Donald Trump has fired Pam Bondi as his attorney general after she desperately pleaded for her job in a late-night White House showdown.

Bondi becomes the second cabinet casualty in less than a month – brought down by months of MAGA fury over her botched handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files, a saga that has dogged Trump’s Justice Department since Day One.

Trump praised Bondi as a ‘great American patriot and a loyal friend’ in a Truth Social post, hailing the ‘tremendous job’ she did in bringing down the murder rate.

‘We love Pam, and she will be transitioning to a much needed and important new job in the private sector, to be announced at a date in the near future,’ Trump wrote. 

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche will serve as acting attorney general until a permanent nominee is picked. Bondi is out of the administration and is expected to transition into the private sector. 

Trump informed the AG last night shortly before his Iran speech that she would soon be leaving the Justice Department, according to a senior administration source.

Bondi, 60, pleaded with the President to keep her job, begging him to give her more time, a senior administration source told the Daily Mail.

‘She was unhappy and tried to change his mind,’ the source said. 

Bondi remained at the White House during Trump’s speech before flying to her home in Florida on Thursday. 

Trump’s reasoning for the sudden dismissal comes in part because the President believes Bondi tipped off Eric Swalwell about the FBI’s efforts to release investigative documents related to his relationship with an alleged Chinese spy.

The FBI was preparing a cache of documents on Swalwell’s relationship with Christine Fang.

‘She’s intervening in those matters. The White House wasn’t pleased she was intervening due to her personal friendship with Swalwell,’ the source added.

It is unclear why Bondi would have intervened, but it is believed that Bondi and Swalwell have a friendly relationship.

Swalwell, a fellow lawyer, has openly criticized her since she took the AG position after failing to prosecute multiple death threats against him and his family.

Swalwell is one of the leading candidate for the California gubernatorial race as a Democrat.

Bondi traveled with Trump on Wednesday to the Supreme Court to watch proceedings for the birthright citizenship case and attended his primetime speech about the war in Iran.

But as the President’s Cabinet gathered to focus on Iran, rumors ricocheted through Washington about Bondi’s replacement.

She’s taken a lower media profile in recent weeks as the President privately excoriates her for failing to prosecute his political enemies who tried to throw him in jail and end his political career.

Bondi’s tenure was marred by her handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files, as the administration faced accusations of a lack of transparency.

Reports have circulated that he is considering tapping MAGA-aligned EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin as her replacement.

‘Let’s hope it’s Zeldin,’ one former Trump administration official told the Daily Mail.

Deputy Attorney General Blanche has also been raising his profile – appearing at CPAC last week, where he received a warm welcome from conservatives.

He told the audience that he went to night school in Brooklyn – rather than an Ivy League – as he was a young father. 

Following Trump’s announcement, Blanche said in a statement: ‘Pam Bondi led this Department with strength and conviction and I’m grateful for her leadership and friendship.

‘Thank you to President Trump for the trust and the opportunity to serve as Acting Attorney General. We will continue backing the blue, enforcing the law, and doing everything in our power to keep America safe.’ 

Bondi, Florida’s attorney general from 2011 to 2019, first attached herself to Trump during the 2016 campaign, using her prosecutorial credentials to defend him on national TV.

Trump’s foundation donated $25,000 to her reelection campaign in 2014.

She went on to speak at the 2016 Republican convention and joined his impeachment defense team in 2020, cementing her place in the loyalist inner circle. 

President Donald Trump addressed the nation Wednesday night, saying the United States’ “core strategic objectives” in Iran are “nearing completion”—just a month after “Operation Epic Fury” began, and warned that the U.S. will hit Tehran “extremely hard” over the next several weeks.

“Tonight, I’m pleased to say that these core strategic objectives are nearing completion,” the president said, touting the United States military and their “extraordinary” efforts.

Here are the top five takeaways from the president’s address: 

Trump says Operation Epic Fury is ‘nearing completion’

President Trump told Americans Wednesday night that after 32 days of Operation Epic Fury, Iran is “essentially really no longer a threat.” 

The president, upon the announcement of Operation Epic Fury, detailed the United States’ objectives. Trump said, “We are systematically dismantling the regime’s ability to threaten America or project power outside of their borders.”

“That means eliminating Iran’s Navy, which is now absolutely destroyed, hurting their Air Force and their missile program at levels never seen before, and annihilating their defense industrial base,” the president said Wednesday night.

INSIDE IRAN’S MILITARY: MISSILES, MILITIAS AND A FORCE BUILT FOR SURVIVAL

“We’ve done all of it,” he continued. “Their Navy is gone. Their Air Force is gone. Their missiles are just about used up or beaten. Taken together, these actions will cripple Iran’s military, crush their ability to support terrorist proxies and deny them the ability to build a nuclear bomb.” 

