Politics

President Trump Dismisses as ‘Fake News’ Iran’s Reported Ceasefire Terms  

President Donald Trump on Friday rejected reported Iranian ceasefire terms published by Iranian media, calling them “fake news” and saying they did not match the written agreement discussed between Washington and Tehran.  

The comments came less than 24 hours after President Trump halted planned US military strikes against Iran and announced a proposal aimed at ending the conflict.  

In a post on Truth Social, President Trump wrote: “The terms that Iran leaked out to the Fake News have NOTHING to do with the terms that were agreed to, in writing. What they said, including their weak and pathetic statement on having a deal, bears no relation to the truth.”  

The president was responding to a reported 14-point proposal published Friday by Mehr News agency. The framework included provisions for a $300 billion economic recovery and reconstruction package for Iran, a complete withdrawal of foreign troops from areas surrounding Iran, and the suspension of energy-related sanctions.  

Following President Trump’s announcement Thursday night, Iranian media reported there was “a high probability that the regime will approve that proposal.” Iran’s Foreign Ministry, however, said the United States had modified some elements of the original agreement.  

President Trump also questioned the prospects for reaching an agreement with Tehran.  

“Very dishonorable people to deal with. With them, there is no such thing as dealing in good faith. AMAZING!”  

The president further wrote: “Also, their totally rebuffed Drone attack last night against Indian Ships leaving the Hormuz Strait is TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE. They better get their act together, and FAST!”  

His comments came as military activity continued following the ceasefire announcement. Reuters reported that a US official said American forces intercepted two suicide drones targeting ships in the Strait of Hormuz overnight. Iranian media reported explosions near Sirik, while Fars said Iranian military activity prevented a tanker from entering the waterway without coordination.  

NBC reported that US military forces were approximately three hours from carrying out planned strikes when President Trump announced the halt on Thursday. According to the report, naval units had already prepared munitions and adjusted air operation plans. Kharg Island, which President Trump had previously identified as a potential target, was not included in the approved strike package. 

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By Andrew Goudsward and Dan Rosenzweig-Ziff

WASHINGTON, June 12 (Reuters) – A U.S. judge indefinitely blocked a $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund supported by President Donald Trump on Friday, giving the administration one week to provide a sworn statement that the fund will not go forward.

U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema of the Eastern District of Virginia said the Justice Department’s public pronouncements that the fund would not move forward were not enough to prevent the judge from ruling on whether the plan is legal.

Brinkema issued a preliminary injunction blocking the Trump administration from creating the fund while the lawsuit moves forward. The case was brought by a group of individuals and organizations who alleged they were victims of political targeting by the Trump administration and would be ineligible for compensation from the fund. 

The judge said it was “problematic” that the administration sought to set up a pool of taxpayer money to favor “an extremely small group” that many Americans feel engaged in “unacceptable” conduct.

The fund emerged from a settlement agreement between Trump and the Justice Department over the president’s $10 billion lawsuit ​against the Internal Revenue Service.

The Justice Department set up a $1.776 billion ⁠fund overseen by a five-member commission to dole out payments to those who show they were victims of “lawfare” and “weaponization,” terms Trump ​and his allies have used to describe investigations and criminal cases against them.

When asked for comment on the ruling, the Justice Department pointed to previous statements by acting Attorney General Todd Blanche saying the fund was not moving forward. 

UNCERTAINTY OVER PLAN’S STATUS

Last week, Blanche told lawmakers the Trump administration was not moving forward with the plan, which critics have called a slush fund. But he refused to make that commitment in writing when he was asked to do so by Democratic lawmakers, and Trump has repeatedly expressed his support for the concept of the fund, prompting questions as to whether the administration was actually abandoning the fund.

Brinkema cited Trump’s public statements in recent days supporting the concept of the fund as evidence that the administration may still be looking to proceed with the plan in some fashion.

At a court hearing on Friday, Justice Department lawyer Andrew Block said the plaintiffs’ claims were too speculative and urged the judge not to issue an order that “rests on hypotheticals.”

Block also asked the judge to credit statements from Blanche to Congress and from Justice Department lawyers in court filings that the fund would not proceed.

Reuters reported earlier on Friday that Trump allies were training their focus on a possibly more viable path to pay supporters who claim they are victims of government abuse. 

Brinkema pushed Block on why Blanche has not formally rescinded the order setting up the fund, echoing a question Block heard from a different federal judge in a related case on Wednesday.

