U.S. intelligence assessments predict that Iran's leadership regime will remain intact and may even grow stronger following the U.S.-Israel attacks, sources familiar with the reports told The Washington Post on Monday.

One of the sources said President Donald Trump received “very sobering briefings," including one warning him before he signed off on last month's strikes, that they were likely to result in a more powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

“It wasn’t just predictable,” the source said. “It was predicted. He was told in advance.”

The Post's reporting aligns with a Reuters report last week that U.S. intelligence had warned that Iran's government was not at risk of collapse.

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President Donald Trump said Monday he's hoping to delay his upcoming visit to China by "a month or so" because of his war with Iran.

“It’s very simple. We’ve got a war going on. I think it’s important that I be here, so it could be that we delay a little bit, not much,” Trump said during an Oval Office event, adding that he had requested the postponement with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Trump, who's been urging China to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz, was expected to meet with Xi at the end of this month.

Earlier Monday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent denied that delaying the meeting was a tactic to pressure China into helping with reopening the passageway.

Texas Rep. Greg Casar (D) and Sen. John Cornyn (R) verbally clashed on Monday over the lack of funding for the TSA and Homeland Security.

Cornyn was outside Austin-Bergstrom International Airport to deliver lunch to TSA agents amid the partial government shutdown, which has caused massive delays at airports across the country and paused agents' paychecks. He told the media it was the Democrats' fault that TSA was not funded because they wouldn't vote for a bill that also funded President Donald Trump's aggressive federal immigration crackdown.

Casar then crashed the event and blamed Republicans for not passing a bill that would've specifically funded the TSA during the shutdown.

"Instead of bringing people burgers, he should bring them their paychecks," Casar told journalists as Cornyn walked away.

President Donald Trump’s handpicked board of trustees voted on Monday to greenlight his plans for the Kennedy Center.

In a unanimous vote, the Kennedy Center board backed a two-year closure of the storied performing arts venue after Trump called for just that this past winter.

“I have determined that the fastest way to bring The Trump Kennedy Center to the highest level of Success, Beauty, and Grandeur, is to cease Entertainment Operations for an approximately two year period of time, with a scheduled Grand Reopening that will rival and surpass anything that has taken place with respect to such a Facility before,” Trump wrote in a February Truth Social post urging sweeping renovations.

The closure — which will take effect after an Independence Day celebration — has been widely criticized by performing arts experts and comes as the institution has racked up cancellations amid Trump's takeover.

Standing next to Trump at the Oval Office, Vance went after a reporter on Monday who asked the vice president if his stance on the current Iran war is different from his past statements criticizing foreign interventionism.

"I know what you're trying to do, Phil," Vance responded. "You're trying to drive a wedge between members of the administration, between me and the president."

Vance then said he agrees with the president that Iran should not have a nuclear weapon, and that the approach he's taken to U.S. military action in the region is to "make it as successful as possible."

When pressed by the reporter on whether that means he's changed his position on U.S. foreign intervention, Vance said the "one big difference" is that "we have a smart president, whereas in the past we had dumb presidents."

Asked to elaborate on his comment that “Cuba is next,” President Trump told reporters in the Oval Office he couldn’t say whether a possible U.S. intervention would look more like this year's military actions in Iran or Venezuela.

“I can’t tell you … I can tell you they’re talking to us,” Trump said. “It’s a failed nation. They have nice land.”

“I do believe I’ll be the honor of — having the honor of taking Cuba,” he added.

“Taking” Cuba? a reporter asked.

“Taking Cuba in some form, yeah," said Trump. "Whether I free it. Take it. I think I could do anything I want with it, if you know the truth.”

A federal judge on Monday temporarily blocked federal health officials from cutting the number of vaccines recommended for every child, and said U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. likely violated federal procedures in revamping a key vaccine advisory committee.

The decision halts an order by Kennedy — announced in January — to end broad recommendations for all children to be vaccinated against flu, rotavirus, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, some forms of meningitis and RSV.

Read more here:

President Donald Trump’s war in Iran has prompted gas prices to rise nationwide — but some areas are feeling more pain than others.

Drivers in Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico and Oklahoma were paying at least $1 more on Monday than they were a month ago, before Trump began ordering the airstrikes, according to statewide averages compiled by AAA.

Several other states are nearly at the $1-more-per-gallon mark, including Florida, Iowa, Minnesota, Nevada, Texas and Utah. AAA reports that the current nationwide average is $3.718, up from $2.929 a month ago.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright said Sunday that Americans can expect relief at the pump within “a few more weeks.” It is far from clear how long the conflict with Iran will last, however, with Trump saying last week that he will end the war when “I feel it in my bones.”

As he riffed on the challenges to the Republican House majority in a particularly bizarre press conference, President Donald Trump casually divulged that Rep. Neal Dunn (R-Fl.) has a terminal heart condition.

