Former Senator Jeff Flake, one of President Donald Trump’s most vocal critics during his first administration, reacted to Sen. Thom Tillis’ retirement plans on Sunday.

Tillis, who was one of the most vulnerable Republicans in the 2026 cycle, had faced threats from Trump to endorse a challenger after Tillis voted against the president’s ‘big, beautiful bill,’ on Saturday night.

In an X post, Flake speculated that Tillis could have won re-election, but only if he took certain positions.

‘He could win again, but only by taking positions he doesn’t believe in,’ Flake, who served as U.S. ambassador to Turkey during the Biden administration, said.

‘It’s an honor to serve in the Senate — but not at any cost,’ he added.

Tillis said on Sunday that he plans to retire at the end of his term in 2026. In a statement, the North Carolina Republican referenced ‘the greatest form of hypocrisy in American politics.’

‘When people see independent thinking on the other side, they cheer,’ Tillis said. ‘But when those very same people see independent thinking coming from their side, they scorn, ostracize, and even censure.’

‘In Washington over the last few years, it’s become increasingly evident that leaders who are willing to embrace bipartisanship, compromise, and demonstrate independent thinking are becoming an endangered species,’ he added.

Tillis added that the choice broke down to either spending time with his family or navigating ‘the political theater and partisan gridlock,’ in Washington, D.C.

‘It’s not a hard choice, and I will not be seeking re-election,’ he said.

Senator Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., also reacted to Tillis’ announcement with a criticism of Trump.

‘I do not agree with N.C. Senator Thom Tillis on much. But he’s right on this,’ Sanders’ post began.

He added, ‘Trump’s Republican Party does not allow for independent thought. The Republican Party today is a cult. Either you do as Trump wants, or you’re out. Pathetic.’

On Saturday evening, Trump blasted Tillis as a ‘grandstander’ and expressed interest in interviewing potential primary challengers.

‘Numerous people have come forward wanting to run in the Primary against ‘Senator Thom’ Tillis,’ Trump said on Truth Social. 

‘I will be meeting with them over the coming weeks, looking for someone who will properly represent the Great People of North Carolina and, so importantly, the United States of America. Thank you for your attention to this matter!’ he added.

Fox News Digital’s Alex Miller contributed to this report.

An unelected Senate parliamentarian should not be deciding what stays and what doesn’t in the so-called ‘Big, Beautiful Bill,’ Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla., told Fox News Channel in an interview that earned President Trump’s approval.

Conservatives were furious on Thursday morning after learning Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough ruled several key reforms and tweaks to Medicaid in the Senate GOP’s version of President Trump’s bill did not pass muster with Senate Rules. One senator, Roger Marshall, of Kansas, called for MacDonough to be replaced.

Steube was a guest on FOX Report on Sunday morning, when host Jon Scott asked him where he stood on whether the parliamentarian should have been overruled or even fired. He agreed with Marshall.

‘Yeah, I had called for her to be fired,’ Steube said. ‘I don’t think that one person who’s unelected, who got appointed over a decade ago, should be the one deciding what stays in and what doesn’t.’

Lawmakers across the U.S. were elected by their constituents to make those decisions; not the parliamentarians, he said.

At the moment, Republicans hold majorities in the House and the Senate. MacDonough was appointed by the late Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who was a Democrat.

Steube questioned why current Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., would not replace MacDonough with a Republican appointee.

‘We’ve certainly called for that,’ Steube said. ‘Thune has said he’s not going to do that, so they’re going to move forward.’

Scott noted that MacDonough has said she is supposed to be call balls and strikes, not make political decisions. When Scott asked Steube if he thought MacDonough was working for the Democrats, the lawmaker noted she was appointed by one.

‘What House lawmakers that have been elected by the people passed by a majority of the House of Representatives and sent over to the Senate are now getting struck by one person who was appointed by Harry Reid,’ Steube said. ‘I certainly don’t think that’s what the American people voted for.

Trump later posted about Steube’s interview on Truth Social.

‘Great Congressman Greg Steube is 100% correct,’ the president wrote. ‘An unelected Senate Staffer (Parliamentarian), should not be allowed to hurt the Republicans Bill. Wants many fantastic things out. NO!’

Fox News Digital’s Alex Miller contributed to this report.

President Donald Trump declared last week that Iran’s underground nuclear facilities bombed by the U.S. were ‘obliterated,’ while adding the U.S. and Israeli strikes delivered ‘monumental damage to all nuclear sites in Iran.’ 

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth echoed that message in a briefing, saying the ‘CIA can confirm that a body of credible intelligence indicates Iran’s nuclear program has been severely damaged by recent targeted strikes.’

