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Vice President JD Vance is increasingly finding himself “walking on eggshells” around President Donald Trump as he takes on a central role in high-stakes negotiations to end the Iran conflict, according to a new report in The Wall Street Journal.The Journal reported Friday that Vance – long viewed as an anti-interventionist voice within the MAGA administration – has been thrust into leading peace talks with Iranian officials, tying his political future to the outcome of a war he initially sought to distance himself from.A close friend of Vance who recently spoke with him said the vice president described feeling “like he was sometimes walking on eggshells around Trump because of his antiwar views.” A Vance spokesperson disputed that account, telling the Journal, “He’s walking on so many eggshells that he’s on his way to Pakistan at the president’s request to lead negotiations.”The talks, set to take place in Islamabad, represent the highest-level engagement between the U.S. and Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the outlet noted Friday. For Vance, who will be joined by Trump allies, including son-in-law Jared Kushner, they mark "the most significant international assignment of his career" as he prepares to face seasoned Iranian negotiators.“The conflict has created a political liability for a vice president who once promised ‘no new wars,’ including one with Iran,” according to the Journal. “Trump knows Vance’s skepticism of foreign intervention and that the vice president represents a branch of the party opposed to the hawkish positions espoused by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.), a senior administration official said.”Vance, however, still supports the mission despite his beliefs, the aide added. The assignment adds to a growing list of responsibilities handed to Vance, including overseeing efforts to root out fraud in federal programs after making a controversial campaign appearance in Hungary.

Over the past month, President Donald Trump has dramatically escalated his administration’s war against Iran, culminating with his threat to destroy Iran’s entire civilization earlier this week, but according to Tucker Carlson’s independent media outlet, a “blackmail” operation could potentially be forcing the president’s hand.The theory was outlined in a Friday morning newsletter from the Tucker Carlson Network, which pointed to a past incident that some have characterized as an attempted effort to blackmail a sitting U.S. president. Specifically, the newsletter cites claims made by political writer Daniel Halper in his 2014 biography “Clinton Inc.,” supported in part by sworn testimony given in 1998 to the congressionally established Office of Independent Counsel.“Establishment media never reports this, but the Israeli government has a storied history of blackmailing U.S. Presidents,” the newsletter reads. “Perhaps the most jarring example occurred in the 90s, when Israel used recordings of a Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky phone sex session as leverage to pressure Clinton into releasing convicted spy Jonathan Pollard from prison. We’re not joking. That really happened.”Evidence supporting the allegation that Israel had attempted to use phone recordings of Clinton and Lewinsky as “leverage” first emerged in 1998 after Lewinsky testified before the Office of Independent Counsel about her affair with the sitting president. During her testimony, Lewinsky said that in early 1997, Clinton had told her “that he suspected a foreign embassy was tapping his telephones, (he did not specify which one),” just one month after then-Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with Clinton in the Oval Office.Later in 1998, Netanyahu again met with Clinton amid peace talks between Israel and Palestine that were being held in Wye River, Maryland. It was during that meeting that Netanyahu “privately” approached Clinton with a “demand” for the United States to release Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard, who was convicted of espionage in 1987 and sentenced to life in prison.“The Israelis present at Wye River had a new tactic for their negotiations – they’d overheard Clinton and Monica and had it on tape,” reads an excerpt from Halper’s book, written using “on-the-record interviews with former officials” and “hundreds of pages of documents,” The Times of Israel reported at the time of the book’s publication.“Not wanting to directly threaten the powerful American president, a crucial Israeli ally, Clinton was told that the Israeli government had thrown the tapes away. But the very mention of them was enough to constitute a form of blackmail. According to information provided by a CIA source, a stricken Clinton appeared to buckle.”As to how the alleged incident between Clinton and Netanyahu relates to Trump’s escalations in his war against Iran, the Tucker Carlson Network suggested that Netanyahu – who has “pushed for the United States to attack Iran since the 1990s” – may be using a similar tactic to what he was alleged by Halper to have done nearly three decades ago to another U.S. president.“Israel’s current top priority is making sure Operation Epic Fury does not stop. They know the U.S. fighting their war for them is the best chance at expanding their borders and becoming a global superpower, and a peace deal would foil their plot,” the newsletter reads, according to an excerpt shared by the Daily Caller writer John Loftus.“That could mean Clinton-style blackmail against Trump, or something far more morbid. We do not know for sure whether that is happening, but the mere possibility is haunting enough to keep the president up at night.”

