Trump Announces Iran Deal Is Over After Launching New Strikes

The Iran deal is dead, according to the U.S. president.

Donald Trump bitterly referred to Iran’s leadership as “scum” during a NATO summit presser in Ankara, Turkey, on Wednesday, telling reporters that he believes peace negotiations—and the regional ceasefire—are “over.”

“I don’t want to deal with them anymore. They’re scum. Do you know what scum is?” Trump said. “They’re scum. They’re sick people. They’re led by sick people, and they’re vicious, violent people, and if they had a nuclear weapon, they’d use it.

“As far as I’m concerned, it’s over. I’ll speak to our negotiators, they’ll want to negotiate, they’re good people. Steve Witkoff, Jared Kushner, but they’ll have to come back to me. As far as I’m concerned, it’s just a waste of time dealing with them.

“They’re liars. We make a deal—if I make a deal with him, we have a deal, and it goes out and he talks,” Trump said, briefly gesturing to NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. “We make a deal, everyone’s agreed, no nuclear weapons. We make a deal. They go outside, talk to the press, they say we never even talked about it.

“There’s something wrong with them, they’re cuckoo,” he added.

The White House and Tehran preemptively signed a drafted memorandum of understanding, or MOU, in June, initiating a 60-day negotiation process. The mutual willingness to draw up a peace plan spurred hopes that the violence and economic barricades could soon come to an end, but the two nations began exchanging strikes again this week.

U.S. Central Command confirmed on Tuesday that the military had “completed” a new round of strikes on Iran, hitting “over 80 targets with precision munitions” over a four-hour period. The strikes were “in response to Iranian attacks on three commercial vessels that were transiting the Strait of Hormuz,” CENTCOM said in a statement. Washington has also reimposed sanctions on Iranian oil sales.

In retaliation, Tehran said it had launched strikes on 85 U.S. military targets in Bahrain and Kuwait, reported Al Jazeera. Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs strongly condemned the “aggressive attacks and gross violation” of the MOU.

The office added that Iran’s armed forces “will not hesitate in defending Iran’s territorial integrity, national sovereignty, and national security against U.S. military aggression in accordance with Article 51 of the UN Charter, and will target the source and origin of the aggression.”

Oil prices surged as a result, with the price of Brent crude—the international oil benchmark—rising more than 3 percent on Wednesday.

Trump, meanwhile, is planning to extend the violence.

“We’ll probably hit them hard again tonight,” he told reporters.

A content creator who runs a satirical cat account trolling Vice President JD Vance on Instagram is suing after being banned from one of his events by the Secret Service.

Amanda McGonigle, who has nearly two million followers for her massive “CatsonaCouch” Instagram account, was stopped in line at a Maine event for the vice president in May.

“They got me. So, while I was in line to go into the event, Secret Service … came up to me and said, ‘Hey Amanda, you can’t come in.’ And I was basically like ‘but I have my registration,’ and they were like ‘well since it’s a private event , you can’t come in,’” McGonigle said on her Instagram account back in May. “I was like … ‘You realize that’s silly, right? I’m a cat account.’”

While she was waiting in line, McGonigle was also told by the Secret Service, “We know where you stand.” She insists that the event was advertised as public.

“Either it was a public event as advertised and I was denied entry because I think JD Vance is a sentient jar of mayonnaise, or it was a private event and taxpayer dollars were being used to fund JD Vance’s little ‘safe space,’” McGonigle said again after the event. “Either way, it’s giving lawsuit vibes.”

McGonigle is suing the U.S. Secret Service and the Executive Office of the President for infringement on her constitutional rights.

“The First Amendment protects every person’s right to express their opinions and political views, free from fear of government retaliation or retribution,” ACLU of Maine attorney Anahita Sotoohi said in a statement. “Ms. McGonigle uses her platform to criticize and satirize elected officials, using humor to garner support for causes important to her and inform her followers about political developments. The freedom to mock has been a central tenet of American political discourse since the founding. The First Amendment cannot be revoked just because one of the country’s most powerful people can’t take a joke.”

McGonigle created the account in 2024 in the wake of Vance’s comment deriding “childless cat ladies.” It exists with the aim to “have more followers than JD Vance by the time he leaves office and to troll him mercilessly every single day,” according to McGonigle.

The White House has yet to comment on McGonigle, although they seem to very aware of—and bothered by—her account’s existence.

Senator Mitch McConnell’s medical condition remains unknown, and his office won’t address questions about the former Senate majority leader being “brain dead.”

HuffPost’s Jennifer Bendery reached out to McConnell’s staff Tuesday about the speculation. A day earlier, far-right influencer Laura Loomer and independent journalist Desirée Townsend, who first flagged the EMS call to McConnell’s home that revealed he was unconscious, declared that the Kentucky senator is “officially brain dead.” Bendery said the senator’s staff did not confirm or deny the report, instead directing her to a week-old statement that doesn’t clarify McConnell’s condition.

“Senator McConnell appreciates the outpouring of support he’s receiving while he continues his recovery in the hospital,” a spokesperson told Bendery. “The Senator continues to improve, and is working closely with his staff on Kentucky and Senate matters while the Senate is out of session.”

