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Browse major news stories and see what officials have said.

Sep 4, 2026

Trump Says He Will Bill Europe for the Weapons the United States Already Gave Ukraine — "We Will Be Asking for That Money, Though Somewhat Belatedly" — and Halts Munitions Sales to Allies While He Denies the Iran War Has Drained the Stockpile

On September 3, 2026, President Trump wrote on Truth Social that the United States would seek retroactive payment from European countries for the munitions and military aid sent to Ukraine under the Biden administration. "Hundreds of Billions of Dollars was given to Ukraine and NATO, free of charge, that Europe would have paid for — If they were only asked, but we will be asking for that money, though somewhat belatedly!" He did not name which countries he meant, or identify any legal mechanism for collecting. The post was also a rebuttal. Reporting through late August had described U.S. precision-munitions stockpiles heavily depleted by six months of war with Iran, and combatant commanders had formally objected to extending the campaign. Trump wrote that the United States has "virtually unlimited amounts of Mid to High Grade Ammunition" and is producing at "levels never seen before" — while simultaneously confirming a pause in sales to allies: "We are taking them for ourselves, the U.S.A., rather than selling them to others, but the sales to allies will soon again, begin." The demand landed as European governments were already refusing to join the Iran campaign. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, speaking at the G20 finance meeting in North Carolina, described a global energy shock driven by both the Ukraine and Iran wars. Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), the ranking Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, had just returned from a bipartisan congressional delegation to Ukraine. She called the president's demand "outrageous" and said she would increase Ukraine funding if Democrats win the House.

“[If I] chair the Appropriations Committee, we will increase funds. And if we've got that same case in the Senate, then we've got the House and the Senate in sync to try to move forward.”
Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) · Sep 4, 2026

Every Branch of the U.S. Military Tells Ron Wyden It Has Switched Off the Advertising Trackers on Its Devices — Months After Foreign Adversaries Began Buying Commercial Location Data to Target American Troops in the Middle East

On Friday, September 4, 2026, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) released letters from the Air Force, the Army, the Navy and U.S. Special Operations Command confirming that each had disabled the advertising identifiers on the phones and computers its personnel use — the persistent codes that feed the commercial location-data market. The letters are the Pentagon’s answer to a bipartisan warning Wyden and Rep. Pat Harrigan (R-N.C.) delivered on May 28, 2026, when they and twelve other members of Congress revealed that foreign adversaries were buying commercially available location data to track U.S. servicemembers deployed in Middle East hotspots and using it to aim attacks. The Air Force said it had turned the identifiers off two months earlier; Special Operations Command said it had done so "recently"; the Army said advertising IDs had been blocked on its Windows computers since before 2021 but were only disabled by default on Android and Apple mobile devices as of February 2026. Wyden and Harrigan were not satisfied. The same day, they asked the Pentagon to investigate whether the Defense Department had ever properly countered the danger — with the war against Iran in its seventh month and U.S. bases in Jordan, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates having taken Iranian missile and drone fire in the preceding weeks.

“The steps the Defense Department has taken so far, Wyden said, “have not been effective at neutralizing this threat.””
Ron Wyden (D-OR) · Sep 4, 2026

The Pentagon Quietly Signs a Ten-Year Agreement Letting It Draw on the NIH’s Infectious-Disease Budget — Up to $2 Billion, Close to a Third of the Institute’s Money — and the Top Appropriations Democrats in Both Chambers Say It Was Done Behind Congress’s Back

On Thursday, September 3, 2026, Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), the ranking Democrat on House Appropriations, disclosed that the Department of Defense had signed an interagency agreement with the National Institutes of Health that "facilitates the transfer of funds from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to the Office of the Assistant Secretary of War." The agreement runs to 2036 and names no dollar figure. People familiar with it estimated that as much as $2 billion could move out of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases — close to a third of an institute whose annual budget is roughly $7 billion, and the money Congress appropriated for research on HIV, influenza, tuberculosis, malaria and Ebola. The stated purpose is "the advanced development of medical countermeasures against pandemic influenza, chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) threats, and emerging infectious diseases." The Pentagon posted a redacted copy of the agreement on September 4. Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), the Senate’s top Democratic appropriator, and DeLauro both demanded the agreement be terminated outright, and both tied it to the Pentagon’s cash crunch: the department is six months into the Iran war, the Navy has been raiding its own payroll accounts, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s $350 billion reconciliation request has gone nowhere in either chamber. NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya publicly defended the deal as a research partnership rather than a diversion, saying the work would be led by NIAID and would be "100% aligned with our public health mission." A White House spokesman said no money was being transferred to the Pentagon at all, calling it "a project-by-project research partnership." As of this writing no congressional Republican had publicly weighed in.

