作者： root

Democrats, Republicans ask Trump administration not to ship Afghan allies to unsafe countries

2026-06-11 17:35:06 UTC / Reuters

By Patricia Zengerle

June 11, 2026 5:35 PM UTC Updated 2 hours ago

Special Immigrants from Afghanistan walk through the in-processing building after their evacuation at Camp As Sayliyah, Qatar, August 20, 2021. U.S. Army/Sgt. Jimmie Baker/Handout via REUTERS

WASHINGTON, June 11 (Reuters) – Dozens of U.S. lawmakers urged President Donald ​Trump’s administration on Thursday to roll back any plans to ship to unsafe third countries Afghan nationals who worked ‌with U.S. forces during the war in their homeland.

In a letter seen by Reuters, more than 80 House of Representatives members, including at least three Republicans as well as Democrats, appealed to Secretary of State Marco Rubio to reconsider plans for 1,100 Afghans who have been stranded in Qatar ​awaiting relocation.

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“It’s both a moral and a national security imperative that our country live up to its promise and ​watch out for those who put themselves in harm’s way to help keep us safe,” Democratic ⁠Representative Jason Crow of Colorado, a former Army Ranger who led the letter, said in a statement.

Earlier this year, the Trump ​administration was in talks to send the Afghans to the Democratic Republic of Congo, as they remained in limbo more than four ​years after the U.S. withdrawal from Kabul.

The situation for Afghans in particular has been more difficult since late 2025, after an Afghan immigrant was accused of an attack in Washington that killed one National Guard member and wounded another.

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After the shooting, Trump’s administration pointed to a lack of vetting ​of Afghans and other foreign nationals during the term of former President Joe Biden, a Democrat, although the suspect Rahmanullah ​Lakanwal was granted asylum under Trump.

Trump signed an executive order preventing Afghan refugees, including those who worked with the military, from entering the U.S.

Many ‌of ⁠Trump’s fellow Republicans in Congress have stepped back from what was once bipartisan support for efforts like the Special Immigrant Visa program to clear Afghans who had worked with American forces to come to the United States.

Rubio was queried at congressional hearings last week about whether the administration still planned to send the Afghans to the DRC, despite an Ebola outbreak in the war-torn African ​nation. Rubio responded that the U.S. ​was talking with “multiple countries

The facts didn’t fit Trump’s California conspiracy theory. So he adjusted the conspiracy theory

2026-06-11T16:18:50.830Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/06/11/politics/fact-check-trump-california-conspiracy-steve-hilton

• President Donald Trump claimed his public pressure forced California officials to approve Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton’s qualification for the November runoffs rather than proceed with a plan to rig the results of the primary.
• California counties were simply counting votes as usual, and Hilton advanced because he earned enough votes.
• Hilton hasn’t endorsed Trump’s claims about fraud in the California primaries.

AI-generated summary was reviewed by a CNN editor.

If you’re pushing the baseless conspiracy theory that the results of last week’s California primary elections were rigged against Republicans like gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton, it would seem highly inconvenient that Hilton has succeeded in qualifying for the November runoffs.

But if you’re a seasoned conspiracy theorist, as President Donald Trump is, you don’t just stop telling a fantastical tale when it is contradicted by new facts. Rather, you simply adjust the conspiracy theory so that the new facts now fit within it.

Trump has years of experience with this kind of dishonest narrative flexibility. It’s what he employed, for example, after former President Barack Obama released his long-form Hawaii birth certificate in 2011, conclusively disproving Trump’s conspiracy theory that Obama wasn’t actually born in the US. Rather than immediately abandon his nonsense, Trump soon began suggesting the birth certificate was a phony.

This time, rather than conceding that it’s obviously time to abandon his “rigged election” declarations about California, Trump has begun claiming that he had jawboned the riggers into submission … but only in Hilton’s case, not the case of unsuccessful Republican Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt.

Try to follow along here.

Hilton hasn’t endorsed Trump’s fraud claims; he has said he has “seen nothing” to justify any legal intervention. But Trump told reporters at the White House on Wednesday that Hilton’s qualification for the runoff, as projected by CNN and others, happened because Trump had publicly warned that Democrats were about to rig the results to prevent Hilton from qualifying for the runoff. It was because of this Trump “heat,” Trump said, that unnamed Democrats felt compelled to surrender their plan to cheat Hilton like they, according to Trump, cheated Pratt.

