Protests erupted during a House Judiciary Committee hearing after Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem refused to retract claims that two protesters killed by her agents were domestic terrorists.
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) was the first Democrat to confront Noem about the killings at Tuesday's hearing.
"Secretary Noem, the nation has watched horrified as immigration agents killed Renee Good, Alex Pretti," Durbin said. "In Chicago, one of your Border Patrol agents shot Marimar Martinez five times after ramming her car."
"You and your agency rush to brand these victims as, quote, domestic terrorists," he continued. "We have ample video evidence and eyewitness testimony proving you are wrong. Your statements cause immeasurable pain to these families. Let me give you an opportunity to do the right thing. Do you retract these statements identifying these individuals as domestic terrorists?"
For her part, Noem declined to retract the claims of domestic terrorism.
"You know, Senator Durbin, when we have these situations happen, we always offer our condolences to those families," the secretary explained. "And I offer mine as well. These are tragic situations. And I can't imagine what these families go through in losing a loved one."
"I was getting reports from the ground from agents at the scene," she added. "And I would say that it was a chaotic scene, as you've seen in Minneapolis and St. Paul, as immigration enforcement has gone forward. And we've worked at targeting the worst of the worst that many times our agents have been faced with violent protesters."
"You believe calling the victims of that violence domestic terrorists as a way to calm the scene?" Durbin wondered.
"These violent terrorists have put them in a situation where they've been, it's unprecedented what these agents have faced it," Noem insisted.
At that point, the secretary stopped speaking as a protester erupted in the room.
"You haven't given their family any justice," the demonstrator screamed. "They have names!"
The Lincoln Project founder, Rick Wilson, believes the president has overstepped and is dishing out false information with his claims on munitions supplies. Trump took to Truth Social earlier today (March 3) and made his thoughts on stockpiling munitions and the aid given to Ukraine clear.
He wrote, "The United States Munitions Stockpiles have, at the medium and upper medium grade, never been higher or better - As was stated to me today, we have a virtually unlimited supply of these weapons. Wars can be fought 'forever,' and very successfully, using just these supplies (which are better than other countries finest arms!).
"At the highest end, we have a good supply, but are not where we want to be. Much additional high-grade weaponry is stored for us in outlying countries."
Wilson has disagreed with the claim of strong munition supplies, instead suggesting Trump has no idea what the actual number is for the material backing the US military.
Wilson wrote, "Now let’s talk about the dangerous part: casually boasting about stockpile levels. There is a reason serious leaders don’t blurt out operational readiness claims on social media, as if they’re bragging about golf handicaps.
"Even if the numbers were accurate (and spoiler alert: he doesn’t know, and we’re burning through long-lead-time systems like a drunken sailor on shore leave), publicly telegraphing assessments of readiness, sufficiency, and shortfalls is the kind of thing professionals handle with classified briefings, not all-caps self-congratulation.
“'Wars can be fought forever.' No, they can’t. Wars chew through materiel, money, alliances, and political capital. Ask the Romans. Ask the British Empire. Ask the Nazis (the old ones, not the new ones). Ask the Soviets in Afghanistan. Ask anyone who served from 2003-2021 in Iraq or Afghanistan.
"The idea that modern, high-intensity warfare can be sustained indefinitely without economic, industrial, and human consequences is the strategic equivalent of saying your credit card has 'virtually unlimited' funds because the machine hasn’t declined you yet. Those $30,000 Shahed drones getting knocked down by $3,000,000 Patriots is a bad exchange rate."
Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) pushed back on conservative CNBC host Joe Kernen for calling the Constitution's war powers provisions a "moot point" because President Donald Trump had already ordered attacks on Iran without the permission of Congress.
"You must have seen that some of the things that are circulated, how many times President Obama took military action without a declaration," Kernen said in defense of Trump on Tuesday. "But it's almost a moot point. [Trump has] at least has probably 60 days under certain provisions to carry things out."
"And if we did go your route, Senator, what's happened over the past three days is impossible. It could never happen. Even informing Congress at times about certain raids that or actions that have to be done. That's not in the real world, it's not possible," he added.
Kaine replied: "Let me just underline the fact that I made an argument about the Constitution, and you said it was a moot point. I don't believe that. I don't believe the Constitution is a minor matter or a moot point."
Kernen insisted that he didn't believe the Constitution was a moot point.
