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Trump keeps world guessing on Iran Morning Report | 19 minutes ago

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Trump keeps world guessing on Iran

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▪ High-stakes Iran talks taking place in Geneva

▪ FBI purge tied to Trump classified docs case

▪ Hillary Clinton testifies in Epstein probe

▪ Trump’s call to action for GOP

President Trump is pushing for a diplomatic solution with Iran while justifying the possibility of taking military action, keeping the international community on its toes about his ultimate plan.

U.S. and Iranian negotiators are meeting again in Geneva, Switzerland, today for the third round of talks on restricting Iran’s nuclear program. The stakes are even higher for these discussions, as the clock is ticking on the president’s timeline for reaching a deal.

Trump hasn’t publicly given a specific deadline for Iran to reach a deal or else face military force, but he said last week that he expected a deal should be attainable within 10 to 15 days, suggesting the U.S. would strike Iran if that couldn’t happen.

He doubled down during his State of the Union address on his dual stance of hoping for diplomacy to prevail but being willing to attack. His warning that Iran is developing long-range missiles capable of reaching U.S. territory along with building up its nuclear capabilities following the U.S. strike last summer drew particular attention.

“They’ve already developed missiles that can threaten Europe and our bases overseas, and they’re working to build missiles that will soon reach the United States of America,” Trump said. “After Midnight Hammer, they were warned to make no future attempts to rebuild their weapons program, and in particular nuclear weapons, yet they continue. They’re starting it all over.”

Adding more pressure on Iran to strike a deal, the Treasury Department imposed new sanctions Wednesday on Iranian individuals, companies and ships accused of enabling the country’s illicit oil sales and ballistic missile program.

Vice President Vance reiterated the president’s position during an interview with Fox News on Wednesday, saying the White House is pursuing the “preferred route of diplomacy.” But he warned the U.S. wants to reach a point where Iran “cannot threaten the world” with nuclear weapons.

“I think most Americans understand that you can’t let the craziest and worst regime in the world have nuclear weapons. That’s what the president is accomplishing, that’s what the president has set as our goal,” he said.

Top Senate Democrats exiting a briefing hours before the State of the Union on Tuesday called on the administration to present its case to the American people for why striking Iran may be necessary.

Questions remain about what kind of deal could be reached between the two sides.

Trump during his first term removed the U.S. from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, an agreement negotiated during the Obama administration to limit Iran’s enrichment of uranium, arguing it was a weak deal.

Axios reported that special envoy Steve Witkoff, who will be present at the talks in Geneva, told a private gathering Tuesday that a deal with Iran must remain in effect indefinitely, and not include “sunset provisions,” as the Obama-era deal did.

“We start with the Iranians with the premise that there is no sunset provision. Whether we get a deal or not, our premise is: You have to behave for the rest of your lives,” he said.

Trump has used a diplomacy-or-force strategy with other countries, including Venezuela. He spoke with former Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro by phone in November and seemed to be pursuing diplomacy, before the U.S. conducted a stunning raid to capture him months later.

The president often declines to give details about his foreign policy intentions, maintaining that it would be ill-advised to telegraph what the U.S. is planning.

▪ The Hill: Trump builds case for war with Iran ahead of pivotal talks.

▪ The New York Times: Iran strike could be symbolic.

▪ The Hill: Democrats conflicted on Trump’s Iran push.

Smart Take with Blake Burman

Top negotiators between the U.S. and Iran are set to meet in Switzerland today. The talks come after Trump said in his State of the Union address that Iran won’t vow to end its nuclear weapons ambitions. Former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton says he thinks the talks won’t be fruitful. 

“I think the Iranian government is very worried about what may come next. They’re liable to say almost anything tomorrow in Geneva to try and buy more time to avoid a military strike,” Bolton told me Wednesday night. “I think this is an absolute waste of oxygen,” he added.