“Our Armed Forces have been extraordinary,” the president said. “There’s never been anything like it militarily. Everyone is talking about it.” 

“And tonight, I’m pleased to say that these core strategic objectives are nearing completion,” he said.

Meanwhile, the president thanked U.S. allies in the Middle East— “Israel, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the UAE, Kuwait and Bahrain.”

“They’ve been great and we will not let them get hurt or fail in any way, shape or form,” he said.

“I’ve made clear from the beginning of Operation Epic Fury that we will continue until our objectives are fully achieved, thanks to the progress we’ve made,” he said. “I can say tonight that we are on track to complete all of America’s military objectives shortly. Very shortly.”

The president warned that the U.S. is “going to hit them extremely hard over the next 2 to 3 weeks.”

“We’re going to bring them back to the Stone Ages where they belong,” he said. “In the meantime, discussions are ongoing. Regime change was not our goal. We never said regime change, but regime change has occurred because of all of their original leaders’ deaths. They’re all dead. The new group is less radical and much more reasonable.”

Trump says rising gas prices in the US are ‘short term’

Since Operation Epic Fury began, gas prices in the United States have increased. The president acknowledged that development, and expressed confidence that those increases are “short term.”

The average price of a gallon of gas surpassed $4 Tuesday, a first since 2022. 

“Many Americans have been concerned to see the recent rise in gasoline prices here at home,” the president said. “The short-term increase has been entirely the result of the Iranian regime launching deranged terror attacks against commercial oil tankers and neighboring countries that have nothing to do with the conflict.”

WHY TRUMP, IRAN SEEM LIGHT-YEARS APART ON ANY POSSIBLE DEAL TO END THE WAR

“This is yet more proof that Iran can never be trusted with nuclear weapons. They will use them and they will use them quickly. It would lead to decades of extortion, economic pain, and instability worse than we can ever imagine,” the president said. “The United States has never been better prepared economically to confront this threat. You all know that we built the strongest economy in history.”

The president touted the economy under his leadership, saying that he has “taken a dead and crippled country—I hate to say that, but we were dead and crippled country after the last administration—and made it the hottest country anywhere in the world by far, with no inflation, record-setting investments coming into the United States, over $18 trillion and the highest stock market ever with 53 all-time record highs in just one year.”

The president said those economic gains “all positioned us to get rid of a cancer that has long simmered.”

“It’s known as the nuclear Iran, and they didn’t know what was coming. They’ve never imagined it,” he said. “Remember, because of our drill baby drill program, America has plenty of gas. We have so much gas.”

The president said that, under his leadership, the U.S. is the “number one producer of oil and gas on the planet without even discussing the millions of barrels that we’re getting from Venezuela because of the Trump administration’s policies. We produce more oil and gas than Saudi Arabia and Russia combined.”

“Think of that— Saudi Arabia and Russia combined,” he continued. “And that number will soon be substantially higher than that. There’s no country like us anywhere in the world.”

The president stressed that “the hard part is done.”

“When this conflict is over, the strait will open up. Naturally. It’ll just open up naturally. They’re going to want to be able to sell oil because that’s all they have to try and rebuild,” he said. “It will resume the flowing and the gas prices will rapidly come back down.”

The president said it was necessary to “take that little journey to Iran to get rid of this horrible threat with our historic tax cuts, where people are just now talking about receiving larger refunds than they ever thought possible, they are getting so much more money than they thought. That’s from the great big, beautiful bill.”

He added: “Our economy is strong and improving by the day and it will soon be roaring back like never before. It will top the levels that it was a month ago.”

Trump thanks US troops for work in Middle East, Venezuela

The president began his address Wednesday night by thanking U.S. troops for “the massive job they did in taking the country of Venezuela in a matter of minutes.”

“That hit was quick, lethal, violent and respected by everyone all over the world,” Trump said, referring to the January operation.

“We’re working along with Venezuela are, in a true sense, joint venture partners,” Trump said. “We’re getting along incredibly well in the production and sale of massive amounts of oil and gas—The second largest reserves on Earth after the United States of America.”

POLL POSITION: WHERE TRUMP STANDS AMONG AMERICANS AS HE FACES THE NATION IN PRIMETIME

Shifting to Operation Epic Fury and the progress made, the president honored “the 13 American warriors who have laid down their lives and this fight to prevent our children from ever having to face a nuclear Iran.”

“Twice this past month, I have traveled to Dover Air Force Base, and it’s been something I wanted to be with those heroes as they return to American soil,” he said. “And I was with them and their families, their parents, their wives, their husbands.”