On Friday, Block said he did not know, repeating the same answer he gave on Wednesday. Brinkema replied: “There’s a huge gap in the record if you don’t have the answer to that question.”

Brinkema said she would give the acting attorney general and Treasury secretary one week to sign off on a sworn statement declaring the fund would not go forward. She indicated she may revisit her ruling if the Trump administration submitted such a declaration and asked the plaintiffs in the case if they would agree to drop the lawsuit entirely. 

“If the fund is truly rescinded, where is the sworn declaration saying so?” said Amy Powell, a former DOJ senior trial counsel and litigation director at Lawyers for Good Government. “The court appears unwilling to treat political statements and media reports as a substitute for a formal record.”

Brinkema had issued a temporary halt to the fund last week that was set to expire on Friday.

“I don’t have in this record the type of uncontested evidence that this will not be repeated,” she said during the Friday court hearing. 

(Reporting by Andrew Goudsward and Dan Rosenzweig-Ziff in Washington; Writing by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Michelle Nichols, Matthew Lewis and Deepa Babington)

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TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — Rosie Pino, a Clifton City, New Jersey, councilwoman, has won the Republican primary in the state’s 9th Congressional District to take on Democratic Rep. Nellie Pou.

Pino defeated attorney Tiffany Burress in the northern New Jersey district, where Pou is seeking a second term. The Associated Press called the race for Pino on Friday.

The district is being watched closely in this year’s hotly contested midterm elections, with Republicans in particular drawing a target on the longtime Democratic-held seat.

The GOP saw an opportunity there after the 2024 election was closer than expected and Donald Trump won in places where his party hadn’t been victorious for decades.

Pino, a former Democrat, said she left the party for the GOP and criticized Democrats in the campaign for their longtime control in the region.

In a statement, Pino emphasized that she would work for those who disagree with her sometimes.

“I extend a hand to everyone across our district — Republicans, Independents, and Democrats, as well as those who have never voted before,” she said.

Pino had been critical of the slow pace of vote counting in her district, where the election ended June 2, and across the country.

“In Congress, I will help lead the fight to secure our elections,” Pino said in a statement this week. “We need mandatory Voter ID nationwide and strict limits on late mail-in voting.”

In a statement Friday, Burress said she was grateful to her supporters but stopped short of backing Pino.

Pou is in her first term in the House, where she was elected after years in the state Legislature, succeeding longtime Democrat Bill Pascrell Jr., who died in 2024.

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By Dan Rosenzweig-Ziff

WASHINGTON, June 12 (Reuters) – While the Justice Department has said it has abandoned plans for President Donald Trump’s proposed $1.8 billion “weaponization” fund, some of his allies are shifting focus to a different way to make payouts to his supporters, including those who took part in the January 6, 2021, riot on the U.S. Capitol.

The most viable path, according to Trump allies and legal experts, may involve compensating these loyalists under a 1946 law called the Federal Tort Claims Act. That measure lets people file administrative claims – and subsequent lawsuits – against the U.S. government for alleged wrongdoing, which can then be settled out of court.

“At my level, the fund is dead,” Stanley Woodward, the third-ranking official at the Justice Department, said in an interview. “If somebody wants to submit a claim against the government and sue us, they can still do that.”    

The Republican president repeatedly has expressed support for federal payouts to supporters who he has portrayed as being targeted by a “weaponized” U.S. government under his Democratic predecessor Joe Biden. 

But the “anti-weaponization” fund, crafted as part of a legal settlement between ​Trump and the Justice Department to resolve his $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS over allegedly mishandling his tax records, was put on hold amid fierce opposition from Republicans in Congress. Trump critics derided it as a slush fund to reward supporters with taxpayer money.

Hundreds of people who were prosecuted after taking part in the Capitol attack, which was a failed bid by Trump supporters to prevent Congress from certifying his 2020 election loss to Biden, already have filed claims, and at least 10 have sued the government for damages – so far with little response.

The strategy has long been in the works. Conservative lawyers debated the plan during a previously unreported strategy session at the 2024 Republican National Convention, according to longtime Trump ally Michael Caputo, who attended the meeting.

Other payout options are still being explored, according to Caputo, who helped lead “anti-weaponization” efforts in Trump’s 2024 election campaign and filed the first known claim under the now-abandoned “weaponization” fund.

“I’ve heard no indication that they’ve slowed down on trying to get victims paid,” Caputo said, adding that administration officials have told him to “watch this space.”