Former commander-at-large of Border Patrol Gregory Bovino is set to retire from federal service at the end of March, CBS News reported, citing two unnamed sources familiar with the matter.

The news of his retirement comes after he was removed from his position in January in the aftermath of federal agents’ killing Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.

Read more at CBS News.

Democrats told the Justice Department on Monday to prosecute former Department of Homeland Security leader Kristi Noem for lying to Congress.

In a letter to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) and Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the top Democrats on the House and Senate judiciary committees, said Noem lied to each of their committees during testimony this month.

"A number of her statements appear to violate criminal statutes prohibiting perjury and knowingly making false statements to Congress," Raskin and Durbin wrote.

The pair said Noem lied about her department complying with court orders, contrary to dozens of instances of the department failing to do so in Minnesota alone, and they said she lied about the president approving a TV ad that featured Noem on horseback, which Trump has said he did not approve. They also said she lied about conditions at DHS detention facilities.

Bondi's DOJ tried to push perjury charges against former FBI director James Comey for lying to Congress, but the charges were dismissed. It's highly unlikely the Trump administration would want to prosecute one of its own cabinet secretaries, but the Democrats noted a future administration could pick up the case.

"While we have low expectations that you will pursue this matter given your partisan weaponization of the Department of Justice, we note that the statute of limitations for perjury and for knowingly and willfully making false statements to Congress is five years," Raskin and Durbin wrote.

President Donald Trump said the U.S. is strong enough to secure the Strait of Hormuz entirely on its own, even as he mounts an pressure campaign to obtain help from other countries.

“I don’t do a hard sell on them because my attitude is, we don’t need anybody,” he said. “We’re the strongest nation in the world. We have the strongest military by far in the world. We don’t need them.”

He claimed that his heavy-handed requests for aid are not necessarily based on need — but are instead loyalty tests.

“I’m almost doing it, in some cases, not because we need them but because I want to find out how they will react. Because I’ve been saying for years that if we ever did need them, they won’t be there. Not all of them,” he said.

At the same press conference Monday, Trump assured that “numerous countries” are on their way to help.

These latest comments follow on the heels of his Sunday warning that NATO will have a “very bad” future if its members don’t step up and get involved.

Some U.S. allies, meanwhile, have rejected Trump’s requests or expressed hesitancy to get involved.

Germany's Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, in declining, agreed that the U.S. is strong enough to not need his country’s help.

"What does (...) Donald Trump expect a handful or two handfuls of European frigates to do in the Strait of Hormuz that the powerful U.S. Navy cannot do?" he asked, according to Reuters. "This is not our war. We have not started it.”

Trump:I think Macron will help with the Strait of Hormuz... we don't need anybody.I almost do it because I want to find out how they react. pic.twitter.com/w8dt6o2HA0

Cuba's energy grid has suffered a "total disconnection," the country's Ministry of Energy and Mines confirmed on X.

"The causes are being investigated and protocols for restoration are beginning to be activated," a translation reads. The incident has cut off power for around 11 million people.

The Cuban government blames its ongoing energy woes on President Donald Trump's decision to effectively shut off the flow of oil to Cuba when he warned in January that any country providing oil to the island nation would face tariffs.

"Cuba will be failing pretty soon," Trump said in January. "Cuba is really a nation that's very close to failing."

Current events took center stage on Hollywood’s biggest night.

President Donald Trump said “numerous countries” have said they’re “on the way” to help secure the Strait of Hormuz, including ones that are doing so indifferently.

“Some are very enthusiastic about it, and some aren’t. Some are countries that we’ve helped for many, many years. We’ve protected them from horrible outside sources, and they weren’t that enthusiastic. And the level of enthusiasm matters to me,” he said Monday.

Given the amount of help the U.S. has provided to other countries in the past, he said, more needs to be done.

“I said, you mean for 40 years we’re protecting you and you don’t want to get involved in something that is very minor, very few shots going to be taken because they don’t have many shots left,” he said. “But they said, ‘We’d rather not get involved.’”

Trump: Numerous countries have told me they're on the way. Some are very enthusiastic about it and some aren't. Some are countries that we've helped for many, many years. We've protected them from horrible outside sources, and they weren't that enthusiastic. And the level of… pic.twitter.com/3teoeTvyBu

“Mike called me and he said, 'Sir we’re up by three but I think we’re gonna lose one by June,'” President Donald Trump recalled House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) telling him, disclosing Rep. Mike Dunn’s (R-Fla.) apparently fatal diagnosis.

“He called to say he was terminal, really bad heart. Said there’s nothing they can do. I said, ‘that’s bad.’ Number one is bad because I liked him, number two it was bad because I needed his vote,” Trump continued.

“And then I realized I had doctors in the White House and they’d helped me with other people… and I said, ‘I have to call them.’ And I called the two doctors… and they immediately went over to see the congressman and he was on the operating table like two hours later. And it was a long operation… and they called up and said, ‘Sir, I think he’ll be fine.’”

