WHITE HOUSE: NO DECISION: As about 3,500 Sailors and Marines aboard the USS Tripoli amphibious assault ship have arrived in waters just outside the Persian Gulf, and several thousand paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division are set to join them, President Donald Trump is talking tough, insisting he has all the cards.
“I just have lots of alternatives,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One last night. “We have tremendous numbers of ships over there. We don’t need them all because of, you know, the power.” Trump spoke confidently of Iran’s ballistic missile attack being reduced to “sputtering” and asserted that he’s now dealing with “a new group of people that we’ve never dealt with before that are acting very reasonable.”
“We asked for 15 things, and for the most part we’re going to be asking for a couple of other things,” Trump insisted, while claiming the goal of regime change can be checked off his to-do list. “I would consider that regime change, and frankly, they’ve been very reasonable, so I think we’ve had regime change, but you can’t do much better than that.”
TRUMP’S TWO PATHS FOR IRAN WAR: NEGOTIATION OR ESCALATION
IRAN: ‘STILL NO NEGOTIATION’: Iran’s Islamic Republican Guard Corps, which is in control of the military, claimed Trump is lying about Iran making any concessions or is anxious for a ceasefire.
“There is still no negotiation or exchange of messages between Iran and the U.S., and all the information published about this is fake,” the Iranian military said in a statement. “Iran’s decision is to continue the war until the goals are fully achieved and the conditions are fulfilled, and this will continue for as long as necessary.”
“The armed forces are ready for an intense war for at least six months. There is a consensus in the political atmosphere about absolute distrust of the U.S,” the statement said.
While Trump notes Iran’s offensive missile and drone capabilities have been seriously degraded, in a moment of candor last week he admitted that while Iran’s missile launches may be “sputtering” in his words — or down to “onesies and twosies” in the words of U.S. Central Commander Adm. Brad Cooper — that is enough for Iran to keep U.S. warships out of the Persian Gulf, terrorize U.S. Gulf allies, and maintain control of the Strait of Hormuz.
“The problem with the Strait is this. Let’s say we do a great job. We say we got 99%. One percent is unacceptable because 1% is a missile going into the hull of a ship that cost a billion dollars. Right?” Trump said at a Cabinet meeting on Thursday. “So if we do a 99% decimation, that’s no good.”
That is the essential advantage of asymmetric warfare. Over the past few days, Iran destroyed a U.S. Air Force E-3 Sentry aircraft in a missile and drone strike on the Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia that wounded 15 U.S. troops. On Saturday, Iran hit an aluminum smelting plant in the U.A.E, and today Iran hit a power and water salinization plant in Kuwait, killing one worker.
“At the moment, they don’t feel compelled to compromise, it seems, because the trend lines are oil prices are going up, American public opinion about the war is going down, and many of these leaders that we’re hoping to negotiate with are, right now, living underground, fighting for their lives,” Karim Sadjadpour, senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said on CBS’s Face the Nation. “They think they have the global economy hostage. And they’re fighting a war of survival. They’re also fighting a war of revenge against President Trump.”
“We have the ability to do this. We’re on plan,” former retired Gen. Frank McKenzie, who said on CBS that he ran simulations of this war plan many times when he was U.S. Central Commander. “We’re a little further along than we would have expected to be at this point.”
“I believe that they will break. I believe that they will come to terms,” McKenzie predicted. “And it may be an imperfect solution, but I think it would be one that would include opening the Strait of Hormuz, possibly some deal on the missiles.”
“I would only say that we’re doing extremely well in that negotiation,” Trump said on Air Force One. “But you never know with Iran because we negotiate with them and then we always have to blow them up.”
IRAN THREATENS TO BOMB US AND ISRAELI UNIVERSITIES IN MIDDLE EAST
HIMES: ‘I THINK HE’S FLAT-OUT LYING’: Count among the skeptics Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT), top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, who thinks Trump’s consistent upbeat statements about how well the negotiations are going are an elaborate charade.
“I think he’s flat-out lying,” Himes told CBS host Margaret Brennan. “Oil prices now $112 a barrel, and, you know, futures in the stock market down 2%. Last Sunday, he realized, oh, my God, I have got a financial cataclysm on Monday. So he just made it up that they’re in negotiations with the Iranians.”
