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"We're fighting wars. We can't take care of daycare. You got to let a state take care of daycare, and they should pay for it too. They should pay. They'll have to raise their taxes, but they should pay for it. And we could lower our taxes a little bit to them to make up," Trump said. "It's not possible for us to take care of daycare, Medicaid, Medicare, all these individual things. They can do it on a state basis. You can't do it on a federal. We have to take care of one thing: military protection.
"I can't get a ballroom approved. It's pretty amazing, right?" Trump also said in the speech. "If I was a king, we'd be doing a lot more. I'm doing a lot, but I could be doing a lot more if I was a king."


https://newrepublic.com/post/208535/white-house-accidentally-easter-lunch-trump-speech

American fighter jet downed over Iran, 1 crew member rescued, U.S. officials say
By Eleanor Watson, James LaPorta, Tucker Reals
Updated on: April 3, 2026 / 12:18 PM EDT / CBS News

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A U.S. F-15E fighter jet was downed over Iran Friday, and one crew member from the plane was later rescued by American forces, U.S. officials confirmed to CBS News.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/american-fighter-jet-f15e-downed-over-iran/

The F-15E is flown by a two-member crew and a search and rescue effort is ongoing, sources said.

Earlier Friday, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard claimed it shot down a U.S. fighter jet over the middle of the country.

Photos and video were circulating on social media, shared by Iranian state news outlets, suggesting at least one U.S. C-130 aircraft and two Black Hawk helicopters were spotted flying low over central and southwest Iran in what was described as a possible effort to locate and recover the crew.

CBS News reported earlier this week that the U.S. military had lost at least 16 MQ-9 Reaper drones over Iran since the war began, and three U.S. F-15 fighter jets were shot down over Kuwait in a "friendly fire incident" early in the conflict, but there were no casualties.

The downing of the jet Friday comes after repeated assertions by President Trump, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and military commanders of U.S. air superiority that largely deprived Iran of attack capabilities and air defenses during the war.

"Now in our fifth week of the campaign, it is my operational assessment that we are making undeniable progress. We don't see their navy sailing. We don't see their aircraft flying, and their air and missile defense systems have largely been destroyed," CENTCOM Commander Adm. Brad Cooper said Thursday.

“And it’s gonna be over with pretty soon,” Trump continued. “We’ve obliterated their navy. We’ve obliterated their– just about everything there is to obliterate, including leadership. The navy’s gone. Their air force is gone. Their anti-aircraft equipment is gone. We’re flying wherever we want. We have nobody even shooting at us.” - Donald Trump, March 16th.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/trump-says-nobody-even-shooting-223016196.html

Pete Hegseth forces out Army's top officer and two other generals

The defense secretary fired the Army chief of staff, Gen. Randy George, as well as the chief of chaplains and the commanding general of Army Transformation and Training Command.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ousted the Army chief of staff, Gen. Randy George, four U.S. military officials said.

Chief Defense Department spokesperson Sean Parnell confirmed George’s departure in a statement Thursday on X, saying George, the Army's top officer, would be “retiring from his position as the 41st Chief of Staff of the Army effective immediately.”

“The Department of War is grateful for General George’s decades of service to our nation. We wish him well in his retirement,” Parnell added.

Hegseth has long eyed removing George, who took the chief post in September 2023. He has removed other senior officials he believes are associated with previous administrations. George was senior military assistant to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin during the Biden administration.

Hegseth asked George to retire effective immediately. It is unclear who will serve as Army chief; Hegseth had recently pushed to install Gen. Christopher LaNeve as the vice chief of the Army, and two officials have said Hegseth made the move to prepare LaNeve to ultimately take over as chief.

George's firing stemmed in part from Hegseth’s long-running grievance with the Army and its leadership and his troubled relationship with Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, two U.S. officials and a former official told NBC News. George and Driscoll had been allies, and George had been expected to serve until the end of summer 2027, the officials said.

George’s departure comes as Trump is fighting a war in Iran, with no clear indication when the conflict will end. Trump delivered a prime-time address Wednesday that largely rehashed points he has made since the war began Feb. 28, saying that he expects it to end “shortly” but that there will be more strikes before then. CBS first reported the firing.

According to three U.S. officials, Hegseth fired two other Army generals Thursday: the chief of chaplains, Maj. Gen. William Green, and the commanding general of Army Transformation and Training Command, David Hodne.