Trump’s story: “And then I hit them hard on that (Pratt’s defeat), but I started talking about Steve Hilton, who’s a fantastic guy. And I saw them say it was going to be two weeks before they knew, and I started hitting them. ‘It’s going to happen to Steve Hilton, too.’ It’s – ‘Watch, you gotta watch’ – and they approved Steve Hilton very quickly. They didn’t want, there was too much heat on them. The only reason he got approved – he had all the votes he needed, probably to be first place – but the only reason they approved Steve Hilton, it was going to be two weeks, they said, and then they approved him that night. Because the heat was on them, because they’re cheatin’ dogs.”

He repeated the story Thursday morning on Fox News, saying that a rigged defeat “was happening to Steve Hilton” but then “I went on such a tear that they approved it immediately; they approved Steve. It’s such a rigged deal, it’s so crazy. They were, they approved him so fast because everybody was watching.”

This is, of course, complete hogwash.

All that has happened in California, as far as all available evidence shows, is that counties are counting votes – slowly, as usual, but legitimately. In the case of the Los Angeles mayoral primary, counting votes has meant that it has become clear that Pratt will not achieve the top-two finish needed to qualify for the runoff. In the case of the state primary for governor, counting votes has meant that it has become clear that Hilton will achieve a top-two finish.

No California authority “approved him,” whether because of Trump or because of anybody else; there was no behind-the-scenes decision to grant Hilton his wish. The reality is boring: California voters voted; counties counted; media outlets eventually projected, unofficially, that Hilton would earn enough votes to advance in a state in which about 45% of registered voters were Democratic and about 25% were Republican; separately, media outlets unofficially projected that Pratt wouldn’t earn enough votes to advance in a city in which Democrats outnumbered Republicans much more significantly, about 55% to 15%.

The end. Except, as usual with Trump, not the end.

A mountainous supply of evidence, over the course of more than five years, has never been sufficient to get Trump to drop his conspiratorial lying about the 2020 presidential election he lost. It’s no surprise that one very strong piece of contradicting evidence hasn’t been sufficient to get him to dump this new round of foolishness.

Trump nominates Jay Clayton, former SEC chairman, current US Attorney, as intelligence director

June 11, 2026 2:26pm EDT / Fox News

Clayton currently serves as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York and previously led Sullivan & Cromwell

By Emma Bussey, Fox News

NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles!

President Donald Trump announced Thursday that former SEC Chairman and current U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton will be the next permanent director of national intelligence.

The nomination followed a brief stint by acting Director William Pulte, who took over after Tulsi Gabbard stepped down.

“I am pleased to announce the Nomination of very Highly Respected Jay Clayton, former Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, the former Head of Sullivan & Cromwell, one of the most prominent and successful Law Firms anywhere in the World, and the current United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, to be the next Director of National Intelligence and, importantly, to serve in my Cabinet,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.

“Few people anywhere in the Legal Community are respected at the level of Jay,” he added.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

“I encourage the United States Senate to confirm Jay as soon as possible,” Trump said.

This is a breaking story. Return for updates.

Emma Bussey is a breaking news writer for Fox News Digital. Before joining Fox, she worked at The Telegraph with the U.S. overnight team, across desks including foreign, politics, news, sport and culture.

U.S. monitoring Chinese activity in South China Sea around disputed shoal

2026-06-11 1:49 PM EDT / CBS News

By

Olivia Gazis
Olivia Gazis covers intelligence and international security matters for CBS News. Twice Emmy-nominated, she has traveled worldwide with the secretary of state and contributes reporting on intelligence, foreign policy and other security topics across CBS News broadcast, radio, online and streaming platforms.

Read Full Bio

Washington — U.S. intelligence agencies are closely monitoring activity at a disputed shoal in the South China Sea amid growing concerns that China may be laying the groundwork for a more permanent presence at one of the region’s most volatile maritime flash points, a move that could further inflame tensions with the Philippines and test Washington’s commitment to a treaty ally.

Analysts are scrutinizing a series of recent Chinese maritime operations near Scarborough Shoal, an uninhabited but strategically located atoll roughly 140 miles west of the Philippine island of Luzon, according to U.S. officials familiar with the intelligence who spoke to CBS News under condition of anonymity to discuss national security issues. The officials said the Chinese government installed what Beijing has called a “scientific structure” in the middle of the reef, which has angered the Philippines in the disputed atoll.

