The Latest: Trump says he’s ‘not satisfied’ with Iran’s new peace
President Donald Trump said Friday that he’s “not satisfied” with Iran’s latest proposal in negotiations to end the war. Asked what he sees are the proposal’s shortcomings, Trump said, “They’re asking for things I can’t agree to.”
The Trump administration is arguing that the war in Iran has already ended because of a ceasefire that began in early April, an interpretation that would allow the White House to avoid the need to seek congressional approval. On Friday, Trump dismissed the war powers law as “unconstitutional.”
While the ceasefire has since been extended, Iran maintains its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz, and the U.S. Navy is maintaining a blockade to prevent Iran’s oil tankers from getting out to sea.
Many Republicans who have been uneasy with Trump’s war in Iran emphasized that there would be a May 1 deadline for Congress to intervene. But the date is now set to pass with no action from GOP lawmakers who continue to defer to the White House.
Here’s the latest:
Trump says after CENTCOM briefing that he has two options for Iran
Discussing a Thursday briefing with Adm. Brad Cooper, head of U.S. Central Command, Trump said the U.S. has just two options in Iran.
“I mean, do we want to go and just blast the hell out of them and finish them forever? Or do we want to try and make a deal? I mean, those are the options,” Trump said.
Asked if he wanted to pursue the former, Trump said: “I’d prefer not. On a human basis, I’d prefer not, but that’s the option.”
Trump said he believes Iran’s leadership has made some progress toward unifying around a resolution.
“They’ve made strides, but I’m not sure if they ever get there,” he said. “There’s tremendous discord, they’re having a tremendous problem getting along with each other in Iran.”
Trump dismisses war powers law as ‘unconstitutional’
Friday marked the 60th day since the White House notified Congress of its military operations in Iran, meaning Trump would have to withdraw forces or seek formal approval from Capitol Hill.
But the president said his predecessors have similarly not sought congressional approval for military action abroad, and he wasn’t going to be any different.
“Every other president considered it totally unconstitutional, and we agree with that,” Trump said at the White House as he departed for Florida on Friday.
He also agreed with an argument advanced by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth this week that ceasefire days should not count as hostilities and thus not toward the 60 day limit.
A senior administration official says the U.S.’s military actions in Iran have effectively “terminated” since the April 7 ceasefire.
Meet Dr. Nicole Saphier, Trump’s third pick for US surgeon general
Trump dropped his pick for surgeon general Dr. Casey Means this week after it became clear she didn’t have enough Senate votes.
His new pick Dr. Nicole Saphier, a radiologist and former Fox News Channel contributor, has promoted much of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s agenda, including cutting ultraprocessed foods from diets and encouraging exercise.
But she has been a more vocal advocate for vaccination than Kennedy. She’s also criticized the administration’s handling of some issues as “embarrassing.”
“The more vaccine confusion we create, the more preventable disease we will see,” she said in September, urging the administration to get itself in order on the issue.
Trump sounds open to putting former 2024 GOP rival Ron DeSantis in his Cabinet
When asked Friday if he’d consider a Cabinet role for the Florida governor, who is term-limited and will be out of office in 2027, Trump responded by saying, “Well, I like him a lot.”
Trump’s team in 2024 was considering DeSantis as his defense secretary when then-nominee Pete Hegseth’s path to Senate confirmation seemed shaky.
Trump says he’s still looking at a taxpayer-funded takeover of Spirit Airlines
“We’re looking at it. If we could do it, we’ll do it. But only if it’s a good deal,” Trump told reporters on Friday as he prepared to leave the White House for a trip to Florida.
He didn’t offer any details about what proposal he was considering but said he’d like to save jobs at the airline. Trump said his administration gave Spirit “a final proposal” and would make an announcement Friday or Saturday.
“We’re looking at Spirit and if we can help them, we will. But we have to come first,” he said.
