Trump Announces His Notorious Chief of Staff Has Breast Cancer

Donald Trump announced Monday that White House chief of staff Susie Wiles has early stage breast cancer, and will be completing much of her treatment on site at the White House.

“She has a fantastic medical team, and her prognosis is excellent! During the treatment period, she will be spending virtually full time at the White House, which makes me, as President, very happy!” Trump posted on Truth Social. “Her Strength and her Commitment to continue doing the job she loves, and does so well, while undergoing treatment, tells you everything you need to know about her.”

Meanwhile, the Trump administration has cut or frozen hundreds of millions of dollars in medical research funding, including $273 million worth of cancer research grants at the National Institutes of Health. The president’s health and environmental policies also seem to encourage the spread of the disease, loosening restrictions on substances linked to cancer and discouraging vaccines preventing illnesses that could lead to cancer.

By the president’s own admission, Wiles is getting good treatment. As a White House employee, she likely has access to the best cancer doctors in the world. Meanwhile, ordinary Americans, who already have the most expensive health care in the world, are having to deal with rising premium costs, massive cuts to Medicare and Medicaid, and a grim future for cancer research. If only the president cared about the people he is supposed to lead as much as his top aide.

This story has been updated.

The treasury secretary has pitched his own timeline for the Iran war.

When asked by CNBC on Monday when the armed conflict would end, Scott Bessent insisted: “two weeks.”

“Two weeks,” Bessent repeated. “I know the media likes to move things along, we see these headlines—and that’s part of the Iranian strategy. It’s very unfortunate that because of a dislike for President Trump—not you, but a lot of the mainstream media—are trying to make this into some crisis that it’s not.”

It was not immediately clear what informed Bessent’s deadline, though his confidence in the long-term gains of the lethal conflict was not so steady.

“And on the other side of this, if you look at longer-dated crude [oil prices], you look at future inflation expectations, they’re both very well anchored and, you know, this will end,” Bessent continued.

He then proceeded to contradict himself: “I don’t know how many weeks it will be, but on the other side of this, the world will be safer and we will be better supplied.”

Bessent is one of the first Trump administration officials to publicly pin down a potential end date for the war (even if he appeared to retract it soon after). In private, U.S. and Middle Eastern officials reportedly believe the conflict will continue for the next six months. That could change drastically, however, considering that Donald Trump and his allies are reportedly discussing putting boots on the ground in Iran—a drastic escalation that could embroil the U.S. in the conflict for much, much longer.

Americans are just as conflicted on the war’s chronology. A Quinnipiac University poll conducted March 6–8 found that 71 percent of registered voters believe that the war will last longer than a few months, with 26 percent of voters convinced the war will last longer than a year.

On Thursday, Bessent was abruptly yanked in the middle of a sit-down interview with Sky News to visit the Situation Room at the president’s request. “The president wants you right away,” an off-camera aide commanded. Bessent was visibly flustered when he returned about two hours later, volunteering unprompted details about one of his children’s supposed interest in joining the Iran war.

Israel and the U.S. opened fire on Iran on February 28, sparking a regional conflict that has so far killed 13 U.S. soldiers and more than 20 Iranian officials, including Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The war has also claimed the lives of more than 1,200 Iranian civilians, including dozens of children at a girls’ school in the country’s south. Some 3.2 million people have been displaced, as U.S.-Israeli strikes have damaged more than 42,000 civilian sites—such as homes, hospitals, and schools—across Iran, according to Iranian government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani.

Donald Trump’s solution to the farmworker shortage caused by his violent mass deportation campaign is to embrace migrant labor.

The New York Times reports that the Trump administration is making it cheaper to hire migrant farmworkers on temporary visas under the H-2A program. It’s a blatant admission that the White House’s promise that deporting more immigrants would help American workers with better wages and lower unemployment was a farce.

“The farm economy is in a difficult situation, and President Trump is utilizing all the tools available to ensure farmers have what they need to be successful,” said Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins.