The U.S. engaged the Chinese government over the structure. The People’s Liberation Army, the military wing of the Chinese Communist Party, claimed the structure was not military, but Chinese officials also did not fully disavow that some element within the structure could be used by the PLA, according to the officials.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence has not responded to a request for comment.

The Scarborough Shoal, known in the Philippines as Bajo de Masinloc and in China as Huangyan Dao, sits within Manila’s exclusive economic zone in the South China Sea, but Beijing has maintained a near-constant presence around the shoal after seizing de facto control in a tense 2012 standoff.

Some U.S. officials worry that recent activity could represent another incremental step in China’s long-running effort to consolidate control over disputed features across the South China Sea — a view shared by Philippine officials.

Philippine authorities disclosed the presence of a floating structure inside Scarborough Shoal earlier this week. In a statement released Tuesday, the Philippine government’s National Task Force for the West Philippine Sea said aerial surveillance had identified a 6-by-6-meter floating platform equipped with what appeared to be an antenna. Recent imagery also shows personnel standing atop the structure, while monitoring by the Philippine Coast Guard indicated the platform was operating inside the shoal.

“The Department of Foreign Affairs has already undertaken appropriate diplomatic action with the government of the People’s Republic of China in connection with the illegal presence of this floating structure,” the task force said, adding that Philippine agencies were assessing the “nature, purpose, and implications” of the installation.

China rejected Philippine objections, maintaining that the platform is located in an area under its control, not the Philippines’.

“Huangyan Dao has always been China’s territory. China has indisputable sovereignty over it and its adjacent waters,” Liu Pengyu, an embassy spokesperson for China, told CBS News. “It is fully within China’s sovereign rights to carry out activities including scientific research at Huangyan Dao.”

“China urges the Philippines to stop all infringement activities, provocations and false accusations at sea,” Liu continued. “China urges the U.S. to stop sowing discord and stoking confrontation.”

The development has drawn the attention of U.S. intelligence analysts and military planners because of China’s history of gradually establishing physical control over disputed maritime features before expanding its presence. Over the past decade, Beijing transformed several reefs and outcroppings in the Spratly Islands into fortified artificial islands equipped with airfields, deep-water ports, radar systems and missile sites.

“Over the past 20 years we’ve witnessed the largest military buildup since World War II by the PRC,” said retired Navy Adm. John Aquilino in 2022 during an interview with the Associated Press and the U.S. Indo-Pacific commander. “They have advanced all their capabilities and that buildup of weaponization is destabilizing to the region.”

Concerns about Chinese activity in the area have been a recurring feature of U.S. military planning. Last year, CBS News reported that the U.S. military had drawn up plans to stage a “show of force” against recent Chinese aggression near the Scarborough Shoal that was intended to signal Washington’s intent to push back against Beijing’s expanding presence and defend Philippine sovereignty and long-standing fishing rights.

Last year, Beijing announced a plan to create a “national nature reserve” in the area that drew condemnation from Secretary of State Marco Rubio and was viewed by officials in Manila as another step toward solidifying Chinese control.

“Beijing claiming Scarborough Reef as a nature preserve is yet another coercive attempt to advance sweeping territorial and maritime claims in the South China Sea at the expense of its neighbors, including by preventing Filipino fishermen from accessing these traditional fishing grounds,” Rubio said in a statement. “China’s actions at Scarborough Reef continue to undermine regional stability.”

Trump says he will nominate Jay Clayton to top intelligence post

2026-06-11 3:27 PM EDT / CNN

By Margaret Given, CNN

https://www.cnn.com/2026/06/11/politics/video/trump-will-nominate-jay-clayton-dni

CNN’s Boris Sanchez and Alayna Treene on President Trump’s announcement Thursday that he’s nominating Jay Clayton, the US attorney for the Southern District of New York, to be his next director of national intelligence.

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US Supreme Court overturns ex-Twitter employee’s obstruction conviction in Saudi spy case

2026-06-11 16:33:07 / Reuters

Ahmad Abouammo, a former Twitter Inc employee accused of spying for Saudi Arabia, leaves Santa Rita jail after being freed pending trial, in Dublin, California, U.S. November 21, 2019. REUTERS/Kate Munsch/File Photo

June 11 (Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court overturned on ​Thursday an obstruction conviction of a former Twitter employee accused of spying for Saudi Arabia, ‌saying he was tried in the wrong state for knowingly falsifying a document to impede an FBI investigation.

