May 14, 2026 12:06 AM
Trump’s Iran Story Still Leaves Major Questions
Trump told Congress hostilities with Iran had terminated, but his public rationale for the war has stayed shifting and incomplete.
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Foreign Policy
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Updated May 14, 2026 12:06 AM
Trump’s Iran Story Still Leaves Major Questions
Trump told Congress hostilities with Iran had terminated, but his public rationale for the war has stayed shifting and incomplete.
Recent coverage on this topic
Recent stories ordered by freshness.
May 13, 2026 6:01 AM
Trump heads to Beijing with ceremony doing part of the work
The White House is trying to sell the Beijing trip as momentum, but the real test is whether it gets more than pageantry and a narrow trade nod.
May 11, 2026 6:01 PM
Trump’s Cuba sanctions add pressure, but the escape hatch is still missing
The May 1 Cuba sanctions order and May 7 Treasury action raise the cost of doing business with Havana, but the administration has not spelled out a public path to relief.
May 9, 2026 10:09 PM
Three orders, three statutes, one habit: Trump keeps reaching for unilateral power
In January, April and May, the White House used Section 232 proclamations on semiconductors and on aluminum, steel and copper, then a Cuba sanctions order built on IEEPA, the NEA, INA section 212(f) and 3 U.S.C. 301. The legal tools differ, but the governing pattern is the same: move first, defend the authority later.
May 9, 2026 12:07 AM
Trump’s habit of governing by emergency keeps getting closer scrutiny
The White House spent May 8 in the same broad posture it has used for months: expanding tariffs, sanctions, and other unilateral tools while insisting it is acting in the national interest. But the more Trump leans on emergency powers, the more he invites courts and critics to ask whether he is governing by law or by stunt.
May 8, 2026 12:17 AM
Durham Filing Became a Right-Wing Fact-Chop, Not Proof of Clinton Spying
The Feb. 11, 2022 Durham filing in the Michael Sussmann case was quickly spun into a bigger claim than it supported. The filing did not prove that Hillary Clinton’s campaign spied on Donald Trump, even as allies and conservative media used it to push that story anyway.
May 8, 2026 12:13 AM
Republicans Split On How To Talk About Trump As Ukraine War Roils Politics
As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine entered its second day, Republican leaders largely condemned Vladimir Putin while Trump’s comments and broader influence kept pulling some conservatives back toward the former president’s grievances and instincts.
May 8, 2026 12:13 AM
Trump’s Ukraine spin ran into the basic facts of the invasion
As fighting continued on Feb. 25, 2022, Trump kept trying to fold Russia’s attack on Ukraine into a Biden-era political argument. The problem was simple: Russia had already launched the invasion the day before.
May 8, 2026 12:11 AM
Trump’s Putin Praise Kept Drawing Fire as Russia’s War on Ukraine Deepened
Trump’s remarks praising Vladimir Putin as “smart” and “genius” kept drawing backlash through Feb. 28, 2022, after he made the comments on Feb. 22 and then repeated similar language at CPAC on Feb. 26. Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began on Feb. 24, turning the praise into a sharper political liability.
May 8, 2026 12:05 AM
Trump’s Comey Indictment Starts Looking Like a Revenge Prosecution, Not a Triumph
The Justice Department’s case against James Comey is still meant to project strength, but the record around it keeps feeding the opposite impression: a politically convenient revenge theory, a contested legal basis, and a White House that can’t resist treating the prosecution like a loyalty test. That combination has already turned what the administration wanted as a warning shot into a fresh argument that Trump is using federal power to settle old scores.
May 7, 2026 9:00 PM
Comey indictment lands as Trump’s Justice Department faces politicization questions
A federal grand jury on April 28 indicted former FBI Director James Comey over a May 15, 2025 Instagram post showing seashells arranged as “86 47.” The Justice Department says the post was a threat against President Trump. The case is now a test of whether the administration can prove criminal intent—or whether it just chose a politically radioactive target.
