Travis Gettys

President Donald's Trump prime time address on the Iran war rattled Republican strategists in battleground states.

The 79-year-old president declared Wednesday night that Operation Epic Fury was nearly complete but indicated military operations would intensify over the “next two to three weeks," but he offered conflicting objections and insisted spiking fuel prices were temporary, and GOP strategists told Politico he had not given them much to work with for their candidates.

“What the hell did he just say?” said one GOP strategist in a battleground state. “A quick recap and a path forward would’ve been helpful. Instead, it was nonsense left for Sean Hannity to articulate.”

Public opinion had shifted away from Trump's domestic agenda before his decision to launch the war, and that's cutting into GOP approval as they campaign for this year's midterm elections.

"Conversations with more than half a dozen operatives and party chairs across seven battleground states revealed their anxiety that the prolonged conflict is overshadowing the White House’s affordability message and could hurt their chances of holding onto power this November," Politico reported.

Trump continues to insist the U.S. was enjoying “the strongest economy in history” with “no inflation," which they told the news outlet sounded like President Joe Biden's assurances that sounded hollow to voters.

“Not sure people will buy the strong economy part,” said Todd Gillman, a Michigan GOP district chair. “Inflation is definitely more under control than it was under Biden, but the prices haven’t come down on a lot of things.”

Republicans told voters should be relieved that Trump talked about an exit strategy, but some criticized his lack of specifics about when the war would end or why he even decided to launch it Feb. 28.

“I think it could’ve been a little more specific or expanded on the exact threats that Iran poses to the U.S.,” said one Wisconsin-based GOP strategist. “I don’t know the extent he’s able to get into that stuff based off intelligence, but maybe he could have been a little bit more expansive there.”

The timing of the address also puzzled some GOP strategists.

“It’s something that probably should have been done at the beginning of the conflict,” said Dennis Lennox, a Michigan-based GOP strategist.

An appeals court tossed out a nine-year sentence for discredited Colorado election clerk Tina Peters.

The Donald Trump ally will be re-sentenced by a district court judge after the Colorado Court of Appeals upheld her conviction but found that Mesa County District Court Judge Matthew Barrett had wrongly based part of his sentence on Peters’ exercise of her right to free speech, reported the Denver Post.

“Notwithstanding the fact that some of the trial court’s considerations were tied to proper sentencing considerations, when the court’s comments are viewed in their totality, it is apparent that the court imposed the lengthy sentence it did because Peters continued to espouse the views that led her to commit these crimes,” the opinion states.

The "tenor" of Barrett's original sentencing order indicates that he "punished" Peters for her persistence in insisting the 2020 election had been fraudulent and that keeping her in prison was necessary to prevent her from espousing views the judge felt were "damaging," and the appeals court sent the case back to him for a resentencing.

The appellate court found there was sufficient evidence to convict Peters and that she was not immune to state prosecution, and the judges also found that a purported pardon from Trump carried no authority under Colorado law.

The court denied Peters' request that a new judge resentence her, saying that issue should be raised in a lower court, and ruled that a prosecutor’s description of her case during closing arguments had no impact on the verdict.

“The evidence of her knowledge of the illegality of her conduct is so overwhelming, we simply cannot say that the prosecutor’s statement (even if improper) had any impact on the verdict, let alone an impact so great as to cause serious doubt about the reliability of the judgment of conviction,” the panel found.

Peters, now 70, was convicted by a Mesa County jury of four felony and three misdemeanor crimes for plotting to sneak unauthorized individuals into a secure area to examine voting equipment to look for evidence of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election.

CNN's John Berman flagged a Republican congressman for seemingly contradicting President Donald Trump's claims about his objectives in the Iran war.

The president claimed in his prime time address that regime change has already been accomplished, although there's no indication the authoritarian Islamic Republic has fallen out of power, and Rep. Martin Stutzman (R-IN) seemed to understand that.