“Meanwhile, as you know, we are letting the Iranians — so now the Iranians are getting billions of dollars — sell their oil to the Chinese, so that they can buy drones from the Russians. We’re letting the Russians sell oil so that they can get dollars to attack the Ukrainians and use those dollars to attack — to help attack our troops,” Himes said. “I mean, you just couldn’t make this stuff up in a Hollywood script.”
FOUR WEEKS OF IRAN WAR: HERE’S WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO OIL MARKETS
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TRUMP: ‘MAYBE WE TAKE KHARG ISLAND, MAYBE WE DON’T’: In a Sunday interview with the Financial Times, President Trump suggested his long-term goal may be “take the oil in Iran” and confirmed that taking Kharg Island, the distribution point for 90% of Iran’s oil, is among the the many options at his disposal.
“Maybe we take Kharg Island, maybe we don’t. We have a lot of options,” Trump told the FT. “It would also mean we had to be there [in Kharg Island] for a while.”
As he said last week, Trump told the paper that “We’ve got about 3,000 targets left — we’ve bombed 13,000 targets — and another couple of thousand targets to go,” and when asked about whether the Strait of Hormuz could be reopened, replied, “A deal could be made fairly quickly.”
PAKISTAN TO HOST US-IRAN PEACE TALKS AS TEHRAN VOWS TO SET INVADING TROOPS ‘ON FIRE’
TRUMP: “WATCH MARK LEVIN’: In a post on Truth Social Saturday night, Trump directed his followers to tune into Mark Levin’s Fox News show for a discussion of “the importance of hitting Iran, HARD!!!”
In addition to an interview with conservative commentator Mark Theissen, viewers heard a hard sell from Levin about the need for the U.S. to use special operations troops to retrieve the 460 kilograms of enriched uranium believed buried in the rubble at Iran’s Isfahan nuclear site.
“Why would we need troops on the ground? There’s a lot of reasons, and we wouldn’t need 300,000 of them,” Levin said. “We’ve got to get the uranium. If it cannot be destroyed, if it cannot be altered, we’ve got to get it for the reason I just said — you can make dirty bombs, and over time, you can still make sophisticated missiles, so you need to get to the uranium.
Levin said Trump is “not talking about sending regular army and infantry in by the hundreds of thousands,” instead he suggested, “the men he’s talking about, the units he’s talking about, they are specialized … many of them are trained for a moment like this to try and secure enriched uranium.”
Nuclear experts have warned attempts to recover and the uranium, which is stored in thick, steel cylinders, would be very risky especially if any of the canisters were damaged or punctured, in which case they would emit a high toxic gas.
“A successful seizure from Isfahan would require U.S. troops to secure a wide perimeter, locate and excavate up to 970 pounds of the uranium buried under an unknown depth of rubble, protect it from counterattack, load it onto aircraft, and depart under fire,” Tom Wright, a senior fellow at Brookings, posted on X. “The operation would be arguably the most complex raid ever carried out by U.S. forces.”
PETE VS. THE POPE: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth raised a few eyebrows at last week’s monthly prayer service at the Pentagon when he read a prayer he said had been given by a military chaplain to U.S. commandos before they captured Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela in January.
The bellicose prayer called for God to “break the teeth of the ungodly,” “grant this task force clear and righteous targets for violence,” and called for “every round to find its mark,” and “overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy.”
“We ask these things with bold confidence in the mighty and powerful name of Jesus Christ, king over all kings,” Hegseth said.
At his Palm Sunday Mass in St. Peter’s Square, Pope Leo XIV didn’t mention Hegseth by name, but rebuked those who use God to justify their violence.
“Brothers and sisters, this is our God: Jesus, King of Peace, who rejects war, whom no one can use to justify war,” the Pope said, according to a transcript of his homily posted by the Vatican. “He does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them, saying: ‘Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen: your hands are full of blood.'”