As Vice President JD Vance jets off to Pakistan, where he is expected to take the lead in negotiating an end to the US war on Iran, his inner circle is admitting that making a public show of support for Donald Trump is wearing them down.Vance has been reported to have been against the attack behind the scenes, but has been supportive of the president in public.With the New York Times reporting, “Before the war began, the vice president was planning to be heavily focused on traveling the country ahead of the midterm elections, counteracting widespread concerns over the cost of living and affordability by attacking Democrats as out of touch and politically extreme,” he has instead been pressed into service as a war cheerleader along with the rest of the president’s Cabinet. According to MS NOW’s Jake Traylor, that has been problematic for Vance’s team.Speaking with host Anna Cabrera, he reported, “Now he is headed to Pakistan to be the chief lead negotiator for a war he never wanted in the first place, and that has come at a cost.”“I spoke with multiple White House officials inside the White House and also former White House officials that have worked with Vance closely before,” he added. “One person told me that Vance's national security team is extremely weary right now, trying to publicly portray support for the president and the war that he has started, but also privately having deep concern for the war itself.”“Another White House official told me that, quote, realistically, Vance has lost clout within the White House because of his dissent,” he elaborated. “So there's been a lack of influence that White House officials are telling me Vance has right now, even though he is ultimately the lead negotiator in this moment.” - YouTube youtu.be

Donald Trump's public tough-guy posturing on China masks a stunning capitulation to Beijing. When Pentagon officials presented a draft National Defense Strategy last fall that characterized China as the top U.S. security threat — the same assessment his own first administration endorsed — Trump ordered it rewritten in friendlier terms.According to the Wall Street Journal's Heather Somerville, Alexander Ward, and Gavin Bade, Trump "balked" at the Pentagon assessment and commanded his deputy to soften the language. The revised National Defense Strategy published in January struck an entirely different tone."President Trump seeks a stable peace, fair trade, and respectful relations with China," the document now declares — a stunning reversal from the bipartisan consensus that characterized China as the most consequential U.S. adversary.The shift represents a seismic policy reversal. Trump's own first-term defense strategy took the same hardline approach the Pentagon recommended. Now Trump 2.0 is discarding that bipartisan framework in favor of a new mantra: "Don't rock the boat."The capitulation goes far deeper than rhetoric. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has imposed a stranglehold on China policy, requiring his personal sign-off for any China-related actions. The result is Kafkaesque: senior Commerce officials sit waiting by Lutnick's office or watch for his car outside the building before pursuing routine China policy actions.Other agencies have resorted to workarounds, pursuing a ban on a China-linked router maker by strategically avoiding naming either the company or China in the official order — essentially hiding policy from public view.The reversal has alarmed Trump's own national security aides. China hawks in the administration have adopted gallows humor, calling the shift the "Busan Freeze," referencing the South Korea meeting between Trump and Xi that produced a fragile trade detente.Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and other officials appealed to Trump to walk back tariffs and dial down the trade war so minerals could flow from China again — an apparent capitulation to economic pressure over strategic security.The pivot was deliberate and premeditated. Trump initially asked national security advisers to develop a harder line on China's technological encroachment. But the president later abandoned the restrictions, and in April, Trump fired Douglas Feith and other China hawks from the National Security Council, dismantling the directorate that had coordinated administration actions on tech and China.Against a president who fancies himself a master dealmaker, China is clearly winning, the Journal is reporting.

U.S. military service members claimed the Pentagon was not telling the truth about Iran's deadliest attack on America's troops during President Donald Trump's most recent war.CBS News reported that survivors of the attack that killed six and wounded 20 were "left dangerously exposed" when they were attacked in Kuwait.According to the surviving members, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was wrong when he said they were attacked by a drone "squirter," which squirted through defense systems."Painting a picture that 'one squeaked through' is a falsehood," one injured soldier told the network. "I want people to know the unit … was unprepared to provide any defense for itself. It was not a fortified position."Before the March 1 attack, soldiers said they received an all-clear alert declaring that there were no incoming attacks. Only 30 minutes later, "everything shook," one service member recalled. "And it's something like what you see in the movies. Your ears are ringing. Everything's fuzzy. Your vision is blurry. You're dizzy. There's dust and smoke everywhere," the soldier said. According to CBS, the soldiers were stationed at an older-style base that offered "no protection from aerial attacks."A soldier described being in a "deeply unsafe area that was a known target.""From a bunker standpoint, that's about as weak as one gets," he added. In a response on X, the Pentagon did not deny the soldiers' version of events.Assistant Secretary of Defense Sean Parnell insisted that "every possible measure has been taken to safeguard our troops — at every level" and that "[t]he secure facility was fortified with 6-foot walls."