"We should never trust this regime," Stutzman said. "This has been going on for 40 years and if the IRGC and the ayatollah are still in power in Iran, it will always be a problem because these guys are, they're true believers that if you don't agree with them and their religious beliefs, that they are going to somehow either eliminate the person or they're going to get a nuclear bomb in order to leverage the rest of the world, and so I think that this there has to be a regime change here. I am not afraid to say it, because we know that this regime has been a –"

Berman stepped in to ask the Indiana Republican to clarify his remarks.

"I don't mean to interrupt, but you said there has to be a regime change," Berman said. "Does that mean you don't think there has been? Because the president said last night there was regime change."

Stutzman backtracked and insisted that whatever the president had said was likely more accurate than his own assessment.

"Well, and again, I mean, the president knows a lot more than I do," Stutzman replied, "and who he's talking to and how he is, uh, you know, negotiating with the the people in Iran. So if he is comfortable with a new person that's taking power, then that is a new leadership in Iran, and I think that that's what's important. We can't let the old guys stay in power. We have to let the Iranian people have their country back."

"It also creates an ally in the Middle East, it brings stability to the Middle East," he added. "You know, watching the Gulf States stepping up through this conflict is really remarkable. This wouldn't have happened 10 years ago, and to have Qatar and Saudi Arabia, Israel all working for the same goal here to take off the head of the snake is truly remarkable, and I think that that's what I mean when I say there's got to be somebody new."

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President Donald Trump drew scathing reviews from his own administration officials for his listless prime time address on the Iran war.

The 79-year-old president insisted military objectives would be accomplished “shortly, very shortly” and promised surging gas prices would “rapidly come back down" when the conflict ends, which he suggested was two to three weeks away, but Zeteo spoke with administration officials who were not impressed with the 19-minute speech.

“It reminded me of listening to Joe Biden speak," one Trump administration official told the outlet after the speech.

Zeteo's Asawin Suebsaeng and Andrew Perez described the address as "sleepy, bumbling [and] bloodthirsty" in their duel bylined report, and said the administration official's review was especially noteworthy.

"In Trumplandia, that is perhaps the worst possible thing you could say about anyone, much less the sitting president and leader of the GOP," the pair wrote.

The joint U.S.-Israeli military operation is becoming increasingly unpopular less than five weeks into the conflict, and Zeteo reported that even the president's top officials are skeptical that Trump can declare victory and move on.

“However poorly you think the war is going, it is worse,” one senior administration official recently told the outlet.

“Iran can declare victory, too,” another senior U.S. official state. “Nobody will buy our attempt to sell this as a big win.”

The former reality TV star's speech failed to persuade even his own administration's officials about the war's necessity, and Zeteo analyzed the political conundrum Trump is currently facing.

"Virtually across the board, the president was panned by his own people, with some denigrating the speech as pointless, and others reiterating how much senior members of the administration never wanted this to happen in the first place," Zeteo reported.

"But Wednesday night’s speech revealed the extent to which Trump’s reckless and illegal war is breaking him down – in ways that numerous other massive crises, criminal investigations, and scandals simply could not," the report added. "For once, his bulls-------, bullying, and bravado aren’t working – and he cannot take it. Plus, he’s sounding notably old and drained as he tries to pretend, to a late-night audience of millions, that he can."

President Donald Trump fired off an insulting attack on Bruce Springsteen less than five minutes after Fox Business aired a segment on his latest tour.

The 76-year-old rocker blasted the 79-year-old Trump from the stage at a concert in Minneapolis, where federal agents killed two Americans earlier this year as part of the administration's immigration crackdown, and Maria Bartiromo's program broadcast Springsteen describing the administration as "corrupt, incompetent, racist, reckless, and treasonous."

"Bad, and very boring singer, Bruce Springsteen, who looks like a dried up prune who has suffered greatly from the work of a really bad plastic surgeon, has long had a horrible and incurable case of Trump Derangement Syndrome, sometimes referred to as TDS," Trump posted on Truth Social a little over four minutes later.

"The guy is a total loser who spews hate against a President who won a Landslide Election, including the popular vote, all Seven Swing States, and 86% of the Counties across America. Under Sleepy Joe and the Dems, our Country was DEAD, and now we have the 'hottest' Country, by far, anywhere in the World," Trump added. "MAGA SHOULD BOYCOTT HIS OVERPRICED CONCERTS, WHICH SUCK. SAVE YOUR HARD EARNED MONEY. AMERICA IS BACK!!! President DJT."

