Scalise on potential of troops in Iran: ‘We’re having a lot of conversations about what could happen next’
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-Louisiana, appears on ABC News’ “This Week” on March 29, 2026. (ABC News)
(WASHINGTON) — House Majority Leader Steve Scalise did not refute the possibility of American ground troops entering Iran when asked on Sunday, even as many in his party have voiced concerns about such a move.
“There are no boots on the ground today, but we’re having a lot of conversations about what could happen next,” Scalise told ABC News’ “This Week” co-anchor Jonathan Karl. “But I think most people, most civilized people, recognize a nuclear-armed Iran is not an option that any of us want.”
The war with Iran has now surpassed a month of fighting and some congressional Republicans — including Scalise’s Louisiana colleague Sen. John Kennedy — have said President Donald Trump would need to come to Congress to seek authorization for any ground troops in Iran. When asked by Karl if he agreed with that proposition, Scalise did not answer directly, but said that Trump had already done that.
“The president has already come to Congress,” Scalise said. “They’ve let all of the congressional leadership know in advance of the strikes, but they’ve also had briefings on Capitol Hill.”
He added, “I was at one of those classified briefings with Republicans and Democrats, and they took questions from everybody. There were a lot of questions from people on both sides.”
Trump never officially sought congressional authorization before the war with Iran began, but his administration alerted a select group of top lawmakers, known as the “Gang of Eight,” before the initial strikes. And while the president continues to call the operation a “war,” he has also said that he cannot call it a war because he did not seek authorization from Congress.
Scalise said that he would not answer whether there would be widespread support from Republicans for ground troops in Iran because it has not yet happened.
“We’re not at that point yet. Obviously you’re seeing troop movement and we’ve got a number of bases in that region, too, that have been there for a long time,” Scalise said. “So until that day comes, I’m not going to speculate, and you’re not going to see the president go negotiate this in public.”
In a separate interview on “This Week,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., said Congress should not allocate any more money “for an illegal war of choice.”
“[This is] a war that is now making us less, not more safe and has already cost American lives, is costing billions of dollars every day, oil and gas prices are going up,” Van Hollen, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said. “So the president who said he was going to focus on bringing down prices and ending foreign wars has started foreign wars along with Prime Minister Netanyahu and prices are going through the roof. So no, we should not keep funding an illegal war of choice that’s making us less safe.”
Unlike Scalise, Van Hollen does not believe the administration’s briefings have been substantive enough.
“I have been to these briefings,” Van Hollen said. “What you learned in these briefings is exactly what you’re hearing outside the briefings, which is they don’t have any particular objective. It’s a constantly changing objective. And there’s no endgame whatsoever.”
Rep. Rashida Tlaib and Rep. Ilhan Omar shout during U.S. President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address during a Joint Session of Congress at the U.S. Capitol, February 24, 2026, in Washington. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump is bashing two of the Democrats who repeatedly interrupted his State of the Union speech by shouting at him, calling them “LUNATICS” who “look like they should be institutionalized” in a social media post on Wednesday.
During his Tuesday evening address, Trump attacked Democrats several times, with his comments on his immigration crackdown eliciting jeers from Democratic Reps. Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar, who repeatedly said the president was “killing Americans” — a reference to the fatal shootings of Minnesota residents Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal law enforcement earlier this year.
Their fatal shootings were amid the administration’s “Operation Metro Surge,” which sent federal agents to Minnesota as part of its immigration enforcement. Border czar Tom Homan announced earlier this month that the effort was ending.
“When you watch Low IQ Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, as they screamed uncontrollably last night at the very elegant State of the Union, such an important and beautiful event, they had the bulging, bloodshot eyes of crazy people, LUNATICS, mentally deranged and sick who, frankly, look like they should be institutionalized,” Trump said.
In his social media post, Trump also said “we should send them back from where they came — as fast as possible.”
Omar, who fled Somalia and came to the U.S. as a refugee when she was a child, has been living in the country since she was 12 years old and is a U.S. citizen. Tlaib was born and raised in Detroit; she is the daughter of Palestinian immigrant parents.
Trump’s social media post about Omar and Tlaib mark his first comments the day after his major address.
Omar has been the target of verbal attacks from Trump for years. Earlier this year, his attacks have come alongside escalated rhetoric describing the Somali community in Minnesota, the largest in the nation.
During Tuesday night’s speech, Democrats remained seated when Trump asked members of the chamber to stand if they supported the idea that the American government was “to protect American citizens, not illegal aliens.”
“You should be ashamed of yourselves,” Trump said at the seated Democrats.
