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On Politics

Wed Jun 18 2025

Rebecca Morin | Newsletter Writer

@RebeccaMorin_

Happy Wednesday! Rebecca Morin here. The White House grounds are going to look a little different. President Donald Trump installed massive, nearly 88-foot-tall flagpoles at the White House.

Trump teases Iran airstrike

Maybe he will or maybe he won't. President Donald Trump on Wednesday teased a possible U.S. strike on Iran. "I may do it. I may not do it," Trump told reporters at the White House on Wednesday. "Nobody knows what I'm going to do." The president's comments come as Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, warned of "irreparable damage" if America joined Israel's air war. The conflict entered its sixth night, as Israel and Iran traded airstrikes that have sent civilians fleeing for safety in Tehran and Tel Aviv. The latest in the escalating conflict between Iran and Israel.

Trump vs. Tehran: Trump also told reporters Wednesday that Iranian leadership suggested they wanted to come to the White House for peace talks amid the conflict. Iran's mission to the United Nations in a social media post denied the president's statement, saying "No Iranian official has ever asked to grovel at the gates of the White House. The only thing more despicable than his lies is his cowardly threat to 'take out' Iran's Supreme Leader."

A conservative showdown: There's a growing divide among conservatives on U.S. military action in Iran. That was displayed during a contentious exchange between Sen. Ted Cruz and conservative media figure Tucker Carlson. "How many people live in Iran by the way?" Carlson asked Cruz in an excerpt released Tuesday from Carlson's online show. Cruz, who recently said on Fox News it's "very much in the interest of America to see regime change" in Iran, told Carlson he didn't know the country's population. Later, Carlson told Cruz: "You don't know anything about Iran!" More from the exchange here.

Standing with workers before they install a new flag pole on the South Lawn, President Donald Trump talks with journalists outside the White House on Wednesday.

Chip Somodevilla, Getty Images

A politics pit stop

•	3% of measles cases are among fully vaccinated individuals, CDC says.
•	Trump to delay ban on TikTok for third time with 90-day extension.
•	Supreme Court greenlights nuclear waste sites in Texas.
•	RFK Jr. faces blowback after vaccine committee firings.
•	Senate passes crypto legislation with bipartisan support.

A setback for transgender Americans

An ideologically divided Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld Tennessee's ban on gender-affirming care for minors, a major setback for transgender Americans who have increasingly become targets of conservative states and the Trump administration. The court's six conservatives voted to uphold the ban and the three liberals dissented. The decision is one of the court's biggest this year. It comes about five years after the court ruled that transgender people, as well as gay and lesbian people, are protected by a landmark civil rights law barring sex discrimination in the workplace. What the court's ruling means.

Obama warns U.S. is 'drifting' into autocracy

Without mentioning President Donald Trump by name, former President Barack Obama said he was worried that the United States was "drifting into something that is not consistent with American democracy. It is consistent with autocracies." Obama spoke with Boston College professor and popular newsletter writer Heather Cox Richardson at the The Bushnell Performing Arts Center in Hartford on Tuesday. Obama's speech was a rare public appearance for the former president. He has kept a relatively low profile since Trump took office for a second time and embarked on a tumultuous agenda. Still, Obama said he remains "optimistic" despite growing political divides.