President Donald Trump says Iran requested a meeting that would happen Tuesday in Qatar, but Tehran says nothing’s scheduled. Trump’s social media post Monday comes as he tries to preserve an increasingly fragile interim deal as hostilities mount in the Strait of Hormuz.
And with the White House souring on Israel’s war with Hezbollah in Lebanon, Trump shocked many by pushing an alternative: Let Syria fight the Iran-backed militant group instead — something
Syria’s president says he has no interest in doing.
Meanwhile the Supreme Court is wrapping up a term focused on Trump’s expansive claims of presidential power with big decisions beginning Monday.
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Trump said Monday on social media that Iran had requested a meeting with U.S. counterparts, to be held Tuesday in Doha, Qatar. Iranian officials said no such meeting was scheduled.
The U.S. president has tried to preserve an increasingly fragile interim deal as hostilities have mounted in the Strait of Hormuz in recent days, which could cause oil prices to rise and undermine Trump’s claims to voters that inflation in America was easing.
Trump on Monday celebrated that U.S. oil futures were trading at roughly $69 a barrel, a decrease that he credited to the interim deal with Iran.
Even though the president has previously said oil prices and domestic political concerns were not influencing his approach to Iran, Trump has repeatedly focused on lower oil prices with the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz as a key victory.
The president falsely claimed that oil prices at $69 a barrel are lower than they were before the war. “This is less than it was prior to the start of the Denuclearization of Iran!” Trump said on social media.
Oil futures in the U.S. were trading at a range of roughly $65 to $66 before the war began in late February.
Americans have grown less proud of the country’s history and the way its democracy works over the last decade, according to a new AP-NORC poll.
The poll found Americans’ pride in the U.S. on several key attributes has dropped since 2017, including the nation’s military and its political influence around the globe.
The findings point to a broad decline in patriotic sentiment over a period that included most of President Donald Trump’s first term, the COVID-19 pandemic, rising inflation and Trump’s return to the White House.
Much of the falling positivity comes from Democrats, who have become increasingly disenchanted with the country since Trump’s first term.
Iran’s president said Monday that $6 billion in frozen Iranian assets would be released by Qatar, as negotiations with the United States were challenged by attacks across the Persian Gulf this weekend.
Masoud Pezeshkian ’s mention of the funds appears aimed at selling the Iranian public on the interim deal, particularly as its grip on the Strait of Hormuz has been tested by efforts to open Oman’s territorial waters to both inbound and outbound traffic from the Persian Gulf. Iran’s attacks and threats stopped cargo ships and tankers from moving through the strait, in which about a fifth of all traded oil and natural gas passed in peacetime, creating a global energy crisis.
The strait has long been considered an international waterway despite its location in Iran and Oman’s territorial waters. In recent days, Iran has twice attacked vessels going through a route near the Omani side, drawing retaliatory American airstrikes and concerns that negotiations to reach a formal end to the war could be disrupted. Iran launched drone and missile attacks targeting Bahrain and Kuwait on Sunday.
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Trump on Sunday surveyed several of his construction projects around the nation’s capital, suggesting afterward that his redevelopment of the East Potomac Golf Links would enable it to host a premier tournament.
“When completed, this Course will have the ability to host Major Golf Tournaments, including The U.S. Open, The Ryder Cup, The PGA Championship, and other top PGA Tour events,” Trump posted on social media.
Trump toured the course with Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, various aides and the golf course architect Tom Fazio and his son, Gavin Fazio. The president’s redevelopment of the course is subject to a lawsuit in U.S. District Court.
It’s unclear when the course could host any major tournaments, as locations are chosen several years ahead of the events. Locations for the U.S. Open are scheduled through 2051, though there are available spots in 2043, 2046 and 2048. The PGA Championship is set through 2035.
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The Supreme Court is wrapping up a term focused on Trump’s expansive claims of presidential power.
Trump’s efforts to restrict birthright citizenship, fire the heads of most independent agencies at will and remove a sitting Federal Reserve governor are among the remaining eight cases the justices are expected to decide this week, beginning Monday.
The court also is weighing, in cases from West Virginia and Idaho, whether to uphold laws in roughly half the states that prohibit transgender girls and women from playing on their public school and college sports.
Two election-related cases remain, over state laws that allow a grace period for the receipt of mailed ballots, provided they are sent by Election Day, and limits on political party spending in support of candidates for Congress and president.
Also outstanding is a dispute over geofence warrants that collect the location history of cellphone users to find people near crime scenes. Critics say the practice is a fishing expedition that violates civil liberties.
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As the White House has soured on Israel’s war with Hezbollah in Lebanon, U.S. President Donald Trump has shocked many in the region by pushing an alternative: Let Syria fight the Iran-backed militant group instead.
He has suggested that the battle-hardened and Islamist-led insurgents who overthrew Syria’s autocratic President Bashar Assad a year and a half ago and formed a new government would do a better job of rooting out Hezbollah than the Israeli army.
Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa has said he has no interest in doing so, and has asserted that Trump’s comments were misconstrued. But Trump has doubled down on the idea.
Although it remains unclear how serious the White House is about the proposal, the prospect of a Syrian invasion has raised alarms in Lebanon — and also in Israel, which regards al-Sharaa’s Islamist-led government with suspicion and has seized control of a strip of southern Syria since he took power.
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