“You have killed Americans,” Omar, a Democrat from Minnesota, repeatedly shouted as Trump continued talking.
Tlaib, who was seated next to Omar, also shouted at the president throughout his speech. She even appeared to repeatedly mouth “K-K-K” as Republicans chanted “U-S-A, U-S-A.”
Omar told CNN Wednesday morning that she had no regrets for calling out the president during the speech, especially since Trump did not mention the fatal shootings of Good and Pretti.
“It was really unavoidable. The president talked about protecting Americans, and I just had to remind him that his administration was responsible for killing two of my constituents,” she said.
The speech was punctuated at times by other interjections, including from Tlaib, a Democrat of Michigan and outspoken critic of the president, who at one point in the speech called Trump “the most corrupt president.”
After the president said that Democrats “are crazy,” Tlaib, who was wearing a pin that said, “F*** ICE,” stood briefly, then sat down again before again shouting at Trump from her seat.
“How’s those Epstein files?” she shouted as the president spoke.
Neither Omar nor Tlaib were asked to leave the chamber, but they were among the many Democrats who left before Trump finished his speech, which lasted one hour and 48 minutes — making it the longest speech before a joint session of Congress in history.
House Speaker Mike Johnson was asked after the speech if Omar or Talib would see any consequences for their actions.
“We’ll find out,” Johnson responded.
ABC News’ Sarah Beth Hensley and Ivan Pereira contributed to this report.
Donald Trump delivers remarks during a working breakfast with governors in the State Dining Room at the White House on February 20, 2026 in Washington, DC. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — When President Donald Trump delivers the first State of the Union address of his second term Tuesday night — it will be a chance to make the case for his sweeping policy goals directly to millions of Americans — ahead of November’s midterm elections where control of Congress is at stake.
One year ago, Trump proclaimed “America is back” as he addressed a joint session of Congress shortly after taking office, laying out novel plans to make good on issues he campaigned on, including lowering prices while imposing worldwide tariffs, the mass deportations of immigrants in the country illegally, and a promise to keep America out of foreign wars.
Since then, he has taken unprecedented, often highly controversial, steps to reshape the federal government and achieve those goals, testing the limits of presidential power on both the domestic and foreign policy fronts. But he’s done so at a political cost – with polls showing a growing number of Americans displeased or opposed.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Tuesday morning that the president will contend that he and Republicans are the best choice to “continue tackling the affordability crisis” and that he’ll feature a Pennsylvania waitress who benefitted from his “no tax on tips” policy.
Earlier, she posted on X that “In one year, President Trump has turned our country around from the brink of disaster, and he will rightly declare the State of Our Union is strong, prosperous and respected.”
He could also use his speech to shore up support from lawmakers and the American people on two major, immediate issues: the current showdown with Iran that could end up with Trump ordering the U.S. military into war — and his tariff policy — much of which was struck down as illegal last week by the Supreme Court.
At least some of the justices are expected to attend, possibly including the conservatives ones he picked and who joined in that ruling. By tradition, they will be seated just in front of him, and the presence of justices he has railed against, even personally attacked, could bring fireworks to the House chamber.
The economy and tariffs
After months of blaming former President Joe Biden for leaving what he repeatedly called an economic “mess,” Trump has now taken full responsibility for the economy, even declaring last week that he “won affordability.” While he is sure to tout the relative taming of inflation in recent months – down to 2.4% now from 3% when he took office – that hasn’t translated into lower prices across the board for many Americans.
Prices for some key household goods such as eggs and gas are down, but his tariffs and other factors have increased the prices of many household goods such as produce, beef and coffee.
The ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll shows that almost half of Americans, 48%, say the economy has gotten worse since Trump took office — although that number is down slightly from 52%, who said the same in October.
Given that, he faces an uphill battle to persuade Americans they are better off. According to that recent ABC/Post/Ipsos poll, 65% of Americans disapprove of how Trump is handling inflation and 57% disapprove of how he’s handling the economy overall.
“We have the greatest economy we’ve ever had,” Trump said Monday. “We have the most activity we’ve ever had. I’m making a speech tomorrow night, and you’ll be hearing me say that. I mean it’s — it’s going to be a long speech because we have so much to talk about.”
As Democrats make the rising cost of health care a major message for their candidates to run on in this fall – after many Americans saw their premiums skyrocket when Affordable Care Act subsidies expired at the start of the year – Trump will likely need to counter that by citing what he says he’s done to make health care more affordable.
He will surely point to his Most Favored Nation policy that lowered the cost of some pharmaceuticals and the TrumpRx platform aimed at making those lower prices for some medications more transparent.
