Wall Street Journal: “President Trump named Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf as one of the Iranian officials speaking to the U.S. about ending the war.”

“Asked if Ghalibaf, speaker of Iran’s parliament, could be trusted to work with Washington, Trump said, ‘we’re gonna find out,’ adding that he would let the reporters know within a week.”

Gideon Rachman: “Donald Trump has a perverse genius for driving American adversaries to discover new forms of leverage over the US. His trade war with China persuaded Beijing to exploit its domination of rare earths and critical minerals, forcing the US to reduce its tariffs.”

“In a similar fashion, Iran has now finally carried through on a longstanding threat and in effect closed the Strait of Hormuz. Tehran, like Beijing, will have been delighted to discover how quickly it can inflict economic pain on the west.”

“Iran’s exploitation of its control over the strait means that the Islamic republic can now aspire to do far more than merely survive the US-Israeli assault. It has a real prospect of emerging from the war in a strengthened international position.”

“Republicans are considering reductions in federal health spending to help pay for a budget bill containing as much as $200 billion to fund the Iran war and immigration enforcement,” Axios reports.

“New efforts to rein in health programs are sure to be controversial and open the GOP up to election-year attacks that they’re cutting health care to pay for an unpopular war.”