The timing here could very well be crucial. The commander in chief last week said he thinks 10-15 days is “enough time” for Iran to reach a deal. U.S. military assets are on the move all across the Middle East. Now, the question becomes whether today’s talks can move the needle in any meaningful way.

Burman hosts “The Hill” weeknights, 6p/5c on NewsNation.

3 Things to Know Today

The Department of Justice said it is reviewing whether any documents from the Epstein files were improperly withheld from the public. That includes notes from an interview with a woman who made allegations against Trump.

Former Vice President Kamala Harris said she might run again for president in 2028. Her comments come as speculation has mounted around her future and as she has led in a few polls of a hypothetical Democratic field.

The Trump administration will pause certain Medicaid funding to Minnesota amid the investigation of fraud in the state. The president previously froze funding to child care providers in Minnesota.

CLINTONS SET FOR DEPOSITION: Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is set to testify today before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee in its investigation into Jeffrey Epstein, capping off a back-and-forth saga in which congressional Republicans threatened to hold her in contempt.

The former first lady and former President Clinton, who is scheduled to speak with the panel Friday, will testify behind closed doors far from the halls of the Capitol, with committee members traveling to Chappaqua, N.Y., where the Clintons have a home, for the depositions. They will be the most high-profile figures to appear before the committee in its investigation so far.

How much the committee will learn from their testimonies is unclear. Neither Clinton has been accused of any wrongdoing in relation to their ties to Epstein.

The couple resisted the idea of appearing before the House panel, arguing they didn’t have any relevant information to share. They pointed to others who received subpoenas from the committee but were excused from testifying through the same argument.

Oversight Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) rejected that argument and moved to hold the couple in contempt. As the full House seemed likely to pass the contempt resolutions with support even from some Democrats, the Clintons reversed course and agreed to testify. The contempt effort was pulled thereafter.

The Clintons called for their testimonies to take place in public, but Comer said the private depositions would go forward.

Their appearances are taking place as others with ties to the disgraced financier face intensifying public scrutiny.

Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers announced Wednesday he would resign from his positions at Harvard University and retire from his professorship at the end of the year. That came after disclosures from the Epstein files revealed Summers asked Epstein for romantic advice and made sexist remarks toward women to him.

Summers stepped back from various public roles in the aftermath of the revelations but remained a tenured professor.

Bill Gates is also addressing criticism over his associations with Epstein, apologizing for their relationship at a town hall with staffers at the Gates Foundation on Tuesday. He said he never did nor saw anything “illicit” and did not spend any time with Epstein’s victims or the women around him.

Advocates for the release of the Epstein files are continuing their push for greater disclosure despite the Department of Justice (DOJ) declaring last month that it had released the last batch of files required to be made public under the law.

Multiple outlets have reported that dozens of FBI records are seemingly missing from the files, including interviews with a woman who made allegations against Trump.

▪ The Hill: Clintons to appear for high-profile depositions.

▪ CNBC: Nobel winner steps back from Columbia University over Epstein friendship.

FBI PURGE: Roughly 10 FBI employees have been fired as part of the agency’s ongoing purge of staff who were involved in the investigations into the president.

Multiple outlets reported that those dismissed had worked on the probe into Trump’s retention of classified and sensitive documents at Mar-a-Lago. The news came after Reuters reported that the FBI had subpoenaed the phone records of now-FBI Director Kash Patel and now-White House chief of staff Susie Wiles when they were both private citizens in 2022 and 2023.

The New York Times reported people with knowledge of the move said the 10 ousted FBI officials, some of whom are veteran agents, aren’t expected to be the last ones dismissed. The outlet noted it remains unclear if the employees have been accused of any wrongdoing.

Current and former officials told the Times the firings are likely to heighten growing resentment against Patel for removing rank-and-file employees without evidence of wrongdoing.

WHAT’S NEXT: The president heaped significant pressure onto congressional Republicans in his address Tuesday with his calls for action on legislation while the GOP still has unified control of the federal government.