Trump says he’s ‘not satisfied’ with Iran’s latest proposal in negotiations to end the war
“They want to make a deal, I’m not satisfied with it, so we’ll see what happens,” Trump told reporters Friday at the White House.
Asked about what he sees as the proposal’s shortcomings, Trump said, “They’re asking for things I can’t agree to.”
The president said negotiations have continued by phone after he called off his envoys’ trip to Pakistan last week. He expressed frustration with Iran’s leadership, which he described as fractured.
“It’s a very disjointed leadership,” he said. “They all want to make a deal, but they’re all messed up.”
Some background on the 2025 trade deal between the US and EU
The 2025 deal was first cast into doubt after the U.S. Supreme Court this year ruled the Republican president lacked the legal authority to declare an economic emergency and charge tariffs on EU goods.
The initial agreement had been a tariff ceiling of 15% on goods from the EU, but the Supreme Court ruling reduced that to 10% as the Trump administration launched a new set of import taxes based on other laws. The Trump administration is in the middle of investigations on trade imbalances and national security risks to impose a new tariff regime, which could ultimately put the agreement with the EU in risk of violation.
The EU had said it expected the bilateral deal would save European automakers about 500 million to 600 million euros ($585 million to $700 million) a month.
The value of EU-U.S. trade in goods and services amounted to 1.7 trillion euros ($2 trillion) in 2024, or an average of 4.6 billion euros a day, according to EU statistics agency Eurostat.
Trump says he’ll place 25% tariff on autos from EU, accusing bloc of not complying with trade deal
It’s a move that could jolt the world economy at a fragile moment.
Trump said in a post that the EU “is not complying with our fully agreed to Trade Deal,” though he did not flesh out his objections in the post.
Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen had agreed to the trade deal last July. It set a 15% tariff on most goods.
Bessent wants Americans to avoid easy-money traps and invest in financial literacy
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent winces at the allure of easy money — whether it’s lottery tickets, buy now, pay later loans or the promise of a crypto windfall — warning that the get-rich-quick mindset often leads Americans farther from financial stability, not closer to it.
“There are a lot of young people, mostly young men, going to blue-collar construction jobs, playing the lottery. It drives me crazy,” Bessent said in an interview.
“The best thing you can do is not play the lottery,” he said — rather, people should invest and “then watch it grow.”
Bessent spoke about the basics of building a workable budget and saving for the future at the tail end of Financial Literacy Month, an initiative the billionaire hedge fund manager has made a priority since joining Trump’s administration, driven by a childhood marred by poverty.
King Charles III wins praise for deft handling of Trump on his US state visit
President Trump sang the praises of King Charles III after the monarch’s state visit this week. He even lifted some tariffs on Scotch whisky as a favor to the British monarch.
The king delivered a diplomatic master-class on the trip, mixing praise for his host with subtle criticism. It’s unclear, though, whether it will make a major difference to a trans-Atlantic relationship troubled by divisions over issues including the Iran war.
“In the short term probably yes, in the long term probably no,” said Kristofer Allerfeldt, a University of Exeter professor specializing in American history. But he said Charles had “definitely clawed back some of the prestige of the monarchy” in his homeland with his assured performance.
“He’s done us proud,” Allerfeldt said.
Joe Biden endorses a former Atlanta mayor and White House adviser for Georgia governor
The former Democratic president is wading into the midterms, making his first political endorsement of the 2026 cycle by backing Keisha Lance Bottoms for the state’s top job.
Bottoms served as Biden’s senior adviser for public engagement after her tenure as Atlanta mayor.
In a one-minute video promoting her candidacy, Biden praised her track record as mayor and said “those same qualities that made her a great mayor made her invaluable to our administration — smart, focused, gets things done.”
“She handled it all with steady and thoughtful leadership,” Biden said in the video. “That’s the definition of battle-tested.”
After major enforcement operations, the Trump administration recalibrates its immigration crackdown
When Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin was questioned by senators during his confirmation hearing about his vision for implementing President Trump’s mass deportation agenda, he said his goal was to keep his department off the front pages of the news.