The justices unanimously ruled that the U.S. Justice Department wrongly in 2022 secured Ahmad Abouammo’s conviction in California from a jury in San Francisco, when his ​only interactions with FBI agents had been at his home in Seattle in Washington state.

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Liberal Justice ​Elena Kagan, writing for the court, said that while the offense of falsifying a ⁠document to impede an investigation “is relatively easy to prove,” the law restricts where the prosecution can take ​someone to trial on that charge.

“The trial for falsifying a document must take place where the defendant falsified ​the document,” Kagan wrote. “Here that was in Seattle – meaning in venue terms, the Western District of Washington.”

The ruling did not touch on the other criminal counts for which Abouammo was convicted including charges that he acted as an unregistered agent of ​a foreign government and committed wire and honest services fraud. Abouammo, 47, was released from prison in June ​2025 while the appeal was pending after being initially sentenced to 3-1/2 years in custody.

Tobias Loss-Eaton, a lawyer for Abouammo, declined ‌to ⁠comment. Representatives for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California, which had tried the case, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Abouammo worked at Twitter from 2013 to 2015, prior to the social media platform being acquired by billionaire Elon Musk and renamed X, and served as its media partnerships ​manager for the Middle East ​and North Africa region.

According ⁠to prosecutors, Abouammo while working at Twitter’s San Francisco office provided confidential information to a Saudi official about two Saudi dissidents posting on Twitter in exchange for ​a watch worth $42,000 and two wire transfers of $100,000 each.

Abouammo later relocated to Seattle ​and started ⁠a social-media consulting company. When two San Francisco-based FBI agents flew to Seattle to interview him at his home, Abouammo denied giving the Saudi official confidential information and said the payments were instead for consulting work he did, ⁠according to ​court records.

When the agents asked for documents to support his ​story, Abouammo created a fake invoice that he then emailed to one of them, prosecutors said, leading to the obstruction charge.

Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Will Dunham

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Nate Raymond reports on the federal judiciary and litigation. He can be reached at nate.raymond@thomsonreuters.com.

Trump nominating prosecutor Jay Clayton to be next director of national intelligence

2026-06-11 14:14 EDT / CBS News

By
Updated on: June 11, 2026 / 3:32 PM EDT / CBS News

Washington — President Trump on Thursday announced he’s nominating Jay Clayton, the current U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, to be the next director of national intelligence, aiming to end a stalemate on Capitol Hill that is holding up the extension of a key spy tool.

The president announced the move in a post on Truth Social, and urged the Senate to confirm Clayton “as soon as possible.”

“Few people anywhere in the Legal Community are respected at the level of Jay. I encourage the United States Senate to confirm Jay as soon as possible,” the president wrote. Clayton served as the head of the Securities and Exchange Commission from 2017 to 2020.

Jay Clayton, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, listens during a news conference in New York, Monday, March 9, 2026. Seth Wenig / AP

Mr. Trump’s pick for acting director of national intelligence, Bill Pulte, has attracted strong criticism from Democrats and some Republicans on in Congress. The dispute has stalled work on an extension of a warrantless surveillance authority under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which is set to lapse this weekend.

Democrats are refusing to agree to an extension as long as Pulte is set to assume the role. The president said Pulte will take over for Tulsi Gabbard on June 19, and his announcement of Clayton’s nomination did not change that timeline.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune applauded the move, telling reporters that Clayton has “a great reputation of being an incredibly competent manager.” The South Dakota Republican said he’s hopeful that the move will help bring an end to the standoff over FISA and pledged to confirm him as quickly as possible: “I don’t know what ‘realistic’ is, but we’re going to probe the limits of it.”

But Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, indicated to reporters that he opposes extending FISA with Pulte still set to become acting director of national intelligence, though he noted that he has “great respect” for Clayton.

“If there was a way that Tulsi Gabbard will stay in her position until we could get him confirmed, that could be a way out,” Warner said.

The Virginia Democrat questioned the White House’s seriousness about the impasse, noting that the House has already left Washington and would be unable to approve an extension at this hour.

“Why he waited until after the House broke, I have no idea,” he said.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, echoed that Pulte “has got to go.”

An effort to approve a short-term FISA extension failed to secure enough support in the House earlier Thursday, with Democrats citing the Pulte pick. Senate Republicans also attempted to approve short-term extensions by unanimous consent, but Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, who has been seeking reforms to Section 702, objected.

The president previously said he was interviewing five people to be the long-term DNI. The role is responsible for overseeing the nation’s 18 intelligence agencies.

