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Far-right Freedom Caucus breaks with Trump on DHS funding: report

The far-right Freedom Caucus is openly defying Donald Trump by rejecting his endorsed two-step funding plan for the Department of Homeland Security — a stunning rebuke that exposes the fracturing Republican Party and leaves Speaker Mike Johnson, once again, scrambling to hold his caucus together.

According to The Hill's Emily Brooks, the Freedom Caucus issued an official statement Tuesday publicly rejecting Trump's compromise, which would fund most of DHS through a bipartisan Senate bill while using budget reconciliation to separately fund ICE and Border Patrol.

"We cannot leave ICE and CBP hanging with nothing but hopes and prayers that reconciliation 2.0 comes together. That's why we must use reconciliation to fully fund ALL of the Department of Homeland Security!" the Freedom Caucus declared on X.

The defiance is particularly striking because Trump himself endorsed the two-step plan last week alongside Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Speaker Johnson. But the hardliners aren't backing down.

"We must provide robust funding for ICE and CBP, and it should be done with all of DHS in reconciliation 2.0. We can fund DHS for the rest of the President's term to ensure Democrats can never again take our nation's security hostage."

"We will never hand Democrats their ultimate prize: A defunded ICE, handcuffed CBP, and criminal aliens terrorizing our communities," the caucus added — language that suggests the hardliners view Trump's compromise as capitulation.

Johnson faces an impossible task. He had already rejected the two-step plan as a "joke" before Trump forced him to publicly support it. Now the Freedom Caucus is calling his bluff, demanding a full GOP reconciliation bill that funds all of DHS at once.

Trump's recent executive order paying DHS employees despite the shutdown eliminated the political pressure that typically forces deals. The Freedom Caucus is now exploiting that breathing room to push for total victory rather than compromise.

The intraparty warfare signals a prolonged DHS funding battle ahead — and growing evidence that even Trump's endorsement can't unite a fractured Republican caucus.

MAGA pouts about Trump destroying GOP midterms chances: 'Every day will be hell'

MAGA influencers Steve Bannon and Eric Bolling warned that Democrats would "rain hell down" if President Donald Trump's war in Iran leads to defeat for Republicans in the midterm elections.

During his Tuesday War Room podcast, Bannon cautioned that it could be "one of those days" after Trump threatened to destroy Iran's civilization in a single night.

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Nobel winner says Trump's new 'motive' admission will make war crimes trial 'no problem'

Economist and Nobel laureate Paul Krugman warned that President Donald Trump's serious threat that "a whole civilization will die tonight" in his latest escalation of the Iran war would lead to lasting damage for the United States.

In his Substack on Tuesday, Krugman suggested "the civilization we destroy may be our own" and that Trump had made a major admission with his comments. He called it America's "darkest hour" yet.

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Trump's inner circle faced with 'walk away now' alternative as firings loom: analyst

Now that Donald Trump has broken the ice by abruptly firing Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and then Attorney General Pam Bondi, everyone's job is reportedly on the line as the president shakes up his embattled administration.

According to political strategist Max Burns writing for MS NOW, Trump is making a fundamental miscalculation. "Instead of getting the message the American people are sending, Trump is instead leaning on an old trick from his reality television days and shaking up the cast of characters in his dysfunctional administration. He may think a purge will fix things, but high-profile firings won't cure what ails an administration derailed by his own incompetence and failures."

The timing of Kristi Noem and Pam Bondi's departures are revealing. Both exited as Trump hit his worst-ever approval ratings in traditionally Republican stronghold areas — a sign of deeper, structural problems that scapegoating can't solve.

The numbers tell the story of failure. A CNN poll published April 1 found Trump 14 points underwater on immigration issues, with a growing number of independents abandoning his mass deportation scheme. On the Epstein files scandal, a majority of voters believe Trump is covering up the crimes of convicted sex offender and suspected sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein — an issue Trump specifically tasked Bondi with resolving months ago, with no success.