“NIH funds should be used to improve the health of Americans. Far from siphoning money away from research, this partnership between @NIH and @DeptofWar focuses on research projects that will drive discoveries to improve the health of American citizens and members of the military. Led by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, all work will be 100% aligned with our public health mission.”
Jay Bhattacharya (R) · Sep 4, 2026

A U.S. Bomb Misses a Communications Tower by 440 Feet and Lands on a Fisherman's Daughter's Wedding in Kuhestak — Asked About the Four Dead, the Vice President Says He Is "Extremely Skeptical" and That "Sometimes, Things Happen"

On the night of Tuesday, September 1, 2026, dozens of people gathered at a home in Kuhestak, a fishing town on the Iranian coast of the Strait of Hormuz, for the wedding of a fisherman's daughter. A munition struck the building. Iranian authorities named four dead — four-year-old Amir Ali Karimi, 16-year-old Mohammad Malahi, 43-year-old Kolsoum Malahi and 43-year-old Zarkhatoun Taheri — and the Iranian Red Crescent put the wounded at 67; a 22-year-old woman later died in hospital, bringing the reported toll to five. Reuters and The New York Times independently verified footage showing a wedding was underway when the building was hit. The strike was part of a wave of U.S. attacks on southern Iran that ended a month-long lull in the war. Six bombs targeted a communications tower in Kuhestak; one went astray by roughly 440 feet and hit the house. Weapons experts identified the ordnance as a Joint Standoff Weapon glide bomb, and three independent analysts concluded the munition was American rather than an errant Iranian air-defense missile. CENTCOM commander Adm. Brad Cooper ordered an internal review. CENTCOM spokesman Navy Capt. Tim Hawkins said the command was aware of reports "which originated from Iranian state media" and that "the U.S. military never targets civilians, unlike the IRGC." Asked about it at a White House briefing on Thursday, September 3, Vice President JD Vance said he was extremely skeptical of the Iranian account, said the United States never targets civilians, said the administration was investigating because "we care" — and, of the deaths, that "sometimes, things happen." The phrase drew immediate backlash. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), a lead sponsor of the Iran war powers effort, called it "unbelievable gaslighting" in a video posted to X. It is the second mass-casualty incident of the war to put U.S. targeting under scrutiny. After the February 28 strike on a school in Minab that killed more than 165 people, 41 Senate Democrats led by Van Hollen, Kaine, Schatz and Warren pressed the Pentagon for the intended target, the authorizing officer, the munitions used and the precautions taken — and senators later moved to block Hegseth's travel funds until the report was delivered. Democratic members have asked for the Kuhestak findings; as of September 6 the review had not been sent to Congress. Iran's foreign ministry called the strike a "war crime" and wrote to the U.N.; human rights groups have called for an ICC investigation.

“It's unbelievable gaslighting. This is war. As if Americans can't see what's going on on their own phones, with their own eyes.”
Ro Khanna (D-CA) · Sep 4, 2026

Trump Floats Renaming the Strait of Hormuz "TRUMP STRAIT" on Truth Social — Then Says Hours Later "I Was Just Throwing That Out" — as Sanders Tells Him "You're the President, Not a Mad King"

On September 2, 2026, hours after a wave of US Central Command strikes on roughly 100 IRGC targets and Iranian retaliation against bases in Jordan, Kuwait and Bahrain, President Trump posted on Truth Social: "Now that we have it under U.S.A. control, should we change the name Hormuz Strait to TRUMP STRAIT??? Like America itself, it would be 'hotter' than ever before!" Asked about it in the Oval Office later the same afternoon, Trump backed off the idea, saying he had just been throwing it out. The White House's official X account nonetheless posted a map showing a Trump-branded Strait of Hormuz and said the name had "a nice ring to it." The post landed three weeks after Trump said he would declare the strait US territory when the Iran war ends, and days after he signed an order renaming Lake Ontario "Lake America" during the trade fight with Canada — a renaming a Reuters/Ipsos poll found 63% of Americans opposed. Sen. Bernie Sanders and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer both told Trump to drop the renaming and focus on fuel prices and ending the war.