Israeli intelligence sources told Fox News Digital that strikes on Natanz, Fordow and Esfahan caused severe and possibly irreversible damage to Iran’s known enrichment infrastructure. ‘We hit the heart of their capabilities,’ one official said. 

But despite the overwhelming success of the mission, questions remain about what survived – and what might come next. Analysts warn that while Iran’s declared facilities have been largely destroyed, covert elements of the program may still exist, and enriched uranium stockpiles could resurface.

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director Rafael Grossi said in an interview with CBS on Saturday that although ‘it’s clear that what happened in particular in Fordow, Natanz, [and] Isfahan—where Iran used to have, and still has to some degree, capabilities in terms of treatment, conversion, and enrichment of uranium—has been destroyed to an important degree,’ the threat remains. 

Nuclear experts say that while Iran’s nuclear progress has been dealt a historic blow, the regime may still retain the technical know-how and residual capabilities to reconstitute its program over time – especially if it chooses to go dark.

A detailed assessment released Tuesday by the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) found that Israel’s Operation Rising Lion, followed by U.S. bunker-busting strikes, ‘effectively destroyed Iran’s centrifuge enrichment program.’ But authors David Albright and Spencer Faragasso cautioned that ‘residuals such as stocks of 60%, 20%, and 3-5% enriched uranium and centrifuges manufactured but not yet installed… pose a threat as they can be used in the future to produce weapon-grade uranium’.

Jonathan Ruhe, director of foreign policy at the Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA), echoed that concern in an interview with Fox News Digital.

‘The threat now is certainly much reduced,’ Ruhe said. ‘But the threat from here on out is going to be much more difficult to detect because Iran could try to rebuild covertly. They don’t need much space or time to enrich 60% to 90%. And the IAEA has said for years that Iran likely retains some secret capability.’

Ruhe added that while Israeli intelligence was likely aware of attempts to move uranium before the strikes, ‘any planning assumption going forward must consider Iran’s residual capacity – even if it’s diminished.’

John Spencer, chair of urban warfare studies at the Modern War Institute, said critics who argue the program wasn’t completely destroyed are missing the bigger picture.

‘Can everything be rebuilt eventually? Sure. But there’s no question the program was rolled back – years, if not more,’ Spencer told Fox News Digital. ‘People fixate on how many pounds of uranium are missing. But building a bomb requires much more than material. You need the conversion, the metallurgy, the delivery system – all of which were hit.’

Dr. Or Rabinowitz, a nuclear proliferation scholar at Hebrew University and visiting associate professor at Stanford, noted that many unknowns remain.

‘There’s no verified answer yet to what happened to the 60% enriched uranium – or to the other feedstocks at 20% or 3.5%,’ Rabinowitz said. ‘If Iran has access to advanced centrifuges, they could in theory enrich back to weapons-grade – but we don’t know how many centrifuges survived or in what condition they are.’

She also explained that even if Iran retains the material, converting uranium gas into metal for a bomb requires a specialized facility. ‘From what we know, that conversion facility in Isfahan was bombed. Without it, Iran faces a significant bottleneck,’ she said. But she warned that nuclear weapons technology is not insurmountable: ‘This is 1940s science. If North Korea could do it, Iran could too – eventually.’

According to the ISIS report, ‘extensive damage’ was confirmed at nearly all major Iranian nuclear and missile facilities, including the destruction of uranium metal conversion plants, fuel fabrication centers, and the IR-40 Arak heavy water reactor. The report noted that the Israeli and U.S. strikes ‘rendered the Fordow site inoperable,’ citing high-resolution satellite imagery of deep bunker penetrations.

Rabinowitz also emphasized that the intelligence picture is still developing in real time. ‘The Israelis and the Americans are now hard at work to generate the most accurate intelligence picture they can,’ she said. ‘Without having my own sources in the Mossad, I can guarantee the Israelis are monitoring internal Iranian communications, trying to figure out what the Iranians have figured out. As they learn more, so will Israel and the U.S.’

As debate continues over whether the strikes were enough to permanently disable Iran’s nuclear ambitions, analysts agree on one point: Iran’s assumption that it could push forward without consequence is gone.

During a press conference on Friday. Trump was asked if he would bomb Iran’s nuclear program again if it was restarted. He told reporters, ‘Sure without question.’

President Donald Trump’s 24th week back in the Oval Office is set to focus on Republican lawmakers sprinting to meet a July 4 deadline to pass a massive piece of legislation that will advance the president’s agenda, while the White House simultaneously juggles ongoing talks related to conflict and tensions in the Middle East.