Foreign policy
Trump will also have the chance to make the case for some of the ambitious foreign policy moves he’s made during his first year in office. His reshaping of America’s role in the global order comes as even some Republicans have criticized Trump for focusing too much on foreign policy rather than on domestic issues.
At his orders, the U.S. has amassed a major military force near Iran as negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program between American and Iranian officials are likely to continue on Thursday. Even so, critics say Trump and his administration have not made publicly clear exactly what objectives they are seeking in Iran.
At the same time, he has made clear the possibility of military action — either limited or more prolonged — is not out of the question, even as polls show Americans are hesitant about the U.S. getting involved in another war to make changes in another country.
More than half of Americans, 54%, oppose Trump using the U.S. military to force changes in other countries, while only 20% support it (and 26% say they have no opinion or did not respond to the question), according to the ABC/Post/Ipsos poll.
Trump will also have the chance to lay out his view that America has supremacy over the Western Hemisphere, what he has coined the “Don-roe Doctrine.”
That view was evident in the military operation that put American boots on the ground in Venezuela to capture then-President Nicolas Maduro and the ongoing strikes he’s authorized on boats allegedly carrying drugs in the Caribbean and Pacific that have killed more than 150 people.
That ideology was also a cornerstone in his repeated calls for the U.S. to “own” Greenland, something that alarmed many of America’s closest European allies. The president said that a deal with Denmark was in the works for ownership of the territory during his trip to Switzerland in January, but since then no other information has come from the White House about the status of those talks.
Immigration
The president will also likely tout success on the border and immigration, even as some public opinion has turned on the tactics used by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in the immigration crackdown he’s ordered.
The Department of Homeland Security said in December that 2.5 million undocumented migrants were removed from the U.S. and the president has celebrated the reduction in crossings as the southern border, both of which were major campaign promises.
However, as ICE operations have ramped up, public opinion has started turning against them in the wake of the killings of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti in Minnesota by federal law enforcement.
The ABC/Post/Ipsos poll found that the president’s approval ratings on immigration are also at a low for his second term — with 58% disapproving of his handling of immigration and 40% approving.
ABC News’ Fritz Farrow contributed to this report.
U.S. Vice President JD Vance gives remarks following a roundtable discussion with local leaders and community members amid a surge of federal immigration authorities in the area, at Royalston Square on January 22, 2026, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The Trump administration has sent a reported 3,000-plus federal agents into the area, with more on the way, as they make a push to arrest undocumented immigrants in the region. (Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Vice President JD Vance took the stage for a second year in a row on Friday at the March For Life rally in Washington, D.C., where he touted the work done by the Trump administration to support the anti-abortion rights movement — but Vance also responded to criticism from some in the pro-life movement that the White House has not done enough so far to advance its agenda.
“Now I must address an elephant in the room. I’ve heard the guy over here talking about it, a fear, a fear that some of you have, that not enough progress has been made, that not enough has happened in the political arena, that we’re not going fast enough, that our politics have failed to answer the clarion call to life that this march represents and that all of us, I believe, hold in our hearts,” Vance said. “And I want you to know that I hear you, and that I understand there will inevitably be debates within this movement.”
Vance asked attendees to reflect on what has been accomplished over the past decade, adding that more actions will be taken in the coming years.
“My friends, I’d ask you to look where the Fight for Life stood just one decade ago and now look where it stands today. We have made tremendous strides over the last year, and we’re going to continue to make strides over the next three years to come. But I’m a realist. I know that there is still much road ahead to travel together,” Vance said.
Vance referenced Trump’s appointment of the three Supreme Court justices who helped overrule Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that stated that the Constitution protected the right to an abortion. Vance said that Trump’s actions led to the “most important” Supreme Court decision of his lifetime.
Vance touted some of the actions the Trump administration has taken on restricting abortion access and supporting the anti-abortion rights movement, including pardoning 23 anti-abortion rights activists about a year ago.
Although Trump did not attend the rally on Friday, he did send in a brief video message where he said he has “made unprecedented strides to protect innocent life and support the institution of the family.” Trump also reflected on appointing the Supreme Court justices who helped overrule Roe v. Wade.
“That was a big deal, and because of that, the pro-life movement won the greatest victory in its history,” Trump said of the Supreme Court decision.
The White House also released a statement from Trump reiterating his contributions to the anti-abortion rights movement.
“From the moment I returned to office as the 47th President of the United States, I have taken decisive action to protect the unborn and restore a culture that unapologetically defends the sanctity of life,” Trump said in his statement.