President Donald Trump has been talking about swapping out Attorney General Pam Bondi due to his continuing frustration with her handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files, but a former White House official said that might be politically perilous in an election year.

The 79-year-old president has floated the possibility of replacing Bondi with Lee Zeldin, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, four sources told the New York Times, but Trump's former White House communications director Mike Dubke told "CNN This Morning" that he doubted the exchange would take place.

"So to answer your first question, though, what changed?" Dubke began. "Kristi Noem is no longer taking all the flack, to begin with, so Pam Bondi was second in line for the media and everyone else to come after. So I think that's part of it. I think your point is well taken. Pam Bondi has done for the president what Pete Sessions couldn't do in the first administration, and that's basically run an organization that is pursuing a lot of the efforts that the president wants her to pursue."

"I don't find the reporting on him questioning whether she should go or stay to be all that fascinating, because he does that all the time, and I don't think that's actually new," Dubke added. "Maybe it's ratcheted up a little bit, but this is, you know, from my experience, this is Trump being Trump."

Zeldin, the president's rumored favorite to take over the Department of Justice, served as a congressman from 2015 to 2023, but Dubke said he would not likely find an easy path through Senate confirmation if Trump followed through on replacing Bondi.

"[Noem] was easily replaced by a fellow senator, Markwayne Mullin, who was able to go through a confirmation hearing," Dubke said. "A confirmation hearing for DOJ is not going to be as smooth with Lee Zeldin, who doesn't have those relationships. So we've got to take the we got to look at the entire picture here and what is the art of the possible, and I'm not sure replacing Pam Bondi prior to the midterms is possible."

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President Donald Trump blurted out that his military operations around the world were cutting into domestic spending, and panelists on "CNN This Morning" agreed those candid remarks would likely be used against Republicans this fall.

The 79-year-old president told attendees at an Easter lunch at the White House on Wednesday that the federal government couldn't afford to pay for daycare, Medicaid or Medicare because "we're fighting wars," calling those congressionally mandated entitlement programs "little scams," and host Erica Hill wondered how that would play with voters.

"No money for issues that Americans are really concerned about right now, the cost of their health care, health care, how do they pay for daycare, and yet we're going to need more money for wars," Hill said. "Is that going to come back to haunt the president?"

CNN's Aaron Blake agreed the remarks probably weren't helpful to GOP candidates.

"I was going to say it's going to be in some campaign ads this fall, undoubtedly," Blake said. "I don't think that was necessarily meant for publication right there. That was kind of more candid comments that got leaked in a video that was in a closed-door session. But I think what's really interesting, you mentioned Marjorie Taylor Greene. She's obviously been a very prominent critic of the war, increasingly critical of Trump in a lot of different arenas, but I think she signifies something in the Republican base, and if you look a little bit more closely at the numbers, there is this narrative that MAGA is behind this war, and if you look at the polls, that's what it strictly says. You know, people [who] describe themselves as MAGA, they support the war. The rest of Trump's base is not united behind this war."

"Our CNN poll is a case in point of that," he added. "We asked an interesting question, which was do you think this war has been worth it so far? Not just do you approve of it or disapprove, but is it worth it, [and] 70 percent of Americans said it's not worth it, 35 percent of Republicans said the war so far is not worth it. That points to real reservations that we've seen in other polls, but are starting to poke their head out a little bit more in some of these surveys."

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President Donald Trump's ambassador to Greece signed off on some eye-watering expenditures, according to leaked documents.

Kimberly Guilfoyle, a former Fox News co-host and Donald Trump Jr.’s one-time fiancée, requested the construction of a $58,000 basketball court at the lavish Jefferson House in Athens, where she has been living while serving as the top diplomat, reported The Daily Mail.

"It started with a courtside seat and a custom jersey – and now American taxpayers are set to foot the bill," the outlet reported.

