‘THIS IS COMING TO A HEAD’: The aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson is steaming toward the Middle East, ostensibly to augment and then relieve the USS Harry S. Truman, which is in an ongoing shooting war with Iranian-back Houthi forces in Yemen. But the naval buildup in the Gulf regions comes as President Donald Trump has said he holds Iran responsible for the Houthi attacks on international shipping. He has put Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on notice that he faces military action if Tehran doesn’t give up its nuclear program.

“This is coming to a head. All options are on the table,” White House national security adviser Mike Waltz said on CBS’s Face the Nation Sunday, adding Trump will settle for nothing less than “full dismantlement.”