Trump dismisses Gabbard’s nuke claim; WH insists he’s aligned with intel chief
The White House said President Donald Trump and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard are closely aligned on Iran after the president recently declared he did not “care” what Gabbard had to say during previous Senate testimony after she argued Iran was not building a nuclear weapon.
Gabbard dismissed concerns Iran was building a nuclear weapon during March testimony before the Senate, just months before Israel launched preemptive strikes on Iran directly in response to Israeli intelligence showing Iran could produce a nuclear weapon in a short span of time.
Trump was asked about Gabbard’s testimony while traveling back to Washington Monday evening from the G7 summit in Canada, and the president said he didn’t “care” what Gabbard had to say in previous testimony and saying he believes Iran is close to building a nuke.
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“You’ve always said that you don’t believe Iran should be able to have a nuclear weapon,” a reporter asked Trump while aboard Air Force One Monday. “But how close do you personally think that they were to getting one?”
“Very close,” Trump responded.
“Because Tulsi Gabbard testified in March that the intelligence community said Iran wasn’t building a nuclear weapon,” the reporter continued.
Trump shot back, “I don’t care what she said. I think they were very close to having one.”
When Gabbard appeared before the Senate Intelligence Committee in March, she delivered a statement on behalf of the intelligence community that included testimony that Iran was not actively building a nuclear weapon.
“Iran’s cyber operations and capabilities also present a serious threat to U.S. networks and data,” Gabbard told the committee March 26.
The intelligence community “continues to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon, and Supreme Leader Khamenei has not authorized the nuclear weapons program that he suspended in 2003,” she said.
“We continue to monitor closely if Tehran decides to reauthorize its nuclear weapons program,” she added at the time. “In the past year, we’ve seen an erosion of a decades-long taboo in Iran on discussing nuclear weapons in public, likely emboldening nuclear weapons advocates within Iran’s decision-making apparatus.
“Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile is at its highest levels and is unprecedented for a state without nuclear weapons. Iran will likely continue efforts to counter Israel and press for U.S. military withdrawal from the region by aiding, arming and helping to reconstitute its loose consortium of like-minded terrorist actors, which it refers to as its axis of resistance.
Although weakened, this collection of actors still presents a wide range of threats, including to Israel’s population. U.S. forces deployed in Iraq and Syria, as well as U.S. and international military and commercial shipping and transit.”
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A White House official told Fox News Digital Tuesday afternoon Trump and Gabbard are closely aligned and that the distinction being raised between Gabbard’s March testimony and Trump’s remarks that Iran is “very close” to getting a nuclear weapon is one without a difference.
The official noted that Gabbard underscored in her March testimony that Iran had the resources to potentially build a nuclear weapon. Her testimony in March reflected intelligence she received that Iran wasn’t building a weapon at the time, but that the country could do so based on the resources it amassed for such an endeavor.
A senior U.S. intelligence official who works with Gabbard told Fox News Tuesday there is no daylight between the intelligence Israel and the United States have both received on Iran’s uranium enrichment program.
“Everyone is saying the same thing,” the official said, referring to the International Atomic Energy Agency’s estimation earlier in June that Iranian stockpiles included 60% enriched uranium that could become 90%.
Israel launched preemptive strikes on Iran Thursday evening after months of attempted and stalled nuclear negotiations and subsequent heightened concern that Iran was advancing its nuclear program. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared soon after that the strikes were necessary to “roll back the Iranian threat to Israel’s very survival.”
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He added that if Israel had not acted, “Iran could produce a nuclear weapon in a very short time.”
Dubbed “Operation Rising Lion,” the strikes targeted Iran’s nuclear and missile infrastructure and killed a handful of senior Iranian military leaders.
Gen. Michael Kurilla, the U.S. Central Command chief, also said June 10, ahead of Israel’s strikes, that Iran has the materials to build a nuclear weapon within one week.
“It is estimated that current stockpiles and the available centrifuges … are sufficient to produce (Iran’s) first 25kg of weapons-grade material in roughly one week, and enough for up to ten nuclear weapons in three weeks,” he said, according to a previous tweet posted to the White House’s Rapid Response X account.