Caputo, who served as a Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson during Trump’s first term, asked Blanche for $2.7 million in “restitution” over investigations by the Biden ​administration and former special counsel ⁠Robert Mueller.

“It’s the most logistically feasible method,” said Patrick Jaicomo, a senior attorney at the libertarian legal group Institute for Justice who specializes in Federal Tort Claims Act cases. “The government would have a lot of flexibility.”

Trump’s repeated support for compensating supporters he paints as victims of “weaponization” has raised the question of what avenue he may now pursue to make such payments.

Asked if there are alternative plans to provide such compensation, the White House pointed to previous comments by Trump and acting Attorney General Todd Blanche that the weaponization fund would not go forward.

“We have no additional announcements at this time and any speculation about potential future actions is just that – speculation,” a White House official told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity. “President Trump remains committed to addressing Biden-era weaponization.”

A Justice Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there is no effort to encourage people to submit these claims.

‘PEOPLE SHOULD BE COMPENSATED’

Trump has accused the Biden administration and other political opponents of improperly using law enforcement, intelligence and regulatory agencies to target him and his allies. Critics have said these efforts were legally justified by actual or suspected wrongdoing by Trump and others.

Trump, for instance, gave executive clemency to his supporters who were prosecuted for their roles in the January 6 riot.

“The people were destroyed by dirty cops and by weaponization,” Trump said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” program aired on Sunday. “Many of those people should be compensated.”

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham in a social media post backed the idea of pursuing payouts through the Federal Tort Claims Act, prompting the Justice Department’s Woodward to respond with what looked like an endorsement in a since-deleted post.

“We’re working on it,” Woodward wrote. 

Woodward later told Reuters he was trying to send a message that people who believe they were victims of government abuse continue to have a path for compensation even without the $1.8 billion fund. 

FROM FRINGE IDEA TO MAINSTREAM

Financially compensating Trump allies has moved from the political fringe closer to mainstream Republican strategy.

Caputo said he was involved in conversations about finding ways to pay victims of “weaponization” dating back to October 2023. 

In 1956, Congress created a permanent Judgment Fund for paying settlements of lawsuits against the federal government.

Caputo said that allies of the president and conservative lawyers discussed using this fund for payouts under the Federal Tort Claims Act “ad nauseam” during the 2024 Republican National Convention. Attendees at these discussions opposed paying violent felons, including those who assaulted police officers, according to Caputo. 

The attendees viewed the Judgment Fund as a “limitless” pot of money that would avoid the political hurdles of creating a new administrative fund, Caputo said, though they acknowledged these payouts could be controversial. 

Some high-profile Trump allies already have received payouts under the Federal Tort Claims Act. Michael Flynn, who briefly served as Trump’s national security adviser during his first term, received a $1.25 million settlement under the statute.

Attorney Peter Ticktin said his office is representing more than 400 people who took part in the Capitol riot who have submitted Federal Tort Claims Act claims. Ticktin said he hopes the government will settle the cases before they go to court, but has not been told of any plans to do so.

“We’re asking for restitution in the millions of dollars,” Ticktin said, adding that he trusts that Trump and the Justice Department will ensure that his clients get paid.

‘A TRAVESTY’

The administrative process for a Federal Tort Claims Act claim begins when a person files a form, known as an SF-95, alleging government wrongdoing and demanding damages.

Claims typically must be filed within two years of the incident, but January 6 defendants are arguing that the alleged wrongdoing against them constitutes ongoing harm. It remains unclear how courts or the Justice Department will treat that interpretation.

If the government agrees to the amount requested, officials can authorize payment before a judge is assigned, Jaicomo said, meaning no judge would review the payment. 

If the government does not settle, claimants can file a lawsuit, at which point a judge would begin overseeing the case. Ticktin has already filed 10 lawsuits and said he plans to file hundreds more. 

Rupa Bhattacharyya, a former Justice Department official who oversaw the compensation fund for victims of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, said department attorneys typically settle only when they face a high risk of losing at trial, though they retain broad discretion on settlements including in January 6 cases.

“That would be a travesty because these are very defensible lawsuits,” said Bhattacharyya, who served under presidents of both parties. “It would violate the purpose and spirit of the judgment fund – but it is unlikely it would violate the text of the law.”

(Reporting by Dan Rosenzweig-Ziff. Editing by Michael Learmonth and Will Dunham)

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By David Hood-Nuño, Julio-Cesar Chavez and Jason Lange

WASHINGTON, June 12 (Reuters) – About half of evangelical Christians – a core component of President Donald Trump’s political base – believe his administration’s approach to the Iran war and immigration enforcement is not in line with their understanding of Christianity, a Reuters/Ipsos poll found.