“We salute them, and now we must honor them by completing the mission for which they gave their lives,” the president said. “And every single one of the people, their loved one said, please, sir, please finish the job, every one of them, and we are going to finish the job and we’re going to finish it very fast. We’re getting very close.”

Trump urges Americans to keep the Iran conflict ‘in perspective’

“It’s very important that we keep this conflict in perspective,” the president said. “American involvement in World War One lasted one year, seven months and five days.”

“World War Two lasted for three years, eight months and 25 days,” He continued. “The Korean War lasted for three years, one month and two days. The Vietnam War lasted for 19 years, five months and 29 days.”

“Iraq went on for eight years, eight months and 28 days,” the president said.

“We are in this military operation, so powerful, so brilliant against one of the most powerful countries for 32 days,” he said. “And the country has been eviscerated and essentially is really no longer a threat.”

FOX NEWS LIVE UPDATES ON THE U.S. WAR WITH IRAN

Trump said that Iran was “the bully of the Middle East, but they’re the bully no longer.”

“This is a true investment in your children and your grandchildren’s future,” he said. “The whole world is watching and they can’t leave the power, strength and brilliance. They just can’t believe what they’re seeing. They leave it to your imagination, but they can’t believe what they’re seeing—The brilliance of the United States military.”

He added: “Tonight, every American can look forward to a day when we are finally free from the wickedness of Iranian aggression and the specter of nuclear blackmail. Because of the actions we have taken, we are on the cusp of ending Iran’s sinister threat to America and the world. And I’ll tell you, the world is watching.”

Trump rips into Obama’s Iran Nuclear Deal

President Trump said ending former President Barack Obama’s Iran nuclear deal was among his top achievements as president, telling the nation he was “honored” to do it.

“I terminated Barack Hussein Obama’s Iran nuclear deal disaster,” Trump said. “Obama gave them $1.7 billion in cash. Green, green cash took it out of banks from Virginia, DC and Maryland. All the cash they had.”

The president went on to say that Obama “flew it by airplanes in an attempt to buy their respect and loyalty. But it didn’t work.”

“They laughed at our president and went on with their mission to have a nuclear bomb,” Trump said. “His Iran deal would have led to a colossal arsenal of massive nuclear weapons for Iran, and they would have had them years ago, and they would have used him, would have been a different world.”

The president said, “There would have been no Middle East and no Israel right now, in my opinion, the opinion of a lot of great experts, had I not terminated that terrible deal that I was so honored to do it.”

“I was so proud to do it It was so bad right from the beginning,” he said. “Essentially, I did what no other president was willing to do.”

He added: “They made mistakes and I am correcting them.”

The president said his “first preference was always the path of diplomacy, yet the regime continued their relentless quest for nuclear weapons and rejected every attempt at an agreement.”

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“For this reason, in June, I ordered a strike on Iran’s key nuclear facilities and Operation Midnight Hammer. And nobody’s ever seen anything like it. Those beautiful B-2 bombers performed magnificently,” he said. “We totally obliterated those nuclear sites.”

But the president said the Iranian regime “then sought to rebuild their nuclear program at a totally different location, making clear they had no intention of abandoning their pursuit of nuclear weapons.”

The Supreme Court on Wednesday pressed the lawyer for the Trump administration on so-called “birthright citizenship” protections in the U.S., part of a landmark court challenge that could upend more than a century of legal precedent and executive branch policy. 

The questions come as justices weighed the legality of the executive order Trump signed on his first day back in office. The order in question seeks to end automatic citizenship — or “birthright citizenship” — for nearly all persons born in the U.S. to undocumented parents, or to parents with temporary non-immigrant visas in the U.S. 

As oral arguments kicked off, justices appeared somewhat skeptical of the Trump administration’s arguments, including its view of the 14th Amendment, and pressed the Trump administration’s lawyer, U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer, on the administration’s reading of the citizenship clause.

Chief Justice John Roberts told Sauer that he viewed one of the key arguments made by the Trump administration in its case as “quirky.”

FEDERAL JUDGE BLOCKS TRUMP’S BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP BAN FOR ALL INFANTS, TESTING LOWER COURT POWERS

“You obviously put a lot of weight on [the] ‘subject to the jurisdiction thereof’ issue,” Roberts told Sauer. He noted the administration cited “children of ambassadors, children of enemies during a hostile invasion, children on warships. And then you expand it to a whole class of illegal aliens here in the country,” Roberts said. “I’m not quite sure how you can get to that big group from such tiny and sort of idiosyncratic examples.”

Justices Amy Coney Barrett and Neil Gorsuch also expressed skepticism during early questions, and pressed Sauer on key issues of precedent, enforcement, and the text of the citizenship clause itself.