Trump’s 23rd week in office was one of his most consequential on the books after he ordered U.S. military strikes on a trio of nuclear facilities in Iran last Saturday evening that critics said threatened to pull the U.S. into another war. Instead, the strikes appear to have wiped out Iran’s burgeoning nuclear program that had the Middle East and nations worldwide on edge. It ended in a ceasefire between Iran and Israel as Trump took a victory lap for ending the ’12 Day War.’

‘This is a War that could have gone on for years, and destroyed the entire Middle East, but it didn’t, and never will! God bless Israel, God bless Iran, God bless the Middle East, God bless the United States of America, and GOD BLESS THE WORLD!’ Trump posted to Truth Social last week.

‘One big, beautiful bill’ 

Republicans in Washington, D.C., are hyper-focused on passing the ‘one big, beautiful bill’ this week, ahead of lawmakers’ July 4 deadline to land the legislation on Trump’s desk for his signature. The budget reconciliation bill, if passed, will advance Trump’s agenda on taxes, immigration, energy, defense and the national debt. The legislation is currently before the Senate. 

Senate Republicans successfully carried the legislation over a procedural hurdle late on Saturday in a 51-49 party-line vote after hours of negotiations. All Republicans voted in support of advancing the bill except for Sens. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., and Rand Paul, R-Ky. Tillis announced on Sunday, after bucking Republican colleagues and the president, that he would not seek reelection in 2026.

Following the procedural vote, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., required clerks on the Senate floor to read the entire 940-page Senate GOP’s version of Trump’s megabill as a delay tactic that stalled debate on the package by about 16 hours.

Senate lawmakers will hold 20 hours of debate that is evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans as the bill moves along ahead of the Friday deadline. Senate Democrats are expected to use all of their allotted time, while Senate Republicans will likely only use a portion of their hours.

‘Tonight we saw a GREAT VICTORY in the Senate with the ‘GREAT, BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL,’ but, it wouldn’t have happened without the Fantastic Work of Senator Rick Scott, Senator Mike Lee, Senator Ron Johnson, and Senator Cynthia Lummis,’ Trump posted to Truth Social overnight Saturday. 

‘They, along with all of the other Republican Patriots who voted for the Bill, are people who truly love our Country! As President of the USA, I am proud of them all, and look forward to working with them to GROW OUR ECONOMY, REDUCE WASTEFUL SPENDING, SECURE OUR BORDER, FIGHT FOR OUR MILITARY/VETS, ENSURE THAT OUR MEDICAID SYSTEM HELPS THOSE WHO TRULY NEED IT, PROTECT OUR SECOND AMENDMENT, AND SO MUCH MORE.’ 

Ongoing discussions with Iran 

The White House is expected to hold ongoing talks with Iran this week after the U.S. successfully carried out military strikes on three nuclear facilities in the country last Saturday. 

‘So Iran wants to meet. As you know, their sites were obliterated. Their very evil nuclear sites,’ Trump told the media last week.

Details related to the reported discussions are vague, with Iran denying it is participating in ongoing talks, while the White House said the U.S. remains in close communication with Iranians and intermediaries.  

‘I spoke to our special envoy Witkoff at length this morning and I can assure all of you we continue to be in close communication with the Iranians and through our intermediaries as well, namely the Qataris, who have been an incredible ally and partner throughout this entire effort,’ White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said during a briefing on Thursday. ‘And as I said, this administration is always focused on diplomacy and peace, and we want to ensure we can get to a place where Iran agrees to a non-enrichment civil nuclear program.

‘The president wants peace. He always has, and right now we’re on a diplomatic path with Iran. The president and his team, namely special envoy Witkoff, continue to be in communication with the Iranians and especially our Gulf and Arab partners in the region to come to an agreement with Iran,’ she added.

Trump announced on June 21 that the U.S. successfully carried out strikes on Iran in a Truth Social post that was not preceded by media leaks or speculation that an attack was imminent. The unexpected social media post was followed just hours later by a brief Trump address to the nation while flanked by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President JD Vance. 

‘A short time ago, the U.S. military carried out massive precision strikes on the three key nuclear facilities in the Iranian regime: Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan,’ Trump said from the White House late on Saturday in an address to the nation regarding the strikes. ‘Everybody heard those names for years as they built this horribly destructive enterprise. Our objective was the destruction of Iran’s nuclear enrichment capacity, and a stop to the nuclear threat posed by the world’s No. 1 state sponsor of terror. Tonight, I can report to the world that the strikes were a spectacular military success.’

The operation included the longest B-2 spirit bomber mission since 2001, the second-longest B-2 mission ever flown and the largest B-2 operational strike in U.S. history, Hegseth said. 

Operation Midnight Hammer followed Israel launching preemptive strikes on Iran on June 12 after months of attempted and stalled nuclear negotiations and subsequent heightened concern that Iran was advancing its nuclear program.

