First lady Melania Trump enters White House summit with walking, talking humanoid robot

(WASHINGTON) — In candid interviews with Vanity Fair, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles opened up about President Donald Trump and his Cabinet over the first year of Trump’s second term.

Wiles took part in 11 interviews that occurred in real time. Two parts of those interviews were published on Tuesday.

In them, Wiles offered unreserved descriptions of top figures in the administration — including Trump, who she said has an “alcoholic’s personality.”

Wiles said Trump, who has repeatedly said he doesn’t drink alcohol, said he “operates [with] a view that there’s nothing he can’t do. Nothing, zero, nothing.”

She called Vice President JD Vance a “conspiracy theorist for a decade” and White House Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought “a right-wing absolute zealot.” Billionaire Elon Musk, she said, was an “odd duck” and “avowed ketamine [user].”

Wiles also weighed in on Attorney General Pam Bondi’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files, Musk’s slashing of federal government agencies and programs, the chaotic rollout of Trump’s tariff plans, the administration’s aims for Venezuela and more.

Wiles, responding to Vanity Fair’s articles, said it is a “disingenuously framed hit piece on me and the finest President, White House staff, and Cabinet in history.”

“The truth is the Trump White House has already accomplished more in eleven months than any other President has accomplished in eight years and that is due to the unmatched leadership and vision of President Trump, for whom I have been honored to work for the better part of a decade,” Wiles wrote on X.

“Significant context was disregarded and much of what I, and others, said about the team and the President was left out of the story. I assume, after reading it, that this was done to paint an overwhelmingly chaotic and negative narrative about the President and our team,” Wiles added.

ABC News has reached out to Condé Nast, Vanity Fair’s parent company, for comment on Wiles’ criticism.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt defended Wiles on X. 

“Chief of Staff Susie Wiles has helped President Trump achieve the most successful first 11 months in office of any President in American history. President Trump has no greater or more loyal advisor than Susie. The entire Administration is grateful for her steady leadership and united fully behind her,” Leavitt wrote in a post responding to Wiles’ criticism of the articles.

Trump, Bondi and Musk have not publicly responded to the Vanity Fair articles.

Vance, at an event Tuesday in Pennsylvania, said he hadn’t read the Vanity Fair article but responded to Wiles’ remark that he’s been a “conspiracy theorist for the past decade.” Wiles made the comment on Vance while discussing the Epstein files.

“I haven’t looked at the article. I, of course, have heard about it. But conspiracy theorist, sometimes I am a conspiracy theorist but I only believe in the conspiracy theories that are true,” Vance told reporters.

“And by the way, Susie and I have joked in private and in public about that for a long time,” he added.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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(NEW YORK) — While President Donald Trump says Operation Epic Fury could last several weeks, a question some are raising is how long U.S. and allies’ missile defense stockpiles can last in an extended conflict with Iran.

Trump has insisted that the U.S. is well equipped to fight, with a “virtually unlimited supply,” and other Gulf states have pushed back on claims that they are running missiles.

How much of the U.S. interceptor stockpile is being used up to defend against Iran’s continued heavy missile and drone attacks is classified, but it’s expected to be among questions lawmakers have for top Trump administration officials this week when they brief lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

Some experts are also raising concerns about America’s cache of the expensive air defense missiles as the Iranian military continues to target U.S. assets and other allies in retaliation.

Kelly Grieco, a senior fellow at the Stimson Center think tank and former assistant professor at the Air Command and Staff College, told ABC News that the conflict is becoming a “war of attrition.”

Watch special coverage on Nightline, “War with Iran,” each night on ABC and streaming on Disney+ and Hulu.

The U.S. and Israeli militaries are now in a race to destroy Iran’s missile capabilities, including launchers and production facilities, before the U.S. and Israel’s own stockpile of air defense interceptor missiles in the region is depleted, according to Grieco.

“The question is becoming who runs out of missiles first. Does the defender run out of interceptors,” she asked, referring to the armies of the U.S., Israel and the Gulf states. “Or does Iran run out of missiles, or their ability to launch missiles?”

“If the Iranians are able to launch with the kinds of numbers they have been launching over the past 48 hours over the next four to five weeks, that does not seem sustainable from an interceptor perspective,” she added. 

“But if those numbers drop off because the U.S. and Israel destroy the launchers themselves, or their storage facilities, and the numbers drop dramatically, then we could potentially sustain this campaign,” Greico said.

Retired Lt. Gen. Dan Karbler, former commander of the U.S. Space and Missile Defense Command, told ABC News Live Tuesday that extensive drone use by the Iranian military has prompted the use of smaller short-range missiles as interceptors.

“We don’t want to shoot Patriot missiles at the drones,” he said. “So, some of our short-range air defense, more capability of that type of nature needs to flow into countries so we’re using our short-range missiles to take out these drones not our very limited patriot missiles.”

President Trump attempted to assuage concerns about the stockpile Tuesday — but also acknowledged the number of some of the highest-grade munitions is “not where we want it to be.”

“The United States Munitions Stockpiles have, at the medium and upper medium grade, never been higher or better — As was stated to me today, we have a virtually unlimited supply of these weapons,” Trump wrote on social media early Tuesday morning. 

And even as he says the U.S. will “easily prevail” in this war and that the U.S. is prepared for the operation to go on for “whatever it takes,” Trump wrote that “Wars can be fought “forever,” and very successfully, using just these supplies.” 

The U.S. was already concerned about its stockpile before this war as the Russian-Ukraine conflict, the Israeli-Gaza conflict and last summer’s conflict with Iran have dramatically increased demand for Patriot and THAAD missiles, according to Greico.

