Turns Out, Trump’s Reckless Iran Strikes Didn’t Achieve Anything

An early U.S. intelligence assessment has determined that Donald Trump’s airstrikes on three Iranian nuclear bases failed to destroy core components of the nation’s nuclear program.

The president’s attack, conducted without the express approval of Congress, damaged facilities in Fordo, Natanz, and Isfahan on Saturday. But a battle damage assessment by the Pentagon’s intelligence arm determined that the missile barrage only set Iran’s nuclear program back by a few months, CNN reported Tuesday.

The White House denied the contents of the leaked report, with press secretary Karoline Leavitt rebuffing the whistleblower as a “low-level loser.” But she still acknowledged that the report had been classified as “top secret.”

In the wake of the attack, Trump celebrated that Iran’s nuclear program had been “completely and totally obliterated.” He told reporters aboard Air Force One Tuesday that the nation should “get on to being a great trading nation” with regard to its oil supply. He further promised that, based on the severity of the attack, “the last thing on Iran’s mind right now is nuclear weapons.”

But not everyone on Capitol Hill shared Trump’s evaluation. In an interview with Steve Bannon Tuesday, Republican Senator Rand Paul wondered if Iran would respond “with a sprint to creating a nuclear weapon.”

“There are news reports out today saying that 400 kilograms of enriched uranium at 60 percent was spirited out before the attacks,” Paul said.

Israeli officials signaled Sunday there was evidence that Iran had moved equipment and uranium—enriched to 60 percent purity—from one of the bomb sites ahead of the attack. The fuel was reportedly stored inside another nuclear complex near the ancient capital of Isfahan.

International Atomic Energy Agency Director Rafael Grossi texted The New York Times that his inspectors had laid eyes on the uranium a week before Israel attacked, and that Iran has “made no secret that they have protected this material.”

Paul warned he wasn’t “sure you can bomb away the ability to make a nuclear weapon.” He noted that the Iranians had enough uranium to manufacture about 10 weapons. “I hope the war will not continue, but I guess I rest my judgment on the previous incursions of so many presidents—from Obama to Bush—overseas that really didn’t go as planned,” Paul said.

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.

Iranian officials have made it clear that they are no longer interested in negotiating with American leadership, citing the nation’s deception ahead of prearranged talks regarding Iran’s nuclear program that were scheduled to take place earlier this month.

Trump preemptively 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.

The Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday that yet another wrongly deported immigrant must be returned to the United States to receive due process.

Last month, Immigration and Customs Enforcement deported Jordin Melgar-Salmeron, 31, to El Salvador minutes after the Second Circuit ordered that he remain in the U.S.—and despite the government having assured the court it would hold off on his removal until at least the following day.

The government chalked the wrongful removal up to “a confluence of administrative errors”—though Politico reports that the Department of Homeland Security has said there was “no error” in his deportation, alleging that Melgar-Salmeron is a member of MS-13.

In a Tuesday ruling, a three-judge panel of the federal appeals court ruled that the government must facilitate Melgar-Salmeron’s return.

The judges, one of whom was appointed by Trump in his first term, also gave the government a one-week deadline to file a document clarifying Melgar-Salmeron’s “current physical location and custodial status” as well as “what steps the Government will take, and when, to facilitate his return to the United States.”

The Second Circuit judges in their Tuesday decision cited the Supreme Court’s decision in Noem v. Abrego Garcia, in which the high court ordered the Trump administration to facilitate the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was wrongly deported to El Salvador.

Melgar-Salmeron’s is just the latest instance in which courts have had to step in to rein in Trump’s wanton deportation campaign. Politico reports that Melgar-Salmeron’s is the fourth case—Abrego Garcia’s being the most famous—of federal courts ordering the administration to return illegally or improperly deported immigrants to the United States.

Despite issuing guidance that measles can be treated with simple vitamins, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. admitted Tuesday that he’s never actually had to help someone recover from the disease before.

Kennedy was excoriated by Washington Representative Kim Schrier before the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health Tuesday. She torched Kennedy for continuing to spread vaccine misinformation and refusing to listen to medical experts while he leads the nation’s public health policy.

“Have you ever treated measles?” asked Schrier, a former physician.

“No,” Kennedy said with a short laugh.

“Well I have,” Schrier said. “Let me tell you how miserable it is: These kids have high fevers, struggling to breathe, and they are crying. They suffer. The great thing is that there’s a vaccine to prevent it.”

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials have described the current measles outbreak in Texas as the worst uptick the agency has seen in measles cases in the last 25 years. But the lackadaisical public response to the contagion has only been made worse by Kennedy’s politics, which include unfounded claims that the disease-eradicating vaccine was contributing to higher autism rates in kids.