"I said, ‘You gotta be kidding,’" Trump continued. "They said, ‘I think he’ll be fine.’"

“He has a new lease on life,” Johnson added at Trump’s encouragement.

President Donald Trump’s Kennedy Center board meeting introduction hit an odd patch after he asked House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to share an update on the health of Rep. Neal Dunn (R-Fla.).

"We had one man who it looked like he wasn’t going to make it," Trump said, looking at Johnson. "I won’t mention his name. Should I? Do other people know his name?"

Johnson smiled meekly and shrugged as Trump encouraged him to "share his name."

"Well, uh, thank you Mr. President," he said. "Congressman Neal Dunn of Florida has had some real health challenges, and … had had a pretty grim diagnosis."

"What was the diagnosis?" Trump interjected.

"It was uhh. I mean, I think it was a terminal diagnosis," said Johnson, hedging.

"He would be dead by June," said Trump, proudly.

"OK," Johnson replied, "That wasn’t public, but… ok. It was grim."

"With a heart problem!" Trump continued, almost gloating. "This was a heart problem."

Johnson then said that Trump encouraged his medical team to get involved in Dunn’s care and "within a number of hours" Dunn was getting emergency surgery at Walter Reed Medical Center and now "the man has a new lease on life."

President Donald Trump’s Q&A has gone off the rails before any questions have even been asked. Instead of fielding questions he’s talking about the Kennedy Center, specifically paint:

“It was painted a cheap gold and we turned it into a very expensively painted white," he said. "Very heavy coat of very, uh, very, uhh powerful white paint meant for steel, exposed steel. A very different kind of paint that’s almost like putting a stone over the top of it and the color is white. Shiny white. And a lot of people have commented it looks so much better. Before they had the steel painted gold. And the gold was very cheap."

He continued: “There’s actually never been a paint that’s made that will look like gold… you either gold leaf it or use real gold bullion or you use a different color, Steve. No one’s ever been able to make a gold paint that looks real… but there’s never been a paint. I said, some day I’ll discover a paint where you don’t actually have to use gold leaf."

President Donald Trump began the Kennedy Center board meeting by reading prepared remarks about how many targets the U.S. and Israel have hit in Iran, then pivoted to asking other countries to come help secure the Strait of Hormuz, then claimed that "numerous countries" are already on the way, and then made a preposterous claim about having predicted the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

“I predicted Osama Bin Laden would knock out the World Trade Center. I made that prediction a year before he did it,” he told the room.

He then doubled down.

“One year before, exactly, I wrote it in a book,” he said. “You can even check. About a year before the World Trade Center came down.”

(Trump has made the claim many times over the years. It’s false.)

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), an ex-officio member of the Kennedy Center’s board, said he’ll be skipping the board’s Monday meeting because President Donald Trump has turned it into a “sham.”

“I will not serve as a prop at today’s board meeting at the White House, where we expect President Trump will host his hand-picked cronies with the intention of rubber-stamping his plan to shutter the Kennedy Center for years in the name of ‘renovations,’” Whitehouse said in a statement.

“Having previously been illegally stripped of my voting rights as an ex-officio board member, my presence at this sham would serve no purpose,” said the senator. “The Kennedy Center belongs to the American people. Rather than acting as a steward of this public treasure, current management has so severely looted the Center through self-dealing, favoritism, and waste that it now seeks to cover up those failures by shuttering the Kennedy Center altogether.”

Trump is convening the board to vote on his plan to close the Kennedy Center for two years for so-called renovations, beginning July 6.

It's pretty clear how the vote will go: Trump has stacked the board with loyalists, and declared himself its chairman. He's also tried to rename the Kennedy Center after himself, a move that’s drawn a lawsuit by Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio), an ex-officio member who says only Congress can rename it.

Numerous artists have canceled their Kennedy Center performances in protest of Trump’s extreme takeover, and its ticket sales have plummeted. Critics, including Beatty, say that’s the real reason why Trump is calling for shuttering the center for an overhaul, which she argues is illegal, too.

“There is absolutely no basis to shutter this precious living memorial and beloved institution,” Beatty said in a statement. “It certainly looks like President Trump is shutting down the Center because he is embarrassed that ticket sales are down and artists are fleeing since his illegal renaming. I’m not letting him get away with it.”

In a post on his Truth Social platform on Monday, President Donald Trump announced that White House chief of staff Susie Wiles has been diagnosed with early stage breast cancer.

Trump said Wiles "has decided to take on this challenge, IMMEDIATELY, as opposed to waiting."

But Trump clarified that Wiles will continue working while she undergoes treatment.

"She has a fantastic medical team, and her prognosis is excellent! During the treatment period, she will be spending virtually full time at the White House, which makes me, as President, very happy!" he added. "Her Strength and her Commitment to continue doing the job she loves, and does so well, while undergoing treatment, tells you everything you need to know about her."

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