Terminal High Altitude Area Defense missiles that are used to defend against Iran’s most powerful ballistic missiles are in particularly short supply. Grieco estimated that if the U.S. uses its THAAD missiles at same rate as the 12-day conflict with Iran last year, it likely only has enough for about two weeks now at most.

Grieco said it will take a long time, and be costly, for the U.S. and other countries to replenish their antimissile stockpiles, which are more time consuming and expensive to produce than the Iranian weapons they defend against.

Iran has not launched missiles at the same scale so far compared to the attacks during conflict with Israel last year.

Israeli officials and independent experts said they believe that may reflect a strategy by Iran to run down air defense supplies with relatively smaller but steady attacks over a longer period.

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(WASHINGTON) — Rep. Gregory Meeks knows the pivotal role Black men can play in a young person’s life.

“In high school, my [Black] male teacher was Mr. Ozzie and he guided me, you know, through some difficult times and through good times,” Meeks, D-N.Y., told ABC News.

He praised Ozzie for giving him life advice and will never forget how his former teacher inspired him to pursue politics.

“He got me involved in student government at the time,” Meeks said, adding “Without the foundation, I would never be here.”

In interviews with ABC News over the last year, lawmakers across a broad spectrum discussed their relationship with the Black male figures who taught them during their formative years. Having a Black male — and a diverse group of educators — benefits “everyone,” not just Black students, according to House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and education experts who spoke with ABC News.

However, less than 2% of all U.S. public school teachers are Black men, according to recent government data. It stems from the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1954 ruling in Brown v. Board of Education, which ended racial segregation in America’s public schools and prompted a massive white resistance to the new law of the land.

Leslie T. Fenwick, author of “Jim Crow’s Pink Slip: The Untold Story of Black Principal and Teacher Leadership,” ​​told ABC News that the resistance — by mostly white Southern politicians — helped cause the shortage of Black male educators, and Black educators as a whole were forced out in droves.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said the latest data on Black male teachers are a “concerning statistic.” Still, the Louisiana native told ABC News that he had “many” Black male teachers over the years.

“One of my favorites was Mr. Tilmer Keels,” Johnson recalled. “He was our band director in middle school. He was such a great inspirational leader,” Johnson added.

Johnson, Meeks and their colleagues overwhelmingly described Black male teachers as supportive, encouraging, and provided positive images for young people.

“They [Black male educators] were very significant for me, and we need more than just one,” Meeks said. “I should be able to talk about three, four, five, six, seven, eight of them,” he added.

Bipartisan appreciation

There’s bipartisan support throughout Congress for these impactful teachers.

Rep. Troy Carter, D-La., said teaching is one of the “most important” careers one can choose. Illinois Democratic Rep. Danny K. Davis, one of the oldest lawmakers on Capitol Hill, said his roles in public service include teaching.

Jonathan L. Jackson’s father, civil rights leader Rev. Jesse Jackson who passed away last week, served as a role model for Black youth across the nation. In the classroom, Jackson said he had at least two Black male teachers throughout high school who he said impacted his worldview.

“People need someone to look up to,” Jackson told ABC News. “That’s why we should be pushing specifically for more African American males in science, education, humanities, histories and all the other good things.”

Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., is also pushing to increase representation in the classroom.

“I’m an advocate for having more male teachers in general, but certainly Black male teachers,” he said, adding, “I think you need a picture of what you want to become in the world.”

Recruitment and retention

Over years of reporting, several Black male educators at public, charter and private pre-K-12 schools have told ABC News that they feel underappreciated and overstretched — with their numbers in the profession already small and appearing to dwindle, according to experts.

Today, 100 years after the first observance of what would become Black History Month, roughly three dozen Black males are serving in Congress. The ones who spoke to ABC News believe Black men deserve a space in the classroom.

Bobby Scott, the top Democrat on the House Education & Workforce Committee who grew up in the segregated South, doesn’t remember ever having a Black male teacher — from elementary school all the way through to when he earned his law degree from Boston College. He noted that teachers and coaches hold an important place in a child’s upbringing, stressing that there should be more Black male educators in schools.

Eric Duncan, the director for preschool-12th grade policy at the nonprofit organization The Education Trust, argued Congress holds the power to bolster the Black male educator through a multitude of levers that would incentivize them to stay in the profession, including scholarships, mortgage assistance, and teacher tax credits.

Duncan, a former social studies teacher, said Black male educators need to feel empowered. Their dismal numbers would improve if the legislative branch keeps level funding for teacher pipeline programs, he said.

“Congress has a role, I think, in continuing to appropriate those funds and continues to keep those programs for the teacher prep programs in the districts that are doing the hard work of trying to recruit and retain Black male educators in their schools,” he said.

“Artificial barriers” impeding progress

The Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education ruling had a crippling impact on the retention of Black male teachers.

More than 70 years after the resistance to the Brown vs. Board of Education ruling, some lawmakers say they feel different factors of the teaching profession keep men out of the classroom, including credentialing and salaries.

Rep. John James, R-Mich., said he wishes there were more avenues for Black men to become teachers but “artificial barriers” are impeding their progress.

“The licensing and certification, the time and the money required, this erects artificial barriers to create mentors and role models, particularly for young Black men who don’t necessarily have that in their life,” James told ABC News.

Last session, multiple teacher salary bills introduced in the House and Senate never received a vote. Freshman Rep. Shomari Figures, D-Ala. said Congress has a collective obligation to address the problem.

“The salary piece of it is certainly a big thing, but we also got to get real about, you know, conditions in schools,” Figures said.

“How are we making the environment the best suitable for teachers to want to stay and remain in the classroom long term?”

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