Trump pushes back on reports top military adviser warned of Iran-related risks to US troops
US President Donald Trump speaks during a press conference at the White House, Washington, D.C., US on February 20, 2026. (Photo by Kyle Mazza/Anadolu via Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump has pushed back against news reports that his top military adviser, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine, privately cautioned that if Trump ordered a U.S. military strike on Iran, a lack of critical munitions and support from allies could pose risks to American troops.
“General Caine, like all of us, would like not to see War but, if a decision is made on going against Iran at a Military level, it is his opinion that it will be something easily won,” Trump posted Monday on his social media platform.
That statement came as Trump was said to be considering military options as he puts pressure on Iran to end its nuclear program or face “bad” consequences.
According to a U.S. official, Tehran was expected to offer a new nuclear proposal by Tuesday ahead of another round of negotiations in Geneva led by special envoy Steve Witkoff on Thursday.
The meeting would be the second round of indirect talks between the U.S. and Iran, with Omanis and Qataris passing notes between the delegations.
In a statement, a Joint Staff spokesman emphasized that Caine’s role is to provide “a range of military options, as well as secondary considerations and associated impacts and risks, to the civilian leaders who make America’s security decisions.”
The president added that he will make the final call regarding military action, and repeated that he wants a deal with Iran, but warned that if there is not a deal “it will be a very bad day for that Country.”
“I am the one that makes the decision, I would rather have a Deal than not but, if we don’t make a Deal, it will be a very bad day for that Country and, very sadly, its people, because they are great and wonderful, and something like this should never have happened to them,” Trump said.
Trump also doubled down on his previous claims that Iran’s nuclear supply has been “obliterated” after last summer’s Operation Midnight Hammer, saying that it was “blown to smithereens.”
“He knows Iran well,” he said, referring to Caine, “in that he was in charge of Midnight Hammer, the attack on the Iranian Nuclear Development. It is a Development no longer, but rather, was blown to smithereens by our Great B-2 Bombers.” Trump said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened Iran during a speech to the Knesset on Monday, warning the Iranian ayatollah if Iran strikes Israel, “we will respond with a force they cannot even imagine,” according to remarks of his speech google translated from Hebrew to English.
“No one knows what the day will bring. We are vigilant, we are prepared for any scenario,” Netanyahu said.
Erika Kirk, widow of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, and U.S. Vice President JD Vance embrace on stage during a Turning Point USA event at the Pavilion at Ole Miss at the University of Mississippi, on October 29, 2025 in Oxford, Mississippi. Jonathan Ernst-Pool/Getty Images
(PHOENIX) — Erika Kirk endorsed Vice President JD Vance for president during a Turning Point USA conference in Arizona, vowing to throw one of the most influential conservative organizations in the country behind Vance in 2028.
“We are going to get my husband’s friend JD Vance elected for 48 in the most resounding way possible,” she said during her speech on Thursday night at AmericaFest, the first major Turning Point event since her husband’s assassination.
While the endorsement is not a major surprise given Vance’s close relationship with Charlie Kirk, Erika Kirk and Turning Point, it is significant given the group’s prominence on the right.
Turning Point, founded by Charlie Kirk in 2012, played a key role in helping elect President Donald Trump and shaping the modern conservative movement, particularly among younger voters.
Vance has not yet officially said whether he will run in 2028. In an interview last month with Fox News, Vance said he was focused on the vice presidency and the 2026 midterms but would have a conversation with President Trump after next year’s elections about 2028 .
“We’re going to win the midterms, we’re going to do everything that we can to win the midterms, and then after that, I’m going to sit down with the president of the United States and talk to him about it,” Vance said. “But let’s focus on the now.”
In the wake of Charlie Kirk’s death, Vance credited the Turning Point founder for his own political rise and for building out President Trump’s second administration.
“So much of the success we’ve had in this administration traces directly to Charlie’s ability to organize and convene. He didn’t just help us win in 2024, he helped us staff the entire government,” Vance said in the days after Kirk was fatally shot on Sept. 10 during a campus event at Utah Valley University.
Erika Kirk’s endorsement follows Secretary of State Marco Rubio saying in an interview with Vanity Fair published this week that if the vice president were to run for president in 2028, he would support him.
“If JD Vance runs for president, he’s going to be our nominee, and I’ll be one of the first people to support him,” Rubio told Vanity Fair’s Chris Whipple.
Trump himself has said Vance and Rubio would be “great” options for presidential candidates.
“I’m not sure if anybody would run against those two,” Trump said in late October. “I think if they ever formed a group, it would be unstoppable.”
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) participates in a public forum on the violent use of force by Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agents, at the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill on February 03, 2026 in Washington, DC. (Aaron Schwartz/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Expanding her probes into Trump administration policies, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., is demanding answers from Health and Human Service Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. about the impact of federal immigration surges on children’s health.
In a letter to Kennedy first obtained by ABC News, Warren, Sen. Angela Alsobrooks, and other congressional Democrats expressed concern that the health department is failing in its responsibility to protect the wellbeing of children.
“This disregard for child welfare undermines the government’s core child-protection obligations,” the lawmakers wrote. “Yet your agency [HHS] does not appear to be taking any action to speak out against or investigate the impacts of the Trump Administration’s immigration agenda on children,” they wrote.