POPE LEO CALLS FOR PEACE, SAYING GOD DOESN’T LISTEN TO PRAYERS OF ‘THOSE WHO WAGE WAR’
THE RUNDOWN:
Washington Examiner: Ukraine views Iran war as an extension of its war against Russia, even if Trump doesn’t
Washington Examiner: Trump’s two paths for Iran war: Negotiation or escalation
Washington Examiner: Barksdale Air Force Base drone incursion: What to know about incident over home of B-52 bombers
Washington Examiner: Trump administration locks out Greg Bovino from all social media accounts
Washington Examiner: Glamour shots of Noem and phones in Faraday bags: Mullin takes on a messy DHS
Washington Examiner: Pakistan to host US-Iran peace talks as Tehran vows to set invading troops ‘on fire’
Washington Examiner: Four weeks of Iran war: Here’s what has happened to oil markets
Washington Examiner: Pope Leo calls for peace, saying God doesn’t listen to prayers of ‘those who wage war’
Washington Examiner: Iraqi Kurdistan president’s house targeted in drone attack
Washington Examiner: White House ballroom will include military bunker, Trump says
Washington Examiner: Iran threatens to bomb US and Israeli universities in Middle East
Washington Examiner: Trump greenlights oil shipments to Cuba as Russian tanker on its way
Washington Examiner: Opinion: Trump must not abandon Gulf allies to Iranian hegemony
Wall Street Journal: Trump Weighs Military Operation to Extract Iran’s Uranium
AP: Iran warns the US against a ground invasion as regional powers meet in Pakistan
Washington Post: Pentagon prepares for weeks of ground operations in Iran
NBC News: Iran-Backed Houthis Fire Missile at Israel from Yemen, Risking Further Escalation
The Economist: How Iran is making a mint from Donald Trump’s war
Defense News: Ukraine Offers Gulf Allies Drone Defense in Bid for Scarce Patriot Missiles
Breaking Defense: NATO Sees $145B in Munitions Needs, as Members All Hit 2 Percent GDP for First Time
Defense One: Space Command Wants to Move Nearly 200 People to New Alabama HQ This Year
New York Times: Hegseth Strikes Two Black and Two Female Officers From Promotion List
New York Times: Hegseth Criticized for Removing Four Officers From Promotion List
The Economist: Ukraine’s top drone commander wants to bleed Russia’s army dry
Washington Post: Trump ratchets up attacks on NATO, says U.S. no longer needs alliance
Washington Post: Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen launch attack on Israel for first time in war
AP: North Korea conducts engine test for missile capable of targeting US mainland
Washington Post: Invoking faith in wartime, Hegseth breaks norms and worries critics
Air & Space Forces Magazine: US Forces at Saudi Air Base Suffer Iranian Attack
Air & Space Forces Magazine: Key E-3 AWACS Damaged in Iranian Attack on Saudi Air Base
Air & Space Forces Magazine: Pentagon Eyes Canceling ‘Troubled’ GPS Ground System
Air & Space Forces Magazine: Hegseth’s Push for Chaplains to Remove Rank Sparks Debate
Air & Space Forces Magazine: MacDill Remains on Alert as Indictments Drop in Failed Bomb Attack
THE CALENDAR:
MONDAY | MARCH 30
9 a.m. — Henry Stimson Center virtual discussion: “New Eyes on North Korea: Emerging Scholar Perspectives,” with Miriam Ali, doctoral candidate at Franklin University; Se Young Hwang, business development specialist for Hanwha Aerospace; Chan Mo Ku, researcher for the Embassy of the Republic of Korea; Haruka Chunhyang Satake, young leader for the Pacific Forum; Donghyuk “David” Shin, researcher for Sejong Institute; and Jenny Town, senior fellow and director, Stimson Center’s 38 North Program RSVP: [email protected]
10:15 a.m. — Carnegie Endowment for International Peace virtual discussion: “Winners and Losers: Russia, China, and Europe Respond to the Iran War,” with Aaron David Miller, CEIP senior fellow; Evan Feigenbaum, CEIP vice president for studies; Rosa Balfour, director, CEIP Europe; and Alexander Gabuev, director, CEIP Russia Eurasia Center https://carnegieendowment.org/events/2026/03/winners-and-losers
2 p.m. 1400 L St. NW — Atlantic Council discussion of a new report, “Russian Illusions: How the West Lost the Post-Cold War Era,” with Angela Stent, American Enterprise Institute senior fellow; former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine John Herbst, senior director, Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center; Brian Whitmore, nonresident senior fellow, Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center; and Daniel Fried, Atlantic Council fellow https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/event/report-launch
TUESDAY | MARCH 31