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Gabbard notably was not invited to Camp David earlier in June, before Israel’s strike on Iran, when Trump huddled with military leaders and top Cabinet officials at the presidential retreat in Maryland. Gabbard had scheduling issues at the time due to the activation of the National Guard in California as violent riots broke out in response to the Trump administration’s immigration raids in Los Angeles, but she was not invited, Fox News learned.
Officials such as Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth did join the talks, Fox Digital previously reported.
Gabbard, however, was present Tuesday in the White House’s Situation Room, where Trump was monitoring the flaring Middle East clashes.
Conflict between Israel and Iran has intensified since Thursday. Iran said Israel’s initial strikes were a “declaration of war” and subsequently launched its own strikes on Israel, which have rocked residential communities and killed residents.
Trump had repeatedly urged Iran to make a deal on its nuclear program, but the country pulled out of ongoing talks with the U.S. scheduled for Sunday in Oman.
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“Iran should have signed the ‘deal’ I told them to sign,” Trump posted to Truth Social Monday evening, when he abruptly left an ongoing G7 summit in Canada to better focus on the Israel–Iran conflict. “What a shame, and waste of human life. Simply stated, IRAN CAN NOT HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON. I said it over and over again! Everyone should immediately evacuate Tehran!”
On Tuesday, Trump announced the U.S. now has “complete and total control of the skies over Iran,” adding in another post that Supreme Leader of Iran Ali Khamenei’s location had been determined.
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“We know exactly where the so-called ‘Supreme Leader’ is hiding,” Trump posted Tuesday afternoon. “He is an easy target, but is safe there – We are not going to take him out (kill!), at least not for now. But we don’t want missiles shot at civilians, or American soldiers. Our patience is wearing thin. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
Suspected Tren de Aragua gang members caught on camera at Colorado complex
An armed crew of nine suspected Tren de Aragua (TdA) gang members were caught on camera wreaking havoc at a Colorado apartment complex earlier this month, in an incident Aurora police are calling “very reminiscent” of the violence previously incited in the area by the Venezuelan gang.
Doorbell video shows the group pointing guns and repeatedly knocking on an apartment door in a building near 6th Avenue and Potomac Street in Aurora, Colorado, on June 9, Police Chief Todd Chamberlain said during a press conference on Tuesday.
“This might sound like déjà vu,” Chamberlain said. “… We are addressing this actively, effectively and immediately.”
The people who lived in the apartment were also from Venezuela and had just moved in two days prior to the incident, Chamberlain noted, acknowledging that it’s a good thing the residents did not open the door after hearing the knocking.
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“I shudder to think what might have happened to them, but unfortunately that is what we have seen at that apartment complex, and it’s what we’ve been dealing with,” he said.
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Following the incident, police began investigating and identifying the suspects in the video. On June 11 and 12, law enforcement arrested two suspects. Four others known to be involved in prior criminal activity were also detained, according to Aurora Police.
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The investigation to identify and arrest the remaining suspects in the video is ongoing.
Since August of last year, the Aurora Police department has received 44 radio calls for service at the apartment complex, which they narrowed down to about 12 separate individual incidents. These calls were related to shots fired, kidnapping, assault, and more, Chamberlain said.
“I want everyone to understand and to know that we are ahead of this,” Chamberlain said. “This isn’t something that we’re reacting to. This is something that we are proactively addressing with everything that we can possibly do.”
The shocking footage comes as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement works to remove TdA from U.S. soil. In February, the U.S. declared TdA a global terrorist organization.
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Aurora is the third-largest city in Colorado with a population of more than 398,000, according to the City of Aurora website. Last summer, an Aurora apartment complex was at the center of the TdA gang takeover controversy after a viral video showed heavily armed gang members taking over an apartment by busting down the door with heavy artillery.
Earlier this year, nine suspected TdA members were charged following a violent home invasion, kidnapping and robbery in Aurora.
Aurora Police did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
Rock band lead singer declares Trump voters are unwelcome ‘forever’ in fiery rant
The lead singer of the alternative rock band “The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus” told supporters supporters of President Donald Trump they are permanently banned from his shows Saturday.
