President Trump, in a new video from Mar a Lago, said “we grieve for the true american patriots who made the ultimate sacrifice” — referring to the 3 soldiers who died In Iran operation.
He added: “Sadly there will likely be more… That’s the way it is.”
President Trump told the Daily Mail he expects the U.S. and Israeli war with Iran to last roughly four weeks.
New York Times: “His palatial 30,000-square-foot New Mexico mansion sits on a ridge overlooking thousands of acres of southwestern land he named Zorro Ranch. A sea of tufted grass, prickly cholla cactus and cracked arroyos, the sparsely populated high desert south of Santa Fe is a land where the nearest neighbors are miles away and most everyone minds their own business.”
“Some of the financier’s victims have said they were trafficked there, famous figures visited, and Mr. Epstein mused about turning Zorro into a headquarters for outlandish genetic engineering experiments.”
“And yet, New Mexico leaders say there has never been a thorough investigation of the criminal activity that may have occurred at the ranch during the 26 years the convicted sex offender owned it.”
Hours after the U.S. military announced that three U.S. service members were killed during military strikes against Iran, President Trump told NBC News: “We expect casualties with something like this.”
He added: “We have three, but we expect casualties, but in the end it’s going to be a great deal for the world.”
Founding father and slave owner Caesar Rodney, “whose statue in Delaware was removed in 2020 amid calls for racial reckoning, will be given a position in honor in Washington by the Trump administration as part of celebrations of the nation’s 250th birthday,” the New York Times reports.
Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA) told Politico that if he is given the gavel to lead the House Oversight Committee next term, a Democratic majority would “absolutely” pursue an interview with Trump regarding convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
“Brent crude jumped 10% to about $80 a barrel over the counter on Sunday, oil traders said, while analysts predicted that prices could climb as high as $100 after U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran plunged the Middle East into a new war,” Reuters reports.
“From the moment he announced an extensive military attack against Iran by posting an edited social media video at 2:30 a.m. Saturday, President Trump made clear that he would be taking a different tone and approach than his wartime predecessors,” the New York Times reports.
“Mr. Trump did not scramble back to the White House from Mar-a-Lago, his private club and residence in Palm Beach, to oversee the U.S. and Israeli strikes. He did not deliver a televised address informing the public of the killing of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was the nation’s supreme leader for nearly four decades.”
“Instead, the president capped an extraordinary day of U.S. aggression abroad by attending a glitzy fund-raising dinner at his club.”
“The United States’ attack on Iran is stirring up an already-roiling Democratic debate over Israel, just as primary season kicks off,” Politico reports.
“The joint U.S.-Israel military operation has put the countries’ relationship squarely at the center of the national political debate — and the role of its big-spending allies like the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which praised President Donald Trump’s strikes, front-and-center in the Democratic primaries where the group is spending.”
“We’ve spent $8 trillion in the Middle East. And we’re not fixing our roads in this country. How stupid is it? We’re not fixing our highways, our tunnels, our bridges, our hospitals, even.”
— President Trump, speaking in 2020.
Only one in four Americans approves of the U.S. strikes that killed Iran’s leader on Saturday, while about half — including one in four Republicans — believe President Trump is too willing to use military force, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll.
Some 27% of respondents said they approved of the strikes, while 43% disapproved and 29% were not sure.
G. Elliott Morris notes Trump has nowhere near the overwhelming support that former President George W. Bush enjoyed when he launched military action against Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2003.
Playbook: “Both campaigns eventually became deeply toxic for Bush’s legacy.”
“For months, Israeli and American intelligence agencies — including the CIA — had been secretly watching Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei for just the right moment,” CNN reports.
“They were monitoring for his daily patterns — where he lived, who he met with, how he communicated and where he might retreat under threat of attack… They were keeping tabs, too, on Iran’s senior political and military leaders, who rarely gathered in the same place with the ayatollah, the country’s supreme leader for nearly four decades.”
“Over the last several days, they found their opportunity. Top Iranian officials, including Khamenei, planned to meet Saturday morning at separate sites on a Tehran compound that is home to the offices of the ayatollah, the Iranian presidency and the national security apparatus.”
“The overly cautious supreme leader felt less vulnerable during daylight hours, an Israeli source said, and let down his guard.”
One day after launching strikes on Iran that killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and embroiled the region in war, President Trump told Michael Scherer this morning that the country’s new leadership wants to talk with him and that he plans to do so.
Said Trump: “They want to talk, and I have agreed to talk, so I will be talking to them. They should have done it sooner. They should have given what was very practical and easy to do sooner. They waited too long.”
Just published: Separation of Powers: How to Preserve Liberty in Troubled Times by Cass R. Sunstein.
Why the separation of powers is essential to liberty and democracy.
“One month before President Xi Jinping and Donald Trump are set to convene at a much-touted summit in China, the U.S. leader’s toppling of another friend of China risks stoking tensions between the world’s biggest economies,” Bloomberg reports.
“After US and Israeli military strikes on Iran wiped out the Islamic Republic’s Supreme Leader, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Sunday called it ‘unacceptable to openly kill the leader of a sovereign country and institute regime change.’ Speaking by phone with his Russian counterpart, Wang warned that the US president risked driving the Middle East into the ‘abyss.'”
“Condemnation of Washington from China’s top diplomat stands out during a delicate period when officials on both sides are trying to steady relations before Trump arrives in Beijing on March 31. Complicating that task, the Republican has ousted two leaders with ties to Beijing in quick succession this year, after the US in January snatched Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro from his Caracas home.”
Morning Consult: “Trump approval (44% to 53%) and his foreign policy approval (43% to 52%) are unchanged from pre-strike baselines. The strikes have not moved his numbers immediately.”
The country is split: “41% of registered voters say strikes necessary vs. 42% who prefer diplomacy.”
“When the U.S. military’s top general laid out the risks to President Trump of launching a major and extended attack on Iran, one of the issues he flagged was America’s stockpile of munitions,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Now that is being put to the test, as the U.S. races to destroy Iran’s missile and drone force before it runs out of interceptors to fend off Tehran’s retaliation.”
“The precise size of the U.S. stock of air-defense interceptors—what the Pentagon calls magazine depth—is classified. But repeated conflicts with Iran and its proxies in the Middle East have been eating into the supply of air defenses in the region.”
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.
