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Trump’s last-minute delay: Why he was never going to obliterate Iran in the first place
I’ve been telling anyone who would listen – yes. I can get rather tiresome – that President Donald Trump would not bomb Iran back to the Stone Ages.
Even after he said he would destroy Iran’s civilization and it would never recover, I knew that he would never go through with it. That was the last thing he wanted to do.
So I was confident he would find some kind of last-minute off-ramp.
And, of course, he didn’t want to be seen as backing off his increasingly dire threats.
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I got the White House email at 6:32 Tuesday night. There it was, another delay, after a series of earlier delays. He would give the Iranians two more weeks.
I started posting like crazy, beating television by a couple of minutes, and newspapers by more. But that’s just because my phone happened to be right there. If I’d gone to the fridge for a moment, I would have come back to my laptop and discovered that the world had changed.
I knew in my gut, having covered Trump for 35 years, that he did not want to go down in history as the man who wiped out an ancient civilization. His heart was never in that. It was bluster as a negotiating tactic.
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Still, he had boxed himself into a corner. Former allies in conservative media were denouncing him. “This is a brazen pre-admission of genocide against the Iranian people, which would obviously be a war crime. Madness,” Piers Morgan declared..
Some Republican lawmakers said he had gone too far. Even the U.S. Catholic Bishops said “the threat of destroying a whole civilization and the intentional targeting of civilian infrastructure cannot be morally justified.”
No American president had ever uttered such words.
So I figured the only card that Trump had left to play was delay. And that’s precisely what he did. At the request of Pakistan, which has been the intermediary in the so-called talks, the president agreed to a pause in the hostilities.
That is, according to the statement I received, “subject to the Islamic Republic of Iran agreeing to the COMPLETE, IMMEDIATE, and SAFE OPENING of the Strait of Hormuz, I agree to suspend the bombing and attack of Iran for a period of two weeks. This will be a double sided CEASEFIRE! The reason for doing so is that we have already met and exceeded all Military objectives…”
It’s a shaky cease-fire, to be sure, with Iran launching missiles at Israel minutes after it was announced, and Israel saying its ground invasion of Lebanon, after rocket fire from Iranian proxy Hezbollah, isn’t covered.
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By yesterday, in fact, as The AP confirmed, Iran’s state media said it had closed Hormuz again, citing the Israeli attacks.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in a posting that the Trump administration “must choose between a ceasefire or continued war via Israel, and “it cannot have both.”
We learned from New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan that Bibi Netanyahu talked Trump into the war by saying it would be quick and topple the regime. Gen. Dan Caine, the Joint Chiefs chairman, called that “farcical.” Marco Rubio said it was BS. JD Vance was against the war.
And that’s a fascinating sidebar. Trump has been insulting Haberman, who published a biography of him in 2022, for no apparent reason. Yet he granted an hourlong Oval Office interview for their forthcoming book, “Regime Change,” from which the Times piece was excerpted.
As for the president’s current stance, well, he isn’t being held back by murky details. He told Sky News this was a “complete victory,” not just in military terms but “in every other sense as well.”
Trump was on the phone with Fox opinion host Laura Ingraham shortly before she came on the air, and she quoted him as being “cautiously optimistic,” saying: “It sure looks like Iran blinked.”
What, peering through the fog of war, did Trump actually accomplish, other than sending the markets soaring by nearly 3 percent?
On yesterday’s “Fox & Friends,” usually a Trump-friendly show, co-host Lawrence Jones said “we have not reached any of these objectives.”
Dismantling nuclear facilities (“that has not happened”), ending uranium enrichment (“they are still enriching”), transferring uranium stockpiles out of Iran (“that hasn’t happened”), accepting international inspections (“they are still not willing to do it”), and suspending the ballistic missile program (“they’re still firing them off”). Jones also criticized Iran for proposals that would never be accepted by the U.S. side.