Clayton was confirmed as the U.S. attorney for Manhattan in August 2025. The office is considered one of the most prestigious and high-profile in the country, and is known for its prosecution of white-collar cases involving public corruption, insider trading and other financial crimes.

The office is currently investigating a number of cases involving suspicious trades in the oil and prediction markets timed with various government actions against Iran. It is also the office that is leading the prosecution against Venezuela’s former leader Nicolás Maduro.

Clayton came into the role without experience in criminal law. As an attorney at the firm Sullivan & Cromwell, he specialized in capital-raising and mergers and acquisitions. Apart from his brief tenure as U.S. attorney, it is unclear what experience he has in national security matters, which is a requirement under the law to serve as DNI.

In November, then-Attorney General Pam Bondi said Clayton would investigate the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s connections to prominent Democrats, after Mr. Trump called for an investigation on Truth Social. The president’s directive came amid pressure on the administration to release the full Epstein files. It’s unclear what, if anything, from the initiative.

More recently, Clayton has also questioned the lengthy vote counting process in California’s primaries.

“On the integrity side, we’re doing an absolutely terrible job,” Clayton told CNBC this week. “And the American people are right to question it.”

Mr. Trump said Pulte may “find out some things about the rigged elections,” a notable comment after Gabbard attended an FBI search of an election center in Fulton County, Georgia, earlier this year. It’s not clear if Clayton, if confirmed, would continue such probes.

Trump’s push for $350 billion ‘arsenal of freedom’ hits GOP skepticism

June 11, 2026 2:16pm EDT / Fox News

Sen. John Kennedy says passing anything before midterms ‘gives me heartburn’ as party unity fractures

By Alex Miller, Adam Pack, Fox News

NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles!

President Donald Trump wants Congress to supercharge military funding and pass stalled voter ID and citizenship verification legislation in one fell swoop, but many Republicans aren’t sold on the plan.

Trump on Wednesday called on congressional Republicans to steer around Democrats’ opposition again and “immediately” pass a third budget reconciliation package, including $350 billion in defense spending coupled with the stalled Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act.

“This is a GENERATIONAL Investment in our Military, even bigger than President Reagan’s! Recon 3.0 is the ONLY path to the full $1.5 TRILLION DOLLAR Military Budget our Warriors need in order to build THE ARSENAL OF FREEDOM,” Trump said on Truth Social.

TRUMP’S SAVE AMERICA ACT SHOWS SIGNS OF LIFE IN THE SENATE DESPITE REPUBLICAN REVOLT

President Donald Trump during an executive order signing in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., on June 3, 2026.(Shawn Thew/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The president’s request came just hours after he signed Republicans’ second budget reconciliation bill into law that would fund immigration enforcement through the rest of his presidency for $70 billion. Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act was also passed through budget reconciliation.

But many Republicans are lukewarm at best to the idea of restarting the budget reconciliation process, which would require strict party unity amid a dwindling calendar of legislative days heading into the November midterm elections.

The GOP has also yet to fully come around to Trump’s $1.5 trillion defense spending request, and some lawmakers have voiced concern about circumventing the normal appropriations process to boost defense spending.

Trump’s plea for a third bite at the apple comes as he and congressional Republicans are increasingly at odds over policy decisions that have made passing legislation on the Hill all the more difficult.

TRUMP SCORES VICTORY DESPITE GROWING GOP DIVIDE AFTER SENATE PASSES $70B ICE, BORDER PATROL FUNDING PACKAGE

https://www.foxnews.com/video/6398078831112

Some Republicans who have pushed for a third attempt at the party-line process have acknowledged that it’s unlikely to work. Further, Congress is unlikely to pass any other bills before the midterm elections in November because of Democratic opposition.

“I think it’s a very, very long shot that anything passes between now and the midterms,” Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., said. “It gives me heartburn to say that, but I think that’s political reality.”

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., didn’t completely close the door on another reconciliation bill, but he noted that there is skepticism among Republicans on moving forward.

“You’ve got to have something that you can win on,” Thune said. “And you’ve heard some of our folks already express their views on another reconciliation bill.”

Earlier in the week, during a contentious Senate Appropriations hearing, Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., both agreed that another reconciliation bill was unlikely to happen, particularly as a dumping ground for billions in additional defense spending.