Earlier in the day Tuesday, several Republicans publicly insisted that McConnell was still alive and that they had just spoken to him. CNN commentator Scott Jennings said, “He’s still recovering in the hospital. We talked for just shy of 20 minutes … about IRAN, UKRAINE, the unfolding situation in MAINE, my visit to the [Teddy Roosevelt] Presidential Library, and even a little bit of Senate history.”

Senator Scott Barrasso and Senate Majority Leader John Thune also said they had spoken to McConnell about Senate business. However, other Republicans, such as Senator Mike Lee, said they still don’t know what’s going on with McConnell.

“Many of us aren’t speaking about Mitch McConnell’s condition because we know nothing about his condition,” Lee said on X.

Trump’s MAGA base has demanded proof that McConnell is still alive, and his office’s response Tuesday will only fuel their conspiracy theories. There’s speculation over whether Republicans are trying to avoid a quick special election, as is required under Kentucky law, that could open the door for Representative Thomas Massie, a Trump critic, to run for the seat. For now, McConnell remains in the hospital without any explanation.

Even Graham Platner’s volunteers are reportedly closing the chapter on the politically troubled Maine Democratic Senate candidate.

A damning new rape allegation emerged against Platner Monday evening, marring the Maine oyster farmer’s candidacy and prompting a slew of progressive lawmakers to revoke their endorsements of the firebrand.

It was, apparently, the final straw for Platner’s team, who had largely stayed by his side through previous controversies, including the uproar over his Nazi-themed chest tattoo, prior accusations related to Platner’s heavy drinking, revelations about his extramarital sexting, and allegations from his former romantic partners about his violent propensities.

Within hours of the Politico report, some 1,400 volunteers on Platner’s statewide organizing Discord server had called for him to withdraw from the race, reported Drop Site News Tuesday, noting that the cohort included door knockers, canvassers, digital organizers, and tablers.

“I don’t necessarily want Graham to win. I want our political ideas to win. He is not coming back from this and we should find someone to carry on the ideals now,” Dante Cusolito, a volunteer and recent college graduate, told Drop Site. “People can be flawed and become better, but hanging your movement on the coattails of somebody credibly accused of sexual assault is the exact thing we are trying to be better than.”

Instead, local political organizers are turning to former State Senator Troy Jackson, a Bernie Sanders–backed logger from northern Maine, as Platner’s possible replacement.

A spokeswoman for Jackson, Christine Kirby, told Drop Site that their campaign had been flooded with calls, texts, and emails encouraging Jackson’s candidacy since the rape allegations emerged.

“He is clearly the strongest option to replace Graham Platner and take on Susan Collins in the general election,” Kirby told Drop Site. “This movement is greater than any one person, it’s about a coalition of Maine people fighting for a future that doesn’t have to belong only to the wealthy and powerful. And Troy is up for the fight.”

Jackson, who served as president of the Maine Senate from 2018 to 2024, came in third place in the Maine Democratic gubernatorial primary last month. By Tuesday, he had already repositioned himself, filing exploratory committee paperwork with the Federal Election Commission for a potential Senate run.

But he’s not the only Mainer trying to throw his hat in the ring to supplant Platner. Bangor-born David Costello, who lost the state primary race to Platner last month, wrote on X that he’s “back in” to replace Collins if Platner formally withdraws.

Nirav Shah, a visiting professor at Colby College who similarly failed to gain ground in Maine’s gubernatorial primary, also released a statement indicating his interest in the Senate race.

Election experts are raising serious red flags after learning that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton voted in six elections while registered at an address where he does not live, ProPublica reported Tuesday.

The Texas attorney general has been registered to vote at his Collin County home—where he has not lived since his divorce two years ago, according to filings by his ex-wife, State Senator Angela Paxton.

It’s not entirely clear where Mr. Paxton has resided since, but prior reporting linked him to another home in Denton County—making him ineligible to participate in elections in Collin County. Doing so is a second-degree felony punishable by a fine up to $10,000 and up to 20 years in prison. Election lawyers have cautioned that this kind of voter fraud is incredibly hard to prove.

Voter rolls showed that Paxton voted in Collin County in the March Republican primary, and again in May when he became his party’s nominee for the U.S. Senate.

David Becker, a former voting rights lawyer, told ProPublica that Paxton would be allowed to remain registered there if he had a reasonable expectation of returning, but his contentious and highly publicized split from his ex-wife suggests that is not the case.

“I think there would be questions raised about a residence where someone does not live, does not spend the night, and can in no way have the intent to continue to reside,” Becker said. “Those would probably raise red flags in any state.”

“Certainly, the chief law enforcement officer of the state of Texas, someone who has made claims about election integrity and made it a priority of his office, should be charged with knowing the laws of residencies of the state of Texas with regard to voting,” Becker said.

Forget “knowing”—Paxton’s office published the very guidelines he broke. When Paxton announced the creation of a tip line for suspected voter fraud in February, he shared guidelines for voter registration, including the requirement to “provide the address where you reside when registering to vote.”

Attorney Clark Birdsall told ProPublica that it was “especially egregious that someone such as Ken Paxton appears he’s not conforming to the law.”

Paxton, a fierce ally of President Trump, has previously advocated for cracking down on voter fraud, while also threatening to disenfranchise Democratic voters.

The attorney general’s office did not respond to multiple requests for comment from ProPublica and The Texas Tribune. Madison Cercy, Paxton’s campaign spokesperson, called the report a “baseless, lie-filled tabloid story.”