Top Items:
Edward Luce / Financial Times:
Donald Trump warns Nato faces ‘very bad future’ if allies fail to help US in Iran — US president tells the FT in an interview that China summit could be delayed — Donald Trump has warned that Nato faces a “very bad” future if US allies fail to assist in opening up the Strait of Hormuz …
Discussion:
New York Post, Reuters, IJR, Fortune and Axios
RELATED:
New York Times:
Entering War's Third Week, Trump Faces Stark Choices … Two weeks into a war against Iran that he chose to launch, President Trump faces a stark choice — stay in the battle to achieve the dauntingly ambitious goals he has set, or try to extract himself from an expanding and intensifying conflict …
Discussion:
The Wrap
Will Weissert / Associated Press:
Two weeks into war with Iran, Trump has been knocked back on his political heels — In the two weeks since the U.S. and Israel launched strikes on Iran, President Donald Trump increasingly has been knocked on his political heels. He's grown more agitated with news coverage and has failed …
Discussion:
Digby's Hullabaloo, Fortune, KHOU-TV, WTOP News and Washington Post
Alexander Ward / Wall Street Journal:
Exclusive: Trump Administration Plans to Announce Coalition to Escort Ships Through Strait of Hormuz — The Trump administration as soon as this week plans to announce that multiple countries have agreed to form a coalition that will escort ships through the Strait of Hormuz, which runs along the Iranian coast, U.S. officials said.
Discussion:
Axios, CNBC, The Independent, NewsMax.com, Mediaite, Washington Examiner and Al Jazeera
Colum Murphy / Bloomberg:
Trump Floats Xi Summit Delay If China Doesn't Help in Hormuz — Donald Trump threatened to delay his summit with Xi Jinping if Beijing doesn't help secure the Strait of Hormuz, as the US-Israel war stifles oil supplies and unsettles ties between the world's biggest economies.
Discussion:
Reuters, Associated Press, Al Jazeera and CNBC
Ravi Mattu / New York Times:
Nations Respond With Caution to Trump's Call to Send Warships to Strait of Hormuz — President Trump has urged China, Britain, France, Japan and South Korea to send warships to help reopen the waterway, even though they were not involved in the U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran.
Discussion:
Reuters, NBC News, Straight Arrow News, UPI, France 24, Middle East Monitor, Bloomberg, HuffPost and CBS News
Axios:
Trump eyes “Hormuz Coalition,” seizure of Iran's Kharg Island oil hub — President Trump is working to assemble a coalition of countries to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and hopes to announce it later this week, four sources tell Axios. — Trump is also weighing a seizure of Iran's critical oil depot …
Discussion:
Associated Press and Washington Examiner
Wall Street Journal:
White House Tries to Build Coalition on Iran to Address Energy Crisis
Discussion:
UPI
Steve Kopack / NBC News:
U.S. oil soars past $100 a barrel as Iran war shows no signs of ending soon
U.S. oil soars past $100 a barrel as Iran war shows no signs of ending soon
Discussion:
UPI, New York Post, NewsMax.com and The Gateway Pundit
Josh Marcus / The Independent:
Afghan who fought with US special forces dies in ICE custody as Trump on track for deadliest year of detention in more than two decades — Mohammad Nazeer Paktyawal served with U.S. forces in Afghanistan and legally evacuated the country, then died within a day of being taken into ICE custody, according to his family
RELATED:
Joey Roulette / Reuters:
Afghan asylum-seeker dies in ICE custody, US advocacy group says — An Afghan immigrant who previously worked with the U.S. military in Afghanistan and later sought asylum in the United States died this weekend in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody less than 24 hours after being detained in Texas …
Discussion:
The Texas Tribune
Lauren Egan / The Bulwark:
What Life's Like for the Muslim Constituents of Congress's Nastiest Islamophobe — A SHORT FIFTEEN-MINUTE DRIVE from Kid Rock's Big Ass Honky Tonk and Jason Aldean's Rooftop Bar—just two of the many country music celebrity-branded establishments that dot Nashville's lower Broadway—sits Little Kurdistan.
Laura Esposito / The Daily Beast:
Family of Fallen Airman Rages at Trump's ‘Uncalled For’ War — ‘NIGHTMARE’ — While Trump was golfing, families were mourning. — The families of a servicemember killed in Donald Trump's war are pleading with the president to end the conflict in Iran—the same day he was seen golfing in West Palm Beach.
Axios:
Democrats face a post-Trump identity crisis for 2028 — Democrats are barreling toward an identity crisis: When Donald Trump is gone, they're not sure what they'll stand for. — Top party strategists are warning they can't win back the White House in 2028 by coasting on voters' dissatisfaction with the president and MAGA.