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Fox anchor Harris Faulkner said yesterday, “this is the least ceasefire-like ceasefire I think that anybody might have anticipated.” Fox’s chief foreign correspondent, Trey Yingst, said, “the Iranians don’t appear very serious about this ceasefire agreement.”
And therein lies the rub. The two countries remain far apart. This business about a strategic framework just papers that over in a devil’s-in-the-details sense. Iran is never going to agree to give up its nuclear program, regardless of any presidential pronouncements or Mission Accomplished banners.
The Iranian pitch, apparently not the one seen by Trump, says the U.S. must leave the region, give Iran sole control of the strait, and recognize its right to nuclear enrichment.
Don’t take my word for it. Press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters yesterday that Iran’s 10-point plan was “fundamentally unserious, unacceptable and completely discarded.”
Look, if this somehow all works out, what most people will remember is that Trump made harsh threats that led to a deal in which the Iranian blockade – “Open the F—in’ Strait, you crazy b——s” – was lifted. In other words, his Madman routine worked against the world’s leading terror state, which has been killing Americans, Arabs and its own people for 47 years.
But things could always fall apart faster than a speeding drone. It’s the Middle East.
No matter what you think of Trump, his war of choice, his apocalyptic rhetoric or his entire presidency, he’s not crazy. He followed a similar path in his tariff crusade, threatening draconian levies before reaching 11th-hour compromises. As he himself says, he’s a dealmaker. That’s what he does.
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Most media accounts are portraying Trump as caving in or backing down. That’s fair commentary.
But what really happened is that Trump found a way to avoid doing what he was never actually going to do in the first place.
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Kacey Musgraves details ‘craziest’ UFO experience she had on a flight from Texas to Tennessee
Kacey Musgraves had an out-of-this-world experience on a recent flight.
In a series of Instagram Stories, the “Space Cowboy” singer detailed “the craziest f—ing orb, UFO experience” she had while on a recent flight from Fort Worth, Texas, to Nashville, Tennessee.
“I’ve seen many crazy things. I’ve seen fire burning in the sky, things that I can’t explain, so this is not the first time,” she said. “I was about to lay down and take a nap, and I saw these lights that caught my eye that just didn’t look normal, and I watched them for a minute.”
She went on to explain that she “watched them for about 45 minutes,” noting they were “about 50,000 feet up.”
MIRANDA LAMBERT’S BLUNT ADVICE THAT CHANGED EVERYTHING FOR PARKER MCCOLLUM’S CAREER
Musgraves described them as being “an orange-ish color” at times, but then “sometimes they would get extremely bright and change color, change size.”
“These orbs were not moving like any craft that we can control. They were intermittently coming and going, forming triangle patterns,” she explained. “The craziest thing is, so they were following us from about the Little Rock area, that’s when I noticed them, all the way to Nashville.”
The “Merry Go Round” singer shared that once they landed in Nashville, the pilots came out of the cockpit and “were laughing” as they told the passengers on the plane that “we’ve seen these every single night and all the other pilots are seeing them too and nobody knows what they are.”
She said one of the pilots shared that he saw them recently while flying in New York, and the other said he saw them while in Dallas.
“S— is weird, but um, here for it! I am open to it, I’m here for it,” Musgraves said before adding that the orbs “were changing direction with us, [and] they were following the plane.”
Musgraves shared videos of the orbs in subsequent stories, but noted they look as if they were taken “on a f—ing toaster” and that they were difficult to capture “because they were far off and it’s nighttime.”
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The country star is gearing up for the release of her latest studio album, “Middle of Nowhere,” set to drop in early May.
During an interview with NPR in March, she shared that the album will feature a collaboration with Miranda Lambert, with Musgraves saying that although they had lost touch over the years, “and wouldn’t consider each other friends,” she chose to reach out to the singer after seeing her riding horses on Instagram.