10 a.m. — Atlantic Council’s Strategic Litigation Project; the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Washington, D.C.; the International Partnership for Human Rights; and C4ADSnvirtual launch of a report: “From Tehran to Kyiv: The Islamic Republic of Iran’s Role in Russia’s Drone War,” with Anastasiya Donets, team lead of International Partnership for Human Rights Ukraine Legal Team; Celeste Kmiotek, senior staff lawyer at the Strategic Litigation Project; Allen Maggard, senior analyst for conflict affected states at C4ADS; and Holly Dagres, senior fellow for the Washington Institute for Near East Policy’s Viterbi Program on Iran and U.S. Policy https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/event/holding-enablers-accountable
12 p.m. — Foreign Policy webinar: “Iran’s Evolving War Plan,” with Ali Vaez, director, International Crisis Group’s Iran Project; and Ravi Agrawal, editor in chief of Foreign Policy https://foreignpolicy.com/live/ali-vaez-iran-leadership-war-plan/
1 p.m. — Center for Strategic and International Studies virtual discussion: “U.S. Navy Fighting Instructions,” with Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Daryl Caudle; retired Navy Rear Adm. Raymond Spicer, CEO and publisher, U.S. Naval Institute; and Kari Bingen, director, CSIS Aerospace Security Project https://www.csis.org/events/us-navy-fighting-instructions-chief-naval-operations
2 p.m. — The Government Executive Media Group and Splunk, Inc., a CISCO company virtual discussion: “Commanding the Digital Domain: Owning the Digital Battlefield,” with Michael Frank, Deputy CTO of the Department of the Navy; and Melissa Andrews, director DoD solutions engineering at Splunk, Inc. and co-lead of the Cisco Connected Black Professionals AMER Chapter https://events.govexec.com/commanding-the-digital-domain/register/
5 p.m. 16th St. NW — Institute of World Politics discussion: “The European Union as a Defense Actor,” with European Union Ambassador to the U.S. Jovita Neliupsiene https://www.iwp.edu/the-european-union-as-a-defense-actor/
WEDNESDAY | APRIL 1
9 a.m. 1700 Army Navy Dr., Arlington, Virginia — Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies fourth annual Spacepower Security Forum, with Gen. B. Chance Saltzman, chief of space operations; andLt. Gen. Dennis Bythewood, commander, U.S. Space Forces, Army Navy Country Club, 1700 Army Navy Dr., Arlington, Va. https://www.mitchellaerospacepower.org/events/2026-spacepower-security-forum/
9:30 a.m. 1779 Massachusetts Ave. NW — Carnegie Endowment for International Peace discussion: “Regional Shockwaves: Long-Term Implications of the U.S.-Israel-Iran War,” Abigail Hauslohner, Financial Times Mideast and Africa foreign affairs correspondent; Marwan Muasher, CEIP vice president for studies; Karim Sadjadpour, CEIP Middle East Program senior fellow; Sarah Yerkes, CEIP Middle East Program senior fellow; and Nicole Grajewski, CEIP Nuclear Policy Program nonresident scholar https://carnegieendowment.org/events
THURSDAY | APRIL 2
11 a.m. — Washington Institute for Near East Policy virtual forum: “Diplomacy During War: Priorities for the Trump Administration,” with Emily Harding, director, Center for Strategic and International Studies’ Intelligence, National Security, and Technology Program; Richard Nephew, WINEP adjunct fellow; Michael Singh, WINEP senior fellow; and Nancy Youssef, defense journalist at the Atlantic https://washingtoninstitute-org.zoom.us/webinar/register
2 p.m. — Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft virtual discussion: “What is the New Paradigm of U.S.-Venezuela Relations Post-Maduro?” with Francisco Rodriguez, professor of practice of international and public affairs, University of Denver School of Global and Public Affairs; Julia Buxton, professor, justice studies at Liverpool John Moores University; Orlando Perez, professor, political science at the University of North Texas at Dallas; and Lee Schlenker, research associate with the Quincy Institute’s Global South Program https://quincyinst.org/events/what-is-the-new-paradigm-of-u-s-venezuela-relations
FRIDAY | APRIL 3
10 a.m. — National Institute for Deterrence Studies virtual seminar: “The Challenges to Ensuring Nuclear Deterrence,” with Air Force Lt. Gen. Jason Armagost, deputy commander, Global Strike Command https://thinkdeterrence.com/events/the-challenges-to-ensuring-nuclear-deterrence11 a.m. — Center for Strategic and International Studies virtual discussion: “Adapting Under Fire: Ukraine’s Race to Reinvent Modern Defense,” with active-duty air defense operators from the Ukrainian army and air force, and Kateryna Bondar, fellow, CSIS Wadhwani AI Center https://www.csis.org/events/adapting-under-fire-ukraines-race-reinvent-modern-defense