Evangelicals helped power the Republican’s 2024 election victory, and Trump and his top officials including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have regularly used religious language in describing their goals and policies. Republicans will be counting on them in the November midterm elections, when they will be defending thin majorities in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives.

Some 54% of evangelicals in the June 3-8 poll said Trump’s use of the military in Iran was not in line with their understanding of Christianity, while 41% said it was in line with it. Some 51% of evangelicals said the administration’s approach to immigration policy was not in line with Christian values, with 44% saying it was.

Overall, Trump’s approval rating among evangelicals stood at 52% in the latest poll, down from 61% in August but well above his 35% approval rating among all U.S. adults. 

His approval rating has broadly fallen in recent months as the unpopular Iran war pushed gasoline prices sharply higher.

During his first term in office, Trump helped to secure a longstanding goal of many evangelical Americans by installing a 6-3 conservative majority on the Supreme Court, which then overturned a decision that had established a nationwide right to abortion. 

In his second term, he has regularly invited faith leaders into the Oval Office and changed policies to allow federal employees to promote their religious views at work.  

Evangelicals in particular skew Republican by more than two-to-one and Trump won the white evangelical vote 81%-16% in 2024, according to an exit poll analysis by the Pew Research Center.

White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers said Trump has delivered to people of faith by defending religious rights and pardoning anti-abortion activists convicted of crimes. “There has never been a greater president for Christian Americans than President Trump,” Taylor said.

MIDTERMS APPROACHING

Cracks in the key voting bloc could add to the headwinds facing the Republican Party in the midterm elections.

Evangelical Christian Sandy Miller, 63, said she wouldn’t vote for him again if she had the opportunity. She lives in Worthington, Indiana, a small town of roughly 1,400, and takes care of a 24-year-old daughter whose home-healthcare Medicaid benefits were cut under Trump.

But more than her financial situation, she said her faith influences who she votes for. She said that Trump is probably a Christian but doesn’t show it.

“I just don’t think waging war is the answer to everything all the time,” Miller said. “I understand sometimes you have to, but I don’t know in this instance that it needed to be done.”

Miller said she prays every night that the country’s leaders will seek God’s will. “I wish our politicians would pray more than they talk,” she said.

The Reuters/Ipsos poll surveyed 4,531 U.S. adults nationwide and its results had a margin of error of 2 percentage points in ‌either direction.

Evangelicals also give Trump low marks on his handling of the cost of living.

The U.S. and Israel began the war in Iran on February 28 to ensure the Iranian government does not fully develop a nuclear weapon. Despite the war’s impact on household finances, Trump has vowed to stop Iran from getting nuclear weapons at any cost.

Thousands of people have died in the Iran war, including more than 3,000 in Iran alone, with rights groups putting the figure closer to 3,600, alongside over 1,800 deaths in Lebanon and more than 100 in Iraq, according to official and NGO sources.

Many evangelicals believe the U.S. has a moral obligation to protect Israel, a key U.S. ally in the Middle East.

Connie Reese, 77, an evangelical voter who lives in Iowa, said in a follow-up interview with Reuters that his support for Trump’s war in Iran has biblical precedent, and that governments have the right to preemptively defend themselves. Although he said he doesn’t always agree with the government of Israel, the Jewish people have “historical grounds for their homeland.” 

“The re-establishment of Israel, the country, is a prophetic answer or an answer to a prophecy that is clearly spelled out in the word of God,” he said. “So in that regard, I support Israel as a free and sovereign nation.”

(Reporting by David Hood-Nuño, Julio Cesar-Chavez and Jason Lange; editing by Scott Malone and Deepa Babington)

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By Mike Scarcella

June 11 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration on Thursday filed an appeal of a court order that required Trump’s name to be removed from the Kennedy Center and blocked the Republican leader’s bid to close the Washington performing arts venue for a two-year renovation.

The appeal to the Washington-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit challenges a sweeping ruling against the administration in a lawsuit brought by Democratic U.S. Representative Joyce Beatty of Ohio, a member of the Kennedy Center’s board by virtue of her position in Congress.

The White House and Beatty’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper ruled on May 29 that federal law “makes crystal clear” that Congress named the center for former Democratic President John F. Kennedy, “and only Congress can change it.” He ordered the removal of Trump’s name from the building’s facade, its website and other materials.

Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform hours later that his administration would transfer control of the Kennedy Center ‌to Congress.

“I cannot be involved with a situation where danger to the Public is allowed to flourish in plain and open sight,” Trump said, saying the building was in serious disrepair.

Trump said he directed the U.S. Commerce Department to “make all necessary arrangements with Congress to allow a full and complete transfer of this Institution” and give lawmakers responsibility over its operation, maintenance ​and management.

The Kennedy ​Center opened in 1971 as a living memorial to the late president, who was slain in 1963. Its board voted in December to alter the center’s name to include Trump, who last year replaced several board members and appointed himself a trustee.

Beatty sued the Trump administration in December, calling the renaming of the building “a flagrant violation of the rule of law” that “flies in the face of our constitutional order.”

In February, Trump announced the two-year closure of the Kennedy Center without any prior warning.

Trump’s plan to renovate the Kennedy Center is part of a broader push by the Republican leader to reshape Washington’s monumental core. He also intends to erect a ​250-foot (76-meter) arch and to build a 90,000-square-foot ballroom at the site of the demolished East Wing of the White ​House.

(Reporting by Mike Scarcella in Washington, D.C.; Additional reporting by Daniel Wiessner in Albany, New York; Editing by Matthew Lewis and Christopher Cushing)

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GENEVA (AP) — Ice skating’s governing body is gliding into a presidential election Friday, free of the turmoil that just gripped its Olympic sibling skiing.

Jae Youl Kim is set to be reelected unopposed by International Skating Union members for a second four-year term. It comes just months after he also was elevated to the International Olympic Committee’s executive board representing winter sports.

The United States-educated Samsung executive’s first election win of 2026 was on the eve of the Milan Cortina Olympics that proved a clear success on the ice.

Milan was a stage for the compelling personal stories of U.S. figure skating stars Alysa Liu and Ilia Malinin — albeit with very different results — and Dutch speed skater Jutta Leerdam.

“Milan was a huge success, we couldn’t ask for anything better,” Kim told The Associated Press in an interview. “Venues were good and our skaters were incredible.”

He is now skating’s first representative on the IOC board for 18 years, and could stay through the 2034 Utah Olympics and what shapes to be a dynamic review of Winter Games sports and events.

Kim earned the trust of the eight-sport Winter Olympic Federations group against campaigning by Johan Eliasch, who was ousted Thursday as president of the International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS).

A bruising FIS election was won by a single vote after a campaign that exposed disquiet in the ski family about its finances and future strategy.

The ISU member federation has met in calm for their congress meetings in Tenerife capped with a presidential election.

Kim’s family helped found and run a storied daily newspaper, and he arrived in sports as a fan who grew up skating on frozen lakes and ponds in Seoul.

“I want to make sure that skating remains as inspiring to as many people as it was to me,” he said in an interview at ISU headquarters in the Olympics’ home city Lausanne, Switzerland.

He studied politics and business at universities in the U.S. — Wesleyan, Johns Hopkins and Stanford — before working at Samsung. He later led the Korea Skating Union, and joined the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Games organizing committee.

Respect for athletes guides his presidency, Kim suggests, and he cites being among Leerdam’s 2.5 million followers on Instagram even before she met and got engaged to Jake Paul, the boxer and YouTube influencer.

“Jake Paul is a very interesting man, very clever,” said Kim, of speed skating’s best-known fan in Milan.

On the figure skating rink, Kim found joy in Alysia Liu’s stunning Olympic title — “she is one of a kind” — and admiration for how Ilia Malinin handled a brutal fall out of the medals, setting up a potential redemption at the 2030 French Alps Olympics, likely in Lyon.

“I’m amazed how he carried himself after the free program,” Kim said. “He told me he’s going to be in Salt Lake City (in 2034), he’s determined.”

“They (the athletes) are the only assets that we have and we ought to make sure that we provide everything we can to make them the star.”

ISU aims to light arenas more theatrically for athletes and allowing use of official video and images for their social media. It also means more money.

This week ISU pledged to more than double its prize money fund for next season, to $11.1 million from $5.4 million. Member federations also will share a $2.1 million raise in help for travel costs.

ISU let Russian athletes try to qualify for and compete at the Olympics in Milan, though their exclusion from other championships is now in a fifth year during the full military invasion of Ukraine.

“That discussion took a long time because there’s a lot of European perspective, which I understand,” said Kim, who in 2022 became the ISU’s first non-European head after 130 years.