Frontman Ronnie Winter made the declaration in a video posted to his band’s official Instagram page, saying, “If you voted for Donald Trump, do not come to my shows — forever, not just like these four years.”
He specifically attacked Christian Trump supporters, stating, “If you’re Christian and you voted for Donald Trump, shame on you. You are not allowed to come to my shows. I don’t want you there. Don’t come to my shows.”
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Winter continued, “Do not come to my shows because you’re going to hear a lot of propaganda, and you’re going to hear like the actual words of Jesus.”
“You’re going to see a lot of acceptance from all areas of life and races, and um, you’re just going to see a lot of harmony, OK? That’s not what you’re about, OK? Don’t come. Refunds are available. Forever, don’t come. Goodbye.”
“It’s awesome that you love ‘Face Down’; it’s not for you. It’s not your song, OK? It is not your song,” Winter added, mentioning the band’s most successful song that they debuted in 2006. “The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus” last released an album in 2018.
During the clip, Winter also slammed critics who attacked his liberal beliefs in the past, telling followers he is proudly “woke,” and that woke people have been right in their predictions about the country’s decline under Trump.
“Look man, the thing about being woke is you’re awake, and once you’re awake you can never go to sleep,” he said. “Not only has nothing changed, but everything they said was going to happen – the woke people – has happened. You have done nothing but prove them right.”
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Winter joins a growing list of musicians who have spoken out against Trump’s second term in recent months. Classic rock legend Bruce Springsteen had made an anti-Trump screed a fixture of his current world tour.
“In my home, the America I love, the America I’ve written about, that has been a beacon of hope and liberty for 250 years, is currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent and treasonous administration,” Springsteen told the crowd on multiple legs of his latest tour.
Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello said, “F— that guy,” in reference to Trump at a recent Boston music festival.
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Longtime Trump critic Neil Young wrote on his website in April that he was worried that Trump could detain him when he does his next American tour.
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Florida AG in contempt after telling officers to ignore judge’s immigration ruling
A federal judge found Tuesday that Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier was in civil contempt of court over her ruling to pause a new state law making it a crime for people living in the U.S. illegally to enter the state.
U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams ordered on April 29 that Uthmeier show cause on “why he should not be held in contempt or sanctioned” for violating a temporary restraining order (TRO) from the court, though Williams ultimately decided he was unable to convince her otherwise.
“If being held in contempt is what it costs to defend the rule of law and stand firmly behind President Trump’s agenda on illegal immigration, so be it,” Uthmeier said Tuesday in a post on X.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed legislation into law in February that made it a misdemeanor for illegal immigrants to enter the state as part of President Donald Trump’s push to crack down on illegal immigration.
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But on April 4, Williams issued a 14-day TRO in response to the law, following a lawsuit filed by the Florida Immigrant Coalition and other groups. She then extended the TRO another 11 days after learning the Florida Highway Patrol had arrested over a dozen people, including a U.S. citizen.
The court said on April 18 that Florida law enforcement officers were bound by the TRO, preventing them from enforcing the criminal immigration law.
The court also ordered the attorney general to provide notice to all law enforcement officers, which Uthmeier initially complied with.
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But on April 23, he sent a follow-up letter telling the law enforcement community that “no judicial order…properly restrains you from” enforcing the immigration law, adding that “no lawful, legitimate order currently impedes your agencies from continuing to enforce” the statute.
As a result, the court required Uthmeier to show cause as to why he should not be held in contempt for violating the TRO.
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Following his response, the court opined that litigants cannot change the meaning of words as it suits them, ruling that Uthmeier was in contempt of the court’s April 18 order to provide the TRO to law enforcement officers regarding the enforcement of the immigration law.
As such, the court ordered Uthmeier to file bi-weekly reports detailing arrests, detentions or law enforcement actions when it comes to the immigration law prohibiting undocumented immigrants from entering the state of Florida, with the first being filed by July 1.
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If any arrests had been made under the law, Uthmeier was ordered to notify the court about the details of the arrests.