Trump floats ceasefire in Gaza 

While celebrating the ceasefire between Israel and Iran, as well as a separate U.S.-brokered peace deal between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo on Friday, Trump predicted a potential ceasefire in Gaza as the war between Hamas and Israel continues since 2023. 

Trump called the situation in Gaza ‘terrible’ while speaking to the media from the Oval Office on Friday, but expressed optimism there could soon be a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. 

‘I think it’s close. I just spoke with some of the people involved,’ said the president, adding, ‘We think within the next week we’re going to get a ceasefire.’ 

Trump also addressed the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza, saying, ‘We’re supplying, as you know, a lot of money and a lot of food to that area because we have to. I mean, you have to. In theory, we’re not involved in it, but we’re involved because people are dying.’

‘MAKE THE DEAL IN GAZA. GET THE HOSTAGES BACK!!! DJT,’ Trump posted to Truth Social early on Sunday as he posted other messages related to the Big Beautiful Bill. 

Israeli Minister for Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer is expected to travel to Washington, D.C., this week to meet with U.S. counterparts to discuss a ceasefire deal, The Associated Press reported. 

Fox News Digital’s Alex Miller and Peter Pinedo contributed to this report.

We are nearly halfway through the first year of the second Trump administration, and the American people are seeing something unprecedented in American politics in the 21st Century: the development and implementation of a grand strategy. 

Critics and talking heads have tried to paint President Donald Trump as brash and careless, especially when it comes to foreign relations and international affairs. Nothing could be further from the truth. Since the beginning, Trump has been clear that America’s interests are his interests, and he has designed America’s grand strategy around American priorities. 

Critics say the Trump Doctrine is causing chaos. Not so. The chaos caused by the flawed designs of previous presidents and their advisers in this century alone made it necessary for a radical course correction. In other words, what Trump has done this year has also opened up new opportunities for collaboration and commerce in regions that were overlooked in previous administrations. The Middle East is a case in point.  

For decades, the only narrative coming out of the region was conflict. Trump saw past that and identified opportunities for trade, commerce and cooperation. This has directly led to a transformation in foreign relations with many Middle Eastern and Gulf countries and new partnerships that have the potential to revolutionize America’s engagement in the area — as well as the American economy. 

That was not Trump’s only goal. On his trip to the region, he also laid the groundwork for the now-apparent isolation of Iran. No one wants the Iran problem. Even Syria — a long-term Iranian ally — is watching from the sidelines. 

The Trump administration has also simultaneously put to bed the blanket ‘isolationist’ and ‘warmonger’ caricatures, which hold no water after strategic strikes against Iranian uranium enrichment facilities. These were calculated strikes that sent two important messages. 

First, it was a reminder that America supports its allies. Israel has been fighting against constant opposition long before the second Trump administration began. The lone beacon of democracy in the Middle East, it has done an admirable job of weakening the state and non-state actors that threaten not only the existence of the state of Israel but also democratic values that undergird all free societies.  

Israel has stood boldly when other nations have cowered. And they did it without asking for help. This is something that has set Israel apart. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has always acknowledged that Israel must fight for itself and has ultimate responsibility for its own defense. 

Trump honored that position and leveraged America’s unmatched military to support Israel through bombings that neutralized targets that were important to America, Israel, and the rest of the free world. 

This reminded America’s other allies that the Trump administration is ready and willing to work in tandem when priorities are aligned. The fact that this happened ahead of the NATO meeting demonstrates just how comprehensive the new American doctrine is. It is also not a coincidence that NATO agreed to support Trump’s recommendation of 5% of GDP going toward defense spending. 

The second message that Trump has sent is that he is always open to diplomacy. In fact, it is his preference. Iran was repeatedly warned against using force. They were encouraged to find a peaceful solution and explicitly told the consequences if they continued to violate the JCPOA agreement. Only when it became clear that Iran was not interested in negotiations was military force used.  

The Trump administration has also simultaneously put to bed the blanket ‘isolationist’ and ‘warmonger’ caricatures, which hold no water after strategic strikes against Iranian uranium enrichment facilities. 

Importantly, that was not the end of the story. Quickly after the strikes were completed, Trump again began working toward peace, personally working with top officials to broker a ceasefire between Israel and Iran. Force was only ever used in an effort to bring both parties to the negotiating table. 

These are not the actions of a warmonger or an isolationist. They are the actions of a peace strategist. Someone who is unashamed to put his country first on the world’s stage but opens the hand of friendship and cooperation to those willing to join together to achieve shared goals. Sounds a bit like President Ronald Reagan, who ended the Cold War without firing a shot.