Trump News

Podcaster Joe Rogan slammed President Donald Trump for waging an "insane" series of strikes in Iran after running for election by promising not to start wars for regime change.

During a Tuesday conversation on Rogan's podcast, author Michael Shellenberger said he had scrapped a column on the war in Iran because Trump's reasoning was unclear.

President Donald Trump unleashed a fiery warning toward Iran on Tuesday, demanding the immediate removal of any mines from the Hormuz Strait and threatening devastating military action if Tehran fails to comply.

In a post to Truth Social, Trump laid down an uncompromising demand, stating: "If Iran has put out any mines in the Hormuz Strait, and we have no reports of them doing so, we want them removed, IMMEDIATELY! If for any reason mines were placed, and they are not removed forthwith, the Military consequences to Iran will be at a level never seen before."

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt snapped at CBS correspondent Nancy Cordes and insisted President Donald Trump wasn't "making anything up" when it came to the war with Iran.

"The president said yesterday for the first time that he had to strike Iran because he believed Iran was going to strike U.S. targets within seven days," Cordes explained during a Tuesday briefing. "He then bumped that down later to three days. Where is he getting that?"

President Donald Trump's move to invade Iran is already having knock-on effects that are setting back his domestic policy goals — one of those being pressuring the Federal Reserve into lowering interest rates.

According to The New York Times on Tuesday, "The Federal Reserve was already struggling to get inflation back to its 2 percent target before President Trump opted for an all-out confrontation with Iran. Now, elevated energy costs, if sustained, risk delaying that progress further. That is entangling the central bank in yet another challenging debate about how to adjust interest rates at a time when the labor market looks increasingly fragile."

As many as 150 U.S. troops have been wounded during the war with Iran, according to a new report on Tuesday.

People familiar with the matter told Reuters that the number of wounded was far higher than the Pentagon has disclosed. The Defense Department has said that seven service members were killed in action.

A Fox News report that Erika Kirk, the wife of the late Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, was secretly given a job by Donald Trump over the weekend, set off a bit of a social media firestorm on Tuesday.

According to Fox News, “President Trump appoints Erika Kirk to serve on the U.S. Air Force Academy Board of Visitors — taking the position her late husband, Charlie, was slated to hold before he was assassinated in September. Now Erika joins the panel that oversees morale, discipline, curriculum, and fiscal affairs at the academy.”

The past friendship between President Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein was memorialized once again Friday after an anonymous artist group erected a 12-foot statue in Washington, D.C. to honor the “bond” between the two, and in the style of the 1997 hit film “Titanic.”

As reported by local CBS affiliate WUSA9, the statue was erected at the National Mall across from the Capitol, and came from the same group that erected another statue last year honoring Trump and Epstein’s past friendship.

The Washington National Opera's defiant break from the Kennedy Center is paying immediate dividends, with its latest show "Treemonisha" drawing sold-out crowds this weekend at the Lisner Auditorium at George Washington University.

The production marks the company's first show since severing its 55-year affiliation with the Kennedy Center in January, a split that came amid pressure from Trump-appointed Kennedy Center Executive Director Richard Grenell over operational control, concerns about donor confidence and collapsing ticket sales since the Trump takeover.

Announcing the departure in January, Artistic Director Francesca Zambello admitted she was "deeply saddened to leave the Kennedy Center," and warned in November that Trump administration policies had "shattered" donor confidence and triggered a 40 percent drop in ticket revenues.

Reception to the first post-Kennedy Center production was rapturous with General Director Timothy O'Leary and Zambello receiving more than a two-minute standing ovation when they took the stage to welcome audiences.

"It's been a really exciting, inspiring kind of groundswell of support," O'Leary said, describing the overwhelming response since the opera announced its independence. "As soon as we announced that we were producing the rest of our season at new venues, we heard overwhelmingly, not only from our audience, people saying, 'I wasn't coming but now I'm coming, absolutely. I'm coming twice.' We also heard from people who wrote in and said, 'I don't even like opera, but I'll come and attend any performance you give anywhere.'"

The return to Lisner Auditorium—where the company was founded in 1956—has taken on symbolic significance. O'Leary framed the move as a homecoming rooted in American civil society values.

"Thank you for believing in the idea of American civil society, whereby institutions that are mission-based like this are created and nurtured by we the people," O'Leary said in a Facebook video. "We've been feeling this incredible surge of enthusiasm and support from not only our usual but people from around the country."

Looking ahead, the opera will present "The Crucible" from March 21 through March 29, followed by two performances of "West Side Story" at The Lyric in Baltimore and Strathmore in North Bethesda to commemorate America's 250th anniversary.

President Donald Trump has suddenly grown interested in his former campaign manager's role in steering government contracts.

The 79-year-old president has been peppering aides with questions in recent days about longtime adviser Corey Lewandowski, who had been acting as de facto chief of staff to recently fired Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, and his involvement in a controversial $220 million advertising campaign, reported NBC News.