Hollywood star condemns Israel as music plays him off during passionate TV appearance
Spanish actor Javier Bardem used his platform on “The View” on Monday to condemn Israel’s actions in Gaza as “genocide.”
During a conversation about the importance of activism with the show’s co-hosts, the “Skyfall” and “Dune” star mentioned the suffering he and others have experienced while watching Israel’s war against Hamas, stating that he has seen videos of Palestinian children “being murdered” by Israel.
“But the situation in Gaza has come to a term now where I cannot — I cannot express the pain that I, along with many millions of people there, suffer on a daily basis watching those horrible images of children being murdered and starving to death.”
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Bardem said “of course” Hamas has “to return those hostages obviously,” but shifted to his focus, which was his condemnation of Israel’s actions in Gaza.
The actor claimed that children in Gaza are being “absolutely blocked” from getting “the aid of medicine, water, medical material” by Israeli forces.
CBS News reported how the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry said on Monday that “33 Palestinians were killed trying to reach the GHF [Gaza Humanitarian Foundation] center near the southern city of Rafah on Monday while another was fatally shot trying to reach a GHF hub in central Gaza. It said four other people were killed elsewhere in the war-torn enclave.”
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Israeli military forces did not give comment to CBS News about their report, though the outlet noted that they said previously that they have fired warning shots at suspect individuals approaching their positions while Palestinians gathered to receive aid.
Bardem continued, saying he agrees with the organizations that have called Israel’s actions in Gaza a “genocide.”
“I mean, experts on international law, Amnesty International, international human rights and some people that know what they’re talking — and Holocaust survivors — are calling a genocide for it. If you ask me, I believe it’s a genocide,” he said.
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He gave reasons, stating, “Why is that? First of all, because the impunity that is taking Israel in doing these actions and the lack of, of action on any government. Yes, of course, the backup of United States with all those weapons and the economics and also the silence of Europe is creating a scenario where there’s such an impunity that if we really don’t do something about that, we are going towards well, what is happening now – an absolute impunity on creating wars all over and creating so much pain that is going to affect so many people.”
As the music indicating a commercial break started playing, Bardem got one last statement in, saying, “But also – with this I will finish, the most important thing is to not lose the humanity and really denounce when we have to denounce and who we have to denounce.”
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Biden judge blocks Trump passport policy, calls it ‘rooted in irrational prejudice’
Biden-appointed U.S. Judge Julia Kobick issued a ruling Tuesday to temporarily block the Trump administration’s move to only allow two genders, male and female, on U.S. passports.
In line with an executive order signed by President Donald Trump proclaiming the U.S. only recognizes two genders, the Department of State eliminated the “X” designation on passport applications and suspended a policy allowing people to identify as the opposite sex or as intersex or nonbinary.
The move was widely reported by media outlets as “targeting transgender” people. In April, Kobick, who is a federal judge for the U.S. District of Massachusetts, ruled to block the policy with regard to six people who sued the administration over it.
Her Tuesday ruling extended her previous ruling to temporarily suspend the policy for all Americans.
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Kobick stated in her ruling that the suit against the Trump administration’s policy is likely to succeed because she finds that it discriminates on the basis of sex, is “arbitrary and capricious” and “rooted in irrational prejudice toward transgender Americans.”
Kobick wrote that “transgender and non-binary people who possess passports bearing sex markers that conflict with their gender identity and expression are… significantly more likely to experience psychological distress, suicidality, harassment, discrimination, and violence” and that “obtaining gender concordant identity documents is part of the standard of care for treating gender dysphoria.”
The judge wrote that the policy would cause transgender individuals to “experience anxiety and psychological distress or fear for their safety if they were required to travel with passports bearing a sex designation corresponding to their sex assigned at birth, largely because they would effectively ‘out’ themselves every time they presented their passports.”
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Trump’s order, titled “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,” directed executive agencies to “recognize two sexes, male and female,” saying, “these sexes are not changeable and are grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality.”
Though Kobick stated in her ruling that the government failed to demonstrate that the policies are substantially related to an important government interest, Trump’s executive order states that “efforts to eradicate the biological reality of sex fundamentally attack women by depriving them of their dignity, safety, and well-being” and that “the erasure of sex in language and policy has a corrosive impact not just on women but on the validity of the entire American system.”