TRUMP LOCKS IN ICE FUNDING THROUGH END OF PRESIDENCY AFTER HOUSE PASSES $70B PACKAGE

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., speaks to members of the media at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on June 10, 2026.(Tierney L. Cross/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Collins, who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, said, “Reconciliation is not the best approach.”

“It would be very difficult to get the reconciliation bill approved,” Collins said.

Discussions on a third reconciliation package were underway in the House prior to Trump’s public endorsement. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has voiced confidence that his chamber will clear a third budget bill by the August recess.

But some GOP lawmakers have questioned its viability amid Republicans’ slim majority and the potential lack of a unifying policy idea to keep the conference together.

“I haven’t quite heard enough policy proposals that lead me to think it’s going to gel, but I’m certainly open-minded,” Rep. Nick Langworthy, R-N.Y., told Fox News Digital on Wednesday.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

Rep. Kevin Kiley, I-Calif., a Republican-turned-independent who voted against Trump’s $70 billion immigration enforcement measure, indicated he isn’t likely to support a third attempt.

“We have now gotten to this habit of one party takes power, they do reconciliation bills and the other party does it, and this cycle hasn’t been good,” the California lawmaker told Fox News Digital. “It’s one of the things that fed the cycles of dysfunction that we have around here.”

Alex Miller is a writer for Fox News Digital covering the U.S. Senate.

How Trump has deceived himself on Iran

2026-06-11T16:51:41.084Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/06/11/politics/trump-iran-deceiving-analysis

• President Donald Trump has repeatedly said a deal with Iran is imminent while backing away from military threats and downplaying Iranian provocations.
• His pattern of relaxed deadlines and hollow threats has signaled to Tehran that he lacks the will to resume hostilities.
• With midterm elections approaching, Trump faces mounting pressure to resolve a conflict that may have become a political liability for Republicans.

AI-generated summary was reviewed by a CNN editor.

President Donald Trump is nothing if not studied at crafting elaborate alternate realities.

But for the last two and a half months or so, he conjured one that seemed primarily aimed at deceiving himself.

He painted Iran as desperate to cut a deal, which always seemed to be right around the corner. And he repeatedly gave Tehran the benefit of the doubt, relaxed his own deadlines, walked back his threats and downplayed Iran’s provocations and apparent ceasefire violations.

The pattern played out again Monday, when Trump yet again backed off on threatened attacks just hours after saying he planned to take over Kharg Island. As he has before, he cited supposed progress in negotiating an agreement.

The problem with this approach is that it has made it pretty clear that Trump lacks the will to go back to war — that he prefers to just be done with it all, even as Iran plays on his reluctance.

And it increasingly appears as though Trump hoping against hope just delayed an inevitable return to the kind of hostilities that resumed this week before Trump’s latest claim of an imminent bargain.

Trump’s fanciful treatment of a potential deal with Iran appears to have mostly prolonged the war and its economic pain — and brought the situation closer to the 2026 midterm elections, which increasingly loom as a major leverage point for Iran.

Even as hostilities intensified over the last 24 hours — largely in the wake of Iran downing a US Army Apache helicopter whose pilots had to be saved — Trump was almost begrudging about being dragged back in.

In a Tuesday social media post, he downplayed the severity of Iran downing the helicopter while saying, “Nevertheless, the United States must, of necessity, respond to this attack.” He told the Wall Street Journal the same day that Iran’s attack “wasn’t a big deal.” While talking about retaliation, he said Wednesday, “I guess we have the right to do that.”

Trump has also mixed in some very tough talk about how hard he would hit Iran — even saying on social media on Thursday that the US military would soon “be taking Kharg Island,” an operation that would likely require ground troops and could risk significant casualties.

But just minutes later, there he was on Fox News downplaying that possibility by repeatedly citing Americans’ lack of “appetite” for such military action.

“I’m not sure the country has the appetite for it,” Trump said.

“I’m not sure the country has the appetite for it,” he soon repeated. “And that’s okay, I understand that.”

“I don’t want to have boots on the ground, but if I wanted to, we could put a small group of soldiers and take over the whole place,” he said.

The president later added: “I don’t know that America has the appetite to do what I would really much prefer doing.”

But it often looks like it’s Trump who lacks the stomach.

Early in the war, he repeatedly set deadlines for Iran to capitulate or else, only to relax them despite Tehran not meeting his demands. (This is also known as bluffing.)

