Iranian leader rejects Trump's push for nuclear talks
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei rejected President Trump's push for nuclear deal talks between the two nations, arguing the initiative is only a gateway for Washington to impose new demands and limit Tehran's military capabilities.
'Some coercive governments insist on negotiations. Such negotiations aren't aimed at solving issues. Their aim is to exert their dominance and impose what they want,' Iran's supreme leader said in a statement on Saturday. 'For coercive governments, negotiations are a means to impose new demands. Iran will definitely not fulfill these new demands.'
Trump said during a Thursday interview with Fox News that he has penned a letter to Khamenei as he looks to negotiate a fresh nuclear deal with Tehran.
'I've written them a letter saying, 'I hope you're going to negotiate because if we have to go in militarily, it's going to be a terrible thing,'' the commander-in-chief said on Fox News's 'Sunday Morning Futures.' The entire interview will air on Sunday.
Khamenei said on Saturday, without directly mentioning the U.S., that 'they make new demands regarding the country's defense capabilities & int'l. capabilities, telling us not to do this, not to meet that person, not to go there, not to produce this, and to limit the range of our missiles to a certain extent.'
'How could anyone accept such things,' he added without mentioning if he received Trump's letter.
The U.S. and Israel have previously said that Iran should not be able to get a nuclear weapon. Tehran has been working on enriching its uranium to levels near capable of a nuclear weapon.
Iran has said the program is being developed for peaceful purposes, although some of its officials have threatened to develop the atomic bomb if the country is 'threatened.'
On Wednesday, Trump reiterated that Tehran cannot have a nuclear weapon, that he wants to reach a deal with Iran and 'reports that the United States, working in conjunction with Israel, is going to blow Iran into smithereens' are 'GREATLY EXAGGERATED.'
'I would much prefer a Verified Nuclear Peace Agreement, which will let Iran peacefully grow and prosper,' Trump wrote Wednesday on Truth Social. 'We should start working on it immediately, and have a big Middle East Celebration when it is signed and completed. God Bless the Middle East!'
In 2018, Trump withdrew from the Iran nuclear agreement that was brokered during former President Obama's administration and also ordered the U.S.-led strike on Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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Politico
10 minutes ago
- Politico
Mike Crapo's megabill Mission: Impossible
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Politico
11 minutes ago
- Politico
How Trump broke the politics of Medicaid
Republicans used to cheer the possibility of Medicaid cuts. Now, as the GOP advances President Donald Trump's 'Big Beautiful Bill' that would reduce Medicaid spending, they're rebranding it as making the program stronger. The shift reflects the striking new politics of Medicaid — and how dramatically the GOP's coalition has changed under Trump. Now Democrats are hoping Medicaid could be the issue that exposes the cracks in the Trump coalition. They have seized on a nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimate that the bill would cause 7.8 million people to lose access to the low-income health insurance program. At stake is whether Democrats can start to win back working-class voters who have shifted toward the GOP over the past decade. Medicaid provides health insurance for nearly 80 million people but was long the electoral forgotten sibling of Social Security and Medicare. It's clear in the ads: TV ads for House and Senate races last election cycle were 26 times as likely to mention Medicare, the health care program for seniors, as Medicaid, according to a POLITICO analysis of transcripts from AdImpact, which tracks political advertising. But that's already changing. 'I saw elections 16 years ago where people ran on cutting Medicaid, and there were folks who were on Medicaid who were in the crowd cheering them on,' said Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, a potential Democratic candidate for president in 2028. 'That's not the case of where we are today.' The Medicaid provisions in the GOP's budget bill have prompted new debate even among Republicans. To Beshear and others, that provides an opening. Democrats, he said, should stand in front of hospitals and 'talk about how important Medicaid is,' he said, while emphasizing 'the impact on specific communities.' Congressional Democrats have seized on the issue, with moderates and progressives alike speaking in defense of the program. The party's House campaign arm is prioritizing Medicaid in swing-district messaging. And TV ads mentioning Medicaid have already run in more Republican-held districts this year than they did all of last cycle. Republicans are cautious, with an ideologically diverse group of senators wary of cuts and poised to exert significant influence over the bill. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), who warned that cutting the program would be 'both morally wrong and politically suicidal,' said last week that Trump had promised him no cuts to benefits. GOP lawmakers have largely rallied around Trump's bill by arguing the House legislation protects Medicaid by only removing people who do not deserve it in the first place. That careful messaging is a stark difference from a decade ago, when congressional Republicans explicitly prioritized cutting Medicaid and governors blocked its expansion. One reason for the turnaround: A series of red states expanded Medicaid by ballot initiative between 2017 and 2020 — largely with backing of Democratic-aligned groups — and GOP voters defied their state and local political leaders in large numbers to support the program. Nationwide, enrollment for Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program rose from just shy of 70 million in 2014 to nearly 79 million at the end of 2024. And at the same time more people were entering the program, including Republican voters in red states, an electoral realignment was shifting working-class voters toward Trump. 