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“Across the country, ideologues who deny the biological reality of sex have increasingly used legal and other socially coercive means to permit men to self-identify as women and gain access to intimate single-sex spaces and activities designed for women, from women’s domestic abuse shelters to women’s workplace showers. This is wrong … Basing Federal policy on truth is critical to scientific inquiry, public safety, morale, and trust in government itself,” reads the order.
Former CNN reporter mocks Trump’s deceased ex-wife with immigration joke
Ex-CNN correspondent Jim Acosta joked in an interview posted Monday about President Donald Trump‘s deceased former wife’s burial site and called her an example of an immigrant “doing the jobs that Americans don’t want to do.”
Acosta, speaking on a “No Kings” Day episode of “The Contrarian” podcast with Jennifer Rubin, blasted Trump not only for the ICE raids, but argued he is a hypocrite on the immigration issue because of his immigrant wives, including his late first wife Ivana.
“Where are the ICE raids at the Trump properties? Could somebody call ICE on the Trump golf course in Virginia? You’re telling me there’s nobody in there that is undocumented or has some kind of squirreliness going on with their paperwork?” he asked in a clip flagged by reporter Jason Cohen. “Give me a break.”
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“How many immigrants has he married? He’s got one buried at his golf course in New Jersey! Isn’t she buried by the first hole or the second tee or something like that?” he asked, as Rubin and left-wing reporter April Ryan laughed.
“Immigrants always doing the jobs that Americans don’t want to do!” he joked further.
Ivana, who is the mother of the president’s three eldest children, Donald Jr., Ivanka and Eric, is buried at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey. She died in 2022.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News Digital in response, “Jim Acosta is a disgraceful human being.”
Acosta, who left CNN in January, covered the White House for the network during Trump’s first term and became one of his fiercest critics, often mixing on-air editorializing with his reporting. He’s maintained his stridently left-wing tone since going independent this year.
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In recent weeks, Los Angeles, California, has become a powder keg of political controversy as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) performs raids throughout the sanctuary city.
The Los Angeles Police Department has arrested a total of 575 individuals since the first weekend of protests, according to a media release. Authorities have battled protesters, hurling projectiles, setting fire to cars and launching fireworks at police officers in response to the ICE raids, with 10 members of law enforcement reporting injuries as of Monday, according to the LAPD.
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Caitlin Clark shoved to ground in heated WNBA matchup as tensions flare between teams
A WNBA Commissioner’s Cup matchup between the Indiana Fever and Connecticut Sun was chippy until the third quarter when tensions between the two teams boiled over.
Fever star Caitlin Clark was being guarded by Sun guard Jacy Sheldon. As Clark backed Sheldon down at the top of the key, Sheldon poked Clark in the eye. Clark was upset with the move from Sheldon and pushed her away in fury.
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As Clark complained, Sun guard Marina Mabrey came over and shoved Clark to the ground as she had her back turned. Fever and Sun players came over to break up the skirmish.
Clark seemed to be OK as she went back to the bench and waited for the referees to determine their next course of action.
Sheldon’s common foul was upgraded to a flagrant foul. The referees called offsetting technicals on Clark and Sun veteran Tina Charles. Mabrey was also hit with a technical foul and avoided ejection.
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Clark and Sheldon had been aggressive with each other throughout the night. Their rivalry goes back to their college days when Clark was with Iowa and Sheldon was at Ohio State.
Later, Fever guard Sophie Cunningham wrapped up Sheldon under the basket on a hard foul in the fourth quarter. The two got into their own brouhaha under the basket. Both players were ejected.
Indiana won the game, 88-71. Clark finished with 20 points and six assists.
Clark was in the midst of her second game since her return from injury. She lit up the lamp against the New York Liberty over the weekend when she scored 32 points on 11-of-20 from the field. She made seven 3-points in the victory.
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Indiana was able to go back to 6-5 on the season with the victory over the Sun. Connecticut are now 3-8 and sitting toward the bottom of the WNBA standings.