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Four Republican senators broke ranks with President Donald Trump and voted to limit his Iran war powers on Tuesday, according to CNN. The "major rebuke" from lawmakers, including GOP leaders, has directed the Trump administration to begin removing military forces in Iran, CNN reported.Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) all voted for the resolution. Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) voted against it. The final vote tally was 50-48."The measure passed the House earlier this month. But because it is what’s known as a concurrent resolution, it does not require the president’s signature and, by definition, does not carry the force of law," CNN reported.A House Democratic aide involved in the effort to pass the war powers resolution told CNN earlier this month "that they believe the measure would be binding and it would be a legal matter to work out.""This is a major rebuke of President Trump," CNN anchor Boris Sanchez said.Republicans have had increasing concerns over Iran war negotiations, said CNN anchor and chief political correspondent Manu Raju."This is the first time that this has happened," Raju explained. "The Senate and the House have passed an identical measure to limit President Trump's powers with Iran, essentially to stop the war altogether, unless Congress has a say, and if the president wanted to escalate things in Iran, he'd have to come back to Congress to get approval." The White House has not yet responded to the vote."Democrats effectively pushed this bill through the House with the support of some Republicans," Raju said. "And now we are seeing the same thing happening today on the Senate side. A sign of some concern within the GOP ranks over the way this war is being waged and a message being sent to the White House, now that both chambers of Congress are calling to limit the President's war powers with Iran."

Trump saw his power to continue waging war in Iran checked by a Senate vote on Tuesday, per reporting by the New York Times.The Senate resolution tells Trump to end the war in Iran or seek congressional authorization to resume it, according to the Times, which described the 50-48 Senate vote as "the most significant bipartisan rebuke yet of the conflict."GOP senators Rand Paul from Kentucky, Lisa Murkowski from Alaska, Susan Collins from Maine and Bill Cassidy from Louisiana crossed over and joined with Democrats to check Trump's Iran war powers. However, the Times noted that the resolution does not have the force of law and is unlikely to lead to an immediate change in policy. The Senate resolution marks the second time that Republicans have rebuked Trump over the war in Iran. The House of Representatives recently passed a similar resolution. Trump can veto the resolution.

President Donald Trump has become desperate to "erase the sting of defeat," an analyst argued on Tuesday.Salon's Heather Digby Parton described how the Iran negotiations and failed foreign policy maneuvers have left Trump in a position where he needs a "big win." And now, he has turned his attention to Cuba and Greenland in an attempt to restore his MAGA base after a "profound defeat.""For his part, Trump has already declared victory," Digby Parton wrote. "He is clearly eager to move on from what is undoubtedly the worst foreign policy failure of his presidency — and one of the worst in U.S. history. But since his psyche is so fragile, he will not be able to admit that to himself. Trump will need to bag himself a 'win' as soon as possible to erase his defeat in the minds of the MAGA faithful — and to quiet the voices in his head screaming that he has screwed up once again."Trump has been influenced by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, "whose politics were fermented in that anti-communist petri dish — and who tells him that this one will be easy," Digby Parton explained.And since "Trump is a Florida man now," there's another reason he could be eyeing Cuba."And let’s talk about beachfront property: Nothing would thrill Trump more than to fulfill the Mafia dream of a gambling resort on the island 90 miles off the coast of Florida without all those pesky laws and regulations," Digby Parton wrote. "He saw 'The Godfather Part II,' and he knows he could pull it off, unlike those losers JFK and Michael Corleone.""If he does, it’s pretty clear that he’ll anoint Rubio as his successor, even over his own vice president. (Vance made the mistake of being right about Iran, which Trump will find unforgivable.) According to 'Regime Change,' the new book by Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan, when Trump was asked if he thought his successor would keep all the gilt trappings in the Oval Office, he replied, 'Cubans like gold.' Rubio, it appears, is already on track," Digby Parton added.

