Does Donald Trump fear a nuclear Iran more than he hates war?
The most consequential decision of Donald Trump's presidency is now on pause for two weeks. We examine how the choice pits two sides of Mr Trump against one another. India is an advanced-manufacturing powerhouse, but can it become a hub for high-tech innovation, too? And as 'Jaws' turns 50 our correspondent says its hero is probably not who you remember. Runtime: 24 min
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Daily Mail
38 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Report: Trump's four key advisers on bombing Iran
President Donald Trump has been coached through the Iran and Israel war by four crucial confidants, but they are surprisingly not all top military brass. Though Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has played a public role in the Trump administration's defense strategy, he is not among the advisors closest to the president on the Iran matter, current and former White House sources say. Neither is Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, the sources told the Washington Post. Though sources close to the intelligence director push back, saying she's been in regular contact with the president this week and at important meetings. The most influential figures in Trump's orbit as he weighs a U.S. strikes to take out Iran's nuclear technology are Vice President J.D. Vance , Secretary of State Marco Rubio, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine, an outside White House advisor told the outlet. The group of four is referred to as the 'Tier one' group of decision makers, the advisor shared. These are the men making critical decisions on whether to get involved in the war. These sour advisors are now helping the president sort through contingency plans for U.S. strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities that are buried deep under mountains. Israeli military officials have called on the U.S. to use GB-57 'bunker buster' bombs on the nuclear sites - a weapon that can only be delivered by U.S.-made planes that are captained by American pilots - a move that risks escalating the conflict further. The Pentagon pushed back on the Post report, telling the Daily Mail that Hegseth has not been sidelined amid Caine's rising influence. 'This claim is completely false,' Pentagon chief spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement. 'The Secretary is speaking with the President multiple times a day each day and has been with the President in the Situation Room this week. The DNI has been in critical meetings with the president on Iran this week, a senior intelligence official told the Daily Mail on Thursday, saying she's taking part in National Security Council meetings and impromptu White House sessions. The Gorilla vs. The Gram Trump has also been consulting with General Michael Erik Kurilla, the four-star head of U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) who has earned the imposing nickname 'The Gorilla.' Multiple U.S. officials have said Kurilla has been a more influential voice than the defense secretary and he routinely gets his requests for additional resources approved, making CENTCOM one of the most fortified commands. Meanwhile, at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), several longtime staffers expressed concern over Gabbard's priorities. Sources inside the ODNI accuse Trump's spy chief of focusing on her appearance rather than her intelligence work, CNN reports. These staffers pointed to her polished Instagram making her appear more like a fitness influencer than a Cabinet member.
NBC News
an hour ago
- NBC News
Fed should consider cutting rates as early as July, official says
Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller said Friday that he doesn't expect tariffs to boost inflation significantly so policymakers should be looking to lower interest rates as early as next month. In a CNBC interview, the central banker said he and his colleagues should move slowly but start to ease as inflation is now longer a major economic threat. 'I think we're in the position that we could do this and as early as July,' Waller said during a 'Squawk Box' interview with CNBC's Steve Liesman. 'That would be my view, whether the committee would go along with it or not.' The comments come two days after the Federal Open Market Committee voted to hold its key interest rate steady, the fourth straight hold following the last cut in December. President Donald Trump, who nominated Waller as a governor during his first term in office, has been hectoring the Fed to lower interest rates to reduce borrowing costs on the $36 trillion national debt. In his remarks, Waller said he thinks the Fed should cut to avoid a potential slowdown in the labor market. 'If you're starting to worry about the downside risk labor market move now don't wait,' he said. 'Why do we want to wait until we actually see a crash before we start cutting rates? So I'm all in favor of saying maybe we should start thinking about cutting the policy rate at the next meeting, because we don't want to wait till the job market tanks before we start cutting the policy rate.' Whether Waller will be able to marshal much support for his position is unclear. The FOMC, Waller included, voted unanimously to hold at this week's meeting, keeping the benchmark federal funds rate locked in a target range of 4.25%-4.5%. According to the 'dot plot' of individual officials' expectations for interest rates this year, seven if the 19 meeting participants said they see rates holding steady this year, two saw just one cut likely, while the remaining 10 expect two or three reductions. The dispersion reflected a sense of uncertainty around policymakers about where rates should head. Trump has called for dramatic moves, saying he thinks the benchmark rate should be at least 2 percentage points lower and even suggested it should be 2.5 percentage points below the current level of 4.33%. However, Waller said he thinks the committee should be move slowly. 'You'd want to start slow and bring them down, just to make sure that there's no big surprises. But start the process. That's the key thing,' he said. 'We've been on pause for six months to wait and see, and so far, the data has been fine. ... I don't think we need to wait much longer, because even if the tariffs come in later, the impacts are still the same. It should be a one-off level effect and not cause persistent inflation.' Other officials have been reluctant to cut as they wait to see what longer-term impact Trump's tariffs have, primarily on inflation but also on the labor market and broader economic growth. Chair Jerome Powell said repeatedly at his post-meeting news conference Wednesday that he believes the Fed can stay in its wait-and-see mode as the labor market continues to hold up. Inflation data of late has shown little pass-through so far as companies burn off inventory accumulated in the run-up to the tariff announcement, and amid concerns that consumer demand is slowing and reducing pricing power. Futures market pricing indicates virtually no chance of a rate cut at the July 29-30 meeting, with the next move expected to come in September.