“We’re in a new world now,” Sauer said, noting that “some 8 billion people are one plane ride away from having a child who’s a U.S. citizen.”

“It’s a new world, but it’s the same constitution,” Roberts said in response.

Trump’s executive order was immediately met with a flurry of federal lawsuits last year, and to date, no U.S. court has sided with the administration on the issue.

Trump himself attended Supreme Court oral arguments, making him the first sitting U.S. president to do so. Other administration officials, including Attorney General Pam Bondi, were also in the audience. 

TRUMP TO BEGIN ENFORCING BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP ORDER AS EARLY AS THIS MONTH, DOJ SAYS

 SUPREME COURT SIGNALS IT MAY LIMIT KEY VOTING RIGHTS ACT RULE

A ruling in Trump’s favor would represent a seismic shift for immigration policy in the U.S., and would upend long-held notions of citizenship that Trump and his allies argue are misguided.

It would also yield immediate, operational consequences for infants born in the U.S., putting the impetus on Congress and the Trump administration to immediately act to clarify their status. 

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A decision from the high court is expected by late June. 

President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed a sweeping executive order targeting mail-in voting and voter eligibility, calling the move a major step toward restoring confidence in U.S. elections.

Speaking from the Oval Office, Trump said the order is focused on “voter integrity and Mail-In ballots” and on “stopping the massive cheating that’s gone on.”

“We’re going to be signing an executive order,” Trump said. “It’s, I believe it’s foolproof… I think it’s very obvious what’s said.”

The order directs federal agencies to work with states to compile lists of eligible voters using federal citizenship and identity data, while also instructing the U.S. Postal Service to develop new safeguards for mail-in ballots, including barcode tracking and verification measures.

TRUMP REVEALS TOP ISSUES GOP SHOULD FOCUS ON TO SECURE MIDTERMS VICTORY: ‘I’VE NEVER BEEN MORE CONFIDENT’

Under the order, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) working with the Social Security Administration and other federal databases, will create and share “State Citizenship Lists” with state election officials. 

The lists are intended to identify individuals confirmed to be U.S. citizens who will be at least 18 years old by the time of a federal election and who reside in that state.

Those lists are to be updated and transmitted to states ahead of federal elections, according to the order.

The order also directs the attorney general to prioritize investigations and potential prosecutions involving officials or others who issue ballots to individuals not eligible to vote in federal elections, as well as those involved in the “printing, production, shipment, or distribution of ballots” to ineligible voters.

SCOTUS CONSERVATIVES SIGNAL READINESS TO CURB LATE-ARRIVING MAIL BALLOTS

On mail ballots, the executive order calls on the postmaster general to initiate a rule-making process within 60 days. Proposed changes include requiring ballots to be clearly marked as official election mail, including a unique Intelligent Mail barcode or similar tracking technology, and undergoing Postal Service design review.

The order also outlines a system under which states would notify USPS if they plan to use mail-in or absentee ballots and provide lists of eligible voters, allowing the Postal Service to maintain participation records tied to ballot distribution.

Trump framed the changes as a direct response to what he described as longstanding vulnerabilities in voting by mail.

NOEM BACKS SAVE AMERICA ACT, SLAMS ‘RADICAL LEFT’ OPPOSITION TO VOTER IDS AND PROOF OF CITIZENSHIP

“The cheating on mail-in voting is legendary,” he said. “It’s horrible what’s going on.”

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the administration is pushing for a system that ties each ballot to a trackable envelope.

“If you voted by mail, you will have it on the envelope,” Lutnick said. “There’ll be a million envelopes… and you’ll be able to know exactly correctly, that citizens voted.”

Trump said additional election-related measures, including voter ID and proof of citizenship requirements, are also under consideration.

“We’d like to have voter ID, we’d like to have proof of citizenship… we’re working on that,” he said.

He also argued that opposition to such measures is politically motivated.

“The only people that don’t want to do voter ID are people that cheat,” Trump said.

Trump acknowledged the order could face legal challenges but said he believes it will withstand them.

“I don’t know how it can be challenged,” Trump said after signing the order. “You may find a rogue judge… but that’s the only way that could be changed.”

The executive order states that voting in federal elections is reserved “exclusively for citizens of the United States” and argues that additional safeguards are necessary to “maintain public confidence in election outcomes.” It also says that ballot identifiers such as barcodes can help ensure that only eligible voters receive and cast ballots.

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Within minutes of Trump signing the order, top elections officials in Oregon and Arizona pledged to sue, arguing the president was illegally encroaching on states’ authority to run elections, according to The Associated Press.

Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes said the state’s vote-by-mail system, originally designed by Republicans, is now used by about 80% of voters.