Vice President JD Vance’s becoming the face of the Iran peace negotiations has all the appearances of Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Donald Trump leaving the veep out to dangle in the wind by defending a deal that will go nowhere.That is according to MS NOW’s Jake Traylor, who told host Stephanie Ruhle on Tuesday morning that one administration insider called Vance’s hyping up the negotiators' efforts a “complete capitulation” to Iran and characterized Trump’s initial praise of it as “salesmanship,” before adding, “That’s putting lipstick on a very ugly pig.”Traylor reported on Tuesday that Rubio has artfully “sidestepped” becoming involved in the negotiations, effectively dumping them on Vance.“I was told by a White House official that initially Rubio sort of strategically sidestepped this role as the lead of negotiations, this official told me that Rubio knew, Rubio had the foresight and awareness to say, ‘This deal is not going to be successful. I don't want my name attached to it,'” Traylor told the host. “Another White House official told me that they thought Vance was the wrong person for the job but Rubio didn't really want it. It kind of fell in Vance's lap and, as the Vice President, he had to sort of play a long.”“Probably the most illuminating moment for how difficult this uphill battle is for Vance right now comes from over the weekend,” he reported. “During the negotiations, we saw Vice President Vance touting progress, saying they were going to turn over a new leaf, a new relationship between the US. And Iran, and literally minutes later, we have a Truth [social media post] from President Trump that is threatening to restart military strikes again.”“It just it just shows the juxtaposition here that ultimately Vance can be the face of this thing, but it doesn't mean he has the control here,” he added.“Yeah, so Marco Rubio sidesteps this thing, noting that it's putting lipstick on a very ugly pig and maybe more importantly, Donald Trump lets him do it,” the amused Ruhle observed. - YouTube youtu.be

Fox News host Brian Kilmeade lost it, calling for President Donald Trump to replace JD Vance as Iran negotiator — blasting his Israel criticism as "ridiculous."On Fox & Friends, Kilmeade unloaded on Vice President JD Vance after Vance warned Israeli cabinet members Thursday that Trump is "the only powerful ally" they have "anywhere left in the entire world." The remarks came as U.S. and Iranian negotiators were deep into a 60-day sprint to flesh out the memorandum of understanding the two countries signed last week."The president's gotta go on the inside," Kilmeade said, "because then the negotiators are wasting their time. No one's happy with this document. The president doesn't seem to be happy.""The fact that he hopped on Friday and started ripping Israel and said they have no friends — that is ridiculous!" Kilmeade continued. "Have you heard of the Abraham Accords? Do you understand that the Gulf States are tighter with Israel than ever before?"He then demanded Trump take over directly — and called Vance out by name."I think JD Vance, who's late to this party, doesn't understand the depth of the disagreement," Kilmeade said.MS NOW reported this week that Vance has compounded his inexperience with a series of false claims — including insisting that the deal's terms for destroying Iran's enriched uranium stockpile are "spelled out very clearly," when the memorandum of understanding includes no such provisions. Vance repeated the claim even after it was discredited.The vice president arrived Sunday at the Lake Lucerne Summit in Switzerland — where U.S. negotiators sat across from Iran's foreign minister and parliamentary speaker — but PBS reported Trump threatened to "hit Iran very hard again" on social media while talks were underway.Fox & Friends contributor Lawrence Jones, who spoke with Trump over the weekend, said the president told him privately the memorandum of understanding "was a starting point" — and that if Iran kept pushing him, "I gotta strike them."

