US News

President Donald Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth do not have a real plan in place to neutralize the threat from Iran, NBC national security reporter David Rohde told MS NOW's "Morning Joe" on Thursday.

"The problem is if it's just more airstrikes, that didn't work," said Rohde. "And the real issue, the biggest leverage Iran has is that it hasn't attacked the energy facilities that exist across the Persian Gulf, the refineries, the natural gas processing facilities and pipelines. They've hit a few of them, but that's their sort of, you know, their top option ... their biggest threat is that if the U.S. bombs again and bombs their infrastructure, their power plants, they will take out all those facilities and it will take months, months to rebuild them. So this goes from an energy crisis that lasts for a few weeks to months and months."

Lebanese officials directly contradicted President Donald Trump's breezy suggestion that its leader would speak with Israeli leadership.

The 79-year-old president announced on Truth Social that Lebanese President Joseph Aoun would speak Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying they were "trying to get a little breathing room between Israel and Lebanon. It has been a long time since the two leaders have spoken, like 34 years," but Lebanese officials told Reuters that would not happen anytime soon.

Former Virginia lieutenant governor Justin Fairfax shot his wife to death and then killed himself, authorities in Annandale said.

On Thursday, officials confirmed to Fox 5 that Fairfax was found in their home at the 8100 block of Guinevere Drive. Two bodies were identified as Fairfax and his wife.

President Donald Trump seems to be ramping up pressure on elderly conservative U.S. Supreme Court Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas to consider retiring as soon as possible.

The 79-year-old president strongly suggested in an interview with Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo that he would like to replace up to three justices before the midterm election, where Democrats appear poised to take back the House and narrow the already thin Republican Senate majority, according to CNN's Aaron Blake.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth once again used a Pentagon press conference to complain about the reporting on the Iran war that is trapped in a stalemate, claiming the straight reporting on Donald Trump's attack on Iran has been “garbage.”

He then claimed he attended church last Sunday with his family and heard a sermon about the Pharisees that reminded him of the persecution of Jesus Christ –– then comparing them to the US press.

Republicans in Congress are already running into a problem as they craft their next reconciliation bill: the demands of anti-abortion activists.

According to NOTUS, "As congressional Republicans prepare to start the budget reconciliation process for a second time to fund the president’s immigration agenda, anti-abortion leaders are hoping it’s an opportunity to extend their push to effectively defund Planned Parenthood for longer. Last year’s reconciliation bill initially attempted to bar federal funding from going to abortion providers for 10 years. After the Senate parliamentarian effectively disqualified that duration, Republicans were successful in defunding for one year, which has led to multiple Planned Parenthood clinic closures."

President Donald Trump will travel to Nevada on Thursday to highlight his "no tax on tips" policy, one of his signature economic initiatives aimed at supporting the state's working-class voters ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.

The event in downtown Las Vegas represents an attempt to reset the affordability narrative following the Iran conflict and previous unsuccessful pivots that have contributed to declining poll numbers, but the city's service industry workers say economic relief so far hasn't been enough to make a difference, reported Politico.