Trump Dodges Key Question on Iran Nuclear Capabilities

Attacking Iran has achieved nothing, according to Donald Trump, who evaded questions from reporters Tuesday as to whether or not the Middle Eastern country had made commitments about uranium enrichment.

“They’re not going to have enrichment and they’re not going to have a nuclear weapon, and they know that,” Trump said aboard Air Force One. “They’re going to get on to being a great trading nation. You know, they’re very good traders and they’re gonna be a great trading nation. And they have a lot of oil.”

Trump directed airstrikes without congressional approval on Iran’s nuclear facilities Saturday. The attack damaged facilities in Fordo, Natanz, and Isfahan, with damage estimates expected to be “very significant,” according to International Atomic Energy Agency Director Rafael Grossi.

Iran has argued that it is seeking uranium for peaceful purposes, such as expanding its nuclear energy program. It has undergone years of nuclear site inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency, and as of last week was allowing IAEA inspectors to remain in the country, according to Grossi.

The only nuclear-armed state in the Middle East is presumed to be Israel, which will not confirm or deny possessing what the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons estimates are approximately 90 nuclear weapons.

Trump insisted Tuesday that “the last thing on Iran’s mind right now is nuclear weapons.”

At least 606 people have been killed in Iran since Israel first attacked on June 13, according to Iran’s health ministry. Approximately 107 people died on Monday alone, making it the deadliest single day of the conflict.

Trump announced a successful ceasefire between Iran and Israel Monday evening, before the two nations had jointly come to an agreement on the terms of ending their conflict. Hours after the ceasefire deadline had passed, the two nations continued lobbing missiles at one another.

“We basically—we have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don’t know what the fuck they’re doing,” Trump told reporters at the White House earlier Tuesday before he set off for a NATO summit at The Hague, where rifts are expected to widen over defense spending and a dampening American interest in defending Ukraine against Russia.

Trump won in November in no small part due to his campaign pledges to end the wars in Ukraine and in Gaza, but just six months into his second term, he has instigated a third war while failing to resolve the first pair, earning the ire of some of his longest and staunchest defenders, including Representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene and Thomas Massie.

Senior Justice Department official Emil Bove, whom President Donald Trump has nominated for a lifetime appointment on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, expressed his willingness to ignore court orders in order to speed up the president’s mass deportations, according to a whistleblower report.

The stunning disclosure comes from former Justice Department official Erez Reuveni—who was fired by the Trump administration after acknowledging in court that the deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia was an “administrative error.”

Reuveni’s new allegations, which were submitted to Senate and House Judiciary Committee leaders, as well as the U.S. inspector general and acting special counsel, were published by The New York Times on Tuesday.

His account details a meeting with Bove and subordinate officials at the DOJ and officials within the Office of Immigration Litigation on March 14.

According to Reuveni’s complaint, in the meeting, Bove informed those in attendance of Trump’s then-forthcoming proclamation, which would invoke the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 in service of his mass deportation agenda. Planes containing deportees subject to the Alien Enemies Act would take off over the next two days, Bove reportedly said.

Bove reportedly “stressed to all in attendance that planes needed to take off no matter what,” though he also noted “the possibility that a court order would enjoin those removals before they could be effectuated.”

The suggested response? “Bove stated that DOJ would need to consider telling the courts ‘fuck you’ and ignore any such court order,” per Reuveni’s report.

The remark was followed by “stunned” looks and “awkward, nervous glances.”

“Silence overtook the room,” the report says, and “Reuveni and others were quickly ushered out of the room.”

This revelation—which adds to Bove’s record of targeting January 6 investigators and helping drop corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams—comes a day before he is set to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee for his nomination to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals.

Democratic Senator Dick Durbin, ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, issued a statement saying the allegations “not only speak to Mr. Bove’s failure to fulfill his ethical obligations as a lawyer, but demonstrate that his activities are part of a broader pattern by President Trump and his allies to undermine the Justice Department’s commitment to the rule of law.”

President Trump went on a wordy, meandering rant against Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez after the congresswoman called for his impeachment.

“Stupid AOC, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, one of the ‘dumbest’ people in Congress, is now calling for my Impeachment, despite the fact that the Crooked and Corrupt Democrats have already done that twice before. The reason for her ‘rantings’ is all of the Victories that the U.S.A. has had under the Trump Administration,” the president wrote on Truth Social Tuesday.

AOC called for Trump’s impeachment over his bombing of Iran without congressional approval.

“The President’s disastrous decision to bomb Iran without authorization is a grave violation of the Constitution and Congressional War Powers. He has impulsively risked launching a war that may ensnare us for generations,” she wrote Saturday on X. “It is absolutely and clearly grounds for impeachment.”

Trump was obviously bothered by this statement, and he went on to sully the name of AOC and several other progressive women of color in the Democratic Party.

“When we examine her Test Scores, we will find out that she is NOT qualified for office but, nevertheless, far more qualified than Crockett, who is a seriously Low IQ individual, or Ilhan Omar, who does nothing but complain about our Country, yet the Failed Country that she comes from doesn’t have a Government, is drenched in Crime and Poverty, and is rated one of the WORST in the World, if it’s even rated at all. How dare ‘The Mouse’ tells us how to run the United States of America! We’re just now coming back from that Radical Left experiment with Sleepy Joe, Kamala, and ‘THE AUTOPEN,’ in charge. What a disaster it was!” he continued on.

He then dared AOC to take the same dementia test he once did.