"I'm asking every senator to do what you should ask them to do," Kaine insisted. "Go on the record and declare, are you for this or against this? Anybody who's elected to a job like this should not hide under their desks and say, oh, you know, even though the Constitution says it's for Congress, let's let the President do it and try to evade accountability. We've got to be accountable."
The top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee sounded the alarm that President Donald Trump launched a war without having enough weapons.
The 79-year-old president fired off a Truth Social post Monday night stating that the U.S. military had a "virtually unlimited supply" of munitions that would allow the war to continue "forever," but he also blamed former President Joe Biden for giving away too many weapons to Ukraine.
"Sleepy Joe Biden spent all of his time, and our Country’s money, GIVING everything to P.T. Barnum (Zelenskyy!) of Ukraine – Hundreds of Billions of Dollars worth – And, while he gave so much of the super high end away (FREE!), he didn’t bother to replace it," Trump posted. "Fortunately, I rebuilt the military in my first term, and continue to do so. The United States is stocked, and ready to WIN, BIG!!!"
Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI) cast doubt on the president's assurances on the third day of Operation Epic Fury.
"Well, I think at firstsuggests to me that we do nothave an unlimited arms," Reed told "CNN News Central." "Thepresident is trying to put agood face on a situation which,not immediately, but certainlywithin a weeks or months, we'regoing to run into a crisis ofhaving sufficient arms. That iswhy over the last year, the Department of Defense has beeninvesting significantly onincreased arms productionbecause, even without thisconflict, they anticipated thatwe would not have adequatenumber of arms for a majorconflict."
"I think thepresident is simply trying todispense with the real problem,which is that at some point wehave to start rationing ourarms, and again, the questionis, when is it – this week?" Reed added. "Is itfive weeks? Is it five months? The whole question of unlimitedtermless war is something that weface. I don't know of any warin the Middle East that has beenshort and sweet, other than the1991 attack against Iraq. Butthat was limited by President George Herbert Walker Bushhimself. They were theyunderstood they didn't want togo all the way to Baghdad, amistake that was made by his son George W. Bush."
Peace talks between the United States and Iran may have been a smokescreen as a decision to strike had already been made, an analyst has claimed.
Bill Press, the former California Democratic Party chair, believes Donald Trump's administration already knew a strike on Iran would be made while also hosting peace talks with representatives. In a column for The Hill, Press claimed a decision could have been made as early as before Trump delivered his State of the Union address.
Press wrote, "Iran didn’t walk away from making a new deal. The U.S. did — and it started bombing the next morning. In fact, there is reason to believe that the entire Geneva operation was only a smokescreen, designed to fool Iran’s leaders into thinking the U.S. was negotiating in good faith.
"Clearly, the decision to bomb Iran had already been made before the State of the Union, while the Trump administration was still pretending to be seriously interested in diplomacy." Press went on to suggest that the deal the US and Iran had discussed before the bombing was nearing a reasonable conclusion.
"Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman urged Trump to take advantage of the opportunity to kill Khamenei," he wrote. "Trump agreed to do their dirty work.
"It is also not true, as Trump claims, that Iran 'walked away from the table' without agreeing to abandon plans to build a nuclear bomb. In fact, as late as last Friday, negotiations between Iran and the U.S., moderated by Oman, were still underway in Geneva — with public assurances of progress being made."
Trump issued a statement on the Iran war earlier today (March 3), with the president claiming a war with the Middle Eastern country could last much longer than anticipated.
He wrote, "The United States Munitions Stockpiles have, at the medium and upper medium grade, never been higher or better - As was stated to me today, we have a virtually unlimited supply of these weapons. Wars can be fought 'forever,' and very successfully, using just these supplies (which are better than other countries finest arms!).
"At the highest end, we have a good supply, but are not where we want to be. Much additional high-grade weaponry is stored for us in outlying countries.
"Sleepy Joe Biden spent all of his time, and our Country’s money, GIVING everything to P.T. Barnum (Zelenskyy!) of Ukraine - Hundreds of Billions of Dollars worth - And, while he gave so much of the super high-end away (FREE!), he didn’t bother to replace it. Fortunately, I rebuilt the military in my first term, and continue to do so.
"The United States is stocked, and ready to WIN, BIG!!! Thank you for your attention to this matter. President DONALD J. TRUMP."