Arizona does not need the federal government to determine voter eligibility, and federal data is not always reliable, Fontes said.

Trump cast the issue in much broader terms.

“If you don’t have honest voting,” he said, “you can’t have really a nation.”

President Donald Trump’s $400 million White House ballroom project was temporarily halted Tuesday by a federal judge. 

The National Trust for Historic Preservation had sued the Trump administration after the destruction last fall of the White House’s East Wing. 

The preservation group had most recently argued in court that Trump needed Congressional approval before making such major changes to the White House.  

U.S. District Judge Richard Leon wrote in his decision that no statute ‘comes close’ to giving the President the authority to take on the project without Congressional oversight. 

‘The President of the United States is the steward of the White House for future generations of First Families. He is not, however, the owner!’ Leon wrote.

Leon approved the Trust’s request to have work stopped on the ballroom project amid the legal fight. 

He gave a two-week grace period for the implementation of his order and said construction could continue on portions of the project relevant to the security of the White House. 

‘It is not too late for Congress to authorize the continued construction of the ballroom project,’ he wrote. ‘The President may at any time go to Congress to obtain express authority to construct a ballroom and to do so with private funds.’ 

The judge, an appointee of Republican President George W. Bush, previously said he believed his decision would be appealed and the case could end up in the Supreme Court.

It was, with the White House appealing the case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. 

‘President Trump clearly has the legal authority to modernize, renovate, and beautify the White House – just like all of his predecessors did. We will immediately appeal this egregious decision and are confident we will prevail,’ spokesperson Davis Ingle told the Daily Mail in a statement. 

The President had responded to the news Tuesday with a furious Truth Social post.

In it, he labeled the National Trust for Historic Preservation a ‘Radical Left Group of Lunatics.’

He then bemoaned how the White House ballroom and his takeover of the Kennedy Center have been the subject of lawsuits, but not the Federal Reserve headquarters renovations nor California Governor Gavin Newsom’s ‘RAILROAD TO NOWHERE.’ 

‘So, the White House Ballroom, and The Trump Kennedy Center, which are under budget, ahead of schedule, and will be among the most magnificent Buildings of their kind anywhere in the World, gets sued by a group that was cut off by Government years ago, but all of the many DISASTERS in our Country are left alone to die,’ Trump posted. ‘Doesn’t make much sense, does it?’ 

The National Trust for Historic Preservation is a Congressionally chartered organization that was funded by the federal government for 30 years after the passage of the National Historic Preservation Act. 

It now lives off private donations.   

The group cheered Leon’s decision in a statement.

‘We are pleased with Judge Leon’s ruling today to order a halt to any further ballroom construction until the Administration complies with the law and obtains express authorization to go forward,’ said Carol Quillen, the president and CEO of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. 

‘This is a win for the American people on a project that forever impacts one of the most beloved and iconic places in our nation,’ she added.

The Trust sued the Trump administration in December after the East Wing had already been turned to rubble and the White House had refused to ensure proper government oversight of the project. 

Trump had argued that approvals weren’t necessary due to the project being completely funded by private donations.

The East Wing demolition had been a shock to many, as neither Trump nor White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt had been fully transparent about the plans to tear down the area commonly used to house the offices of the First Lady.

Before the ballroom project began, Trump appointed his Staff Secretary, Will Scharf, to head the National Capital Planning Commission, one of the two panels that generally signs off on federal construction projects in the region. 

Scharf said the NCPC doesn’t oversee demolitions, allowing the East Wing destruction to go unchallenged. 

The Trust pushed the Trump administration to go through the traditional review processes used for these types of projects.

However Trump had stacked the NCPC and the Commission of Fine Arts, the other review group, with aides and allies. 

In February, the Commission of Fine Arts, which commissioners include the President’s 26-year-old executive assistant, fast-tracked the ballroom’s approval without viewing the final design. 

On Thursday, the NCPC is expected to do the same thing during the group’s April meeting. 

In March, dozens of experts and citizens testified to NCPC commissioners over Zoom about the project.

Only one person, in hours of testimony, talked about it positively.

Architects, preservationists and average Americans called it ‘ugly’ and complained about its immense size. 

War Secretary Pete Hegseth reportedly removed multiple officers from a military promotion list — a decision that diverges from standard practice and is now under review at the White House, a U.S. official told Fox News Digital.

The list included candidates for dozens of senior roles, but four were removed after they had been approved by a promotions board. 

The U.S. official said the officers were not under investigation and were not facing misconduct allegations, and that no formal explanation for the decision was provided to military leadership.