May 7, 2026 12:21 AM
Trump’s Putin Praise Keeps Haunting Republicans as Ukraine War Deepens
Donald Trump’s praise of Vladimir Putin on Feb. 26, 2022 kept forcing Republican leaders to answer for it as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine worsened. By March 4, the focus had shifted to Pence’s public effort to draw a line inside the party against Putin apologists.
May 7, 2026 12:19 AM
Ukraine war sharpened the Trump-Putin split inside the GOP
As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine entered its second week on March 5, 2022, Republicans were trying to condemn Vladimir Putin while managing the political baggage of Donald Trump’s repeated praise for him. Mike Pence’s warning that there was no room in the party for Putin “apologists” made that tension harder to ignore.
May 7, 2026 12:18 AM
CPAC kept putting Trump back at the center of a party that could not stop talking about him
At CPAC in Orlando, which ended Feb. 27, 2022, Donald Trump remained the event’s main attraction even as the gathering was supposed to showcase a broader conservative bench. The result was less a display of party renewal than a reminder of how dependent Republicans still were on his brand.
May 6, 2026 10:07 PM
Trump’s Cuba sanctions still look more like pressure theater than a coherent endgame
The administration’s Cuba sanctions package keeps expanding, but the official documents still leave the most important question unanswered: what would success actually look like?
May 6, 2026 9:03 PM
Trump World keeps mistaking motion for mastery
The record from late April and early May shows a familiar pattern: fast action, heavy branding, and very little evidence that the pieces add up to a clean governing theory.
May 6, 2026 3:02 PM
Trump expands Cuba sanctions, but the goal line stays vague
On May 1, 2026, the White House said President Donald Trump signed an executive order expanding sanctions on Cuba, including blocking measures, travel restrictions and authority to hit foreign financial institutions that facilitate covered transactions. The order is explicit about pressure; it is not explicit about what success would look like.
May 6, 2026 12:02 PM
Trump’s new Cuba sanctions look tough, but they may buy more chaos than leverage
The White House announced new sanctions on Cuban officials and entities on May 1, escalating pressure while reviving questions about whether the administration is building policy or just stacking punishment for headlines.
May 5, 2026 12:18 AM
Trump Needs a Russia Exit Ramp, But Keeps Burning the Map
Trump’s yearslong Russia problem collided with the Ukraine war, forcing him and his allies to talk around old praise, old skepticism, and a fast-changing conflict that made easy slogans harder to sell.
May 5, 2026 12:17 AM
Trump Uses CPAC to Reopen the Same Old Fight
Trump’s February 26 appearance at CPAC in Orlando turned into another familiar performance: election denial, self-congratulation, and a conservative crowd still looking to him for cues. The event underscored how much of the movement remains organized around Trump’s grievances even as Republicans face inflation, Russia’s war on Ukraine, and the midterm calendar.
May 4, 2026 10:10 PM
Trump’s Cuba sanctions order builds on an earlier emergency
Trump’s May 1 Cuba sanctions order expands sanctions exposure under the January 29, 2026 emergency declaration. It targets specified persons and certain foreign financial institutions tied to blocked persons, rather than creating a new emergency or sweeping in all Cuba-related transactions.
May 4, 2026 6:02 PM
Trump’s Cuba sanctions order acts under a January emergency declaration
Trump’s May 1 Cuba order widens sanctions under the January 29, 2026 emergency framework aimed at the Cuban government.
May 4, 2026 10:09 AM
Trump’s governing style still runs on spectacle, not sequence
The White House released separate actions on March 20, March 31 and May 1, 2026, and the through line is less a single rollout than a familiar habit: announce first, explain later.
May 3, 2026 10:09 PM
Cuba sanctions expand, and the White House still won’t say what success looks like
Trump’s May 1 Cuba sanctions order widens the pressure campaign and leaves the administration without a public benchmark for easing it.