Hegseth has fired numerous officials during Trump's second term. Last year he fired Air Force Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kruse, head of the Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency, after an initial assessment by the agency in June indicated that U.S. strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities were less expansive than Trump had said.

Before that, Hegseth fired Navy Vice Adm. Shoshana Chatfield, who was the U.S. military representative to NATO’s military committee. Parnell at the time cited “a loss of confidence in her ability to lead.”

Hegseth's other firings included Joint Chiefs Chairman CQ Brown Jr.; Air Force Gen. Timothy Haugh, who headed the National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command; the Navy’s top admiral, Lisa Franchetti; and the head of the Coast Guard, Adm. Linda Fagan.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/na...army-chief-staff-randy-george-rcna266491

It's odd how Hegseth keeps talking about how much we have weakened Iran's military leadership but never talks about how he has weakened our own.

1 U.S. crew member from downed F-15E jet rescued, U.S. officials say

One crew member from the U.S. F-15E fighter jet downed over Iran was rescued by American forces, two U.S. officials confirmed to CBS News on Friday.

The F-15E is a two-member crew aircraft. The search and rescue mission is ongoing.

https://www.cbsnews.com/live-updates/iran-war-us-trump-warns-more-coming-oil-gas-strait-hormuz/

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/xXt3Ov6oFGc

Switzerland calls US / Israel attack on Iran a war crime -- breaking a 400 year old 'tradition' ... Nothing to see here.

Second US fighter jet downed in Persian Gulf, pilot rescued after ejection

US media reported that the sole pilot on board was safely rescued, with Tehran claiming the shootdown of the A-10 as the second successful strike on a US aircraft within 24 hours.

An American A-10 Thunderbolt II fighter jet crashed into the waters of the Gulf near the Strait of Hormuz after being hit by Iranian fire on Friday night.

A US official confirmed to The Washington Post that the A-10, also known as a "Warthog," was hit by incoming fire and was the second US fighter jet to be downed in one day. Reports of the A-10 crash emerged shortly after a US F-15 jet was shot down over Iranian territory.

According to The Washington Post, the pilot of the A-10 navigated the damaged plane to Kuwaiti airspace, ejected, and was rescued.

Reports from Iran's state media and the Tasnim news agency, quoting Iran’s military public relations unit, said that the country's air defense systems intercepted and struck the American attack jet. Tehran was quick to boast about the incident, claiming it was the second successful hit on a US military aircraft within 24 hours.

The A-10 Thunderbolt II 'Warthog'

The A-10 jet, originally designed for close air support against ground targets, is one of the US Air Force’s oldest and most recognizable aircraft, its loss representing a significant blow to both its image and operational capabilities.

The crash near the Strait of Hormuz comes at a particularly problematic time for the US military, having occurred almost simultaneously with the downing of an F-15E fighter jet over Iranian territory.

While the pilot was rescued in the A-10 incident, only one of the two crew members was rescued in the F-15E incident, and search-and-rescue teams are still frantically searching for the second missing crew member.

https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/article-892020

“And it’s gonna be over with pretty soon,” Trump continued. “We’ve obliterated their navy. We’ve obliterated their– just about everything there is to obliterate, including leadership. The navy’s gone. Their air force is gone. Their anti-aircraft equipment is gone. We’re flying wherever we want. We have nobody even shooting at us.” - Donald Trump, March 16th.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/trump-says-nobody-even-shooting-223016196.html

U.S. aviator missing after Iran shot down fighter jet has been rescued

The crew member had been missing since Friday, when Iran downed a U.S. F-15E Strike Eagle.

The United States said Sunday it rescued a service member missing behind enemy lines since Iran downed a fighter jet, as President Donald Trump escalated pressure on Tehran with a new looming deadline to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran showed no signs of backing down, striking new economic and infrastructure targets in neighboring Gulf Arab countries.

The airman’s extraction followed a frantic U.S. search-and-rescue operation after the Friday crash of the F-15E Strike Eagle, as Iran also promised a reward for anyone who turned in an “enemy pilot.” Trump said he was injured but in stable condition.

“This brave Warrior was behind enemy lines in the treacherous mountains of Iran, being hunted down by our enemies, who were getting closer and closer by the hour,” Trump wrote on social media.

A second crew member was rescued earlier.

