by Ebony Davis | Jul 28, 2026 | Iran, News, Politics
President Donald Trump said Monday that Israel would have been “terminated” without U.S. military intervention against Iran, arguing that his administration’s strikes on Tehran’s nuclear program prevented destruction to America’s closest ally in the Middle East.
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One while traveling to Michigan, Trump defended the U.S. campaign against Iran, saying it fundamentally altered the balance of power in the region.
“You know who wouldn’t survive without us? Israel. Bibi’s coming, he’ll tell you,” Trump said. “If I didn’t get involved, and I didn’t blow up those nuclear, essentially, soon to be nuclear weapons to dust, Israel would have been terminated months ago.”
Later Monday, while delivering remarks at the General Motors Proving Ground in Milford, Michigan, Trump touted the United States’ strikes in Iran, saying the U.S. had destroyed Tehran’s navy and air force, while diminishing its drone and missile manufacturing capabilities.
While he touted the U.S. military strikes on Iran as a major success, the audience was notably less enthusiastic about his remarks on the war than they were about immigration and the southern border.
Trump was in Milford to bolster support among auto workers and voters in the key battleground state by highlighting his administration’s efforts to revive domestic manufacturing, expand auto industry jobs and strengthen the economy ahead of the midterm elections.
Trump’s remarks came one day before he is scheduled to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House to discuss the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.
Trump said he and Netanyahu remain “pretty close” on Iran ahead of their scheduled meeting Tuesday, though he acknowledged minor differences without elaborating.
The U.S. and Iran halted attacks
by Sharon Zhang | Jul 27, 2026 | Corruption, Donald Trump, Iran, News, Pentagon, Venezuela
President Donald Trump claimed that the U.S. has seized over $13 billion in oil revenues from Venezuela and is using it for “running the country” in remarks on Monday in which he threatened to do the same to Iran. Late last week, the Financial Times estimated that the U.S. has put roughly $13 billion of Venezuela’s oil revenues into a reported U.S. Treasury account ever since the Trump…
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by Steve Benen | Jul 27, 2026 | Iran, Iran Tensions, Maddowblog, News, Politics, World
After months of reporting about Russia taking deliberate steps to assist Iran during the U.S. war, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told senators during a congressional hearing last week that Russia is, in fact, “enabling some of the things Iran is doing.”
Evidently, Donald Trump isn’t sure whether to believe his own Pentagon chief or not.
Six weeks ago, as the Group of Seven summit in France was wrapping up, the American president offered some curious praise to his friend in Moscow. “I want to thank Vladimir Putin, he was very neutral,” the Republican said, referring to the Russian president’s role in the war with Iran. Even at the time, the comment was bizarre, given the overwhelming evidence that Putin hasn’t been neutral at all.
Late last week, on the heels of Hegseth’s testimony, Trump reiterated his belief that Russia, in his “opinion,” is “not participating” in the war. In a statement published to his social media platform, he added that his beliefs were based on private assurances he said he received from Putin.
Hours later, asked about the contradiction between Hegseth’s line and the Kremlin’s, the American president again said he “trusts” what he’s been told by the Russian leader.
One day later, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced new plans to share intelligence about Russia’s latest assistance to Iran — the latest in a series of such declarations. Zelenskyy previously said his country’s government had “irrefutable” evidence Russia had provided intelligence to the Iranian regime during the war, but he simply couldn’t get the White House to take an interest in it.
So when Trump fielded questions from reporters aboard Air Force One on Monday afternoon,
by Steve Benen | Jul 27, 2026 | Iran, Maddowblog, World
During his latest appearance on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Republican Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana acknowledged the fact that the Iran war is broadly unpopular with the American mainstream. It led the senator to offer the Trump administration some unsolicited advice.
Sen. John Kennedy: “I support the president in Iran. We all have to do a better job messaging.”— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2026-07-26T15:13:32.583Z
“I support the president in Iran,” Kennedy said. “We all need to do a better job messaging. I may end up with a sombrero on my head by saying this, but we all know the president. He exists loudly. He grows anxious when he has an unexpressed thought. He’s not always disciplined in his messaging. I’m not saying he should stop talking. He’s the president, and I’m not.
“But I would put [Secretary of State Marco] Rubio and [Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Dan] Caine and [CIA Director John] Ratcliffe and [Defense Secretary Pete] Hegseth out there, either in a speech or in a long press conference, to explain what’s going on in Iran. Why we went in, why we’re still there.”
It’s a pitch rooted in a simple idea: The unpopular war would enjoy greater public support if the White House had better “messaging” and spokespeople who could simply “explain what’s going on.”
If this sounds at all familiar, it’s because it has become a go-to stance for Republicans in response to all kinds of challenges. Vice President JD Vance, for example, said earlier this month that the administration should have done a better job on “the communications” of the Epstein scandal.
Earlier this year, the president acknowledged his weak public
by Sydney Carruth | Jul 25, 2026 | Business, Iran, News, White House
As his new tariffs went into effect and gas prices climbed on Saturday, President Donald Trump said he’s not ruling out a full-scale war.
In a phone interview with French journalist Sonia Dridi, Trump said he’s “absolutely” considering resuming full-scale war with Iran if the U.S. doesn’t “get 100% of what we want.”
The president told reporters in the Oval Office on Friday the U.S. is “talking” to Iran, adding that he believes Iran is “getting more and more serious as the days go by” but “that doesn’t mean we get there.” Friday night was the first in 13 consecutive nights that the U.S. did not strike Iran.
The national average gas price rose slightly Saturday to $4.11 a gallon as Trump’s newly imposed tariffs on goods from more than 80 countries threatened to heap further financial strain on Americans ahead of the midterms. The reporter said when she asked Trump whether he would follow through with his threat to levy “substantial” new tariffs on the European Union, which he has accused of “robbing” American tech companies, he declined to comment.
The tariffs, which took effect Friday and have already been challenged in court, could cost American households an extra $1,100 annually, according to an analysis by The Budget Lab at Yale University. That comes at a time when consumers are already shelling out more for necessities, including gas and groceries, as the Iran war drives inflation and energy prices upward.
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Politico: 46% say high gas prices will impact their vote
July 24, 2026 / 06:43
Gas price averages in the United States surpassed $4 a gallon on July 20 for the first time in more
by Sharon Zhang | Jul 24, 2026 | Department of Defense, Donald Trump, Iran, News, Pentagon
The Trump administration quietly revised the U.S. troop death count in the Iran war from 18 to 14 this week, seemingly removing the deaths of the four troops killed this past weekend in Iranian strikes even as the administration faces accusations of cover-ups with regard to American casualties of the war. The New York Times reported that, on Wednesday, the Pentagon website that logs troop…
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