Under the new policy, hourly rates for workers on H-2A visas have been lowered by $1–$7 depending on the state, with farmers now being allowed to calculate housing as part of the workers’ compensation. With this dramatic reduction in workers’ pay, the United Farm Workers of America, a union representing thousands of workers across the country, has filed a lawsuit claiming that American farmworkers will be pushed out while earning a lot less.

“These actions are going to displace domestic farmworkers who have been working in the fields and putting food on dinner tables for decades, and bring a work force that is even more vulnerable to abuse,” Teresa Romero, the union’s president, told the Times. She noted that exploitation and trafficking is already a problem for many migrant workers.

Anti-immigration organizations like the Center for Immigration Studies are also against the move, with Mark Krikorian, the group’s executive director, writing in November that such changes would encourage more immigration and reduce automation.

The Trump administration seems to be hoping its supporters, other than farmers struggling for labor, won’t notice this and will continue to think the White House is carrying out its deportation agenda, which is otherwise so extreme it has been compared to ethnic cleansing. Meanwhile, its own myths about deportations helping the economy are unraveling.

Germany has rejected President Trump’s request for them to join his war on Iran while the United States flounders in controlling the vital Strait of Hormuz.

“What does Trump expect a handful of European frigates to do that the powerful U.S. Navy cannot?” German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said on Monday. “This is not our war, and we didn’t start it.”

“Neither the United States nor Israel consulted us before the war, and ... Washington explicitly stated at the outset ​of the war that European assistance was neither necessary nor desired,” German spokesperson Stefan Kornelius added.

Germany is the latest Western ally to rebuke Trump as he struggles to rein in surging oil prices caused by Iran’s retaliatory blockade of the strait. French President Emmanuel Macron told Trump the French Navy would only get involved after the situation calms, and U.K., Polish, and Spanish leaders have completely rebuked the president.

Germany’s reaction, along with those of various other European countries, underscores just how little support Trump’s war has with longtime U.S. allies—and understandably so. The Trump administration has spent over a year demeaning, attacking, and demanding more of European leaders. Begging them to cobble together some kind of “save the oil” coalition at the last minute seems like a Hail Mary in every sense.

Kristi Noem’s lies are finally catching up with her.

The Department of Justice on Monday received a recommendation to investigate the outgoing secretary for allegedly committing perjury while testifying under oath earlier this month, Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats announced on X.

The recommendation, first reported by former CBS journalist Scott MacFarlane, comes from Illinois Senator Dick Durbin and Maryland Representative Jamie Raskin, who are the ranking members on the Senate and House Judiciary Committees, respectively.

The recommendation cites at least four responses Noem provided under oath, including her answers to questions about the $220 million ad campaign that reportedly got her fired. Speaking before the committees, Noem had crumbled under scrutiny regarding the multimillion-dollar ad contract she’d awarded to an eight-day-old company.

While testifying under oath, Noem claimed that Donald Trump had signed off on the campaign. The president later claimed he “never knew anything about it.”

Noem may have misled lawmakers about the process for awarding contracts, claiming there was open bidding while she really only allowed a few companies to pitch and passing federal funds to companies with ties to her inner circle. Senators Richard Blumenthal and Peter Welch have launched an investigation into the ad campaign.

The recommendation will also urge a probe of Noem’s statements about ICE satisfying detention standards for detainees, the treatment of U.S. citizens, and violating court orders.

Speaking under oath, Noem claimed that the Department of Homeland Security does not detain American citizens. This is not true. By October, DHS had detained at least 170 American citizens, including 20 children.

Noem also claimed that DHS had complied with court orders, while federal judges across the country have found that DHS has violated dozens of orders involving immigrants challenging the legal basis for their detention.

It’s not clear that the Department of Justice, led by Pam Bondi, will pursue an investigation against Noem. “Any claim that Secretary Noem committed perjury is categorically false,” a DHS official told MacFarlane.

Committee Democrats acknowledge it might take a while to see movement. “We have low expectations that Pam Bondi’s partisan Justice Department will pursue a perjury investigation into Kristi Noem,” they wrote on X. “Unfortunately for her, the statute of limitations is five years. This case can be pursued by the next Administration.”

This story has been updated.