One of the key pieces of legislation Trump declared his support for was the SAVE America Act, which has been a centerpiece of conservative activism in recent weeks. The legislation would require individuals to provide documentation such as a birth certificate or passport to register to vote and a photo ID to cast a ballot nationwide.

The bill has already passed in the House but is currently stalled in the Senate, where current rules require it to receive at least 60 votes to advance past a filibuster. With Democrats overwhelmingly opposed to it, the chances of that are slim.

Some conservatives have pushed for Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) to get around that by changing Senate rules to return to a “talking filibuster,” under which Democrats would be required to speak continuously on the floor to delay a vote. Thune has brushed off that idea, saying that he doesn’t support it and there aren’t enough votes from Republicans to change it.

But The Hill’s Al Weaver reports Thune is under renewed pressure after Trump spoke extensively about his claims of voter fraud during his speech and specifically called on the Senate GOP leader to take action.

Thune said he plans to bring the legislation up for a vote soon but couldn’t promise the result.

Meanwhile, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) is also in a tough spot in the lower chamber with the new legislative proposals Trump made during the speech, including one to offer Americans who don’t have a retirement savings plan through their employer access to the same one that federal workers have.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the proposal can advance through the budget reconciliation process, which only requires a simple majority in the Senate rather than 60 votes.

But Johnson may only have a narrow window to advance much of Trump’s legislative agenda with the midterms coming up and history suggesting the majority party is likely to lose seats in Congress in November, The Hill’s Mike Lillis and Sudiksha Kochi report.

The chances of quickly bringing an end to the shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) may also have narrowed after Trump urged Republicans to hold their ground in negotiations with Democrats. He called for a quick reopening of DHS as he’s showed no signs of being willing to yield to Democrats’ extensive demands for immigration enforcement reforms.

▪ The Hill: House Dem leader says Trump speech ‘riddled with dirty rotten lies.’

▪ The Hill: Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) says her guest was arrested during the address.

MEANS TESTING: The president’s nominee for U.S. surgeon general faced intense grilling on Capitol Hill on Wednesday over her qualifications to be the country’s top public health spokesperson.

Casey Means appeared before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee about four months after her initial hearing was rescheduled because she went into labor hours before it was due to start. The sister of Calley Means, who is one of the top advisers to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Stanford School of Medicine graduate would be an unprecedented choice as surgeon general if she is confirmed.

Casey Means didn’t complete her medical residency and doesn’t have an active medical license. She is a prominent social media influencer popular among those in the “Make America Healthy Again” movement.

The hearing was contentious on several occasions, including when Means refused to say if she would encourage mothers to vaccinate their children against measles. Democrats also accused her of a conflict of interest through products she has endorsed online.

Former surgeons general have spoken out against Means’s nomination, including the president’s own former surgeon general from his first term, Jerome Adams.

The hearing also became heated during a confrontation between Sens. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) over the health care system and the Affordable Care Act.

▪ The Hill: Takeaways from the hearing.

The president will participate in executive time at 9 a.m. He will have an intelligence briefing at 11 a.m. and participate in a private meeting at 3 p.m.

The House will convene at 9:30 a.m. for a pro forma session.

The Senate will meet at 10 a.m.

MONOPOLY QUESTIONS: The departure of the DOJ’s top antitrust official is raising scrutiny over the Trump administration’s approach to antimonopoly cases and controversial mergers.

Gail Slater announced earlier this month that she would step down as the head of the DOJ’s antitrust division amid tensions with other administration officials.

Her initial selection to lead the division raised some alarms among Big Tech companies and other large corporations about aggressive antitrust enforcement, but attention is now turning to several high-profile deals after her resignation, The Hill’s Dominick Mastrangelo and Julia Shapero report.

“It feels like the support for populist antitrust enforcement is kind of gone from the Trump administration. Slater was kind of seen as the leader of that philosophy and clearly that’s been pushed aside,” said Owen Tedford, senior research analyst at Beacon Policy Advisors.

