Iran has handed over its latest proposal for negotiations with the United States to mediators in Pakistan, Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency reported Friday. President Donald Trump subsequently said he’s “not satisfied” with it, but did not elaborate on the proposal’s apparent shortcomings. The shaky ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran has lasted for three weeks.
Even as negotiations continue, Trump is claiming that the war has been “terminated” because of the ceasefire. The president also called the War Powers Resolution, which states Congress must declare war or authorize the use of force within 60 days, “unconstitutional.”
The resolution’s May 1 deadline is now set to pass without action, as lawmakers left town for a week on Thursday after the Senate rejected a Democratic attempt to halt the war for a sixth time.
Trump also said Friday that he will increase the tariffs charged on cars and trucks from the European Union next week to 25% after claiming without evidence that the E.U. was “not complying with our fully agreed to Trade Deal.” The U.S. and E.U. reached a trade deal last July that sets a 15% tariff on most goods.
Here’s the latest:
Trump jokes that US Navy will take on Cuba on the way home from Iran
“Cuba’s got problems,” Trump said in one of several digressions in his Friday evening speech before the non-profit Forum Club of the Palm Beaches. “On the way back from Iran, we’ll have one of our big, maybe the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier — the biggest in the world — we’ll have that come in, stop about 100 yards offshore, and they’ll say, ‘Thank you very much. We give up.’”
The Trump administration is in the midst of a monthslong campaign to press the Cuban government to make dramatic reforms. All the while, Trump has repeatedly threatened that the U.S. could take military action against the island to get what he wants.
Trump now speaking in West Palm Beach, Florida
The president is at the Forum Club of the Palm Beaches Dinner, which is being held at the Raymond F. Kravis Center for the Performing Arts.
“We’re joined tonight by a lot of my friends,” he said.
Trump owns Mar-a-Lago, his home and private club across the causeway in Palm Beach.
He also spoke a little bit about the war against Iran.
US to withdraw 5,000 troops from Germany in next 6-12 months after feud over Iran war
Trump had threatened to withdraw some troops from its NATO ally earlier this week as he continues to feud with Chancellor Friedrich Merz over the U.S-Israel war against Iran. Merz said the U.S. was being “humiliated” by the Iranian leadership and criticized Washington’s lack of strategy in the war.
Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement that the “decision follows a thorough review of the Department’s force posture in Europe and is in recognition of theater requirements and conditions on the ground.”
The U.S. has several major military facilities in Germany, including the headquarters for U.S. European Command and U.S. Africa Command. The number of troops leaving Germany would be 14% of the 36,000 American service members stationed there.
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Court restricts abortion access across the US by blocking the mailing of mifepristone
A panel of the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is requiring that the pill — one of the most common means of abortion in the U.S. — be distributed only in-person at clinics.
Judges have long deferred to the Food and Drug Administration’s judgments on the safety and appropriate regulation of drugs. FDA officials under Trump have repeatedly stated the agency is conducting a new review of mifepristone’s safety, at the direction of the president.
Since the Supreme Court’s 2022 ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade and allowed enforcement of abortion bans, prescriptions by mail has become a major way that abortions are provided — including in states where bans are in place.
“This is going to affect patients’ access to abortion and miscarriage care in every state in the nation,” said Julia Kaye, an ACLU lawyer.
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Trump opens event with older Americans in Florida by referencing shooting at Washington dinner he attended
Trump is visiting The Villages in central Florida, a community for older Americans, to talk about how his policies are helping them.
He said he loves Florida and was “thrilled” to be among the “great American patriots” of The Villages.
“Now, you know I shouldn’t be here,” Trump said, referencing what law enforcement authorities have said was an attempt on his life during a gala dinner in Washington last weekend.
Trump said he should be “indoors at a secure facility” and asked, “What’s more secure than The Villages?”
EPA says oil and gas producers can continue routine flaring at new oil wells
A Biden-era rule had set a May 7 deadline to halt routine flaring of planet-warming methane at new wells. However, the Environmental Protection Agency said Friday it won’t make that change in response to concerns from energy companies.
Republican Rep. Julie Fedorchak of North Dakota hailed the new guidelines, which she said will allow continued production of up to 40,000 barrels of oil a day in her state.
Methane is a potent greenhouse gas that traps heat far more efficiently than carbon dioxide over the short term and is a major driver of climate change. Energy companies routinely flare, or burn, excess methane produced by oil wells because it’s less valuable than the oil.
Chinese envoy says ‘world is big enough’ for both US and China ahead of Trump’s visit to Beijing
Asked if the ongoing war between Iran and the U.S. will overshadow the upcoming Trump-Xi summit, China’s U.N. ambassador Fu Cong said the relationship between the two world powers “goes beyond” the issue of reopening the critical waterway.