Trump on April 7 announced a hastily assembled ceasefire whose terms nobody seemed to agree on. Then the administration tried to keep the appearance of the truce going even though Iran didn’t do the one major thing Trump insisted it had to. He initially said the ceasefire was “subject to … the COMPLETE, IMMEDIATE, and SAFE OPENING of the Strait of Hormuz” — which never happened.

And when Iran seemed to violate the ceasefire in other ways, Trump and his administration repeatedly strained to downplay it.

Trump has also sent signals that he’d very much like to avoid going back to war. Last week, for example, he twice cited the cautionary tale that was Jimmy Carter and the Iran hostage crisis.

“I don’t want to put men in that kind of danger,” Trump said on June 3. “I remember Jimmy Carter had some bad problems in Iran with the hostages. I don’t want to ever put our people in that kind of danger.”

He added the next day, while downplaying the possibility of sending in troops to recover highly enriched uranium: “I didn’t want to be Jimmy Carter, you know — I didn’t feel like being Jimmy Carter.”

In other words, Trump’s reluctance to go back to war hasn’t been subtle.

Allies might fancifully view Trump’s position as posturing or some strategic play. But it seems to have only encouraged Iran to hold out for more favorable terms from a peace deal.

Indeed, that’s the problem with Trump telegraphing what he wants to do and repeatedly giving the other side a pass: It gives Iran leverage.

That doesn’t mean Trump won’t ultimately go big in restarting the war.

But it begs the question why the administration didn’t respond more strongly, for instance, when it became clear Iran wasn’t satisfying Trump’s demand that the ceasefire include reopening the strait.

That seemed a pretty big violation, but the administration basically ignored it.

And the US trying to accommodate Iran for two months has not been without a cost. One of Iran’s biggest assets is the passage of time. While Trump might view the US blockade of the strait as bleeding the Iranian economy, he’s on the clock too.

As the midterm elections approach, Republicans will likely be putting more pressure on Trump to wrap up what looks like a potential political albatross for them thanks to still-spiking inflation. That could force some very difficult decisions — i.e. whether to go back to war or to cut a suboptimal deal in the name of bringing this ugly chapter to a close.

And that’s a real potential choice Trump increasingly can’t ignore.

This story has been updated with additional reporting.

Markings that appear to show the numbers “86 47” seen on National Mall in Washington

June 11, 2026 / 3:06 PM EDT / CBS News

Washington — Markings appeared on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., on Thursday that seem to depict the numbers “86 47,” according to photos taken from the top of the Washington Monument.

A photographer for the Reuters news outlet saw the apparent markings just before federal authorities arrived to look into the incident, according to the wire service. Photos taken by the Reuters photographer show the faint tracings of “86 47” in the grass with the World War II Memorial in the background.

The “8” appears most prominently, while the numbers “6” and “7” can be seen less clearly. The number “4” is the least visible in the photos. It was not immediately clear how the markings were made or who made them. The U.S. Park Police did not immediately return to a request for comment.

A spokesperson for the Interior Department said, “The deranged vandalism on our National Mall will not be tolerated. Any threat against the President is taken very seriously by the Department, and our U.S. Park Police will investigate this incident and hold those responsible accountable.”

A photo taken from the Washington Monument appearing to show “86 47” on the grounds of the National Mall on June 11, 2026. Nathan Howard / REUTERS

A wider view, looking toward the Lincoln Memorial. Nathan Howard / REUTERS

The term “86” is slang meaning to “throw out” or “get rid of,” according to Merriam-Webster. The phrase is commonly used in restaurant kitchens and originated at soda counters in the 1930s, according to the dictionary. But the term gained more attention recently when former FBI Director James Comey was indicted after sharing an Instagram post last year that showed seashells on the beach arranged to form “86 47.”

Comey deleted the post and said he believed the shell formation was communicating a “political message.” The former FBI chief said he did not realize that some people associate the numbers with violence.

Comey was charged with two counts of making threats against President Trump. He has not yet entered a plea and is set to be arraigned in New Bern, North Carolina, in late September.

Mr. Trump has said the term “86” is a mob term that connotes violence and, when paired with “47,” means “kill President Trump.” Mr. Trump is the 47th president.

“EIGHT MILES OUT, SIX FEET DOWN!” he wrote on Truth Social in April.

Dubbed “America’s Front Yard,” the National Mall stretches from the Lincoln Memorial to the west and the U.S. Capitol to the east. It is set to be the site of several events honoring the nation’s 250th anniversary.

Zak Hudak contributed to this report.