PETE HEGSETH TOUTS HIGHER PHYSICAL STANDARDS FOR MILITARY, SAYS ‘SO BE IT’ IF IT EXCLUDES WOMEN

Fox News Digital has learned that Army Secretary Dan Driscoll initially declined to remove the officers from the promotion list before Hegseth ultimately intervened to strike their names. The disagreement caught the attention of the White House, an official said, which reviews the revised promotion list before it is sent to the Senate. 

Initial New York Times reporting and congressional criticism have focused in part on claims that some of the officers removed were women and minorities, prompting military officials to question whether they were singled out on account of race or gender — an assertion Pentagon officials have strongly disputed.

Chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said in response: “This story, like many others at the failing New York Times is full of fake news from anonymous sources who have no idea what they’re talking about and are far removed from actual decision-makers within the Pentagon.”

“Under Secretary Hegseth, military promotions are given to those who have earned them,” he went on. “Meritocracy, which reigns in this department, is apolitical and unbiased.” 

Pentagon chief of staff Ricky Buria added: “This is completely false. Whoever placed this made up story is clearly trying to sow division among our ranks and within the department and the administration. It’s not going to work, and it never will work when this department is led by clear-eyed, mission driven leaders unfazed by Washington gossip.”

The Pentagon has not publicly detailed the specific rationale behind the reported removals.

The reported move has drawn scrutiny on Capitol Hill, where senior military promotions require Senate confirmation. Individual lawmakers can delay or block nominations through procedural holds.

Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said that if the reports are accurate, removing officers after a promotion board already has selected them based on merit and performance would be “outrageous” and potentially unlawful.

Military promotions to senior ranks typically are vetted through formal boards and approved as a group, with limited intervention at the individual level.

According to multiple reports, one of the officers removed from the list served in a logistics role during the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, while another had previously authored academic work examining why Black service members are more likely to serve in support roles.

The U.S. official said those explanations had not been formally communicated as justification for the decision.

PETE HEGSETH SLASHES MILITARY ‘FAITH CODES’ FROM OVER 200 TO 31 IN PENTAGON CHAPLAIN CORPS OVERHAUL\

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said: “Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth have launched an unprecedented politicization of the military promotion process, most recently, reportedly blocking promotions for Black and female officers,” Wyden said.

Wyden on Wednesday placed holds on the promotions of Marine Lt. Col. Vincent Noble, Col. Thomas Siverts and Navy Lt. Cmdr. Thomas MacNeil, citing past wartime controversies and concerns about judgment.

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The White House could not immediately be reached for comment. 

President Donald Trump said Sunday that the military is constructing a “massive complex” beneath a planned White House ballroom, which he said will feature bulletproof glass and drone-proof protections while being funded entirely by private donors.

The project, which Trump said is designed to accommodate large events and visiting dignitaries, would expand capacity at the White House, where he said existing rooms are too small for major gatherings.

“The military is building a massive complex under the ballroom, and that’s under construction, and we’re doing very well,” Trump said. 

Trump said the underground construction is already underway and tied to broader security measures surrounding the site, describing the ballroom as serving a dual purpose tied to what is being built beneath it.

DEMS MOVE TO SET LIMITS ON TRUMP’S DONOR-FUNDED WHITE HOUSE BALLROOM, CLAIMING ‘BRIBERY IN PLAIN SIGHT’

The ballroom itself will include a range of security upgrades, including reinforced materials and structural protections designed to guard against modern threats.

“We have all bulletproof glass. We have drone-proof roofs, ceilings,” Trump said. “Everything is drone-proof and bulletproof, and unfortunately, we’re living in an age where that’s a good thing.”

Trump said the project is being privately funded and will not rely on taxpayer dollars, emphasizing that the ballroom is being financed through personal contributions and outside donors.

FEDERAL JUDGE QUESTIONS TRUMP AUTHORITY ON WHITE HOUSE BALLROOM PROJECT

The ballroom proposal was approved in February by the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, which fast-tracked the roughly $400 million project following a unanimous vote of 6-0.

The project will be built on the site of the former East Wing, which was demolished in October, and is expected to significantly expand the White House’s capacity for large events.

Previous administrations have long relied on temporary structures to host major gatherings, as the old East Wing dining room had just a 200-seat capacity.

MICHELLE OBAMA TAKES SWIPE AT TRUMP’S DEMOLITION OF WHITE HOUSE EAST WING

“All of the money paid is paid by myself and donors…it’s all donors,” Trump said. “There’s not one dime of government money going into the ballroom.”

He added that construction is progressing quickly and remains on track, describing the effort as both ahead of schedule and under budget as work continues.

“We’re ahead of schedule and under budget,” Trump said.

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Trump also described the ballroom as being designed to match the look and scale of the White House, including its height and architectural style, calling it a tribute to the historic building.

“I think it’ll be the greatest ballroom anywhere in the world,” Trump said. “It pays total homage to the White House, which is, I think, very important.”