Russian skaters’ full return was not on the agenda in Tenerife though a freshly composed ISU Council, Kim said, will be “looking at the right time to make the decision.”

It hints at a guiding principle. “I want to be able to look back at ISU 20 years from now and then I want to be able to say, ‘Hey, we did the right thing.’”

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AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

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GLOVERSVILLE, N.Y. (AP) — Republican political candidates routinely highlight their devotion to President Donald Trump. But in upstate New York, Anthony Constantino is taking it to another level.

Constantino, a political newcomer and candidate in the June 23 Republican primary to succeed Rep. Elise Stefanik, boasts a giant “Vote for Trump” sign atop his successful sticker business in the city of Amsterdam. He recorded a hip-hop album titled “Thank you President Trump.” He even gifted Trump a big bronze statue of Trump himself last year at his West Palm Beach golf course.

Constantino’s antics have not earned him fans among local party officials, who overwhelmingly support his opponent, state Assembly Member Robert Smullen, in the 21st Congressional District race. But Constantino has won over one powerful Republican who still has the power to sway primaries: Trump.

“Anthony is strongly supported by many of the most Highly Respected MAGA Warriors in our Movement, including Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Roger Stone!” Trump wrote in an endorsement of Constantino.

The president added: “The sign is still there!”

Constantino’s battle against Smullen, a former U.S. Marine Corps colonel, is shaping up to be another test of Trump’s pull at the ballot box, pitting the brash MAGA disciple against a more traditional conservative in the solid-red district.

Constantino has relentlessly attacked Smullen, calling him a “Trump hater” and giving him a derisive nickname out of the Trump playbook — “Slimebob.” He also doesn’t miss a chance to feud with the state’s Republican leadership.

“The New York GOP is a failing establishment, it’s a losing establishment,” Constantino said in an interview. “They reject outsiders. This happened with Donald Trump. The Republican Party tried to keep Donald Trump out, as well, because they knew he was going to reform things.”

Smullen has cast himself as the adult in the room, stressing his experience in the state Legislature, his military service, and his own ties to Trump.

“I think I directly represent the vast majority of the people in this district, their values, what they think about issues,” he said.

The largely rural district sprawls across most of New York’s northern tip and includes the Adirondack Mountains, the U.S. Army’s Fort Drum, dairy farms and dozens of small cities, towns and villages.

It’s solid GOP territory — Stefanik won her last race by 24 points — with registered Republicans outnumbering Democrats 215,000 to 134,000. Voters there skew older and white, with many prison guards, police officers, farmers and devoutly religious people, according to Jack McGuire, an associate professor of politics at the State University of New York at Potsdam.

“It’s not your country club Republican party,” he said.

Stefanik shocked the New York political world when she announced late last year that she was suspending her campaign for governor and would not seek reelection to the House.

Her decision came after she didn’t get full-throated support from Trump in the governor’s race, and it followed an episode where Trump withdrew her nomination to be his ambassador to the United Nations over concerns about Republicans’ threadbare majority in the House.

Local Republicans first began angling for the seat after she was tapped to head to the United Nations, only to begin circling again when she launched her run for governor.

Smullen, who represents parts of the district in the state Assembly, is running a traditional campaign, chatting up voters at volunteer firehouses and community events.

He highlights a 24-year military career that included three tours of Afghanistan and combat experience, along with his more than seven years in the state Legislature. His 2018 appointment by Trump to serve in the White House Fellows program, along with attending both of Trump’s inaugurations, was a go-to line when Constantino moved to cast himself as the Trump candidate during a recent debate.

“The idea that I have never been a supporter of President Donald Trump is a lie, it really is,” Smullen said during the debate. “And what’s happening here is that if you say it long enough and if you say it hard enough then it’s going to be true. But it’s not true.”

Local GOP officials and committees are backing Smullen, as is the chair of the state Republicans. He also has the support of the state Conservative Party, which guarantees him a line in the general election even if he loses the GOP primary.

Matt Capano, who owns a hardware store in Gloversville, a small city in the district, said he knew Smullen as his local state lawmaker and had to “give him a lot of credit” because of his experience.

Constantino — who found success with his company Sticker Mule — is more of a showman. His style has forced his buttoned-up opponent to let loose. Smullen’s campaign launched an anti-Constantino website that excoriates him for, among many other things, his past registration as a Democrat.

“I am the conservative Republican in this race,” Smullen said at the debate.

Constantino responded that he registered as a Democrat to vote for a childhood friend who was running for political office while calling himself a “lifelong conservative.”