An interview with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) got off to a ragged start on Thursday morning when MS NOW regular Katty Kay accused him of being ineffective.Brought on to promote an Iran war resolution vote to be held Thursday morning at the request of his office, Kay immediately charged ahead with, “It doesn't have really very much chance of passing at all. So is this just performative on your part?”“Well, good morning,“ the New York Democrat replied. “We're going to make sure that we provide our Republican colleagues with every single opportunity to do the right thing on behalf of the American people, which means bringing an immediate end to Donald Trump's reckless and costly failed war of choice against Iran. So we're going to proceed at 11:30 today through what's called a pro forma session, and demand that the legislation that has been previously introduced by Representative Greg Meeks (D-NY) that would end the hostilities immediately in the Middle East in the absence, of course, of congressional authorization, which was never obtained.”“But the truth is, there really isn't very much you can do, is there?” Kay shot back. “Because these resolutions are not passing; they're not going to pass even if you introduce them every day, they're not going to pass because you're not going to get the Republican votes to have them passed. So what else?”Appearing unsettled by the question, Jeffries complained, “I disagree with that. I disagree with that. We've seen repeatedly Democratic efforts in the House be successful. We successfully extended the Affordable Care Act tax credits. We successfully advanced [Jeffrey ] Epstein legislation in order to force transparency –– so far, the disclosure of 3 million documents. We're working on the other 3 million. We've successfully passed legislation to overturn the Trump tariffs as it relates to Canada, and we're going to successfully move a war powers resolution.”“All we need are a handful of Republicans,” he admitted. “Two have already joined us; we just need 1 or 2 more. And if we get that, when we get that, we're going to be able to successfully move this in the House simultaneously. We know that Leader [Chuck] Schumer and Senate Democrats are advancing a war powers resolution in the Senate, and the American people are with us.” - YouTube youtu.be

Donald Trump kicked off his Thursday morning with a cryptic Truth Social post aimed at NATO that will have people scratching their heads at what is to come.The president has long been critical of the military alliance formed in 1949 as a bulwark against Russia, arguing over funding and now complaining that NATO countries won’t help him with his war on Iran.On Wednesday, the president ranted on Truth Social, "NATO WASN'T THERE WHEN WE NEEDED THEM, AND THEY WON'T BE THERE IF WE NEED THEM AGAIN."On Thursday morning, he then ramped that up by hinting at a possible “pressure” campaign to come.On Truth Social, he wrote, “None of these people, including our own, very disappointing, NATO, understood anything unless they have pressure placed upon them!!!”The president did not elaborate on who “our own” are, leaving that also open to questions.

A report that Donald Trump’s administration menaced the first American-born pope led the entire panel on MS NOW’s "Morning Joe” to wonder what they could possibly be thinking as they risk alienating millions of Catholics.According to a report from The Free Press, after Pope Leo XIV delivered his State of the World speech where he criticized the Trump administration, Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby demanded an audience with Cardinal Christophe Pierre, the Vatican’s U.S. representative, and then issued a threat, reportedly telling the pope’s representative, “The United States has the military power to do whatever it wants in the world. The Catholic Church had better take its side.”After MS NOW host Willie Geist reported on the exchange, contributor Mike Barnicle, a lifelong Catholic, made a compelling case that the president and his underlings created a massive and enduring problem for themselves.“What do you make of what you're hearing here?” Geist prompted his guest. “I make that they are once again clowning the atmosphere up, the Trump administration, the idea that they would try to intimidate Pope Leo, the first American-born pope, is just absurd," the incensed Barnicle replied. “The idea that they would have anything to say critical of the Catholic church or the pope itself, the pope himself is absurd, especially given the Easter morning tweet from the president of the United States, which was so deeply offensive to any breathing, thinking human being that it's outrageous for the Trump administration to pose any problems they allege they have with the Vatican.”“I went to parochial school for eight consecutive years, and I got thrown out nearly every year by the nuns. You know, every grade — you deserve early stuff like that,” he recalled. But the one thing that you get to, to hold on to when you're raised Catholic, born Catholic, raised Catholic, especially by my mother, we used to call her 'my mother, the nun.' The one thing you retain, I would think, is that the theory of the Catholic church is rooted in a simple phrase: the least among us.” “So if you look at the Trump administration's behavior toward the least among us, it is almost criminal,” he accused. “It is certainly a sin because they don't care for the least among us, and that we should all care for the least among us. Because when we care for them, we care for ourselves.”Normally unflappable former diplomat Richard Haass was incredulous at the breach of protocol.“I mean, of all of all the fights to pick,” he exclaimed. “So we give Russia a free pass. We let Iran enhance half the stuff it's doing. We attack Europe and so forth –– I go around the world –– we give China a free pass, and who do we go after? We go after our democratic allies, and then we go after the Catholic church.”“That's our priorities for who we want to pick fights with,” he noted. “This is, this is, Mike used the word ‘absurd.’ This is preposterous that we are doing. And again, we're forfeiting the high ground. There's actually a serious part of this; we are forfeiting the high ground. Why aren't we trying to build support around the world? The idea that you can do everything with bullets and bombs, you can do some things, but this war should have taught us that you can’t do it all.” - YouTube youtu.be