By NIKKI SCHWAB, CHIEF CAMPAIGN CORRESPONDENT

Published: 12:02 EDT, 16 March 2026 | Updated: 12:12 EDT, 16 March 2026

A former senior aide to Donald Trump has told Metro that the President is in a ‘vulnerable position’ with his war in Iran – and doesn’t know how to get out of it.

Since the US launched joint strikes in Iran with Israel more than two weeks ago, the oil industry has been thrown into chaos, neighbouring countries have been struck with missiles, and 13 US soldiers have been killed.

At the time, Trump said his reasons for the strikes on February 28 were he believed Iran was going to attack the US first – something that his own officials have since told Congress that there was no intelligence suggesting this.

Trump also said he hoped to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons, something Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has also said, adding: ‘We didn’t start this war… but under President Trump, we’re finishing it.’

When the conflict began, only 41% of Americans approved of the intervention – far lower than support for any other US conflict in decades.

Now, John Robert Bolton, Trump’s former national security advisor from 2018 to 2019, told Metro that there is a strong case for regime change in Iran, but Trump hasn’t made this clear to the American public – something which could come back to haunt him.

He said: ‘You’ve always got to be prudent, but when a country is seeking weapons of mass destruction—chemical, biological, or nuclear—and engaging in international terrorism while repressing its own people, it is a problem,’ he warned.

‘If you wait too long to deal with it, as we did with North Korea, it becomes a bigger problem. It goes to what Churchill said regarding appeasement: “This just confirms the unteachability of mankind.”

‘You go through this over and over again; you don’t strike when it’s easy, you wait until it’s too late, and then you pay the price.’

Trump’s biggest mistake in Iran

Having served under Trump for two years in his first administration, former US ambassador to the United Nations Bolton said the President needed to convince America why going after Iran would be to their benefit – but so far, he hasn’t.

‘Trump didn’t make it clear to the public, to Congress, or to the Allies. It’s not too late, but it’s getting close,’ he said.

‘By failing to make the case, he has put himself in a vulnerable position. He knows he’s in a difficult place, and he doesn’t know how to get out of it,’ Bolton added.

This is a ‘war of choice’

Ambassador Bolton told Metro that while Iran was not considered an ‘imminent threat’, its nuclear programme was getting ‘too close for comfort’.

‘People say this is a “war of choice.” It is. It’s a preventive war to prevent the need to do something else in much more dangerous circumstances,’ he explained.

Referring to the US’ Iraq War in 2003, he added: ‘By the late 1990s, Saddam didn’t have centrifuges spinning, but he had kept together approximately 3,000 scientists and technicians who could rebuild the program.

‘That was the point: they have the knowledge. Iran may not have centrifuges spinning today, but they know how to put them back together.’

When a country is ‘seeking weapons of mass destruction and engaging in international terrorism while suppressing its own people’, it’s a problem, he added.

‘The lesson to us is: don’t be so patient. If a proliferator has enough patience and gets nuclear weapons, it becomes difficult, if not impossible, to take its program out without grave risk,’ Bolton said.

‘If the US had attacked Iran 20 years ago, it would have spared the region ‘a lot of pain and suffering’.

Trump needs to work with the opposition in Iran

The opposition movement in Iran is extremely widespread, but not organised, Ambassador Bolton points out.

Still, working with dissidents inside the country could prove vital for Trump’s goals of regime change in the country.

‘Dissatisfaction with the regime has never been higher. It is weaker than at any point since it took power in 1979,’ Ambassador Bolton argued.

‘People age 30 and under—who make up two-thirds of the population—know they could have a different life. They can see it across the Gulf; they can see it on the internet when the government lets the internet operate.’

After the 2022 murder of Mahsa Amini, a Kurdish woman in Iran who was beaten and killed by police because she refused to wear the hijab, anti-government protests surged.

The murder of Amini prompted the ‘Women, Life, Freedom’ movement, which Bolton said is significant, because: ‘Once you challenge the Ayatollahs’ legitimacy, in effect, you are challenging the state.’ 

Knock-on effects cripple the Middle East

Gulf states are still suffering from missile and drone attacks after Tehran threatened to widen its campaign as the war in the Middle East entered its third week.

Iranian strikes have killed at least a dozen civilians in Gulf states, most of them migrant workers.

Yesterday, President Trump said he hoped allies would send warships to secure the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran has fired hundreds of missiles and drones at Arab Gulf neighbours during the war, but it has said it was targeting US assets, even as hits or attempts were reported on civilian ones such as airports and oil fields.

As global anxiety soars over oil prices and supplies, Trump said on Saturday that he hopes China, France, Japan, the UK, South Korea and others send warships to keep the Strait of Hormuz ‘open and safe’.