"[Guilfoyle] has thrown herself into the city's glittering social scene: receptions, courtside seats, and late-night parties," the report added. "And to document it all, she's seeking to add a personal photographer to the US government payroll at 25,000 euro ($29,000) per year, according to a prospective contract obtained by the Daily Mail."

Panagiotis and Giorgos Angelopoulos, owners of the famed Olympiacos basketball team, struck up a friendship with the ambassador and gave her a jersey bearing the name of Greek basketball legend Vassilis Spanoulis, and she's been spotted at games sitting with the duo and Los Angeles Chargers linebacker Daiyan Henley and Greek-American shooting guard Tyler Dorsey.

"In the spirit of friendship, respect, and US-Greek ties," the 57-year-old posted on Facebook, along with photos of herself swapping jerseys with the players.

She's looking to add a photographer added to the taxpayer payroll on an "as-needed basis," including "after-hours and weekend" shifts for up to 20 hours a month, according to a prospective contract dated Feb. 20, the Mail reported.

The photographer would be expected to deliver edited images within 24 hours, or faster if requested by the embassy.

"Guilfoyle launched her diplomatic tenure with a nightclub party hosted by Greek pop idol Konstantinos Argiros in late October," the Mail reported. "They were joined by billionaire ticket marketplace tycoon Eric Vassilatos, who has since been spotted with Guilfoyle in London and Miami."

President Donald Trump's approval rating on the key issue that won him re-election has hit a dismal new low, and CNN's Harry Enten is betting things will get worse.

A new CNN poll shows the 79-year-old president's approval for his handling of the economy has hit a personal low of just 31 percent just a year and a half after voters chose him to carry through on his promise to fix inflation immediately upon returning to office, but that hasn't happened and the public is dissatisfied.

"This is no April fool's joke, this is a disaster," Enten said. "All these numbers are a disaster for President Trump. I mean, let's just talk about inflation, which is the name of the game. Okay, highest disapprovals on this inflation about this time in a presidency. Whenever you have Joe Biden and Jimmy Carter on the board and you're matching them or slightly exceeding them when it comes to inflation, you know it's bad. Look at this – 72 percent in our latest CNN poll say they disapprove of the president on inflation. Joe Biden, an average of polls at this point in his presidency, 68 percent, and Jimmy Carter, whose presidency, just like Joe Biden's, was absolutely wrecked by inflation, was at 66 percent about at this point in his presidency back in 1978."

"Donald Trump, even worse than they are," he added. "So you see it here, and the one word is or phrase I might say is, oh my goodness gracious, what a disaster."

Inflation was substantially higher during Biden's presidency than Trump's second term, but rising fuel costs associated with his Iran war are driving voter approval into the tank.

"Biden's worst number, his worst number in any poll I could find, was 72 percent disapprove of Joe Biden vs. Donald Trump," Enten said. "Right now, in our CNN poll, 76 percent, 76 percent, three in four Americans disapprove of the way that Donald Trump is handling gas prices, and again, the gas prices were higher during Biden, but the increase has been so dramatic under the last month under Donald Trump – we're talking about an increase of about a dollar – it's the highest increase that we've seen since at least 1991 in terms of raw dollars. No wonder this number is so high. He is beating or doing even worse than Joe Biden was on gas prices, which of course was such a major issue."

Trump's approval rating on the economy is historically bad compared to other presidents, Enten said.

"These are the worst in our poll – 69 percent disapprove of Donald Trump on the economy," he said. "For George W. Bush it was 57 percent, in terms of the average, Barack Obama, 56 percent. Donald Trump is crushing them on a metric you don't want to be crushing anybody on, which is disapproval ratings on the economy – he's double digits. I was looking at some other polling data also above the 57 percent to 56 percent, the worst of all time at this point. In term number two, it's the economy dragging Trump down, being, of course, accelerated by inflation being so bad, and, of course, the gas prices just adding up. It's like a pancake tower and you're just reaching the top, and this is not a tower you want to climb."

