CEASEFIRE EXTENDED: The president said Tuesday the ceasefire with Iran would be extended indefinitely while negotiations continue, reversing course after he previously indicated resistance to waiting longer to renew strikes.
Trump said he agreed to the extension at the request of Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Field Marshall Asim Munir, who have served as mediators trying to arrange a permanent peace deal between the two sides.
He wrote in a post on Truth Social that he made the decision because the Iranian government is “seriously fractured.”
“I have therefore directed our Military to continue the Blockade and, in all other respects, remain ready and able, and will therefore extend the Ceasefire until such time as their proposal is submitted, and discussions are concluded, one way or the other,” Trump said.
The announcement came as a potential second round of talks between the U.S. and Iran remained in limbo, with the clock ticking on the two-week ceasefire agreed to earlier this month, which was set to expire Wednesday evening EDT.
But Tehran hadn’t committed to sending a delegation to the negotiations as it pushed back against Trump’s threats and accused the U.S. of violating the ceasefire. Iran’s state-run news agency Tasnim reported that the country’s negotiating team told the U.S. through Pakistan that it wouldn’t attend the talks.
Vice President Vance was set to lead the U.S. delegation to Islamabad but reportedly suspended his trip in the hours before the president's announcement.
A White House official said in a statement after Trump’s announcement that Vance and the negotiating team would not travel to Pakistan on Tuesday. It didn’t provide additional updates about a potential future in-person meeting.
▪ BBC: Iran faces layoffs from war.
▪ CNBC: Timeline of oil price shock and what comes next.
LAST-MINUTE EXIT: Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-Fla.) resigned from her House seat, just minutes before she faced a potential expulsion vote from the House Ethics Committee.
A subcommittee of the panel found last month that she committed 25 ethical violations of congressional standards.
She is also facing criminal charges tied to allegations that she stole millions of dollars in federal disaster-relief funds for her campaign. She has pleaded not guilty and denied wrongdoing.
Cherfilus-McCormick argued in the statement announcing her resignation that the ethics investigation was not a “fair process” and threatened to undermine her defense in the criminal case.
“Rather than play these political games, I choose to step away so that I can devote my time to fighting for my neighbors in Florida’s 20th district. I hereby resign from the 119th Congress, effective immediately,” she said.
With her resignation, House Republicans have a little extra breathing room for their narrow majority, holding a 217-213 advantage, with one independent caucusing with the GOP. But questions remain about the future of embattled Rep. Cory Mills (R-Fla.), who is also facing multiple controversies.
▪ CNBC: Cherfilus-McCormick is third House member to quit this month.
▪ The Hill: Mills, Mace feud turns into tit-for-tat expulsion threats.
SENATE GRILLING: Trump’s nominee for Federal Reserve chair, Kevin Warsh, sought to assure senators that he believes in the agency’s ability to maintain its independence during a confirmation hearing before the Senate Banking Committee on Tuesday.
Warsh faced grilling from senators as he seeks to succeed Fed Chair Jerome Powell, fielding questions on a range of topics including the Fed’s independence and his plans to divest his financial assets.
“I’m committed to ensuring that the conduct of monetary policy remains strictly independent,” Warsh said in his opening remarks.
His comments earned praise from Republicans but didn’t smooth over concerns from Democrats. They also didn’t convince Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) to waver from withholding his support for the nomination.
Tillis praised Warsh during the hearing but said he would continue to oppose confirming him until the DOJ ends its investigation into Powell.
The president has regularly pressed Powell to be more aggressive in lowering rates and said he believes Warsh should do so if he becomes chair.
Read more about what happened at the hearing from The Hill’s Julia Shapero here.
▪ The Hill: Warsh declines to say who won the 2020 election.
▪ Reuters: Five things learned at Warsh’s hearing.
SALARY WARNING: Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin warned his department will no longer be able to pay employees’ salaries starting early next month as the partial government shutdown continues without an imminent end in sight.
Mullin told Fox News in an interview on Tuesday that the president’s order directing funds from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act to pay Department of Homeland Security (DHS) staff is covering costs in the short term. But he said the money is set to be “dried up” by the first week of May.
“So, the money is going extremely fast, and once that happens, there is no emergency funds after that,” he said.
Efforts to restore funding for DHS took a step forward Tuesday as Senate Republicans released a budget resolution to fully fund U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol for three and a half years. That resolution is intended to be passed through the reconciliation process, which would allow it to advance without Democratic votes.
The GOP is hoping to vote to advance the resolution later this week.
The Senate has already passed a measure to cover all DHS agencies except for ICE and Border Patrol. But the House hasn’t taken it up yet, as conservatives are demanding immigration enforcement be funded first.
▪ The Hill: House GOP resisting Senate bill until ICE funding passed.
▪ The Hill: Republicans fear more shutdowns under Trump.
PULLING BACK: Prosecutors seeking to establish a case against former CIA Director John Brennan reportedly rescinded subpoenas for witnesses to testify before a grand jury just days after issuing them.
People familiar with the investigation told The New York Times that DOJ officials didn't explain the reason for the change when informing the witnesses' lawyers. It came days after the DOJ removed its lead prosecutor who had overseen the case for months, Maria Medetis Long.
Joe diGenova, a Trump loyalist, was placed in charge of the probe instead.
The inquiry is the latest in the DOJ's push to investigate longtime rivals of the president. It's focusing on testimony that Brennan gave before Congress about the intelligence assessment that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election, seeking to help Trump win.
The sources told the Times that several former national security officials involved in drafting the assessment agreed to participate in voluntary interviews with FBI agents. But the subpoenas were issued after Medetis Long's ouster, taking some veteran prosecutors by surprise.
DIPPING DOWN: The president's approval rating reached a new second-term low in the latest poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, dropping to 33 percent.
That's a drop of 5 points from the pollster's previous survey conducted last month. Two-thirds of respondents said they disapproved of Trump's job performance this month, the highest mark of his second term.
The results come as his approval numbers have taken a hit in recent weeks amid the war in Iran and its impacts on the economy. Pollsters found 70 percent of respondents said they disapproved of Trump's handling of the economy, while just 30 percent approved.
Only about a quarter said they approved of his handling of the cost of living.
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