To some degree, he has. Gone are the social media video clips of now-retired Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino clashing with protesters. Mullin’s predecessor, Kristi Noem, made her first trip as secretary to New York City to make arrests with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. In contrast, Mullin went to North Carolina to review hurricane recovery efforts.
The Republican administration appears to be recalibrating its approach to a centerpiece policy that helped bring Trump back to the White House, moving in many ways away from aggressive, public-facing tactics toward a quieter approach to enforcement. Despite that shift, the administration insists it’s not backing down from its lofty deportation goals.
Republicans say they will defer to Trump on Iran war despite arrival of 60-day deadline
Many Republicans who have been uneasy with Trump’s war in Iran emphasized that there would be a May 1 deadline for Congress to intervene. But the date is now set to pass with no action from GOP lawmakers who continue to defer to the White House.
Under the War Powers Resolution of 1973, Congress must declare war or authorize the use of force within 60 days — a deadline that falls on Friday — or within 90 days if the president asks for an extension. But Congress made no attempt at enforcing that requirement, leaving town for a week on Thursday after the Senate rejected a Democratic attempt to halt the war for a sixth time.
The Trump administration has shown no interest in seeking congressional approval at all. It is arguing that the deadlines set by the law don’t apply because the war in Iran effectively ended when a ceasefire began in early April.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said Thursday he doesn’t plan on a vote to authorize force in Iran or otherwise weigh in.
Trump gives go-ahead to major new Canada-US oil pipeline
President Donald Trump granted a key approval Thursday for a major new oil pipeline from Canada into the U.S. that’s been dubbed “Keystone Light” over its similarities to a contentious project blocked by the Biden administration.
The three-foot-wide (1 meter) Bridger Pipeline Expansion would carry up to 550,000 barrels (87,400 cubic meters) of oil a day from Canada through Montana and Wyoming, where it would link with another pipeline.
The pipeline needs additional state and federal environmental approvals before construction, which company officials expect to start next year. Environmentalists hope to stop the project over worries that the pipeline could break and spill.
At peak volume, the 650-mile (1,050-kilometer) pipeline would move two-thirds as much oil as the better-known Keystone XL pipeline that got partially built before President Joe Biden, citing climate change, canceled its permit on the day he took office in 2021.
Prosecutors release video of armed man storming correspondents’ dinner
Federal prosecutors released a video Thursday showing the moment authorities say a man armed with guns and knives tried to storm the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner and attempt to kill Trump.
Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for Washington, posted the video on social media amid questions over whose bullet struck a Secret Service officer as Cole Tomas Allen ran through security with a long gun toward the hotel ballroom packed with journalists, administration officials and others.
Prosecutors had previously claimed the agent was shot in the bullet-resistant vest during the melee, but had not confirmed it was Allen who shot the agent. Pirro, however, said Thursday that there is no evidence that the officer was hit by friendly fire.
Allen was injured but was not shot during the Saturday night attack at the Washington Hilton, which disrupted one of the highest-profile annual events in the nation’s capital.
Trump administration says its war in Iran has been ‘terminated’ before 60-day deadline
The Trump administration is arguing that the war in Iran has already ended because of the ceasefire that began in early April, an interpretation that would allow the White House to avoid the need to seek congressional approval.
The statement furthers an argument laid out by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth during testimony in the Senate earlier Thursday, when he said the ceasefire effectively paused the war. Under that rationale, the administration has not yet met the requirement mandated by a 1973 law to seek formal approval from Congress for military action that extends beyond 60 days.
A senior administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the administration’s position, said for purposes of that law, “the hostilities that began on Saturday, Feb. 28 have terminated.” The official said the U.S. military and Iran have not exchanged fire since the two-week ceasefire that began April 7.
While the ceasefire has since been extended, Iran maintains its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz, and the U.S. Navy is maintaining a blockade to prevent Iran’s oil tankers from getting out to sea.