Trump | Pakistan

President Donald Trump ends the third week of the Iran war, confronting a crisis that seems to be slipping out of his hands. Global energy prices are surging, the United States stands isolated from allies and more troops are preparing to deploy despite his promise that the war would be only a “short excursion.” A defensive Trump called other NATO countries “cowards” for refusing to help secure the Strait of Hormuz and insisted the campaign was unfolding according to plan. But his declaration on Friday that the battle “was Militarily WON” clashed with the reality of a defiant Iran that is choking off Gulf oil and gas supplies while launching missile strikes across the region. Trump, who took office promising to keep the US out of “stupid” military interventions, now appears to control neither the outcome nor the messaging of a conflict he helped to initiate. The lack of a clear exit strategy carries risks both for his presidential legacy and his party’s political prospects as Republicans scramble to defend nar...

Donald Trump’s war with Iran is weighing on independent US voters, a crucial bloc likely to determine if the president’s Republican Party maintains control of Congress in the November midterm elections. At a breakfast diner in Pennsylvania, a swing state where voters often shift between parties, there was a mix of anger and confusion over the new conflict. “Trump’s just miring us in another Iraq, Vietnam situation,” said retired postal worker Jolene Lloyd, 65, referencing the two prolonged wars often seen as failures for the United States. Lloyd has never voted for Trump, but has previously split her ticket between parties. Not this year — in November, she will only support Democrats. Republicans only narrowly control Congress — where every seat is up in the House and about one-third of the Senate — so even a small loss of voters could spell trouble. The midterm contests will determine whether Trump governs with a cooperative Congress or faces a Democratic majority empowered to block legislation and launch in...

'Without the USA, NATO is a paper tiger!' Trump lashes out

WASHINGTON: Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi sailed smoothly past a potential clash with Donald Trump on Iran on Thursday — although the US president whipped up a bit of a storm about Pearl Harbor. Days after lashing out at US allies including Japan for failing to heed his calls to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz, Trump praised Tokyo’s efforts related to the Middle East war in vague terms. “I believe that, based on statements (which) were given to us yesterday, the day before yesterday, having to do with Japan, they are really stepping up to the plate,” Trump told reporters as he hosted Takaichi in the Oval Office. After a long pause Trump then added “unlike Nato,” repeating his criticisms of the US-led military alliance with mainly European countries. Trump gave few details about what help Japan might provide in securing the crucial waterway, through which one-fifth of the world’s oil normally passes. But his tone towards Takaichi was far more friendly than the tongue-lashings he has given to allies, ...

War boosts Netanyahu’s position on Iran but traps Trump in a risky conflict, hurting his economic narrative

US President Donald Trump lashed out Tuesday at “foolish” Nato over Iran, saying the United States needs no help after allies rebuffed his calls to join efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Trump said most US allies had rejected his push to escort ships through the crucial waterway, with French President Emmanuel Macron saying his country would “never” do so until the situation was calmer. “I think Nato is making a very foolish mistake,” Trump told reporters as he hosted Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin in the Oval Office. “I’ve long said that I wonder whether or not Nato would ever be there for us. So this was a great test.” But Trump insisted that Washington was ready to go it alone against Iran, saying that even Nato allies had agreed that Tehran needed to be confronted over its nuclear programme. “We don’t need too much help. We don’t need any help,” Trump said. Minutes before the meeting, Trump made a lengthy post on his Truth Social platform saying US forces “no longer need” military help in the I...

US President Donald Trump said on Sunday that the United States could soon reach a deal with Cuba or take other action, signaling that developments in the long-strained relationship may come quickly. “Cuba also wants to make a deal, and I think we will pretty soon either make a deal or do whatever we have to do,” Trump said to reporters on Air Force One. “We’re talking to Cuba, but we’re going to do Iran before Cuba.” The comments come as tensions between Washington and Havana remain elevated following years of sanctions, diplomatic friction and disputes over migration and security, with regional allies and investors watching closely for signs of a policy shift. Cuba’s President Miguel Daz-Canel said on Friday that the country opened talks with the United States as the island faces one of its most severe economic crises in decades. “These talks have been aimed at finding solutions through dialogue to the bilateral differences we have between the two nations,” Diaz-Canel said in a video aired on state televisi...

US President Donald Trump said on Saturday that many countries would send warships to keep the Strait of Hormuz open, but did not provide details on which countries would do so. “Many countries, especially those who are affected by Iran’s attempted closure of the Hormuz Strait, will be sending warships, in conjunction with the United States of America, to keep the Strait open and safe,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. Trump said he hoped that China, France, Japan, South Korea, Britain and others would send ships to the area. “In the meantime, the United States will be bombing the hell out of the shoreline, and continually shooting Iranian boats and ships out of the water,” he wrote. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether any countries had agreed to send ships. The comments come after Iran’s new supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei vowed in his first public remarks to keep the Strait of Hormuz closed to “put pressure” on Washington. “The lever of blocking t...