It didn’t take long for him to steer the conversation back toward the president.

“I’ve always had his back through the whole thing,” he said of Trump. “In fact, in 2020, when he nicely exited the White House and a terrible person named Joe Biden entered, I went and I supported the president quietly by buying a Mar-a-Lago membership.”

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WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Thursday he is nominating Jay Clayton, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York and a former Securities and Exchange Commission chairman, as director of national intelligence.

Trump announced the nomination on social media amid pressure from Congress to name a permanent replacement for Tulsi Gabbard, who announced her resignation last month. Trump faced intense pushback over his decision to name Bill Pulte, head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, as acting director. The job oversees the coordination of 18 intelligence agencies.

The resulting uproar led to a standoff in Congress after Democrats said they would refuse to renew foreign intelligence powers unless Trump pulled Pulte’s nomination and named a permanent nominee.

“Few people anywhere in the Legal Community are respected at the level of Jay,” Trump wrote. “I encourage the United States Senate to confirm Jay as soon as possible.”

Speaking later Thursday in the Oval Office, Trump said he still plans to keep Pulte in the role “for a little while” after earlier saying he wants Pulte to downsize the office. He called Clayton an “incredible talent” and said, “Nobody has better credentials.”

As the U.S. attorney in Manhattan, Clayton oversees the most prestigious of the Justice Department’s prosecution offices, with a vast portfolio ranging from terrorism and espionage cases to security fraud and public corruption.

He took over from interim U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon, who resigned in February after refusing to carry out orders from the Justice Department to drop corruption charges against Mayor Eric Adams. The case was eventually dropped after prosecutors from Washington submitted a request to a judge.

The Senate Intelligence Committee plans to hold a confirmation hearing for Clayton on Wednesday, according to a person who requested anonymity to discuss it ahead of an official notice.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told reporters that the Senate hopes to receive Clayton’s nomination paperwork from the White House as soon as Thursday. “We will move quickly,” he said.

Democrats are holding up the renewal of a key surveillance law, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, in protest of Trump’s decision to temporarily tap Pulte. They say they won’t support an extension of the law, which expires at midnight Friday, until Trump withdraws Pulte’s appointment.

Trump previously said Pulte would take over on June 19. It is unclear whether the Senate could move quickly enough to confirm Clayton before that date.

“I don’t know what realistic is, but we’re gonna probe the limits of it,” Thune said.

Connecticut Rep. Jim Himes, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said that he has “known and respected” Clayton for decades and that if Trump had named him as the DNI nominee last week, “lots of pain might have been avoided.”

“His intelligence, temperament and deep commitment to public service will make him a terrific DNI,” Himes said.

Asked about Clayton’s nomination, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said, “Pulte has to go.”

“He cannot be in the DNI role,” Schumer said. “It’s too important.”

Clayton navigated his way through a 14-month tenure in the Southern District of New York without clashing with the federal judges in the busiest court in the nation, unlike his counterparts in upstate New York and New Jersey. After his interim term expired after 120 days, the judges of the Southern District appointed him as U.S. attorney.

Clayton was sworn in April 2025 on the same day three prosecutors resigned, saying they felt pressured to admit wrongdoing or regret about prosecuting the case against Adams.

Then, weeks later, the office had to withstand controversy over the Trump administration’s firing of one of its most respected and successful prosecutors, Maurene Comey. She claims she was fired because of Trump’s dislike of her father, former FBI Director James Comey.

Under Clayton, the Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s Office facilitated the unsealing of thousands of pages of court records from the prosecutions of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell — documents that were made public as part of the Justice Department’s release of records related to the late sex offender and his longtime confidant.

Clayton filed documents with the court explaining the process the government followed in releasing the materials.

Clayton has also overseen the prosecution of former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and Maduro’s wife, Cilia Flores, on drug trafficking charges.

Several recent terrorism cases brought by Clayton’s office touch on the global threats and influences that he’ll be navigating if confirmed as director of national intelligence.

They include the May arrest of Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood al-Saadi, an Iraqi and Iranian citizen accused of plotting 20 attacks in Europe and Canada and planning to attack a Manhattan synagogue and Jewish centers in Los Angeles and Scottsdale, Arizona, in retaliation for the U.S. war on Iran.

“There are foreign nations and terrorist organizations that see our success as a threat. A threat that they want eliminated,” Clayton said at a recent press briefing. “That is a stark truth.”