One of the biggest pending mergers concerns Warner Bros. Discovery, which has reached a deal to be acquired by Netflix. Trump has criticized the deal, which has raised questions about Trump potentially meddling in the DOJ’s antitrust work.

It comes as Paramount Skydance, which is owned by Trump ally David Ellison, is pursuing a bid for a hostile takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery. Ellison was a guest of Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) at the State of the Union.

Meanwhile, Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos will visit the White House on Thursday for meetings about the deal, Politico reported.

The DOJ is also currently pursuing a case against Ticketmaster and its parent company, LiveNation, over allegations that it has blocked competition in the entertainment industry. The case is set to go to trial next week.

And the DOJ may take up a massive merger in local news as Nexstar Media Group, which owns The Hill, attempts to acquire television group Tegna for $7 billion.

▪ The Verge: Will Trump take on Ticketmaster?

CUBA CONFRONTATION: Four people aboard a U.S. speedboat have been shot and killed after a confrontation with Cuban border security officers, the island country’s Interior Ministry said Wednesday.

The ministry said five border guards intercepted the speedboat about 1 nautical mile northeast of Cayo Falcones, in Villa Clara province. When the unit of guards approached the boat, the crew opened fire on them, injuring the commander of the Cuban vessel, according to the ministry.

The four individuals were killed as a result of the incident, while six others on the speedboat were injured and are receiving medical assistance.

The Cuban government is investigating, while Vance told reporters he received a briefing on the incident from Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

“Certainly a situation that we’re monitoring, hopefully it’s not as bad as we fear it could be but can’t say more because I just don’t know more,” Vance said.

The shooting came as tensions have risen between the U.S. and Cuba in recent months, particularly in the aftermath of the raid to capture Maduro. The U.S. has placed trade restrictions on Cuba and warned it would punish other countries that provide the Cuban government with oil.

▪ The Hill: Massachusetts Democrats question Trump on Cuba policy.

▪ The Hill: New volatile chapter in Mexico’s drug war.

OFFICIAL EXITING: A top Treasury official is reportedly leaving his position after raising issues with the White House’s plan to crack down on alleged fraud in the Somali community in Minnesota.

The Washington Post reported John Hurley, a Trump donor who has been serving as undersecretary of the Treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence, has told people in recent weeks he plans to leave.

Hurley recently expressed concerns to the Treasury secretary about a project enhancing federal monitoring of international payments from the Minneapolis area, people familiar with the matter told the outlet.

The president has railed against the alleged fraud and pointed the finger at the Somali community during his State of the Union address. The controversy became a key aspect of the standoff between federal and state officials as the Trump administration surged immigration enforcement agents in the area last month.

Hurley pushed back on the report, telling the Post that his team has been the “tip of the spear pushing back to stop Somali fraud in Minnesota.”

8 years after Parkland, school safety still demands action from Congress, Reps. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.) and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) and Tony Montalto write in The Hill.

Congress must define a new 21st century tariff doctrine, Orit Frenkel writes in The Hill.

And finally … It’s Thursday, which means it’s time for the weekly news quiz!

With the State of the Union speech last Tuesday, this week’s quiz will address your knowledge on the history of the speech and those who have given it.

Be sure to email your responses to jgans@thehill.com — please add “Quiz” to your subject line. Winners who submit correct answers will receive deserved newsletter fame on Friday.

George Washington started the tradition of delivering remarks to Congress annually. But for more than 100 years, the State of the Union wasn’t a speech delivered to Congress but was given in writing to be read aloud. Which president restarted the speech custom?

3. Franklin Roosevelt

Trump broke the record for the longest State of the Union address on Tuesday, speaking for nearly 110 minutes. Whose record did he beat?

Which of these individuals did not deliver both a State of the Union and a response to the State of the Union on separate occasions?

Which Cabinet position has most commonly served as the designated survivor?

2. Housing and Urban Development

Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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