Discussion:
Breitbart
Wall Street Journal:
Oil Industry Warns Trump Administration That Fuel Crunch Will Likely Worsen — Oil executives told officials in White House meetings the closure of the Strait of Hormuz may push up oil prices further — American oil executives delivered a bleak message to Trump officials in recent days …
Avery Lotz / Axios:
Trump officials target media over Iran war reporting — FCC Chair Brendan Carr threatened to revoke broadcasters' licenses over Iran war coverage, a day after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth singled out CNN and rooted for a friendlier owner. … - Now, facing a war with dismal polling and a muddled message …
Discussion:
New York Post, Raw Story, Newsweek, CNBC, Bloomberg, The Hill, The Guardian, NOTUS, Salon, WTTG-TV, NewsMax.com, The Post Millennial, The Independent, The Gateway Pundit, Straight Arrow News, CBS News, Mediaite, Mother Jones, USA Today, MS NOW, Variety, Reuters, New York Times, Al Jazeera and Deadline, more at Mediagazer »
New York Times:
How Trump's Homeland Security Pick, a Prolific Investor, Got a Lot Wealthier in Congress — Markwayne Mullin's financial dealings take on new importance as the Senate considers his nomination to lead an agency whose budget has vastly expanded. — A few days after Christmas …
Discussion:
Washington Examiner
Zach Montague / New York Times:
Kennedy Center Board to Vote Monday on Trump's Proposed Closure — The planned vote to close the center for renovations was listed on an agenda circulated to the center's board of trustees on Sunday, less than a day before the meeting. — President Trump is set to convene the board …
Wall Street Journal:
Hack on U.S. Medical Company Shows Reach of Iran's Cyber Capabilities — U.S. officials say more cyberattacks on the homeland should be expected after global disruption forced tens of thousands of Stryker employees offline — WASHINGTON—Iran pulled off likely the most significant wartime cyberattack …
Kevin Cohen / Wall Street Journal:
Terrorists Are Now Often Made in the USA — Last week's attackers in Michigan and Virginia were naturalized citizens, possibly radicalized here. — Western counterterrorism operated for decades on a simple premise: Threats came from somewhere else. They crossed borders.
Discussion:
Townhall and The Gateway Pundit
Politico:
Taiwan reports large-scale Chinese military aircraft presence near island … Taiwan didn't report any Chinese military planes that went beyond the median line and entered the zone for a week from Feb. 27 to March 5. After two were detected on March 6, the next four days had none.
John B. Judis / NOTUS:
Trump as Alexander the Great: A Theory That Explains Iran (And Everything Else) … It's tough to pinpoint when exactly it happened, but gradually, as President Donald Trump has entered the second year of his second term, a sense of optimism has returned to the Democratic side.
Discussion:
Digby's Hullabaloo
Zoe Hussain / New York Post:
Trump defends Mark Levin after pundit's wild podcast feud with rival Megyn Kelly — President Trump threw his support behind Mark Levin amid the radio host's bitter back-and-forth feud with podcaster Megyn Kelly. — Trump praised Levin as a “truly Great American Patriot” who was …
Jake Tapper / CNN:
Pete Buttigieg: ‘This is clearly amateur hour at the Pentagon and in the White House’ — Discussing the war with Iran, former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg tells Jake Tapper, “I think President Trump thought he could get a better deal than the Obama administration did.
Discussion:
Salon, Washington Times, PoliticusUSA and Raw Story
Judy Kurtz / The Hill:
Javier Bardem sports anti-war pin, says ‘free Palestine’ at Oscars — Javier Bardem is sharing a simple message from the Oscars stage: “No to war and free Palestine.” — The “No Country for Old Men” actor presented the International Feature Film category at Sunday's Academy Awards in Los Angeles.
Discussion:
Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair, The Hollywood Reporter, Mediaite, Breitbart, Deadline, Variety and Just Jared
Kelly Hooper / Politico:
The Trump health care policy red and blue states are embracing … That offer is now finding more takers, among Republicans and Democrats, as state lawmakers look for ways to keep the uninsured rate down. Obamacare enrollment has already dropped by more than 1 million this year, with further decline expected.
Josh Boswell / Daily Mail:
Bernie Sanders-backed Senate hopeful backtracks on apology for ‘Nazi skull’ tattoo insisting it's an ‘eminently reasonable skull-and-crossbones’ — A Democrat running for Senate in Maine who previously apologized for a tattoo resembling a Nazi symbol is now defending the design as nothing more than a skull-and-crossbones.
Discussion:
The Post Millennial, twitchy.com, New York Post and Instapundit
Peter Giunta / The Hill:
The post-boomer GOP is coming — 2028 will define it — The Republican Party is experiencing a transitional period that feels less like upheaval and more like evolution. The household names that have dominated Washington for years are stepping aside, committee gavels are changing hands, and leadership dynamics are shifting.