“I think it is in the interest of both countries and both people — and I may say, to the entire world, of the people of the entire world — that China and U.S. maintain a steady and sound and sustainable relationship,” he told reporters at the U.N. headquarters in New York.
Fu added that there’s room for both on the world stage and that “it doesn’t have to be a zero-sum game between the two countries.”
Trump contends hostilities with Iran have ‘terminated’
The White House asserted to Congress in a letter Friday that hostilities with Iran have “terminated” despite the continued presence of U.S. armed forces in the region.
The message from Trump effectively skirts a May 1 legal deadline for gaining approval from members of Congress to continue the war with Iran. That deadline was already set to pass without action from Republican lawmakers, who are deferring to the president.
The letter brings into stark relief the bold but legally questionable assertion of presidential power at the heart of Trump’s war, which he began without congressional approval two months ago.
He also made it clear in the letter that the war may be far from over.
“Despite the success of United States operations against the Iranian regime and continued efforts to secure a lasting peace, the threat posed by Iran to the United States and our Armed Forces remains significant,” the Republican president said.
US military reaches deals with 7 tech companies to use their AI on classified systems
Google, Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, Nvidia, OpenAI, Reflection and SpaceX will provide resources to help “augment warfighter decision-making in complex operational environments,” the Defense Department said.
The use of AI can help the U.S. military reduce the time it takes to identify and strike targets on the battlefield, while aiding in the organization of weapons maintenance and supply lines, according to a report in March from the Brennan Center for Justice.
Friday’s announcement comes after concerns raised by a company not on the list, Anthropic, whose battle with the Pentagon to put up AI guardrails has spilled into court.
The tech company said it wanted assurances in its contract that the military would not use its technology in fully autonomous weapons and the surveillance of Americans. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the company must allow for any uses the Pentagon deemed lawful.
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Trump says after CENTCOM briefing that he has two options for Iran
Discussing a Thursday briefing with Adm. Brad Cooper, head of U.S. Central Command, Trump said the U.S. has just two options in Iran.
“I mean, do we want to go and just blast the hell out of them and finish them forever? Or do we want to try and make a deal? I mean, those are the options,” Trump said.
Asked if he wanted to pursue the former, Trump said: “I’d prefer not. On a human basis, I’d prefer not, but that’s the option.”
Trump said he believes Iran’s leadership has made some progress toward unifying around a resolution.
“They’ve made strides, but I’m not sure if they ever get there,” he said. “There’s tremendous discord, they’re having a tremendous problem getting along with each other in Iran.”
Trump dismisses war powers law as ‘unconstitutional’
Friday marked the 60th day since the White House notified Congress of its military operations in Iran, meaning Trump would have to withdraw forces or seek formal approval from Capitol Hill.
But the president said his predecessors have similarly not sought congressional approval for military action abroad, and he wasn’t going to be any different.
“Every other president considered it totally unconstitutional, and we agree with that,” Trump said at the White House as he departed for Florida on Friday.
He also agreed with an argument advanced by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth this week that ceasefire days should not count as hostilities and thus not toward the 60 day limit.
A senior administration official says the U.S.’s military actions in Iran have effectively “terminated” since the April 7 ceasefire.
Meet Dr. Nicole Saphier, Trump’s third pick for US surgeon general
Trump dropped his pick for surgeon general Dr. Casey Means this week after it became clear she didn’t have enough Senate votes.
His new pick Dr. Nicole Saphier, a radiologist and former Fox News Channel contributor, has promoted much of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s agenda, including cutting ultraprocessed foods from diets and encouraging exercise.
But she has been a more vocal advocate for vaccination than Kennedy. She’s also criticized the administration’s handling of some issues as “embarrassing.”
“The more vaccine confusion we create, the more preventable disease we will see,” she said in September, urging the administration to get itself in order on the issue.
Trump sounds open to putting former 2024 GOP rival Ron DeSantis in his Cabinet
When asked Friday if he’d consider a Cabinet role for the Florida governor, who is term-limited and will be out of office in 2027, Trump responded by saying, “Well, I like him a lot.”
Trump’s team in 2024 was considering DeSantis as his defense secretary when then-nominee Pete Hegseth’s path to Senate confirmation seemed shaky.
Trump says he’s still looking at a taxpayer-funded takeover of Spirit Airlines
“We’re looking at it. If we could do it, we’ll do it. But only if it’s a good deal,” Trump told reporters on Friday as he prepared to leave the White House for a trip to Florida.
He didn’t offer any details about what proposal he was considering but said he’d like to save jobs at the airline. Trump said his administration gave Spirit “a final proposal” and would make an announcement Friday or Saturday.