"Where does the Kalshi prediction market say that we're going on inflation chance CPI year over year is above 4 percent in any month in 2026, 64 percent [chance]," Enten added. "That would be for the first time since 2023, so the inflation tower that we're going up, it seems like there are more steps on a stairway, certainly not to heaven, more like hell, if you're the president of the United States."

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President Donald Trump confirmed his presidential library will be more like a high-rise hotel, and it will be built on a parcel of prime downtown Miami real estate finagled from a college that primarily serves minorities.

The 79-year-old president shared AI-generated video of his planned presidential library Monday on social media, but he told reporters in the Oval Office the following day that the project will closely resemble the self-branded hotels he developed as a private businessman – but he used his political powers to purchase the valuable property for next to nothing, as reported by NPR and WTVJ-TV.

"I don't believe in building libraries or museums," Trump told reporters. "Could be [an] office, but it's most likely going to be a hotel with a beautiful building underneath and a 747 Air Force One in the lobby."

The Donald J. Trump Presidential Library Fund, Inc., owns the 2.6-acre plot at 531 NE 2 Ave. – across from two museums, the Kaseya Center, Bayside Marketplace and PortMiami – after the District Board of Trustees of Miami-Dade College transferred the land in late September to a state board overseen by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis.

The college, which enrolls more minority students than any college or university in the U.S., had been using the land – valued at $67 million – as an employee parking lot, and local activists filed a lawsuit in early October accused Miami-Dade College of violating Florida's Sunshine Laws by failing to properly notify residents of what the board would be voting on.

A local judge agreed and temporarily blocked the transfer of the land and scheduled a trial for August 2026, and a state appeals court declined to block the legal challenge, but the college trustees held another vote in December that was more publicized, and nearly 100 people voiced their opposition at the meeting.

However, the board of trustees voted unanimously to transfer the valuable real estate to Board of Trustees of the Internal Improvement Trust Fund of the State of Florida, and a month after that vote Miami-Dade College President Madeline Pumariega turned over the property to that board overseen by DeSantis, the state gave up the land in a quitclaim deed in February to the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library Foundation, Inc.

Court records show the state transferred the property previously owned by the college to the presidential library for $10.

The nonprofit Trump library fund was set up December 2024 after ABC News agreed to donate $15 million as part of its defamation lawsuit, and tech giants and other companies pumped it full of cash as part of other legal settlements with Trump, but the fund was dissolved by the state in September 2025 – days before the trustees' first voted on the land transfer – after it failed to file required annual reporting.

It's not clear how much money was in the fund at the time, but Democratic lawmakers say it could have held up to $63 million.

The only stipulation on the quitclaim deed, as the Miami Herald reported, is that "construction starts on a 'Presidential library, museum, and/or center within five years.'"

A conservative commentator met repeated pushback on "CNN This Morning" for justifying President Donald Trump's attempts to take over this year's midterm elections.

The 79-year-old president signed his second election-related executive order in this term directing the Department of Homeland Security to create federal lists of citizens and ordering the U.S. Postal Service to transmit mail ballots to only those voters, and conservative activist Terry Schilling insisted Trump was addressing a real issue and not simply trying to tip the scales in Republicans' favor.

"Look, to say that we're terrified of losing in the midterms is ridiculous," said Schilling, president of the anti-trans American Principles Project. "It is the trend, is the vast majority of the midterm elections after every single Republican president or Democrat president wins, there's a huge pushback in the election. So to act like we're wetting the bed over this is just preposterous. But I will say that for the people that are concerned about all of the changes that President Trump is making to our election system, we should rewind a few years. I mean, in 2020 was the first election where not just millions of ballots, but tens of millions of ballots were cast through the mail. This has never been done in American history. Jimmy Carter, for example, wrote an entire brief and report on election integrity where he admonished nations that did mail-in balloting. It's super unsecure, so I think we need some –"

"Donald Trump just voted by mail in the special election," interrupted former Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh.

"No, no, listen," Schilling replied.

"But there's also not any evidence of widespread fraud and certainly not in the U.S., widespread fraud," added host Erica Hill.

Schilling shifted the terms of the debate.