'Medicaid has a broader and broader appeal the more people that are on it, and the more people who know someone who's on it. That's incredibly powerful politically,' said Kelly Hall, executive director of the Fairness Project, which backed state Medicaid referendums. The makeup of Medicaid users was changing — and so were its politics. For a long time, the program has been relatively absent from federal races. Even in the 2018 midterms, when defending the Affordable Care Act was central to Democrats' midterm messaging, only 30 TV ads across all congressional elections mentioned Medicaid, while nearly 500 mentioned Medicare, POLITICO's analysis found. But Medicaid expansion was a major issue in many gubernatorial and state legislative races in the 2010s. The success of ballot measures proved the program had a strong constituency, even in red states. And Trump's popularity with working-class voters also reshaped the GOP's coalition. Compared to Republican candidates before him, Trump's 2024 gains were strongest in counties with high Medicaid enrollment, a POLITICO analysis found. In the 2024 election, 49 percent of Medicaid recipients voted for Trump compared to 47 percent for Kamala Harris, according to Morning Consult polling. That means cuts to Medicaid or reductions in eligibility could now pose a political risk for Republicans. People who could lose benefits would not just be Democratic voters in blue states, but Republicans in red states and swing districts who supported Trump last year. Drew Kent, a GOP strategist whose firm recently polled Pennsylvania's voters, found a slight majority, including 30 percent of Republicans, disapproved of work requirements for Medicaid. 'These results are definitely a bit surprising to me,' Kent said. 'It clearly shows the challenges and importance, particularly in a political swing state like Pennsylvania, of getting the policy, messaging, and communications right on an issue of this magnitude.' Republicans are aware of the potential political liability: The GOP's argument about the bill, which could still face changes in the Senate, is that the changes to the program do not amount to cuts for voters. 'The President wants to preserve and protect Medicaid for the Americans who this program was intended for,' White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said at a press briefing last month. 'We want to see able-bodied Americans at least working 20 hours per week, whether that's part-time or full-time, whether that's even looking for work or volunteering for 20 hours a week, if they are receiving Medicaid.' A memo from the National Republican Campaign Committee last month advised the party to go on offense, saying the bill protects Medicaid by 'removing illegal immigrants and eliminating fraud.' Among its provisions, the bill would penalize states such as California that use state dollars to extend Medicaid benefits to undocumented immigrants. According to CBO estimates, of the nearly 11 million people who would lose Medicaid or other health insurance due to the bill, about 1.4 million are immigrants. GOP strategist Josh Novotney argued that approach is in line with what Trump's working-class base wants. 'Most blue-collar Trump supporters I have met or spoken with in large groups do not want their hard-earned taxes going to other people, whether that is student debt forgiveness or Medicaid abuse,' he said. 'That is not at odds with his supporters.' A Kaiser Family Foundation poll released Friday found a plurality of Republicans, 42 percent, believed the Trump administration's policies would strengthen Medicaid, with only 22 percent believing the program would be weakened. But Republican Medicaid enrollees were more split, with 35 believing Trump would strengthen the program and 34 percent saying he would weaken it. That is where Democrats see an opening. A nonprofit affiliated with Democrats' House campaign arm is already targeting swing-district Republicans with digital ads accusing members of cutting Medicaid to pay for tax breaks for the rich. And a flurry of other liberal groups have purchased TV or digital ads and planned billboards and other activist campaigns. 'To the extent that this is becoming a bigger political issue, it's simply because their efforts to destroy Medicaid are fundamentally more dangerous and more real than ever before,' said Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), whose PAC is helping fund a group that opposes Medicaid cuts. As the bill currently stands, the Medicaid work requirements would not go into effect until the end of 2026. That means Democrats largely won't be able to point during their midterm campaigns to people who have already lost access to Medicaid. Instead, they may rely on voter trust on an issue that has historically worked for them. While polls have found voters consistently prefer the GOP more on issues such as the economy and immigration — which helped propel Trump's win last year — health care has remained a rare bright spot for Democrats. 'If there is a debate or chaos or uncertainty about Medicaid cuts, then I think Democrats stand to benefit from that because of the brand advantage on health care,' said Democratic pollster Zac McCrary. 'One of the few places where we have maintained an edge.'
