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May 9, 2026 - World

First Baptist Church senior pastor Robert Jeffress, a strong ally of President Donald Trump, argued on Fox News Saturday that he believed Trump to have a better understanding of biblical teachings than Pope Leo XIV.Jeffress’ claim comes amid Trump’s ongoing feud with the head of the Catholic Church, prompted by Pope Leo’s generic criticism of war. Trump called Pope Leo “weak on crime” and accused him of “catering to the radical left” for what Trump considered to be a condemnation of his war against Iran.“The pope is a good man, he’s sincere in his faith, but he is sincerely wrong when it comes to Iran,” Jeffress told Fox News. “The pope ought to know – and I think he does know – God created both the church and government for two distinct purposes," he said. "The role of the church is to point people to faith in Jesus Christ, but the role of government is to protect citizens from evil-doers.”Jeffress said that he was “in the Oval Office” with Trump three days after the president launched the U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran – dubbed Operation Epic Fury – and that it appeared to him as though Trump was better versed in the Bible than the pope himself.“The great irony is it looks like President Trump has a better understanding of what the Bible teaches about the role of government than the pope has!” Jeffress added. “And I’m glad the president hasn’t backed down at all.”Pastor Robert Jeffress: "It looks like President Trump has a better understanding of what the Bible teaches than the Pope" pic.twitter.com/TMSyTmdeTE— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 9, 2026

May 9, 2026 - World

Trump is reportedly losing patience with his own war that he started in Iran and wants it to end as soon as possible, according to a new report. According to a Friday article by The Atlantic, an outside advisor to Trump said that the president is "bored" with the war. "Others believe he is frustrated at Iran's intransigence," the Atlantic reported. "Trump is reluctant to resume hostilities," aides and advisors told The Atlantic. One advisor told The Atlantic that Trump would like "to tamp down any military action ahead of his trip to Beijing next week." According to The Atlantic, Trump is going to have to wait longer than that to get out of his mess in Iran because "a number of experts have forecast that Iran can withstand pressure from the blockade for months, not weeks." The Atlantic article mentioned a U.S. intelligence assessment for policymakers that suggested "Iran could make it at least three of four more months" with the Strait of Hormuz closed. Trump has already tried to declare a win in Iran, but he's also struggled to uphold ceasefires or the short-lived attempt to escort ships through the backed-up Strait of Hormuz. Advisors and aides told The Atlantic that Trump "is convinced that he can sell any sort of agreement as a win," but as of Friday, "Washington is still waiting for Iran to respond to the latest offering." Part of the problem for Trump is "the U.S. has largely exhausted its list of significant military targets," advisors said to The Atlantic, which added that "to continue to escalate, which is Trump's signature move, he'd have to threaten civilian targets." On top of that, "American officials privately admit that, with Iran's leadership fractured, they're not sure with whom they are negotiating," according to The Atlantic. A pair of outside advisors told The Atlantic that Trump sold the Iran war as "another Venezuela" that would wrap up quickly.

May 8, 2026 - World

Donald Trump was accused by both MS NOW host and a former high-ranking Pentagon official of a cover-up after a skirmish between US forces and Iran on Thursday.On “Morning Joe,” co-host Joe Scarborough excoriated the president, who dismissed the firefight as a “love tap” — leading retired Rear Admiral John. Kirby to make his bold accusation.“How would the right-wing press, how would the media in general, respond if Iran were attacking U.S. ships and Joe Biden was calling it, quote, ‘love taps’ because he was so desperate to cave to the Iranians?” Scarborough prompted his guest.“I think I would have been flayed,” Kirby, who served as the Pentagon spokesperson under Biden, replied. “I just would have been flayed up there at that podium if that had been President Biden's response to what we're seeing in the ceasefire violations. If he just shrugged it off, there's no way that I would have had any kind of leverage with the press or any kind of credibility up there to continue to defend that kind of approach.”Scarborough asked, “Can you talk a little bit about that? The extent of those damages as far as you know, and again, what would have happened if the Biden administration had tried to cover up those Iranian attacks on Americans?”“I'd say a couple of things on this, Joe, I'm really glad you brought that up, because it also goes to casualties as well,” Kirby replied. “But let me start with where you started: the questions. One, it's a political discussion. It's a political decision. I have no doubt that the folks in uniform and central command, Admiral Cooper, would want to be as transparent as he could, obviously, with protecting operational security and base security and safety. I get that. But I think these are political decisions not to admit that the damage has been more severe than they reported, not to admit that we have suffered more casualties, certainly in terms of wounded, than they're putting out publicly.”“So this is a political decision,” he maintained. “And that happens in war. But it does compound the level of distrust that I think the American people are having about this war right now, and they weren't consulted; they weren't communicated with. They obviously, the polls will tell you they don't support this war. And so to try to minimize that lack of support, they are holding back information, only doing briefings once every 10 or 12 days and with very, very little information and no real questions from real reporters being asked in that briefing room. It's all an effort to, I think, confound the American people with respect to how this war is being fought.” - YouTube youtu.be