“No, no I was just throwing that out.”
Donald Trump (R-FL) · Sep 2, 2026

Trump Discloses More Than 1,000 Stock Trades in a Single Month — Including Oil Companies Made Richer by the War He Started — and Joint Economic Committee Democrats Put His Gain at $15.5 Million

Two disclosures landed a few days apart in late August 2026 and, read together, put a number on what the Iran war has been worth to the president's own portfolio. On Aug. 24, Democrats on Congress's Joint Economic Committee, led by ranking member Maggie Hassan, reported that President Trump's oil and gas holdings had risen roughly 39 percent through Aug. 17 — a gain of as much as $15.5 million — putting their estimated value between $17.2 million and $61.1 million. The committee also found he had bought up to $3.6 million in additional oil and gas stock in the first three months of 2026, the quarter the war began. Then on Aug. 27 a periodic transaction report showed more than 1,000 individual trades in June alone, an average of over 30 a day, worth between $78 million and $263 million. Among them were repeated trades in companies directly exposed to the war: two sales and a purchase of ExxonMobil, three sales of ConocoPhillips, a sale of Valero Energy, and a purchase of Occidental Petroleum. Reporters also flagged the timing of trades outside energy, including a Boeing purchase on the day the Navy awarded the company an $880 million contract and an ExxonMobil sale on the day Trump declared a ceasefire. The White House says the president has no hand in any of it: spokesman Davis Ingle said the portfolio is run by outside institutions through computer-driven model portfolios replicating indexes such as the Schwab 1000. The disclosures land ten weeks before the midterms and alongside a separate demand from Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Rep. Robert Garcia that Trump name the managers behind his accounts.

“Trump's only focus is enriching himself at the expense of the American people.”
Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) · Aug 27, 2026

Hegseth Polled the Nine Combatant Commanders on Killing the Military's Civilian-Protection Program Expecting Them to Call It "Woke" — Every One Said Keep It, and He Cut It Anyway

ProPublica reported on August 25, 2026 that before gutting the Pentagon's Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response program, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth put the question to the nation's top combatant commanders. He appears to have expected them to agree with him that protecting civilians was a "woke" distraction from "maximum lethality." Instead, according to internal documents and current and former defense officials, every command that answered said the program should be preserved. Gen. Erik Kurilla appealed the decision directly. Hegseth made the cuts regardless. CHMR was created by Congress and built out over more than a decade of bipartisan work following civilian-casualty failures in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and Somalia. Under Hegseth the Defense Department fired the staff of the Civilian Protection Center of Excellence and cut CHMR positions at the combatant commands by more than 90 percent. Hegseth has publicly framed the broader project in his own words: "We became 'the woke department.' … We're done with that shit," and "No more politically correct and overbearing rules of engagement." The consequences arrived with the Iran war. The U.S. military has killed hundreds of noncombatants since the mission was gutted, including a strike on a school. A Defense Department inspector general report and the resulting congressional letters became the paper trail. After the blowback, the department is now weighing a partial restoration of the program it dismantled. Congress had been on this before the August revelation. On April 20, Sens. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) opened an investigation with nine colleagues, writing that Hegseth's attempts to gut the institutions "contradicts more than a decade of bipartisan consensus and DoD-led reforms." On July 6, Warren led ten lawmakers — including combat veterans Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) and Rep. Jason Crow (D-CO) — in a letter accusing the administration of acting "potentially in violation of federal law." Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA), the ranking Democrat on House Armed Services, told Hegseth flatly: "You are in violation of the law right now on civilian harm." No Republican member of Congress is on record about the commanders' poll as of publication. The Pentagon's response to the letters has been that it "will respond directly to the authors."