Just over two weeks before President Donald Trump is due to meet his counterpart Xi Jinping in Beijing, Chinese uncertainty over the US leader’s goals and the impact of the Iran war hangs over the highly anticipated state visit. Trump’s trip, his first to China in his second term, is aimed at sealing a trade war truce the two leaders shook hands on when they met in South Korea in October. But for Beijing, which likes to carefully choreograph such events to avoid any possibility of embarrassment, Trump’s free-wheeling style is proving a challenge. A source familiar with negotiations told AFP that Chinese officials were expecting more ambitious preparations for such a summit between the leaders of the rival superpowers. The White House insisted, however, that preparations were going well for the visit from March 31 to April 2, with regular contacts and interactions with Beijing. “Unlike the autopen Biden administration that prized performance over outcomes, the Trump administration is very comfortable with trip...

WASHINGTON: United States lawmakers from both parties raised concerns on Tuesday about the strategy and potential consequences of the US-Israeli war against Iran following a classified congressional briefing. Democratic Senator Chris Murphy said the Trump administration’s plans for the war appear “incoherent and incomplete” following the two-hour closed-door briefing. “So they are going to spend hundreds of billions of your taxpayer dollars, get a whole bunch of Americans killed, and a hardline regime — probably a MORE anti-American hardline regime — will still be in charge,” Murphy said on X following the briefing. Murphy said he could not disclose classified information but that the plans discussed left him deeply concerned about the administration’s strategy. He said the briefing suggested that destroying Iran’s nuclear weapons program is not among the listed war goals. He also said regime change in Tehran is not part of the strategy, raising questions about what the administration ultimately hopes to achi...

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said Indian energy giant Reliance Industries was backing a deal to build the first new major oil refinery in the United States in half a century. Trump made the announcement via his Truth Social platform, saying the company America First Refining would construct the new facility at the Port of Brownsville, Texas. “This is a historic $300 billion dollar deal — the biggest in US history,” Trump wrote, framing the project as a cornerstone of his energy agenda, but offering no details on the plan. “Thank you to our partners in India, and their largest privately held Energy Company, Reliance, for this tremendous Investment,” he said, without specifying the company’s commitment. Reliance is India’s biggest privately held conglomerate and its Jamnagar refinery is the world’s largest. The America First Refining website says the company is a project of Element Fuels, which first announced plans in 2024 to build a Brownsville refinery at a cost of between $3-$4bn. The facility would...

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Monday declined to say whether Iran’s newly appointed supreme leader has a “target on his back,” but made clear his dissatisfaction with Tehran’s choice, calling it “going to lead to more of the same.” Asked at a news briefing in Doral, Florida, whether Iran’s new leader was a target, Trump replied: “The new leader, you mean the son?… I was disappointed to see their choice,” before adding, “I don’t want to say whether he has (a target on his back).” Pressed again at the end of the session, he repeated that he would not comment on any targeting decision but reiterated his broader frustration, saying the Iranian people are “an amazing people but the system they have only leads to failure.” The remarks came a day after Iran’s Assembly of Experts formally appointed Mojtaba Khamenei — son of the late supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei — to succeed his father following his death in a US-Israeli strike. The succession consolidates power within the clerical circles and sign...

US President Donald Trump indicated for the first time on Monday that US military operations in Iran could be coming to an end, saying the war was “very complete” and progressing ahead of schedule. The war had sent stock markets slumping and oil prices soaring again on Monday as Tehran, under new leader Mojtaba Khamenei, fired a new barrage of missiles at its Gulf neighbours and signalled that the strategic Strait of Hormuz would likely remain closed. But Wall Street vaulted into positive territory on Monday after Trump’s remarks, despite the lack of details on any solution to the conflict still raging in the Middle East. “I think the war is very complete, pretty much. They have no navy, no communications, they’ve got no air force,” Trump told CBS News by phone, repeating battle damage assessments that he has given in previous days. Trump told the US broadcaster that the United States was “very far” ahead of his initially stated timeframe for the war of four or five weeks. On the first day in power for the 56...

US President Donald Trump on Saturday urged Latin American nations to use military power against the “cancer” of drug cartels and offered to support them with US missile strikes targeting narco kingpins. Trump, currently waging a war with Iran, laid out a muscular position for advancing Washington’s interests in the Western hemisphere, pronouncing that communist-led Cuba was “in its last moments of life” and advocating tough action by allies against organised crime blighting the region. He formally launched a 17-nation “counter cartel” coalition, which the White House described as a pledge from governments in the region to use “hard power” against security threats. “We’re working with you to do whatever we have to do. You want us to use a missile? We’ll use missiles. They’re extremely accurate,” Trump told a dozen right-wing leaders from Latin America and the Caribbean at his Doral golf club near Miami. “‘Piu,’ right into the living room,” he said, suggesting the sound of a missile in flight. “That’s the end ...

