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JD Vance's team is exhausted trying to 'publicly portray support' for Trump: insider

As Vice President JD Vance jets off to Pakistan, where he is expected to take the lead in negotiating an end to the US war on Iran, his inner circle is admitting that making a public show of support for Donald Trump is wearing them down.

Vance has been reported to have been against the attack behind the scenes, but has been supportive of the president in public.

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Trump ordered Pentagon to rewrite report that labeled China a 'security threat': WSJ

Donald Trump's public tough-guy posturing on China masks a stunning capitulation to Beijing. When Pentagon officials presented a draft National Defense Strategy last fall that characterized China as the top U.S. security threat — the same assessment his own first administration endorsed — Trump ordered it rewritten in friendlier terms.

According to the Wall Street Journal's Heather Somerville, Alexander Ward, and Gavin Bade, Trump "balked" at the Pentagon assessment and commanded his deputy to soften the language. The revised National Defense Strategy published in January struck an entirely different tone.

"President Trump seeks a stable peace, fair trade, and respectful relations with China," the document now declares — a stunning reversal from the bipartisan consensus that characterized China as the most consequential U.S. adversary.

The shift represents a seismic policy reversal. Trump's own first-term defense strategy took the same hardline approach the Pentagon recommended. Now Trump 2.0 is discarding that bipartisan framework in favor of a new mantra: "Don't rock the boat."

The capitulation goes far deeper than rhetoric. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has imposed a stranglehold on China policy, requiring his personal sign-off for any China-related actions. The result is Kafkaesque: senior Commerce officials sit waiting by Lutnick's office or watch for his car outside the building before pursuing routine China policy actions.

Other agencies have resorted to workarounds, pursuing a ban on a China-linked router maker by strategically avoiding naming either the company or China in the official order — essentially hiding policy from public view.

The reversal has alarmed Trump's own national security aides. China hawks in the administration have adopted gallows humor, calling the shift the "Busan Freeze," referencing the South Korea meeting between Trump and Xi that produced a fragile trade detente.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and other officials appealed to Trump to walk back tariffs and dial down the trade war so minerals could flow from China again — an apparent capitulation to economic pressure over strategic security.

The pivot was deliberate and premeditated. Trump initially asked national security advisers to develop a harder line on China's technological encroachment. But the president later abandoned the restrictions, and in April, Trump fired Douglas Feith and other China hawks from the National Security Council, dismantling the directorate that had coordinated administration actions on tech and China.

Against a president who fancies himself a master dealmaker, China is clearly winning, the Journal is reporting.

Nobel winner says Trump just made 'America's weakness' clear with one foolish move

Donald Trump's recent comments on Truth Social and during a speech addressing the war with Iran have made the United States look foolish, a Nobel Prize winner claimed.

Paul Krugman believes the president has made America look like a laughing stock in recent weeks. But the long-term damage of doing so makes Trump's administration an unreliable ally to world leaders who would previously be reassured by the US as an ally. Not anymore, according to the veteran economist, who says the recent statements made by Trump have undermined America's world standing.

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'This goes way too far': Trump shocks with 'bizarre' endorsement of dictator

President Donald Trump stunned political observers and analysts on Thursday by officially endorsing Hungarian dictator Viktor Orbán for reelection.

Trump posted on Truth Social that Orbán is a "truly strong and powerful Leader, with a proven track record of delivering phenomenal results" and urged voters to support him during the April 12 election. Trump's post came at a time when Orbán, who has been in office for the past 16 years, is facing one of his toughest reelection bids yet.

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Calls mount for Pope to punish JD Vance: 'Excommunicate the heretic!'

Vice President JD Vance was under fire on Thursday after a number of voices called for his excommunication from the Catholic Church.

Vance has described himself as a devout Catholic and has a new book coming out about his faith journey. But critics of the vice president have demanded Pope Leo punish Vance and take a stand after the Church leader called President Donald Trump's threat to wipe out the Iranian civilization "truly unacceptable."

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MAGA melts down over unsubstantiated DOJ probe as rumor sparks feeding frenzy: report

MAGA influencers were raging at each other over a supposed Department of Justice investigation examining whether foreign money plays a role in their social media content, according to a report published on Thursday.

The growing divide over Iran and President Donald Trump's decisions has pitted conservative influencers against each other, The Bulwark's Will Sommer reported.

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Outrage as Florida man urges Trump to wipe out Iran live on TV: 'Kill them all'

An interview on MS NOW with a Florida man caused alarm on social media after he urged Donald Trump to “push the button” and kill everyone in Iran.

Speaking on the street in front of a Starbucks in Boca Raton, Dale Hershman told MS NOW’s Alex Tabet that he wants Trump’s war to continue and that the president has not gone far enough as far as he is concerned.

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Ex-ally calls out Mike Johnson for supporting anti-Christian move: 'Not what Jesus said'

Former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) accused Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) of not following the teachings of Jesus Christ because he had supported President Donald Trump after a threat to destroy Iran's entire civilization in one night.

During an interview with CNN on Thursday, Greene called Trump's apocalyptic threat "insanity."

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Troops dispute Hegseth's 'false' account of Iranian attack that killed six: report

U.S. military service members claimed the Pentagon was not telling the truth about Iran's deadliest attack on America's troops during President Donald Trump's most recent war.

CBS News reported that survivors of the attack that killed six and wounded 20 were "left dangerously exposed" when they were attacked in Kuwait.

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MS NOW puts Hakeem Jeffries on the spot over upcoming 'performative' Iran war vote

An interview with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) got off to a ragged start on Thursday morning when MS NOW regular Katty Kay accused him of being ineffective.

Brought on to promote an Iran war resolution vote to be held Thursday morning at the request of his office, Kay immediately charged ahead with, “It doesn't have really very much chance of passing at all. So is this just performative on your part?”

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Trump issues cryptic early-morning threat hinting at new ally 'pressure'

Donald Trump kicked off his Thursday morning with a cryptic Truth Social post aimed at NATO that will have people scratching their heads at what is to come.

The president has long been critical of the military alliance formed in 1949 as a bulwark against Russia, arguing over funding and now complaining that NATO countries won’t help him with his war on Iran.

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White House called on the carpet for risky war on Pope Leo: 'This is preposterous'

A report that Donald Trump’s administration menaced the first American-born pope led the entire panel on MS NOW’s "Morning Joe” to wonder what they could possibly be thinking as they risk alienating millions of Catholics.

According to a report from The Free Press, after Pope Leo XIV delivered his State of the World speech where he criticized the Trump administration, Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby demanded an audience with Cardinal Christophe Pierre, the Vatican’s U.S. representative, and then issued a threat, reportedly telling the pope’s representative, “The United States has the military power to do whatever it wants in the world. The Catholic Church had better take its side.”

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Pete Hegseth's future at risk after 'humiliating' Trump at press conference: MS NOW host

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s continuing over-the-top press conferences about the Iran war are not doing Donald Trump any favors due to his childish behavior, leading MS NOW’s Joe Scarborough to suggest the president may want to put an end to Hegseth's "humiliating" antics.

Reacting to the Wednesday Pentagon press conference, where the former Fox News personality boasted about the president’s ceasefire agreement that was already in the process of falling apart, the “Morning Joe” host compared Hegseth repeatedly to a grossly immature elementary school student.

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