Axios
13 minutes ago
- Axios
Silicon Valley's not crying for Musk
Few tears will be shed in Silicon Valley or at Big Tech firms over Elon Musk's precipitous fall from White House grace. Why it matters: Musk's brief alliance with President Trump warped the usual dynamics of the relationship between America's most valuable industry and its center of political power. Between the lines: Musk himself is widely admired in tech's corridors of power for Tesla's and SpaceX's innovations — but also widely disliked for his unfulfillable promises, erratic behavior and social media addiction. Now that Musk is suddenly on the outs with Trump, a lot of tech leaders are quietly crossing their fingers that they can get back to dealmaking and policy-setting without worrying about a key competitor whispering in the president's ear. Tech giants can't be sure that whoever replaces Musk as Trump's favorite geek will bring stability or regulatory relief — but Musk wasn't delivering on those fronts either. On the other hand, any follow-through on Trump's threat to strangle the flow of federal dollars to Musk's firms would demonstrate that vendettas are the new normal. Such targeting of one person's business empire with the full force of presidential power would send a chill down any CEO's spine, pro- or anti-Trump. The big picture: Tech leaders see huge opportunities in Washington and government work right now. AI is exploding, defense tech is booming, and crypto firms are chomping at the bit. Plenty of CEOs resented what they saw as the Biden administration's hostility to deals, dedication to strict regulation and aggressive stance on antitrust. Yes, but: The long Republican tradition of business-friendly regulatory positions has mutated into a Trumpian realpolitik. The Trump administration has been forthright in its intention to help friends and punish enemies. Help comes as contracts and preferential treatment by regulators; punishment comes via canceled contracts, fines and even prosecution by the Justice Department. The terms of this week's Trump-Musk feud made starkly clear how serious Trump is about these carrot-and-stick moves. Losers: Musk himself obviously faces not only financial losses but a reputational reckoning. He has already alienated his liberal-left fans, who'd once been drawn to his electric vehicles. If Trump's MAGA loyalists abandon him too, he might be left with a thinned social media fan base, a pile of sinking shares, and not much else. Winners: Virtually any tech leader not named Musk can find satisfaction in his misfortune. Musk's businesses are all deeply entangled with one another but rarely partner with non-Musk-owned firms. His empire is a mostly self-contained Muskiverse, meaning its woes aren't likely to prove contagious. There are plenty of MAGA-friendly tech firms — think Palantir and Anduril in defense tech, Meta under a newly MAGA-fied Mark Zuckerberg, or the Andreessen-Horowitz portfolio in startups — ready to step in to the Musk void in D.C. if he and the president don't patch things up. U.S. leaders may decide it's time to broaden the supply of rockets that can launch satellites and astronauts into space beyond SpaceX — and that could benefit Jeff Bezos and his Blue Origin firm. One of the biggest winners, even though he has largely stayed mum on the Musk/Trump fireworks, is OpenAI's Sam Altman. Musk's role in the Trump administration gave his company an inside track on federal contracts. Altman, who wasn't ever known to be close to Trump, surprised Musk by repackaging his giant Stargate datacenter project as a Trump deal and winning an Oval Office photo op with Trump the day after the new president's inauguration. Altman and Musk have their own feud. Both were among the nonprofit's cofounders, and Musk has sued OpenAI, claiming that under Altman it has abandoned its original AI safety mission. Another winner: Vice President J.D. Vance, who during Musk's White House days seemed to fade into the woodwork, has a chance to reassert his primacy as the Trump administration's ambassador to tech. Still to be seen is where some of the other key tech players in Trumpworld — like White House adviser David Sacks — land when the firestorm subsides. The intrigue: You won't read expressions of tech leaders' relief at Musk's D.C. exit in their posts or interviews. There's nothing to be gained and lots to lose for most executives or investors to take sides in the Trump-Musk war of words. That's why the only sound from tech's normally boisterous social-media gallery has been an occasional wan plea of "be nice and make up." What's next: Trump White House dramas never end, they just go into new seasons.