“We’re looking at Spirit and if we can help them, we will. But we have to come first,” he said.
Trump says he’s ‘not satisfied’ with Iran’s latest proposal in negotiations to end the war
“They want to make a deal, I’m not satisfied with it, so we’ll see what happens,” Trump told reporters Friday at the White House.
Asked about what he sees as the proposal’s shortcomings, Trump said, “They’re asking for things I can’t agree to.”
The president said negotiations have continued by phone after he called off his envoys’ trip to Pakistan last week. He expressed frustration with Iran’s leadership, which he described as fractured.
“It’s a very disjointed leadership,” he said. “They all want to make a deal, but they’re all messed up.”
Some background on the 2025 trade deal between the US and EU
The 2025 deal was first cast into doubt after the U.S. Supreme Court this year ruled the Republican president lacked the legal authority to declare an economic emergency and charge tariffs on EU goods.
The initial agreement had been a tariff ceiling of 15% on goods from the EU, but the Supreme Court ruling reduced that to 10% as the Trump administration launched a new set of import taxes based on other laws. The Trump administration is in the middle of investigations on trade imbalances and national security risks to impose a new tariff regime, which could ultimately put the agreement with the EU in risk of violation.
The EU had said it expected the bilateral deal would save European automakers about 500 million to 600 million euros ($585 million to $700 million) a month.
The value of EU-U.S. trade in goods and services amounted to 1.7 trillion euros ($2 trillion) in 2024, or an average of 4.6 billion euros a day, according to EU statistics agency Eurostat.
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Trump says he’ll place 25% tariff on autos from EU, accusing bloc of not complying with trade deal
It’s a move that could jolt the world economy at a fragile moment.
Trump said in a post that the EU “is not complying with our fully agreed to Trade Deal,” though he did not flesh out his objections in the post.
Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen had agreed to the trade deal last July. It set a 15% tariff on most goods.
Bessent wants Americans to avoid easy-money traps and invest in financial literacy
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent winces at the allure of easy money — whether it’s lottery tickets, buy now, pay later loans or the promise of a crypto windfall — warning that the get-rich-quick mindset often leads Americans farther from financial stability, not closer to it.
“There are a lot of young people, mostly young men, going to blue-collar construction jobs, playing the lottery. It drives me crazy,” Bessent said in an interview.
“The best thing you can do is not play the lottery,” he said — rather, people should invest and “then watch it grow.”
Bessent spoke about the basics of building a workable budget and saving for the future at the tail end of Financial Literacy Month, an initiative the billionaire hedge fund manager has made a priority since joining Trump’s administration, driven by a childhood marred by poverty.
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King Charles III wins praise for deft handling of Trump on his US state visit
President Trump sang the praises of King Charles III after the monarch’s state visit this week. He even lifted some tariffs on Scotch whisky as a favor to the British monarch.
The king delivered a diplomatic master-class on the trip, mixing praise for his host with subtle criticism. It’s unclear, though, whether it will make a major difference to a trans-Atlantic relationship troubled by divisions over issues including the Iran war.
“In the short term probably yes, in the long term probably no,” said Kristofer Allerfeldt, a University of Exeter professor specializing in American history. But he said Charles had “definitely clawed back some of the prestige of the monarchy” in his homeland with his assured performance.
“He’s done us proud,” Allerfeldt said.
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Joe Biden endorses a former Atlanta mayor and White House adviser for Georgia governor
The former Democratic president is wading into the midterms, making his first political endorsement of the 2026 cycle by backing Keisha Lance Bottoms for the state’s top job.
Bottoms served as Biden’s senior adviser for public engagement after her tenure as Atlanta mayor.
In a one-minute video promoting her candidacy, Biden praised her track record as mayor and said “those same qualities that made her a great mayor made her invaluable to our administration — smart, focused, gets things done.”
“She handled it all with steady and thoughtful leadership,” Biden said in the video. “That’s the definition of battle-tested.”
After major enforcement operations, the Trump administration recalibrates its immigration crackdown
When Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin was questioned by senators during his confirmation hearing about his vision for implementing President Trump’s mass deportation agenda, he said his goal was to keep his department off the front pages of the news.
To some degree, he has. Gone are the social media video clips of now-retired Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino clashing with protesters. Mullin’s predecessor, Kristi Noem, made her first trip as secretary to New York City to make arrests with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. In contrast, Mullin went to North Carolina to review hurricane recovery efforts.
The Republican administration appears to be recalibrating its approach to a centerpiece policy that helped bring Trump back to the White House, moving in many ways away from aggressive, public-facing tactics toward a quieter approach to enforcement. Despite that shift, the administration insists it’s not backing down from its lofty deportation goals.
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