“Wait, that could be a really funny song. What if it’s a duet with her? What if I got her to write on it?” she recalled thinking. “I just randomly reached out to her and I was like, ‘I know we’ve had our s— over the years, but listen, we’ve at least got two things in common. I’m not trying to be your friend. You got your life, I have mine. But I think this would be a pretty f—ing funny song, and we should write it with Shane [McAnally].’ And she was like, ‘Hell yeah, I’m in, let’s do it.'”
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The two powerhouse country singers were rumored to have been feuding since 2013, when the song, “Mama’s Broken Heart” was included on Lambert’s album, “Four the Record,” when it was originally intended to be Musgraves’ first single.
She explained that she had “a lot of excitement” around her and the song at the time, but it was pitched to Lambert “without my knowledge or consent.” Lambert “ended up loving the song, and she really wanted it.” Ultimately, it ended up being a good thing, as Musgraves went on to write “Merry Go Round.”
Musgraves called working with Lambert a “full-circle” moment, saying they “aired out any of the old laundry” and were able to write the whole song in just a few hours.
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Top White House officials encouraged potential Bondi replacement to make case to Trump for AG job: Sources
FIRST ON FOX: Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche huddled with President Donald Trump in the hours after Pam Bondi was forced out last week to make his pitch for the job full-time, Fox News Digital confirmed.
Blanche was encouraged by top White House officials to speak with the president while other names, like Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin, briefly circulated as possible contenders, two sources familiar told Fox News Digital. During that conversation, Blanche made his case for why he should be the next attorney general.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed to Fox News Digital that the president and his then-deputy attorney general spoke on Thursday, as did a source familiar with Blanche’s movements that day.
Trump announced Bondi’s departure from the Justice Department and in the same social media post last Thursday said that Blanche would be taking over the role in an acting capacity, as Fox News and Fox News Digital previously reported.
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The next moves could prove crucial for Blanche if he wants to clinch the president’s nomination – and with the countdown ticking to the midterm elections, he only has a few months to convince the president he can lead the roughly 120,000-employee DOJ before a potential party power change in Congress.
“It’s really Todd’s role to lose at this point,” one of the sources who spoke with Fox News Digital said.
A 30-year department veteran, however, speculated that Blanche won’t get the nomination and will continue to run the DOJ in an acting capacity.
PAM BONDI ALREADY FIRED AS ATTORNEY GENERAL, CABINET OFFICIAL TEED UP AS REPLACEMENT: SOURCES
“The safest thing for Trump to do is just to keep Blanche, the ultimate loyalist, in place as Acting, at least through the midterms, and avoid a confirmation fight,” former DOJ prosecutor Kevin Flynn told Fox News Digital. “In terms of advancing Trump’s retribution agenda, I think Blanche could do pretty much everything as Acting [Attorney General] as a confirmed AG could do.”
Trump fired Bondi on Wednesday, April 1, 2026, during an Oval Office meeting ahead of his speech to the nation on the war in Iran, Fox News Digital first reported a day after her ouster.
Trump confirmed her departure on Truth Social at 1:17 pm, roughly 45 minutes after the report became public.
In the hours after Bondi was dismissed and before Trump made his official DOJ personnel announcement, Blanche allegedly had a consequential conversation with the president where he was informed he would be acting attorney general. Blanche lobbied to get the full-time position in a following discussion, one source familiar said.
They also said that Blanche went to the White House a few times for various reasons in the days after he became acting AG.
The other source said it was this follow-up conversation that provided the president with the confidence to give Blanche the nod – at least for now.
Trump told his one-time personal attorney, “Here’s your audition,” the source paraphrased.
Blanche “got a call from POTUS after leaving a podcast taping on Thursday following the report on Fox,” a spokesperson for the Justice Department told Fox News Digital.
When Leavitt was asked if the two chatted on Thursday, the president’s spokesperson replied, “Yes they spoke.”
Neither the DOJ nor White House would comment on what the two discussed last week and whether Blanche made his case for a promotion.
Either way, now it’s up to Blanche to prove he’s up for the job full-time.
His first test was a Tuesday afternoon press conference focused on Trump’s push to crack down on fraud.