“No more politically correct and overbearing rules of engagement.”
Pete Hegseth (R-MN) · Aug 25, 2026

Trump Calls Tucker Carlson, Marjorie Taylor Greene and Thomas Massie "LOSERS ALL" in a Late-Night Post — and Greene Answers That He Is the "Trojan Horse" and She Wishes She Had "Never Supported Him"

At roughly 10:30 p.m. on Friday, August 21, 2026 — hours after Republicans from cattle country spent the day attacking his decision to waive tariffs on 300,000 metric tons of imported ground beef — President Trump posted a long Truth Social message attacking three of the most prominent figures in the breakaway "America First" faction that has been forming against him. "Tucker Carlson just met with Lightweight 'Former' Congressman, Thomas Massie, and Marjorie 'Traitor' Greene, LOSERS ALL!" the post began. Trump wrote that Carlson's "Views" had "fallen through the floor," called him "totally irrelevant" and "a very Low I.Q. individual," said Greene had gone "from Ultra Conservative to a Liberal 'Fool'" and described her as "a highly neurotic young woman," and called Massie "a failed politician, and a real JERK." He closed by mocking the idea of the three running together: "What a team this would be, THREE LOSERS, and a pocketful of change!" The post referred to a gathering at Carlson's home in Maine in early August. On August 1, Greene — who resigned her Georgia House seat in January and has since left the Republican Party — posted a photograph of herself at a table with Carlson, Massie and Joe Kent, the former director of the National Counterterrorism Center who resigned in March over the Iran war. Greene wrote at the time: "We said no more foreign wars and we meant it and supported Donald Trump because he made that promise. But he's betrayed us all." Kent later said publicly that the group was trying to build a new anti-war movement and had tried to persuade Carlson to run for president in 2028. The White House answered that gathering by calling the participants "an embarrassing collection of mostly whiny turncoats." The responses to Trump's post came the next day and were sharper than the post itself. Greene wrote that Trump's "demeanor, name calling, absurd and reckless rhetoric is unbecoming of the office of the president" and that "at this point, he's no different than an internet troll," then went further than she previously had: "now as president he's been revealed to be the Trojan horse who enforces many of the policies he claimed to be against... I'm sorry I didn't see it earlier and wish I had never supported him." Massie tied the outburst directly to the week's news — the beef backlash, the national debt crossing $40 trillion, and the Iran war — and wrote that Trump "posted this because we are the three he should have listened to." The exchange matters because it is the sharpest public break yet between a sitting president and the media-and-movement wing that carried him, eleven weeks before a midterm election in which Trump's own party is already treating the Iran war and the cost of living as liabilities. Trump himself acknowledged the electoral risk in the post, writing that the faction "could probably take a couple of points away from whatever the Republican ticket happens to be."

“President Trump’s demeanor, name calling, absurd and reckless rhetoric is unbecoming of the office of the president. At this point, he’s no different than an internet troll or one of the many millions of bots. In the past, I supported him because of the policies he professed to support and passionately campaigned on, but now as president he’s been revealed to be the Trojan horse who enforces many of the policies he claimed to be against. I’m sorry I didn’t see it earlier and wish I had never supported him.”
Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) · Aug 22, 2026

Aug 19, 2026· Updated

Trump Orders the Pentagon to "Substantially Reduce" Joint Exercises With South Korea, Citing His Relationship With Kim Jong Un and Seoul's Refusal to Join the Iran War — Drawing Bipartisan Backlash

On Sunday, August 16, 2026, hours before the annual Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise was set to begin, President Trump posted on Truth Social that he had instructed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to "substantially reduce" the joint military exercises the United States conducts with South Korea. He said the drills were costly and sent a signal "totally inappropriate and hostile" to North Korea, which he described as "unthreatening and respectful" during his time in office, and he grounded the decision in his "very good relationship" with Kim Jong Un. Trump added a second rationale in the same post: he had recently asked South Korean President Lee Jae Myung to join the US in the "Denuclearization of the Islamic Republic of Iran," and Seoul had declined. Ulchi Freedom Shield, a roughly ten-day exercise focused on cyberattacks, drone activity and GPS disruption, began Monday, August 17 — too late to cancel outright, which is why the order was to shrink it rather than scrap it. South Korea's defense ministry said it would "proceed as previously notified and scheduled," and President Lee's office said the two governments had "maintained close coordination." The backlash was bipartisan. Sen. Jack Reed, the ranking Democrat on Senate Armed Services, called it "another inane, haphazard decision" and warned that China and Russia were watching. Republican Sen. Thom Tillis said cutting the drills does nothing but free up North Korean troops fighting for Russia in Ukraine. Sen. Mark Kelly, a Navy veteran, called it "shortsighted and a mistake." Sen. Andy Kim objected to the unilateral, social-media announcement of a joint decision, and Reps. Frank Pallone and Pramila Jayapal accused the president of appeasing a dictator. As of publication no Republican member of Congress had gone on record defending the decision. The move revives objections Trump raised in his first term, when he suspended major drills after his 2018 Singapore summit with Kim, and lands as US military hardware has been pulled from the Indo-Pacific for the war against Iran.