The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
Democrats wrestle over chance to kill the ban on transgender care in Trump's ‘Big, Beautiful Bill'
Despite being in the minority, Democrats have a chance to remove a provision from President Donald Trump's ' One Big, Beautiful Bill ' that would prevent Medicaid dollars from being used to cover gender-affirming care.' The questions is, will they? The issue emerges more than eight months after a 2024 election from which Democrats are still digging out and also working out their messaging about how to defend the rights of transgender people without being painted as too radical by Republicans. In the presidential race, Trump and his associated super PACS hit Kamala Harris in ads for supporting taxpayer-funded gender transition surgeries for inmates, ending the ad by saying 'Kamala is for They/Them. President Trump is for you.' Republicans also hit Democrats in down-ballot races specifically on the subject of allowing transgender athletes to compete in women's sports. That might be why when The Independent asked some top Democratic senators about whether they would try to strike the language from Republicans' bill, even some of the most liberal voices said they did not know . 'I don't know,' Sen. Chris Murphy told The Independent last week when asked if it could the strict criteria the Senate Parliamentarian would subject the bill to. Sen. Patty Murray, the vice chairwoman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, simply told The Independent, 'I haven't seen the language.' Murray later clarified on Bluesky that she opposed the ban in Medicaid. 'I had not seen the language but let me be clear: I support stripping out as much from the bill as Democrats can, including this ban.' But even liberal Democrats like Sen. Elizabeth Warren dodged the question. 'I haven't seen it, ' she told The Independent last week when asked if she would raise a point of order on it. When asked if she was worried about it, she repeated, 'I haven't seen it.' The avoidance shows how Democrats are in the position of being on the defensive on an issue where Republicans think they can win against Democrats, while at the same time defending a vulnerable population the party has long said it would support. Some Democrats have said they would support efforts to challenge the language. Sen. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, who is the first openly gay person elected to the Senate, told The Independent earlier this month that she assumed Democrats would but that she had not seen the details of the legislation 'What I would say substantively is that, this is, again, talking about taking away people's health care, and taking parents' ability to decide what kind of health care their children need,' she said. The Republican bill in the House that passed through the House Energy & Commerce Committee banned Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance dollars from being used to provide gender-affirming care for minors. In a last-minute addition before the bill went to a vote on the floor, an amendment struck the term 'for minors' from the legislation, meaning it would put in place a blanket ban on gender-affirming care for all transgender people. The legislation would also prohibit coverage of gender transition care as an 'essential health benefit' offered by health care exchanges created in the 2010 Affordable Care Act signed by former president Barack Obama. The Senate Finance Committee released the health care part of its version that is almost identical to the House version except it does not include the 'essential health benefit' provision. 'I obviously think these issues are private and personal,' Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, the top Democrat on the Finance Committee which is in charge of health care, told The Independent. Republicans, who have only 53 seats in the Senate, plan to pass the bill through the process of budget reconciliation. That would allow them to pass the bill with a simple majority and avoid a filibuster as long as the legislation relates to the budget and federal spending. As part of the process, the legislation goes through the 'Byrd Bath,' named for late Senator Robert Byrd, where the Senate Parliamentarian determines whether parts of the legislation relate directly to the budget or are 'merely incidental.' Republican Rep. Dan Crenshaw of Texas, who sponsored the amendment, told The Independent that he believes it will comply with the rules because it saves taxpayer dollars. But if the the Senate parliamentarian rules that part of the legislation does not comply with reconciliation rules, the majority party can still bring the amendment on the floor, but the minority party can raise a point of order. If Republicans want to waive the point of order, it would require three-fifths of the Senate, or 60 votes, vote to waive it. Sen Jeff Merkley, the top Democrat on the Senate Budget Committee, said that he thought Democrats would likely challenge it. 'Well, we're certainly taking a look at all of the pieces of policy that don't belong in this type of bill,' he told The Independent. 'You don't put policy in there. That sure sounds like policy to me.' It also comes after when Republicans regularly criticized Democrats in campaign advertisements about allowing transgender athletes in women's sports. Sen. Ruben Gallego of Arizona, who recently told The Dispatch that he opposes allowing transgender athletes in some women's sports, told The Independent he thought that Democrats would challenge the Medicaid ban. 'I think it's outside the boundaries of reconciliation,' Gallego told The Independent. Mady Castigan, independent journalist and advocate who has published updates on the bill and urged people to call their lawmakers about it, has been pushing for people to make calls to lawmakers to oppose the bill. 'I really doubt there's a ton of people calling and asking their senators to vote for this specific provision,' she said. 'But I guarantee you, there's a ton more calling in to oppose it, and whenever something like that happens, you know, it definitely swings the political calculations.' But as of right now, much of the future of the legislation is unclear because Senate Republicans have yet to release the tax and health care aspects of their bill. 'I would assume so, but I haven't seen the details of it,' Sen. Tina Smith of Minnesota, who is retiring, told The Independent about whether Democrats would challenge the ban. But other Democrats avoided the question. 'There's a whole list of stuff that's being scrubbed there. Both in the privilege scrub now and in the later point of order challenges, and I can't say any more than that,' Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island told The Independent. This would not be the first time that Democrats and supporters of transgender rights pushed back on anti-transgender legislation. Earlier this year, Senate Democrats blocked legislation that would have banned transgender athletes from women's sports.