WASHINGTON: Virginia’s legislature has passed a new education law that bars public schools from teaching former President Donald Trump’s version of recent history, particularly regarding the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol. Under the measure, approved by the Democratic-controlled Virginia General Assembly, schools cannot present the attack as a “peaceful protest” or claim that the 2020 presidential election was stolen through widespread fraud. Instead, teachers are required to describe January 6 as a violent assault on democratic institutions aimed at overturning the election results. Similar efforts are underway in New York. Democratic Representative Chuck Lavine of Long Island has introduced a bill that would require all public school students in the state to learn about the insurrection and its consequences. Lavine said failing to teach an accurate account would be a “grave disservice” to students and to the nation. Trump and his allies have characterised the events of January 6 as patriotic and ...

The US Justice Department released FBI records on Thursday that summarise interviews of an unidentified woman in which she made accusations against US President Donald Trump related to an alleged sexual encounter. FBI agents interviewed the woman four times in 2019 as part of their investigation into accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. The Justice Department had previously released a log confirming that the interviews took place, but released a summary of only one of those four meetings, in which she accused Epstein of molesting her when she was a teenager. The newly disclosed records, which were posted on the department’s website on Thursday, show she also claimed Trump attempted to force her to engage in sexual acts after Epstein introduced her to the future president in New York or New Jersey in the 1980s when she was between 13 and 15 years old. The White House did not immediately respond to questions about the disclosures. Politico, which first reported the disclosures, said White House press secreta...

WASHINGTON: A Pakistani man accused of planning to kill President Donald Trump told jurors on Wednesday that he did not willingly work with Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps to devise the plot, media said. The Justice Department accused Asif Merchant of trying to recruit people in the United States in the plan targeting Trump and other US politicians in retaliation for Washington’s killing of the Corps’ top commander, Qassem Soleimani. The Corps has a central role in Iran, with its combination of military and economic power and an intelligence network. “I was not wanting to do this so willingly,” the New York Times quoted Merchant as telling a court during his trial for terrorism and murder-for-hire charges, adding that he participated to protect his family in Tehran. Prosecutors reject Merchant’s claim of duress, cite lack of evidence to support ‘coercion’ defence Prosecutors rejected Merchant’s claim, citing a “lack of evidentiary support for a true duress or coercion,” according to a letter s...

Kristi Noem, who oversaw United States President Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration crackdown and faced bipartisan criticism in hearings this week, will leave her role as homeland security chief at the end of the month. Trump will tap Oklahoma Senator Markwayne Mullin to replace her, he said on his Truth Social platform, a move that would require US Senate confirmation. Noem, a former governor of South Dakota, became one of Trump’s most high-profile cabinet secretaries with social media posts that portrayed immigrants in harsh terms, highlighting cases of alleged criminal offenders and using vitriolic language. She faced criticism in January when she quickly labelled two US citizens fatally shot by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis as committing “domestic terrorism”. Videos that emerged after the deaths undercut the assertion by Noem and other Trump officials that the two deceased — Renee Good and Alex Pretti — were violent aggressors. The public backlash for deaths led the Trump administration to ...

The European Union (EU) stands in full solidarity with Spain, European Council President Antonio Costa said on Wednesday, following US President Donald Trump’s threats to cut trade with Madrid over its stance against Washington’s attacks on Iran. “I have just held a call with President Sanchez to express the EU’s full solidarity with Spain. The EU will always ensure that the interests of its member states are fully protected,” Costa said on the social media platform on X. Trump lashed out at the government of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Tuesday, criticising its refusal to grant use of the Rota naval base and Moron air base, as well as his refusal to join Nato allies in a pledge to boost defence spending. “So we’re going to cut off all trade with Spain. We don’t want anything to do with Spain,” Trump said. Meanwhile, the European Commission said it was “ready” to defend EU interests. “We stand in full solidarity with all member states and all their citizens and, through our common trade policy, stand ready...

US President Donald Trump said on Friday he is directing the government to stop work with Anthropic, and the Pentagon said it would declare the start-up a supply-chain risk, dealing a major blow to the artificial intelligence lab after a showdown about technology guardrails. Trump added there would be a six-month phase-out for the Defence Department and other agencies that use the company’s products. If Anthropic does not help with the transition, Trump said, he would use “the Full Power of the Presidency to make them comply, with major civil and criminal consequences to follow”. The actions mark an extraordinary rebuke by the United States against one of the premier companies that has kept it in the lead on national security-critical AI, threatening to give Anthropic a pariah status that Washington until now had reserved for enemy suppliers. Google and Amazon are among Anthropic’s financial backers. The moves further set a precedent that US law alone would constrain how AI is deployed on the battlefield, wit...