Author: potus

With his country having killed some of Iran’s top military commanders and rattled its leadership, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says his government’s aerial assault on Iran could trigger the collapse of the regime, opening the door to a popular uprising.“It’s impossible to predict, but it could be the result of our mighty action,” Netanyahu told reporters. “We are changing the face of the Middle East.”That scenario, according to scholars who study Iran, as well as former U.S. and Israeli officials, is unlikely. The theocratic government remains deeply unpopular, but it still has a tight grip on power, and no…

An Afghan man in Oklahoma accused of planning an Election Day attack in the U.S. on behalf of the Islamic State group pleaded guilty Friday to terrorism-related charges in federal court.Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, 27, pleaded guilty to two offenses: conspiring and providing support to the Islamic State group, and attempting to receive firearms to commit a federal crime of terrorism. The Islamic State is designated by the U.S. as a foreign terrorist organization.Tawhedi faces up to 35 years in prison.Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi. U.S. Department of Justice“The defendant admits he planned and obtained firearms to carry out a violent terror attack…

Views of the U.S. and confidence in its leader to handle world affairs have taken a dive in more than a dozen countries over the last year, according to a poll from the Pew Research Center released Wednesday and conducted over the first few months of President Donald Trump’s second term.These declines are most pronounced among residents in neighboring Mexico and Canada, which have been at the center of high-profile spats with the administration, as well as a handful of NATO countries (like Sweden, Poland and the Netherlands) amid it Russia’s war with Ukraine.Public sentiment about the U.S. has gone…

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said in an interview on Fox News that the administration is working to develop a temporary pass for immigrants who work in certain industries, which would mark the latest shift in the administration’s approach to immigration enforcement for farmworkers.“We’re working on it right now. We’re going to work it so that some kind of a temporary pass where people pay taxes, where the farmer can have a little control, as opposed to you walk in and take everybody away,” Trump said in an interview that taped Friday and aired Sunday on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning…

A recent memo to immigration judges obtained by NBC News provides fresh insight into how the Trump administration is pulling off a new tactic — dismissing pending immigration cases, then immediately moving to arrest the immigrants — that is part of its bid to quickly increase the number of immigrants it is detaining.In the memo, the Justice Department instructs immigration judges, who report to the executive branch and are not part of the independent judiciary, to allow Department of Homeland Security lawyers to make motions to dismiss orally and then move quickly to grant those dismissals, rather than allow immigrants…

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump lashed out at Israel and Iran on Tuesday morning as the ceasefire deal announced hours earlier appeared on the brink of collapse. “We basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don’t know what the f— they’re doing,” Trump said as he departed the White House for the NATO summit in the Netherlands. Trump announced Monday on social media that Israel and Iran had agreed to a total ceasefire, telling NBC News later that he believed the ceasefire was “unlimited” and was “going to go forever.”But around 12…

Protests against immigration raids in Los Angeles have triggered a flood of falsehoods and misleading images on social media, and Russia has sought to exploit and amplify the disinformation, experts say.Russian media and pro-Russian voices have embraced right-wing conspiracy theories about the protests, including one that alleged the Mexican government was encouraging the demonstrations against President Donald Trump’s immigration policies. Mexico has strongly rejected the accusation — which was repeated by Trump’s chief of homeland security — as utterly false.The episode illustrates how foreign adversaries are taking advantage of genuine divisions among Americans, a tried-and-true strategy in information warfare, analysts…

The United States, the Middle East and world oil markets are bracing for Iran’s response after President Donald Trump launched punishing strikes on Iranian nuclear energy sites overnight, plunging the region into an unprecedented new phase of a decades-old conflict.The U.S. struck Iranian nuclear facilities, including the key Fordo site, with 14 GBU-57s, 30,000-pound “bunker buster bombs,” according to the U.S. military. It was the first time the United States has directly bombed the Islamic Republic.The next 48 hours are of particular concern, according to two defense officials and a senior White House official. It’s unclear whether any retaliation would…

President Donald Trump announced Wednesday night that nationals from 12 countries would be banned from entering the United States starting Monday.Trump said that the ban, which primarily targets countries in Africa and the Middle East, was necessary to preserve national security and prevent terrorism in the United States. “As President, I must act to protect the national security and national interest of the United States and its people,” Trump’s proclamation reads. “I remain committed to engaging with those countries willing to cooperate to improve information-sharing and identity-management procedures, and to address both terrorism-related and public-safety risks.”Who is banned?Nationals of the…

WASHINGTON — Defense Department officials say troops who cheered and jeered Tuesday at President Donald Trump’s political statements at a rally at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, did not violate military regulations, but a former military legal officer said they did just that. During the speech, uniformed soldiers yelled in support of Trump’s political statements and booed former President Joe Biden and California Gov. Gavin Newsom. “Do you think this crowd would have showed up for Biden? I don’t think so,” Trump said to boos about Biden. Trump made other comments about Newsom and about Karen Bass, the mayor of Los…