"But the argument is not that there is not widespread fraud," Schilling argued. "The argument being made against this executive order is that he's making all of these changes to federal elections. I'm sorry, but in California, they allow illegal immigrants to register to vote. They're only allowed to vote in state elections, apparently. [Editor's note: California law allows noncitizens to vote in some local elections but not in state or federal elections.] But we know that these laws are fungible. You know, we're up against an entire party that really doesn't even believe in American citizenship."

Singh heard enough.

"I am sorry, I have to absolutely object to that," she said.

"Please do, I love that," Schilling interjected, beaming into her face.

"The party that is on the other side of that – I mean, that that is just patently false," Singh said. "We are not against citizenship, and what we want and what Democrats have been fighting for is just access to to voting and voting by mail is something that I do, something that the president does, that is inherently safe, that is secure, and something that can be done with ease."

"It is not secure," Schilling insisted. "We need rules."

"There's no evidence that it's not secure," Hill added, "that it has been widely insecure in the United States."

Schilling argued that the Department of Justice had seized absentee ballots in Georgia that showed signatures that didn't match ones on voter registrations, and legal expert Shan Wu challenged his assertion.

"Just because they got them, it means they're fraudulent?" Wu said.

"No, it means that their their signatures don't match," Schilling replied, and Wu chuckled. "Look, the reality is the American people need to have assurances that their elections are safe and secure."

"They do," Singh exclaimed. "They have in every single election that's happened."

Schilling shifted the terms of debate once again.

"Sabrina, Sabrina, let me just say," he said, beaming into her face again. "Let me say half of the country, half of the country disagrees."

"That's actually not true," Singh corrected.

"Yes, half of the country has very big concerns," Schilling insisted. "They're called Republicans, about how our elections are handled."

A recent poll found 57 percent of Republicans say voter fraud is the biggest threat to elections, and Singh told Schilling she's talked to many Republicans who don't have concerns about the issue Trump's order is purported to address.

"But you haven't talked to me or my friends," Schilling said.

President Donald Trump's off-the-cuff statements about the Iran war have sowed confusion among foreign leaders and financial markets, and within his own administration.

Some of the 79-year-old president's aides and allies confirmed to Axios that Trump has been improvising his plan for the war, saying he likes to keep his options open and spitball ideas for the joint U.S.-Israeli military operation with various audiences, and they said he has vacillated between a major escalation and a swift resolution.

"Nobody knows in the end what he's really thinking," said one senior adviser.

"They had a plan for the first week and since then, they are making the plan up as they go along," added a former U.S. official.

Some administration officials and outside allies argue the ambiguity is intentional. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who recently spoke with Trump, told Axios: "That's the plan — for you to not have a clue." Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth echoed this sentiment, stating the objective is to remain "unpredictable." An unnamed official characterized the strategy as "12-dimensional" chess, claiming Trump deliberately contradicts himself to obscure his intentions.

Current signals suggest Trump may be preparing to withdraw and declare victory within two to three weeks. He has repeatedly discussed U.S. success and potential exit scenarios. However, his private conversations increasingly focus on hawkish advisers like Graham and conservative commentator Mark Levin rather than those cautioning against escalation.

The contradictions are apparent in simultaneous actions: Trump discusses exit strategies while simultaneously massing additional forces in the region, including potential invasion capabilities. Officials speculate that if an April 6 deadline passes without a negotiated settlement, Trump may authorize heavy bombing of Iranian infrastructure and nuclear facilities before withdrawing.

Regional allies like Israel, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates worry about leaving Iran weakened but unbowed.

"The Saudis sound like Mark Levin," one Trump adviser said. "They want the U.S. to finish the job by wiping Iran off the globe now. We don't want to."

Additional complications include unresolved challenges regarding the Strait of Hormuz and potential ongoing "mowing the grass" operations — periodic strikes conducted after major combat concludes.

"The president said early on we might have to come back," another administration official said, "and we might have to. If we have to mow the lawn again, the grass won't be nearly as tall next time."

Trump is scheduled to address the nation on Iran Wednesday evening, potentially offering the clarity his own advisers and international partners desperately seek.