“AOC should be forced to take the Cognitive Test that I just completed at Walter Reed Medical Center, as part of my Physical. As the Doctor in charge said, ‘President Trump ACED it,’ meaning, I got every answer right,” Trump wrote. “Instead of her constant complaining, Alexandria should go back home to Queens, where I was also brought up, and straighten out her filthy, disgusting, crime ridden streets, in the District she ‘represents,’ and which she never goes to anymore. She better start worrying about her own Primary, before she thinks about beating our Great Palestinian Senator, Cryin’ Chuck Schumer, whose career is definitely on very thin ice! She and her Democrat friends have just hit the Lowest Poll Numbers in Congressional History, so go ahead and try Impeaching me, again, MAKE MY DAY!”

“Mr. President, don’t take your anger out on me - I’m just a silly girl,” AOC responded on X. “Take it out on whoever convinced you to betray the American people and our Constitution by illegally bombing Iran and dragging us into war. It only took you 5 months to break almost every promise you made.”

There is certainly a question of Trump’s impulsiveness here, as receiving congressional approval for the Iran nuclear strikes would have made it look like he wasn’t acting wantonly during the conflict. But he didn’t and now he’s got members of Congress on both sides of the aisle scrambling to craft War Powers Act resolutions. But for what it’s worth, calls for Trump’s impeachment on those grounds feel empty, as former Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden both dropped thousands of bombs on various nations without receiving congressional approval. Who exactly is allowed to who is allowed to drop bombs on another country without congressional approval, and when do we decide to deem that an act of war?

This article has been updated.

The rift between Donald Trump and one of his former allies is widening.

Kentucky Representative Thomas Massie has accused the president of pursuing an unconstitutional war with Iran, so in return, Trump volleyed back that it is actually Massie who is “very bad for the Constitution.”

“Third Rate Congressman Thomas Massie, of the Great Commonwealth of Kentucky, a phenomenal State that I won all three times (by a lot!), keeps talking about how he is going to protect the Constitution, but he is actually very bad for the Constitution, and will probably vote against ‘THE GREAT, BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL,’ that grants the Biggest Tax Cuts in History, secures our Southern Border from Criminal Invasion, funds the Golden Dome, our Great Military and Veterans, protects our Second Amendment, grants NO TAX ON TIPS, NO TAX ON OVERTIME, and NO TAX ON SOCIAL SECURITY (for our Great Seniors!), and so much more. He is against all of the above, and many other incredible things,” Trump posted on Truth Social Tuesday.

Massie offered Trump a full-throated endorsement in the 2024 race on the basis that he would prevent “needless wars abroad.” But the two have locked horns several times since Trump took office. Massie was one of two Republican lawmakers to vote against Trump’s tax plan last month, and over the weekend condemned Trump’s strikes on Iran.

“Why would anyone want to vote for a so-called ‘Congressman,’ a RINO, at best, who wants to raise your Taxes by 68 percent, which is what will happen if, ‘THE GREAT, BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL’ doesn’t pass,” Trump said. “He votes, ‘NO!’ on everything, because he thinks it makes him cool, but he’s not cool, he’s a LOSER!”

Massie’s opposition to Trump’s war agenda has not been consistent. After several days of heckling in MAGA’s public square, Massie told Punchbowl News Monday night that he was willing to “hold off” on voting for the bipartisan War Powers Resolution, an effort to hold Trump accountable for engaging in an act of war without Congress’s permission.

“It might not be necessary,” Massie told the publication. “If there’s no hostilities—the resolution is to withdraw or end hostilities.”

But later that evening, the Kentucky Republican was on MSNBC continuing to chastise the president for reversing course on his campaign promises, telling the network that he was “worried” that the first six months of Trump’s second term had “already sort of gone astray of what was one of the basic principles of putting America first.”

A controversial immigrant detention center under construction in Florida will be bankrolled by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, according to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

The center, nicknamed “Alligator Alcatraz,” would repurpose a defunct airstrip in the Everglades in service of Trump’s draconian immigration agenda.

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier unveiled plans for the facility last week.

In a video aired on Fox News, Uthmeier said of the 39-square-mile site: “You don’t need to invest that much in the perimeter. People get out, there’s not much waiting for them other than alligators and pythons. Nowhere to go, nowhere to hide.”

In an appearance on The Benny Johnson Show, Uthmeier announced that the project was underway. During that episode, the eponymous right-wing host giddily observed Uthmeier was “making [Trump’s] dream come true,” since Trump reportedly floated installing a snake and gator-filled moat at the southern border during his first term—a proposal so outlandishly ghastly that even Trump had the political tact to separate himself from it at the time.

The creation of the new facility, which would cost $450 million a year to operate, according to The New York Times, will be funded “in large part” by FEMA, said Noem in a statement published to X.

“Under President Trump’s leadership, we are working at turbo speed to deliver cost-effective and innovative ways to deliver on the American people’s mandate for mass deportations of criminal illegal aliens,” Noem’s statement said. “We will expand facilities and bed space in just days, thanks to our partnership with Florida.”

Noem said the money would come from FEMA’s Shelter and Services Program, which was created in 2023 by Congress and administered by FEMA to provide grants to organizations or state and local governments providing services to immigrants processed by DHS and awaiting legal proceedings.

The initiative has since been the subject of MAGA attacks and conspiracy theorizing. Now, if Noem follows through, it will apparently be used to help fulfill the president’s wildest immigration fantasies.