May 8, 2026 - World

Always one looking to make a splashy deal, Donald Trump is giving serious consideration to allowing China to make a massive investment in the U.S. — against the advice of some of his closest advisors, an expert warned Friday.In a column for the New York Times, conservative economist Oren Cass reported the president, “May be on the verge of tying the United States to China irrevocably: Mr. Trump and Xi Jinping are reportedly considering a deal to allow China to invest $1 trillion in the United States, largely to build factories on American soil.”Cass described that scenario as “an unforced error of world-historic proportions.”The reported negotiations come as Trump prepares for a trip to China and seeks to cement his legacy as a dealmaker — even if that deal undermines the very trade agenda he championed.While Trump's approach to China has frequently put him at odds with his own administration, his willingness to consider the investment stems from a fundamental misunderstanding of the relationship. Trump sees China as simply offering a bad deal — and believes the remedy is negotiating a better one, Cass wrote.And he's proceeding despite concern from advisers in the administration."I don't blame China," Trump notably told business leaders in Beijing in 2017. "After all, who can blame a country for being able to take advantage of another country for the benefit of its citizens? I give China great credit."According to the economist, this transactional worldview fails to account for the strategic reality that Chinese investment operates under fundamentally different rules than American capital flows.A trillion-dollar infusion of Chinese capital would exceed the total direct investment in the United States made by any other country since the Declaration of Independence, he wrote before adding that even a fraction of that amount would devastate what remains of American economic defenses, weakening national security and supply-chain resilience while handing the Chinese Communist Party a powerful tool to subvert U.S. markets.Unlike American companies that pursue their own goals with relatively little political interference, Chinese companies operate at the pleasure of the Communist Party. When the party decides to dominate an industry, it can offer virtually unlimited financial support and access to a virtually unlimited labor pool."Welcoming that model to our shores would be a catastrophe for the United States," Cass wrote.In recent weeks, key administration figures including Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnik have cast doubt on accepting Chinese investment. However, with Trump, it remains unclear whether resistance represents a firm position or simply a negotiating posture.If Trump proceeds with the deal, he risks becoming the president who did more than anyone to warn about the dangers of the China relationship — only to embed that relationship, and its dangers, into the foundation of the nation's economy, Cass warned.

May 8, 2026 - World

Trump is leaving business executives and CEOs confused and uncertain about whether they're invited to cooperate with China, according to a new report. “The president is ‘wheels up’ in about a week," Sean Stein, the president at the US-China Business Council, told Politico in a Thursday piece, referring to an upcoming summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. "There are still CEOs waiting to find out if they will be part of the president's trip." According to Politico, the White House spent "weeks" deciding how many business executives and CEOs to bring to the summit, and started sending out invitations. The Trump administration is divided over "how much to encourage private sector engagement with its biggest economic rival." It doesn't help that CEOs are saying that the White House is sending "mixed signals," Politico wrote, citing two people briefed by the White House. "Administration officials in recent weeks circulated a draft list of executives from roughly two dozen companies to potentially participate," according to Politico. "However, some officials, including U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, pushed for a group closer to half that size." Amid the indecision, "we have multiple CEOs who've been told, 'well maybe you're going to be invited,'" Stein told Politico. "The indecision has left executives interested in participating in the summit in limbo days ahead of the trip," according to Politico reporting. "One prominent American CEO, who does business in China and the U.S., had an aide recently follow up with an administration official to try to join the delegation after getting no response from the White House." "It's hard to get in this time," the official told the CEO.