Schrier also accused Kennedy of lying to Republican Senator Bill Cassidy during his February confirmation hearings when he promised not to alter the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. Cassidy was a critical vote for Kennedy clinching the Cabinet role.

“But then two weeks ago you fired all 17 experts on that very committee. Mr. Secretary, question for you, did you lie to Senator Cassidy when you told him you would not change this panel of experts?” Schrier asked.

Kennedy denied having made that commitment altogether, calling it “inaccurate.”

“I made an agreement with him, and he and I talked many times about that agreement,” he said of Cassidy.

Kennedy claimed that all 17 members had potential conflicts of interest before instating eight new members who were reputed vaccine and Covid-19 skeptics.

In May, Kennedy justified a religious Texas community’s decision not to receive the vaccine by claiming that the measles vaccine contains “aborted fetus debris” as well as “DNA particles.”

It should go without saying, but the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine does not contain pieces of aborted fetuses. The vaccine contains live or weakened measles, mumps, and rubella viruses and ingredients to stabilize the solution.

The return of historically eradicated diseases is thanks to a growing movement of anti-vax parents who refuse to provide their children with the same public health advantages that they received in their youth, mostly in fear of thoroughly debunked conspiracy theories. The researcher who sparked that myth with a fraudulent paper lost his medical license and eventually rescinded his opinion. Since then, dozens of studies have proven there’s no correlation between autism and vaccines, including one study that surveyed more than 660,000 children over the course of 11 years.

But America’s is not the first measles response that Kennedy has bungled. Under Kennedy’s stewardship, the anti-vax nonprofit Children’s Health Defense had its own questionable history with the disease. Preceding a deadly measles outbreak on Samoa in 2019, the organization spread rampant misinformation about the efficacy of vaccines throughout the nation, sending the island’s vaccination rate plummeting from the 60–70 percent range to just 31 percent, according to Mother Jones. That year, the country reported 5,707 cases of measles as well as 83 measles-related deaths, the majority of which were children under the age of 5.

A majority of House Democrats have killed Texas Representative Al Green’s articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump. The House voted 344–79 to table Green’s resolution on Tuesday, just hours after he introduced it. 

Green filed the articles on the  grounds of “abuse of presidential powers by disregarding the separation of powers—devolving American democracy into authoritarianism by unconstitutionally usurping Congress’s power to declare war.”

“President Trump’s unilateral, unprovoked use of force without congressional authorization or notice constitutes an abuse of power when there was no imminent threat to the United States, which facilitates the devolution of American democracy into authoritarianism,” he wrote. “I did not come to Congress to be a bystander while a president abuses power and devolves American democracy into authoritarianism with himself as an authoritarian president. President Trump’s unauthorized bombing of Iran constitutes a de facto declaration of war.”

All 79 votes against tabling the resolution came from Democrats. The rest of the party voted with Republicans to kill the legislation.

The vote makes it clear that most Democrats, like Republicans, do not see impeachment as a realistic, successful option. But maybe they shouldn’t—the president himself has already been impeached twice. 

This story has been updated.

Donald Trump struggled Tuesday to answer a simple question about America’s role in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization while en route to a summit of the group’s leaders.

The president cast doubt on Article 5 of NATO, which obligates member states to collective defense: An attack on one is an attack on all. But when asked whether he was committed to such a rule, Trump played dumb.

“It depends on your definition, there are numerous definitions of Article 5, you know that right?” Trump told reporters on Air Force One.

“But I’m committed to being their friends, you know I’ve become friends with many of those leaders,” Trump continued.

“I’m committed to saving lives. I’m committed to life and safety. And I’m going to give you an exact definition when I get there. I just don’t want to do it on the back of an airplane,” Trump said, according to Politico, leaving it up to interpretation whether he actually knows what Article 5 says, let alone his position on it.

But Trump hasn’t been a very good friend—in fact, his surprise decision to bomb three of Iran’s nuclear facilities inspired some key NATO members to skip Wednesday’s meeting.

NATO members are expected to sign a new agreement Wednesday to raise defense spending from 2 percent of gross domestic product to a target of 5 percent, following Trump’s ceaseless whining that member states are taking advantage of America’s exorbitant defense budget.

On Monday, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced that Canada had launched a new defense partnership with the European Commission and European Council, limiting its ability to procure weapons and other materials from the United States.

Republican Senator Mike Lee’s proposed mass sell-off of public lands has foundered on the rocks of Senate procedure.

As a budget reconciliation bill, the Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill can pass with a simple majority, rather than the 60-vote hurdle needed to overcome a filibuster. However, it is subject to certain constraints: Under what is known as the “Byrd rule,” provisions that are unrelated to the budget get the chopping block.

Accordingly, Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough has in recent days been stripping certain extraneous provisions from the plan.