The fighter jet was the first American aircraft to have crashed in Iranian territory since the U.S. and Israel launched the war, striking Iran on Feb. 28. It has since killed thousands, shaken global markets, cut off key shipping routes and spiked fuel prices. Both sides have threatened and hit civilian targets, bringing warnings of possible war crimes.

Trump said last week that the U.S. had “decimated” Iran and would finish the war “very fast.” Two days later, Iran shot down two U.S. military planes, showing the ongoing perils of the bombing campaign and the ability of a degraded Iranian military to continue to hit back.

As Iran continues to exert control over the Strait of Hormuz, Trump, in a weekend social media post, threatened to unleash “all Hell” if it isn’t opened by Monday. He has issued such threats before and extended them when mediators have claimed progress toward ending the war on agreeable terms.

The other jet to go down was a U.S. A-10 attack aircraft. Neither the status of the crew nor exactly where it crashed was immediately known.

On Sunday, Iran’s state TV aired a video showing thick black smoke rising into the air, claiming that they had shot down an American transport plane and two helicopters that were part of the rescue operation. However, a regional intelligence official briefed on the mission told The Associated Press that the U.S. military blew up two transport planes due to a technical malfunction, forcing it to bring in additional aircraft to complete the rescue.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the covert mission.

Drones hit Gulf energy infrastructure

In Kuwait, an Iranian drone attack caused significant damage to two power plants and put a water desalination station out of service, according to the Ministry of Electricity. No injuries were reported from the attack, the ministry said.

In Bahrain, the national oil company said that a drone attack caused a fire at one of its storage facilities, which was extinguished. It said the damage was still being assessed and no injuries had been reported.

In the United Arab Emirates, authorities responded to multiple fires at the Borouge petrochemicals plant, a joint venture of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. and Borealis of Austria. They say the fires were caused by falling debris following successful interceptions by air defense systems, but production at the plant in Ruwais, near the UAE’s western border with Saudi Arabia, has halted.

The strike came a day after Israel struck a petrochemical plant in Iran that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said generated revenue that it had used to fund the war.

The war began with joint U.S.-Israel strikes on Feb. 28 and has killed thousands, shaken global markets, cut off key shipping routes and spiked fuel prices. Both sides have threatened and hit civilian targets, bringing warnings of possible war crimes.

Trump renews threat

Trump renewed his threats for Iran to open up the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial waterway for global energy shipments that has been choked off by Tehran, by Monday or face devastating consequences, writing Saturday in a social media post: “Remember when I gave Iran ten days to MAKE A DEAL or OPEN UP THE HORMUZ STRAIT. Time is running out — 48 hours before all Hell will reign down on them.”

“The doors of hell will be opened to you” if Iran’s infrastructure is attacked, Gen. Ali Abdollahi Aliabadi with the country’s joint military command said late Saturday in response to Trump’s renewed threat, state media reported. In turn, the general threatened all infrastructure used by the U.S. military in the region.

But Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Tahir Andrabi, told The Associated Press that his government’s efforts to broker a ceasefire are “right on track” after Islamabad last week said that it would soon host talks between the U.S. and Iran.

Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said that Iranian officials “have never refused to go to Islamabad.”

Mediators from Pakistan, Turkey and Egypt were working to bring the U.S. and Iran to the negotiating table, according to two regional officials.

The proposed compromise includes a cessation of hostilities to allow a diplomatic settlement, according to a regional official involved in the efforts and a Gulf diplomat briefed on the matter. They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss closed-door diplomacy.

A second U.S. Air Force combat aircraft went down in the Middle East on Friday, according to a U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive military situation. It wasn’t clear if the aircraft crashed or was shot down, or whether Iran was involved.

Iranian state media said a U.S. A-10 attack aircraft crashed in the Persian Gulf after being struck by Iran’s defense forces.

Iran threatens to disrupt traffic in a second key strait

Iran’s parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, issued a veiled threat late Friday to disrupt traffic through a second strategic waterway in the region, the Bab el-Mandeb.

The strait, 32 kilometers (20 miles) wide, links the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean. More than a tenth of seaborne global oil and a quarter of container ships pass through it.

“Which countries and companies account for the highest transit volumes through the strait?” Qalibaf wrote.

More than 1,900 people have been killed in Iran since the war began.