Amid the ongoing negotiations in Switzerland between Washington and Tehran, Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani shared a photograph of himself and Vice President JD Vance on social media, and an odd detail in the image sparked a wave of speculation among onlookers.Posted Sunday night on X, the photograph shows a seated Vance typing on a laptop beside Al Thani, who is gesturing toward the laptop screen. Standing behind them is Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and special peace envoy. What drew curiosity from onlookers, however, was what appeared to be inserted into the laptop.A card can be seen inserted into the laptop sitting in Vance’s lap that appears to be a Common Access Card (CAC), an identification card used by U.S. defense personnel. The photograph on the card, however, appears to be of a woman and not of Vance.“I would love to know the intended symbolism of Qatar’s prime minister posting a picture of JD Vance logging into a laptop using someone else’s CAC card,” wrote Caroline Orr Bueno, a journalist and social sciences scholar, in a social media post on X. “There is 100% a read-between-the-lines message being sent.”Tim Miller, host of The Bulwark Podcast and MS NOW analyst, raised questions about the extent with which Qatar – which is not a signatory to the 14-point memorandum of understanding between the United States and Iran – was involved in negotiations.“Why is a Saudi agent with no security clearance representing America in this meeting?” Miller asked in a social media post on X to his more than 460,000 followers.The progressive media organization MeidasTouch simply asked “where is Marco,” referring to the notable absence of Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Anusar Farooqui, a writer and geopolitical analyst, labeled the photograph as evidence of an “agency fail.”I would love to know the intended symbolism of Qatar’s prime minister posting a picture of JD Vance logging into a laptop using someone else’s CAC card. There is 100% a read-between-the-lines message being sent. https://t.co/UiyDaZm4bM— Caroline Orr Bueno, Ph.D (@RVAwonk) June 22, 2026

President Donald Trump's war with Iran put the global economy on the brink of collapse, and one economist warns that it could get worse if one sector of the economy begins to show signs of weakness. Liaquat Ahamed, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and former World Bank investment chief, said during a recent episode of "The Court of History" podcast on the Legal AF Network that Trump's unilateral decision to impose tariffs on America's trading partners had already weakened the global economy before his war with Iran began. After the Iranian regime closed the Strait of Hormuz, the economy came exceedingly close to the brink, Ahamed argued. The only thing that saved Trump from collapsing the global economy was the enormous amounts of money tech companies are spending to build data centers around the world, Ahamed added. Without that, the economy would be in a "dark place," he continued. "The tech companies are spending trillions of dollars to build these data centers, and that is essentially sustaining the global economy," Ahamed said. Ahamed compared the state of the global economy to recent historical crashes, borrowing the old adage attributed to Ernest Hemingway that economic crises often unfold "slowly, then very quickly." He noted that the current value of the U.S. stock market is more than double the country's GDP, which he described as similar to the valuations seen during the dot-com bubble. That is happening at a time when more stress is being injected into the economy. Tensions between the U.S. and Iran appear to be ramping up again after Vice President JD Vance traveled to Switzerland to negotiate a deal with the Iranian regime to end the conflict. The Iranians announced they are closing the Strait of Hormuz once again in response to Israel's continued fighting with Hezbollah in Lebanon, which the regime has described as a "red line" in the negotiations. "Calling an end to this whole thing is very hard," Ahamed said. "On the other hand, I can assure you there will be an end."

A foreign-relations expert offered blunt advice to President Donald Trump as negotiations between his administration and the Iranian regime deteriorate. Joseph Cirincione, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, told MS NOW's Alex Witt on "Alex Witt Reports" that Trump appears to have a way to make a stronger deal with the Iranian regime, but the president is blind to it because of how much he is blustering about the state of the war. His comments come at a time when Trump's deal with Iran has become the "joke in Washington," according to Cirincione, and the Iranian regime seems to be backing away from an agreement struck between the two sides over continued fighting between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon. On Sunday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi refused to shake hands with Vice President JD Vance when the two met for peace negotiations, which some observers described as a "humiliation" for Vance. While the two sides appear far apart on the war, Cirincione pointed out that Trump could still accomplish one of his major goals by preventing the Iranian regime from developing a nuclear weapon. "The Obama approach to negotiation worked. If Trump hadn't torn that up, we would have a fundamentally different relationship with Iran now, and Iran would still be many, many years away from the ability to build a bomb," Cirincione said. "So the only hope is to go back to negotiations and to hope that because Iran has emerged stronger from this war ... it doesn't really need a nuclear weapon as much as they thought they did." "They thought they needed it for defense," he continued. "Well, they have stronger deterrence right now." Cirincione said there is one catch that could make or break the talks. "I think they are willing to compromise on the program if Trump can just shut up and let the negotiators get to work and force the Israelis to stop their war in Lebanon; you could get a deal," he said. "You could still salvage this. But Trump has to act, not bluster."