Among the dirt washed away in this so-called “Byrd bath” was a provision authored by Lee that would have put for sale up to 3.3 million acres of public land in 11 Western states, including Lee’s state of Utah. The plan received criticism from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle and from hunters, fishers, and conservation groups concerned that it would impact treasured natural sites in the American West.

While Lee claimed the land could be used to address the need for affordable housing, critical observers saw the proposal as merely an effort to pay for tax breaks under Trump. And, under the plan, there would have been “no significant guardrails to prevent valued public lands from being sold for trophy homes, pricey vacation spots, exclusive golf communities, or other developments,” according to the Center for American Progress.

Lee, for his part, has vowed to return with a diluted version of the proposal, writing on X, “Yes, the Byrd Rule limits what can go in the reconciliation bill, but I’m doing everything I can to support President Trump and move this forward. Stay tuned. We’re just getting started.”

Yet another Democrat is calling for Trump’s impeachment after he dropped multiple bombs on Iranian nuclear sites without congressional approval.

On Tuesday, Texas Democrat Al Green filed articles of impeachment against President Trump on the grounds of “abuse of presidential powers by disregarding the separation of powers—devolving American democracy into authoritarianism by unconstitutionally usurping Congress’s power to declare war.”

“President Trump’s unilateral, unprovoked use of force without congressional authorization or notice constitutes an abuse of power when there was no imminent threat to the United States, which facilitates the devolution of American democracy into authoritarianism,” Green continued. “I did not come to Congress to be a bystander while a president abuses power and devolves American democracy into authoritarianism with himself as an authoritarian president. President Trump’s unauthorized bombing of Iran constitutes a de facto declaration of war.”

Green joined Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in calling for Trump’s impeachment.

“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,” AOC wrote Saturday on X. “It is absolutely and clearly grounds for impeachment.”

These calls, along with the bipartisan War Powers Resolution introduced by Democrat Ro Khanna and Republican Thomas Massie, are certainly much stronger messages than what Democratic leadership has been putting out, with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries admitting Monday that he hadn’t even looked at Massie and Khanna’s resolution.

But the calls will likely amount to nothing, as impeachment is incredibly unlikely to be approved by the House (Trump has been impeached twice already). It also raises questions about the politics of who is allowed to circumvent congressional approval to drop bombs on another country. Former Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden each dropped thousands of bombs on various nations without receiving congressional approval, but they didn’t receive any calls for their impeachment.

Representative Robert Garcia was elected Tuesday to become the Democrats’ newest ranking member on the House Oversight Committee, potentially marking a changing tide in the Democratic Party. 

Forty-seven-year-old Garcia, who is only on his second term in Congress, defeated Representative Stephen Lynch, one of the most senior Democrats on the committee, in a 150–63 secret-ballot vote. 

Lynch, 70, had previously served as the ranking member when former Representative Gerry Connolly took a leave of absence in April. Connolly’s passing last month allowed Republicans in Congress to pass Donald Trump’s gargantuan spending bill, undermining a Democratic agenda and summoning broad scrutiny on the liberal party’s efficacy and reluctance to elevate younger voices. Notably Connolly, whose condition was publicly known, was chosen over the much younger Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. 

Earlier this year, the Trump administration targeted Garcia for his opposition to the Department of Government Efficiency’s corporate-style takeover of the federal government. 

“What the American public wants is for us to bring actual weapons to this bar fight. This is an actual fight for democracy,” Garcia said in February. Shortly afterward, he received a letter from Washington’s district attorney as if he’d made a threat on Elon Musk’s life. 

But Garcia doubled down on his comments, undeterred. “It’s important for folks to be able to know that Democrats need to be in a fight. This is a fight that we’re in for our very democracy. And the fact that the Trump DOJ now wants to silence members of Congress, because we’re actually willing to take on Elon Musk is quite dangerous,” he said at the time.

Garcia represents a broad coalition: He was formally endorsed by the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and backed by members of the Progressive and Equality Caucuses. He also enjoyed support from the 43-member delegation from California, the largest in the Democratic Party. 

Progressive and moderate Democrats alike have already begun celebrating Garcia’s new gig.  

California Representative Judy Chu told NBC News that Garcia had “shown steady and strong leadership that brings people together.” 

“He has a young, fresh energy that I think the Oversight Committee needs,” she added.

Florida Representative Maxwell Frost congratulated Garcia on his new position. “He’s a tough progressive with a strong work ethic. As a corrupt admin breaks laws & enriches themselves while people suffer, he will lead the fight to hold them accountable & show the nation,” Frost wrote in a post on X. 

Representative Jared Moskowitz, notably not a progressive, wrote on X that Garcia was “the right person for the right moment.”

Even House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi said she’d supported the staunch progressive. “Well I’m a Californian.… I’m partial to mayors,” she told reporters Tuesday, referring to Garcia’s tenure as the mayor of Long Beach.  

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.”