The pattern is clear: Trump tolerates rank incompetence, but he cannot tolerate looking bad in public. That's a cardinal sin and someone has to pay –– just not him.

Burns highlights the absurdity of Trump's approach: "Voting contestants out of the boardroom may have been compelling television when Trump merely had to pretend to be a leader, but it's a disastrous policy when American families at home and troops abroad are paying the costs of the president's ineptitude."

"Trump’s first term is a reminder that when he’s cornered and increasingly unpopular, his most loyal flunkies often find themselves out of a job. That leaves key administration officials facing a difficult choice: Walk away now or face the growing risk of a presidential Truth Social post telling you to pack up your desk," Burns recommended.

Trump affirms he's 'sticking to' imminent threat to forever end Iranian civilization

President Donald Trump called Fox News’ Bret Baier Tuesday morning to affirm that he would be “sticking to” his threat to permanently destroy Iranian civilization by Tuesday night, and that plans were already “moving forward.”

“I just got off the phone with the president,” Baier said. “He called, and I said ‘listen, if you were to put odds on it, what were the odds that this is going to end up being a negotiated deal?’ He said he wasn’t going to put odds on it, but he said ‘8 p.m. is happening’ – that’s what he said.”

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Iran cuts communication with Trump over threat to destroy civilization: report

President Donald Trump's gambit to force Iran to negotiate has reportedly backfired.

"A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again," Trump warned on Tuesday in a Truth Social post.

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'Time to say no': MAGA influencer calls on US military to disobey Trump

MAGA influencer Tucker Carlson called on members of the White House and the U.S. military to disobey President Donald Trump if he tries to commit war crimes in Iran.

"Unless somebody puts the brakes on right away, we're going to wind up in a place that we can't even imagine," Carlson warned on a podcast this week. "And so that means, because this is obvious to anyone who's paying any attention, that if you work in the White House, work in the US military, now it's time to say, no, absolutely not."

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White House wracked with 'high anxiety' over upcoming Trump book: report

The Donald Trump White House is bracing for impact from a potentially devastating new book set to publish mid-June. New York Times correspondents Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan — two of the most wired reporters in Washington with a proven track record of explosive Trump administration disclosures — have spent a lot of time investigating Trump's presidency, and the results are causing "high anxiety" in Trumpworld.

According to Axios founder Mike Allen, Trump's vicious mid-March attack on Haberman finally revealed what he was so desperate to suppress: the announcement of the book, titled "Regime Change," which examines Trump's "Imperial Presidency."

Trump's rage was unhinged. "Maggot Hagerman, just another SLEAZEBAG writer for The Failing New York Times, insists on writing false stories about me," Trump posted on Truth Social, threatening to add Haberman and her "associates" to his Florida lawsuit against the Times.

The timing wasn't coincidental. Allen noted that Trump's post lined up perfectly with an Oval Office interview Haberman and Swan conducted with the president in March — suggesting Trump was already aware of the book project.

The White House is now in full damage-control mode. Over the past few weeks, senior administration officials have been privately discussing leaks from Oval Office and Situation Room meetings to Haberman and Swan — including recent 2026 discussions — signaling panic about what explosive information might be contained in the forthcoming book.

The parallels to Trump's first term are unmistakable: previous bombshell book disclosures had his inner circle pointing fingers at each other in mutual suspicion and paranoia.

The publisher's description hints at the book's scope and ambition: "Regime Change" takes you inside secret deliberations of a president "who has fundamentally altered the nature of the office he holds — and, with it, how the rest of the world understands American power."

For a president obsessed with controlling his media narrative, the prospect of two supremely connected Times reporters publishing an in-depth examination of his presidency represents more chaos for an embattled White House.

Trump blindsides JD Vance by forcing him to learn about major Iran update from reporters

Vice President JD Vance had no idea President Donald Trump had escalated the war in Iran until reporters tipped him off during a press conference in Hungary on Tuesday, according to reports.