In Gulf Arab states and the occupied West Bank, more than two dozen people have died, while 19 have been reported dead in Israel and 13 U.S. service members have been killed. In Lebanon, more than 1,400 people have been killed and more than 1 million people have been displaced. Ten Israeli soldiers have died there.

https://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/na...s-been-rescued-us-officials-say/4005431/

I know that Hegseth and Trump like to think they are above any norms or international laws that govern conflict and war - but much like a country itself, a world without laws ... and more importantly a world where the countries that have signed up and agreed to those international laws do not obey them - then anarchy reigns.

If the US attacks and obliterates infrastructure, electric power plants etc - it is not a military objective. Those attacks would be classified as war crimes. All it does is hurt the people more. The ones that at one time Trump claimed to be going to help.

Weird day when you'd get banned from this forum for posting a picture of the president's tweets....

If Trump’s repeated promises to destroy Iran’s infrastructure are anything like his repeated promises to build the US’s infrastructure they’re probably safe.

I am not in favor of knocking out utilities in mass. Maybe one here and there just to make the point. Just keep hammering away. Obviously, they have a few resources hidden away. Keep the eyes open and hammer them when they show up. They don't have many.

We need to get the other Nato countries involved in opening the strait. I do understand their reluctance; they are infested with radical Muslims in their countries. They have a big Muslim problem and are afraid they will rise up internally.

Why would Europe spend billions of their own money to fix a problem the US created on its own -- and which they were opposed to?

We have enough to deal with here now that the US isn't helping Ukraine anymore -- the common sentiment is that maybe the US should try to fix their own problems.

NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) is a 32-member political and military alliance formed in 1949 to guarantee the freedom and security of its North American and European members. Its core mission is collective defense, enshrined in Article 5, which dictates that an attack against one member is considered an attack against all....

It's NATO not the the IBINYFI

(I Broke It Now You Fix It)

You form an alliance BEFORE you attack a nation. You don't go in like Captain America who is a made up character and then tell the rest of the alliance what to do. There's a difference in an alliance and a dictatorship.

Sorry Peen - You've said something here that just is off base and I fear this sort of regurgitation of Musk sort of talking points is a reflection of what political news feed you listen to rather than reality.

The middle east is not a NATO issue. As Pit just stated NATO is a defensive alliance - an agreement about coming to the aid of Nations when they are attacked. Not about choosing to go to war with other nations. Not about fixing the mess left behind when other nations go to war - the UN might cover some of the mess Trump and Israel have created.

If you want an easy to digest snapshot of where we are - https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Dr818Nwv07k

I disagree. Iran has been a world issue for a long time. Pit thinks everything was just fine with Iran. OK....sure. That is a DAV (Dumb Ass View)

Was Ukraine our problem? Directly, no. Indirectly, yes. Europe should be funding the lions share of the goings on in Ukraine. I ran was a bigger threat to the world way more than Russia taking parts of Ukraine.

It was fine until trump tore up the Iran nuclear deal. Believing trump's BS is what is a DAV (Dumb Ass View) looks like.

I didn't think "everything was fine" with Iran. I am however quite aware that trump tearing up the nuclear deal complicated and exasperated the issue. I'm also aware that by us and Great Britain overthrowing their democratically elected government in 1953 was the entire catalyst for all of this. History doesn't stop in 1979. It goes back further than that.

Ukraine is on the doorstep of NATO which poses a direct threat to our NATO allies. Russia started the war with Ukraine. Trump started the war with Iran.

I understand how in Trumplandia you see no difference between the two.

Let me ask you something since it seems you aren't really being serious about this.

Eight months before trump said he had to attack Iran for the second time to prevent them from developing a nuke, which he is still saying, trump said he had "obliterated their nuclear weapons program". He said he had set back any chance of them developing a nuclear weapon by "many years if not decades."

So was he lying to you then or is he lying to you now?

And please don't come back with a DAV (Dumb Ass View)

Europe is funding the lions share in Ukraine. Just like Iran - Ukraine is not a NATO issue.

You made an entirely erroneous and ignorant statement that NATO countries have a radical Muslim infestation. That goes beyond ignorant. It's willfully ignorant and borders on a bigoted statement, not least because it is simply not true. I expect ignorance and bigoted statements from Musk - not from you.

https://www.cfr.org/articles/how-much-us-aid-going-ukraine

This is a very thorough and deep dive into support for Ukraine US and EU. By country - as a % of GDP - USA ranks 16th. As a total vs EU - allocated US $115B - EU $201B. Not to mention that of the money allocated to Ukraine - it is being spent on and sustaining/helping US defense companies.