Blanche likely passed the pulse test as he showered praise on the president and said there would be no love lost if he wasn’t selected to be the next attorney general. “I love working for President Trump,” he said. “It’s the greatest honor of a lifetime. And if President Trump chooses to nominate somebody else and asks me to go do something else, I’ll say, ‘Thank you very much, I love you, sir.'”
He got to work right away shaping the DOJ.
On Thursday, Blanche announced his appointment of Trent McCotter as the principal associate deputy attorney general. He also stood up the new DOJ fraud division at Tuesday’s press conference and put Colin McDonald in charge as assistant attorney general for the Fraud Division.
Additionally, he took two trusted advisers with him to the attorney general’s office, Shane Hedges and James McHenry.
Blanche will likely need to differentiate himself from Bondi and distance himself from her failures – namely the Jeffrey Epstein files debacle – if he wants longevity in the role, one of the sources familiar told Fox News Digital.
In February 2025, Bondi said she had the Epstein files on her desk. A trickle of releases over the next year would yield no new investigations or prosecutions related to the sex trafficker’s crimes and left Americans unsatisfied.
The source familiar said every move Bondi made after that was an effort to “clean up” her broken promise to release the Epstein client list.
Convincing Trump he’s the right guy for the job is only the first hurdle. Blanche would also need to get past Congress and a confirmation process that is sure to be grueling.
Bondi passed with a Senate vote of 54–46, with all 53 Republicans and lone Democratic Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., voting for her to be attorney general. Every other Democrat voted against her confirmation.
Blanche, with the legacy of Bondi tied to his tenure in the Trump administration, could face an uphill battle even with some Republicans who have grown critical of the DOJ’s handling of the Epstein files.
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WATCH: Eviction standoff turns war zone as gunman kills deputy in ambush, gets run over by armored vehicle
Gun fire rang out in a cul-de-sac in Central California after an hourslong standoff led to a police officer being shot and killed and the suspect being run down by authorities.
A neighbor’s video obtained by Fox News Digital captured the heart-stopping standoff in Porterville, California unfold at 10:40 a.m. local time Thursday.
“Get down, get down,” officers are heard yelling in the video, as sirens rang out.
In a news conference following the shooting, Tulare County Sheriff Mike Boudreaux said that the suspect, identified as David Eric Morales, was ultimately killed when a law enforcement BearCat armored vehicle ran over him after he continued firing and refused to surrender.
“The suspect was lying prone on the ground, in camouflage clothing, continuing to pose a threat,” Boudreaux said. “The situation was resolved, and the suspect is now dead. He was not shot. One of the BearCats ran over him and killed him.”
Authorities said Morales remained barricaded in his home for hours after the shooting, firing repeatedly as deputies and assisting agencies worked to contain the scene.
The killed officer was identified as Deputy Randy Hoppert.
Boudreaux said that Hoppert was struck by gunfire and transported to Sierra View District Hospital, where he died at 11:57 a.m.
Hoppert was a Navy corpsman who served from 2010 to 2015 and joined the Tulare County Sheriff’s Office on Jan. 5, 2020, Boudreaux said.
“We offer our heartfelt sympathies to the family of our fallen Deputy and to the entire Tulare County Sheriff’s Office,” Tulare County Chair Amy Shuklian said. “This profound loss underscores the inherent risks our first responders brave daily to ensure the safety of our community.”
Boudreaux said Morales had not paid rent for 35 days, and deputies were serving a final eviction notice when the shooting occurred.
During the standoff, Morales fired at law enforcement vehicles and equipment, including a drone that was shot out of the air, while multiple tactical vehicles took gunfire, according to Boudreaux.
The sheriff said Morales appeared to have been waiting for deputies and “laid in wait” before opening fire, prompting a call for additional units.
Boudreaux described the outcome in blunt terms.
“Don’t shoot at cops. You shoot at cops, we’re going to run you over. He got run over. He got what he deserved,” the sheriff said.
Fox News Digital’s Greg Wehner contributed to this report.
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