“I wouldn’t have allowed it. But he’s got them.”
Donald Trump (R-FL) · Aug 19, 2026

Aug 18, 2026· Updated

On the Day the Iran Peace Memorandum Expires, Trump Threatens to "Bomb the Shit Out Of" Oman — the Ally Mediating the Strait of Hormuz Talks — and Kaine Says He Will File a War Powers Resolution

The 60-day negotiating window created by the Islamabad memorandum of understanding that Trump and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian signed on June 17, 2026 ran out on August 16-17, 2026 without a final agreement. Asked on August 17 by Fox News chief foreign correspondent Trey Yingst about talks between Oman and Iran on a plan to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, President Trump said: "If Oman gets in the way, we'll bomb the shit out of them." Oman is a US free-trade partner and has spent the war acting as an intermediary between Washington and Tehran. Trump said later the same day that Oman had not "behaved very well" but that the US would "handle them very easily," said Washington would not seek an extension of the memorandum, told Iran to "put up the white flag of surrender," and repeated that the US now controls the Strait of Hormuz "with the blockade." Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) announced within hours that he will introduce a war powers resolution barring military action against Oman when the Senate returns from its August recess in September. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) responded that Democrats "may just need to file war powers resolutions for the 192 other countries," and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) asked publicly when Republicans would "concede the man has lost his mind." No congressional Republican publicly criticized the Oman threat on the day it was made. Jared Kushner, who met Hamas leaders in Egypt the day before as part of the administration's regional diplomacy, said Iran was "not showing any interest in doing something that makes sense for us."

“There are no talks or conversations going on, or scheduled, with the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
Donald Trump (R-FL) · Aug 18, 2026

Aug 18, 2026· Updated

Trump Orders U.S. Navy Blockade of Strait of Hormuz

Hours after the Islamabad peace talks collapsed without a deal on April 12, 2026, President Trump announced the U.S. Navy would "immediately" begin blockading the Strait of Hormuz — the chokepoint for 20% of global energy supplies. Trump ordered the Navy to interdict "any and all ships" entering or leaving the strait and to seize vessels that have paid tolls to Iran. Oil prices surged above $100/barrel. The blockade is backed by a mine-clearing operation and a 40+ nation coalition led by the U.K. Iran's Revolutionary Guard warned the U.S. would be "trapped in a deadly vortex" if it made the wrong move. Senate Intelligence Vice Chair Mark Warner questioned the logic: the strait was open before the war started.

“There are no talks or conversations going on, or scheduled, with the Islamic Republic of Iran. The Naval Blockade remains in full force and effect.”
Donald Trump (R-FL) · Aug 18, 2026

Vance Says the "Goal No. 1" of the Iran War Is Cheap Gas and Iran's Nuclear Program Is Goal No. 2 — Four Days Later Trump Posts That the Number One Goal "Is, and Always Will Be" the Bomb

Nearly six months into the war with Iran, the administration gave two different answers in four days about why the United States is fighting it. On Thursday, August 13, 2026, in a Fox News interview with Will Cain, Vice President JD Vance ranked the war's objectives: "That's goal No. 1: keep oil and gas cheap for Americans all over our country," adding that "obviously, goal No. 2 is ensure that Iran never gets a nuclear weapon." The framing was a shift — the war had been publicly justified since February on nonproliferation grounds — and it came as Washington threatened an indefinite naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz and new economic pressure on Tehran, with gas prices rising at home. Press secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked about the ordering aboard Air Force One the next day and said both goals were equally important to the president. Then on Monday, August 17 — the day the 60-day US–Iran memorandum of understanding expired without a deal — Trump posted on Truth Social at 6:18 a.m.: "The number one Goal is, and always will be, that Iran cannot have, in any way, shape, or form, a Nuclear Weapon," publicly reversing his vice president's ranking without naming him. Congress was in August recess when the exchange played out, and no member of Congress went on record about the contradiction in the days that followed.

“The number one Goal is, and always will be, that Iran cannot have, in any way, shape, or form, a Nuclear Weapon. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
Donald Trump (R-FL) · Aug 17, 2026

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