“And don’t take my word for it,” he added. “Take their words and their actions. When your enemies tell you something, and when they act, you should know that they mean it.”

The first Trump administration tried in June 2020 to install Clayton, then the chairman of the SEC, as U.S. attorney in Manhattan, but backed down and instead allowed Deputy U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss to serve in the post. The reversal came after then-U. S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman agreed to step down, following assurances that probes into Trump allies would not be disrupted and that Strauss could lead the office.

At the time, the office was looking into dealings by Rudy Giuliani, who was serving as Trump’s personal attorney, and was also investigating the actions of a state-owned Turkish bank.

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Neumeister and Sisak reported from New York. Associated Press writers Eric Tucker, Mary Clare Jalonick and Seung Min Kim in Washington contributed to this report.

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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump said Thursday he had called off new military strikes on Iran, suggesting progress had been made in talks to end the war just hours after the American leader threatened to escalate the conflict by seizing control of Iran’s oil industry.

Trump said in a social media post that he made the move after a breakthrough in negotiations, and that significant points under discussion “have been brought to the highest level of Iranian leadership and approved.”

A few hours later, Trump wrote that “discussions and final points have been, in both concept and great detail,” approved by United States, Israel, and other regional allies. He did not offer details.

Trump has claimed multiple times in recent weeks that the warring parties have been on the cusp of a deal without anything coming to fruition. There was no immediate comment from Iranian officials or mediators regarding Trump’s latest comments about progress in negotiations.

Talks have stalled over Iran’s nuclear program, which the U.S. and Israel fear could lead to an atomic weapon, but which Tehran says is for peaceful purposes. Another major point of contention is Iran’s stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz, a critical shipping lane for transporting oil and natural gas.

Trump’s rapid shift Thursday from dire threats to promoting peace negotiations again underscored his whipsaw approach to the war. He suggested on Monday that a deal to end the conflict could be reached in a matter of days.

The U.S. military said it targeted Iran’s military surveillance, communications and air defense sites. Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard said a manufacturing complex was hit, along with a military barracks and a Guard base outside Tehran.

Tehran said it fired back at Kuwait, Jordan and Bahrain, which said an 11-year-old girl was hurt and cars and homes were damaged by debris from intercepted Iranian strikes.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry said the U.S. attacks had “effectively rendered the ceasefire … meaningless,” without saying it was abandoning it.

After Trump threatened more attacks were to come on Thursday, Iran’s parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, responded on social media that “wrong strategies and impulsive decisions” would wreak havoc on energy markets and “create an endless quagmire that you will be stuck in for years.”

It wasn’t the first time Trump threatened escalation before giving negotiations another chance. In April, he warned Iran that “a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again” if it didn’t agree to his terms, before extending a ceasefire.

But Trump himself soon voiced doubts about taking over the oil terminal, saying in an interview with Fox News: “I don’t know that America has the stomach for it, to be honest.”

Beyond the deadlock over the strait and sharp divisions over Iran’s nuclear program, Tehran has insisted that any deal to end the war must also end fighting in Lebanon between its ally militia Hezbollah and Israel.

The U.S. faced criticism Thursday for an American military strike that killed three Indian sailors on an oil tanker near the Strait of Hormuz.

The U.S. military said it fired Tuesday to disable the Palau-flagged tanker M/T Settebello as it attempted to breach a U.S. blockade of Iranian ports while carrying a shipment of Iranian oil. Three Indian crew members were killed, India’s minister overseeing ports and shipping said Thursday on X.

The leader of the International Maritime Organization, a United Nations agency, condemned the attack. India’s foreign ministry summoned a senior U.S. diplomat to convey its “deepest concerns” and formally protest the strike, spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said.

The U.S. State Department said it was “in direct contact” with the Indian government regarding the strike, but offered no further details.

The U.S. military’s Central Command said American forces issued warnings before firing on the ship. It’s one of nine merchant vessels the U.S. military has disabled to enforce the blockade.

A 25-year-old student in northern Iran says Iranians are fearing “chaos” amid the war and multiplying crises at home.

The student, who lives in the city of Babol, said many Iranians are struggling to afford groceries in the face of mass job losses and triple-digit food inflation. He spoke on the condition of anonymity out of security fears.

“Everything is going wrong and there is no hope among the people,” the student added.

The student first spoke to The Associated Press before the war when he participated in widespread anti-government protests. He now says his chief concern is that Iran “maintain territorial integrity and deterrence” in the face of attacks by the U.S. and Israel.

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