Trump Suggests He Was on the Brink of Breaking Iran Ceasefire

The president wrote on social media that he was prepared to attack Iran but was persuaded not to by the United States’s Gulf allies.

President Trump said that he was planning to attack Iran Tuesday, but has been convinced otherwise by the U.S.’s Gulf allies.

“I have been asked by the Emir of Qatar, Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, and the President of the United Arab Emirates, Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, to hold off on our planned Military attack of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which was scheduled for tomorrow, in that serious negotiations are now taking place, and that, in their opinion, as Great Leaders and Allies, a Deal will be made, which will be very acceptable to the United States of America, as well as all Countries in the Middle East, and beyond,” Trump posted on Truth Social Monday afternoon.

However, Trump added that while he has instructed Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine, and other military leaders to hold off, he wrote that he has “further instructed them to be prepared to go forward with a full, large scale assault of Iran, on a moment’s notice, in the event that an acceptable Deal is not reached.”

Trump has been alternatively issuing angry warnings and claiming that a deal is close for weeks now, so one wonders how true this post actually is. The president is also known for changing his mind as his own deadlines draw close, raising the question of whether this is a desperate ploy to pressure Iran into accepting a deal.

Earlier on Monday morning, Fox News host Brian Kilmeade urged Trump to break the current ceasefire with Iran and use military force to seize the country’s enriched uranium, target its current leaders, and retake the Strait of Hormuz. For now, at least, Trump appears not to have listened. The war has badly damaged Trump’s approval numbers, bringing them to a new second-term low. At this point, even a complete reversal may not change Americans’ minds.

How Team Trump Helps Hide How Fast He’s Aging

Donald Trump is in obvious physical decline—but you wouldn’t know it from how his team tells it.

The president’s increasingly erratic behavior may be a sign of his rapid aging.

Donald Trump has always been loud and unfiltered; his figure, at six foot three inches tall and 224 pounds, is imposing. His penchant for drawing attention has not waned, even as he approaches his 80th birthday. By all means, Trump appears, perhaps more than ever, to be everywhere.

Yet over the last several months, Trump’s hallmark character traits have sparked global concern about his stability and judgement. The 79-year-old has spent hours at Walter Reed Medical Center, fallen asleep during more than a dozen critical meetings, appeared lost and disoriented around foreign heads of state, frequently slurred his speech, appeared with discolored and bruised skin on several occasions, has thrown cheap and petty insults at members of the press, challenged longstanding U.S. alliances, and even taken jabs at the pope.

His bombastic attitude and careless disregard is no longer instilling confidence in his base—instead, The Atlantic’s Jonathan Lemire suggests that Trump’s increasingly leaky filter could be an important warning sign about Trump’s old age.

In contrast, former President Joe Biden was visibly thinner and weaker as he approached 80. To avoid embarrassing public flubs, Biden withdrew from the spotlight, handing his aides the public-facing reins of the administration while he managed the country from a quiet White House.

Trump has not approached his second term in office with the same caution. The president regularly dominates headlines and steals the spotlight. That’s a clear attempt to create a public perception that Trump is just as fine as he’s always been—but there are major differences between the 79-year-old Trump and his 70-year-old self when he first entered office.

For one, Trump has dramatically scaled back his travel, according to Lemire. He is taking fewer foreign trips, and his domestic travel schedule has dwindled in comparison to his first term.

His “displays of disinhibition” are also more pronounced, writes Lemire. Trump’s famously unscripted rants now prominently feature multi-minute deflections or tangents on completely unrelated topics in which Trump will sometimes refer to himself in the third person.

Trump has prioritized his “executive time” in the morning, in which he binges cable television and uses his phone, and has fallen in love with $145 Florsheim loafers, swapping his dressier shoes for the soft-cushioned leather oxfords.

Trump’s team has circled the wagons: They insist repeatedly on his health and mental sharpness. Many of his Cabinet gladly wear the (poorly sized) Florsheims Trump has bought them. Lemire posited that the latter move was so Trump’s own shoes don’t stand out.

Trump has also enjoyed more leisure than ever: So far, the president has spent more than a fifth of his second term—about 21.95 percent—golfing. Trump has hit the links at least 106 times since he returned to office, which puts him on pace to exceed the 307 days he spent golfing over the course of his first term.

Former President Barack Obama, in comparison, racked up a total of 333 rounds of golf over eight years in office.

The American public is apparently wising up to Trump’s age: A Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll released last week found that 59 percent of Americans do not believe that Trump has the mental acuity to lead the country.

ICE Agent Charged With Four Counts of Assault in Minneapolis

The Hennepin County District Court charged ICE’s Christian J. Castro after he fired his gun at a Venezuelan immigrant and then lied about it.

On Monday, Hennepin County District Court charged ICE agent Christian J. Castro over the shooting of Venezuelan immigrant Julio Sosa-Celis on January 14—in the middle of “Operation Metro Surge”—with four counts of second-degree assault with a deadly weapon and one count of falsely reporting a crime.

Castro had not been previously identified. Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty told the Minnesota Star Tribune they found out who he was thanks to medical records from Castro, who visited a hospital right after the shooting, and an interview by state law enforcement where the shooting took place.

At the time, the........

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