A Washington Post reporter recommended Vance check his phone as he was on a stage with Trump ally Hungarian President Viktor Orbán, just after Trump had sent a serious threat warning on his Truth Social platform and said "a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again," if Iran does not make a deal by his 8 p.m. ET deadline, The Daily Beast reported.

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CNN makes GOP lawmaker squirm under pressure: 'You don't believe the president's threat?'

Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) was put on the spot by CNN’s John Berman Tuesday after refusing to directly address President Donald Trump’s threat to permanently destroy Iran’s civilization, and instead, attempted several times to downplay the threat’s severity.

In a statement issued Tuesday morning, Trump warned that “a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again,” noting that while he did not “want that to happen,” but that it “probably will.” His threat comes as his deadline he imposed on Iran to lift restrictions on a critical shipping channel is set to expire Tuesday night at 8 p.m. EST.

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Right-wing leaders call for Trump's removal from office after president's new threat

America First leaders of the MAGA movement called on President Donald Trump to be removed from office after he threatened to destroy Iran's civilization.

"A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again," Trump wrote on Tuesday in a Truth Social post.

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Trump facing his own deadline on Iran as anxious Republicans fall out of 'lockstep'

Donald Trump's apocalyptic threat — "A whole civilization will die tonight" — if Iran doesn't reopen the Strait of Hormuz is facing a different kind of pressure: his own party is running out of patience and preparing to invoke constitutional limits on his war powers.

According to The Hill, GOP lawmakers are increasingly restless as the conflict drags on, and Trump faces a critical 6-day window before Congress could force a showdown vote on war powers authority.

The political ground is shifting beneath Trump's feet. The Iran operation is unfolding at a precarious moment for Republicans, as the midterm election season intensifies and segments of the MAGA base grow increasingly angry over perceived abandonment of the "America First" agenda. Trump promised this would last four to five weeks. Instead, he has escalated tensions, threatened strikes on Iran's infrastructure, and hasn't ruled out U.S. ground troops — moves that risk entrenching America in a prolonged conflict.

GOP lawmakers are now falling out of "lockstep" with Trump and are now drawing a line in the sand: 60 days.

"Constitutional limits are in place to temper the president from unilateral authority. I support the president's actions taken in defense of American lives and interests. However, I will not support ongoing military action beyond a 60-day window without congressional approval," Sen. John Curtis (R-UT) wrote in an op-ed on April 1.

Curtis invoked the War Powers Resolution of 1973, which "limits the president's period of time to respond to 'emerging threats.'" A 60-day window, he argued, "is a fully sufficient window for presidents to take emergency measures in response to a national threat and then remit a decision to the duly elected representatives of the people as to whether a state of war should in fact be declared and continued."

Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) signaled he'd consider voting on a war powers resolution if the conflict extends beyond 60 days. "I do think Iran has been a threat for 47 years, and they've killed roughly a thousand Americans. But I'd consider the resolution," Bacon told The Hill. He added that he hopes the conflict ends quickly, but "the enemy has a vote."

Public opinion is overwhelmingly against continuation. In a CNN poll released last week, 66 percent of respondents said they either "somewhat disapprove" or "strongly disapprove" of the U.S. military action in Iran.

Frustration is mounting across the GOP conference. Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) has already declared she won't support Trump's requested $200 billion supplemental funding package for the Pentagon.

"I've already told leadership, 'I am a no on any war supplementals,'" Boebert told CNN's Manu Raju. "I am so tired of spending money elsewhere. I am tired of the industrial war complex getting all of our hard-earned tax dollars. I have folks in Colorado who can't afford to live."

JD Vance doubles down on ending civilization in Iran: 'The president set a deadline'

U.S. Vice President JD Vance doubled down on President Donald Trump's threat to end Iran's civilization in one night, with the hint that nuclear weapons could be used.

"A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again," Trump wrote on Tuesday on Truth Social.

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