But Iran’s joint military command has reiterated its threat to attack US-linked ‘oil, economic and energy infrastructures’ in the region if the Islamic Republic’s oil infrastructure is hit.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.

MORE: First pictures of the US soldiers killed in Iraq military plane crash

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MORE: Dubai influencers say people who are fleeing city during Iran War are ‘ungrateful’

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White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt lost her cool with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins as she was grilled over US troops killed in Donald Trump’s war with Iran.

Collins pressed Leavitt at Wednesday’s White House briefing over comments by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who blasted media outlets for highlighting the deaths of six US service members killed in an Iranian drone strike in Kuwait.  

Collins asked whether the administration believes the press should avoid prominently covering the deaths of troops in Trump’s war in the Middle East.

Trump’s fiery press secretary replied, ‘That’s not what the secretary said, Kaitlan…and you know it.’ 

‘You and your network know that you take every single thing this administration says and try to use it to make the president look bad.’

Collins added, ‘I don’t think covering troop deaths is trying to make the president look bad.’

Leavitt shot back, ‘If you’re trying to argue right now that CNN’s overwhelming coverage is not negative of President Trump, I think the American people would tend to disagree, and your ratings would tend to disagree with that as well.’

Hegseth had earlier accused journalists of trying to ‘make the president look bad’ by drawing attention to the troop deaths, which occurred days after Trump launched ‘Operation Epic Fury.’ 

Leavitt, 28, and Collins, 33, have a long history of battling in the press briefing room in front of the cameras.

Collins has covered Trump’s presidency and his three presidential campaigns for nearly a decade. 

Her pointed questioning has repeatedly blown up into on-camera confrontations over Trump’s foreign and domestic policy.  

She grilled Leavitt in November over Trump’s description of a video featuring six Democratic lawmakers telling members of the military and intelligence community: ‘You can refuse illegal orders.’ 

At the time, Leavitt told reporters several times that the lawmakers – all veterans – were urging the military to refuse ‘lawful orders.’

Collins quizzed Leavitt again in December over the President’s economic record, with Leavitt insisting the press corps was going harder on her than it had on her predecessors during Joe Biden’s tenure.  

The feuds play out against the backdrop of Warner Bros Discovery, CNN’s parent company, being sold to Paramount – with Trump having previously expressed his desire to see Collins’ employer offloaded as part of the deal. 

Despite their adversarial relationship, Leavitt has defended Collins from Saudi authorities during overseas presidential trips. 

Collins was nearly barred from a press event in Saudi Arabia after an awkward exchange with Trump in front of the country’s leader, only for Leavitt to intervene on her behalf. 

‘They famously do not like the media there,’ Collins said in an interview with the Absolutely Not Podcast in February.

After the officials left the room, Collins said the ‘Saudi Royal Guard kind of freaked out because I dared to ask a question.’ 

‘They’re not used to that there, because they don’t have a free press,’ she explained.

Moments later, she was informed she would not be allowed into the next event because of her actions.

White House staff noticed the confrontation and ran to Leavitt, who stepped in to save Collins.

‘To her credit, she said: ‘No, Kaitlan is coming in with the rest of the US press.”

‘I do think its important in that moment, especially when you’re kind of the US contingent abroad, and we don’t do things like they do in Saudi Arabia,’ Collins added.

Trump’s war with Iran has spiraled into a wider regional conflict after Tehran unleashed retaliatory strikes across the Middle East. 

Iranian missiles and drones have targeted US military bases, Israel, and several Gulf nations following the killing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday.

The US and Israel were preparing to ramp up bombing missions over Iran on Wednesday as Hegseth vowed ‘we’re just getting started.’ 

‘Four days in we have only just begun,’ Hegseth said. ‘Now with complete control of the skies, we will be using 500-pound, 1,000-pound and 2,000-pound GPS and laser-guided precision gravity bombs of which we have a nearly unlimited stockpile.’

Hegseth said the US had opened the campaign with ‘exquisite standoff munitions,’ sophisticated long-range weapons designed to strike from beyond the reach of enemy air defenses.

He said those munitions were no longer needed, pushing back at reports of stretched supplies with the assurance that ‘our stockpile of those remains extremely strong.’

A US submarine sunk an Iranian warship with a torpedo off the coast of Sri Lanka overnight, the first time such an attack has been launched since WWII. Some 148 men are presumed to have drowned.

Hegseth also claimed that the leader of a unit that had attempted to Trump had been ‘hunted down and killed’.

Trump’s war in the Middle East has triggered a dramatic collapse in his approval ratings, the latest Daily Mail/J.L. Partners poll shows.