The letter says the federal operations from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) “risk traumatizing children and depriving them of access to education and basic services, with lasting consequences for their behavioral, physical, academic, and emotional wellbeing.”
Warren told ABC News, “Donald Trump promised two things: he would lower costs for American families and he would keep families safe.”
“Costs are up and, thanks to ICE targeting, families are more at risk than at any time in living memory,” she said.
The Massachusetts senator urged Kennedy to respond to her inquiry and remind the world of the health department’s responsibility to children.
“That means not putting [kids] through the trauma of violent separation from their parents, having flash bangs thrown at them, having them gassed, or using them as bait to try to snare their family members,” Warren told ABC News at the Capitol on Wednesday.
HHS spokeswoman Emily Hilliard asserted that “The Department remains committed to the safety and well-being of all unaccompanied minors in its care.”
“Any claims otherwise are baseless and inaccurate,” she said.
More than 50 lawmakers signed on to the letter requesting that Kennedy provide any information HHS has regarding the impact of ICE and CBP operations on children’s mental health and development by Feb. 18. Their letter comes amid Operation Metro Surge in Minnesota, where Trump’s border czar Tom Homan announced Wednesday the government will reduce about a quarter of the 3,000 federal troops in the state effective immediately. Minnesota Sen. Tina Smith told ABC News the federal operation has resulted in a precipitous drop in school attendance that will have a “dramatic” and “long-lived” impact on children and families.
Warren’s letter stressed that ICE and CBP’s tactics include the alleged use of tear gas, explosives, attack dogs and window-smashing in or near schools and child care centers in places like Minnesota, Illinois and Texas. It also recounts at least four students who have experienced “raids” at schools, day care centers, and a child’s birthday party.
Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin has stressed that the agency is not invading or raiding classrooms. However, a DHS memo outlining the department’s approach said “[ICE] Officers would need secondary supervisor approval before any action can be taken in locations such as a school. We expect these to be extremely rare.”
National Parents Union President Keri Rodrigues said she spent the last week with parents in Minnesota and told ABC News that it’s “deeply unsafe” for children to be walking through what she described as “war zones” to get to school.
“Parents want the expectation that in places like schools, their kids are going to be safe,” Rodrigues said. “You got ICE agents that are stalking kids walking to elementary school. You got guys with binoculars banging on the doors of the schoolhouse — like none of this is going to work for parents,” she added.
Neither DHS nor the White House responded to ABC News’ request for comment.
Warren, a fierce defender of public education and vocal Trump critic, has used Trump’s second term to fight back against his policies.
Last year, Warren launched her “Save Our Schools” campaign in opposition to Trump and Secretary of Education Linda McMahon’s efforts to dismantle the Department of Education and another investigation called the Social Security War Room, a coordinated effort to combat the administration’s so-called “attack on Americans’ Social Security” at the Social Security Administration.
Meanwhile, the impact of Trump’s immigration curb is having a ripple effect across the country, according to education leaders and experts who’ve spoken to ABC News, saying it’s leaving some families and communities fearful of returning to school each day — from the nation’s capital to Los Angeles, California —
To-wen Tseng, a substitute teacher in California, said her students ask her ‘What will happen if the ICE agents come to our classroom?'” “I told them that won’t happen because the school won’t let them in and I won’t let them enter the classroom [either],” Tseng told ABC News. “But the truth is, I don’t know what I can do if ICE really shows up at my classroom door,” she said.
“I keep telling my children and my students that they are safe, just because I don’t want them to worry, and I feel it should be our responsibility to protect them,” Tseng added. “We should keep them safe.”
Mark Carney, Canada’s prime minister, after speaking in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada, on Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026. (Renaud Philippe/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump rescinded an invitation for Canada to join his newly-formed “Board of Peace” amid his escalating feud with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.
The move, which Trump announced late Thursday in a social media post, came after Carney’s headline-making speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in which he warned the rules-based international order largely steered by American hegemony was in the midst of a “rupture.”
“Please let this Letter serve to represent that the Board of Peace is withdrawing its invitation to you regarding Canada’s joining, what will be, the most prestigious Board of Leaders ever assembled, at any time,” Trump posted online as he returned to Washington from Switzerland.
Trump hosted a signing ceremony for his Board of Peace on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum earlier this week. More than two dozen countries have signed on so far, including Israel, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, though notably none of the U.S.’s major European allies have done so. France, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom have either declined the invitation or expressed significant reservations about the board. The Vatican said Pope Leo, the first American pope, has been asked to join the board and is evaluating the invitation.
Carney, in his address to the gathering of government officials and business leaders, called on middle powers to come together to avoid falling victim to coercion from larger and more powerful nations.
“Middle powers must act together because if we’re not at the table, we’re on the menu,” Carney said.
Carney added, “We shouldn’t allow the rise of hard power to blind us to the fact that the power of legitimacy, integrity and rules will remain strong, if we choose to wield them together.”
The Canadian leader, without explicitly mentioning Trump by name, also directly criticized the U.S. threat of tariffs for U.S. allies that opposed Trump’s aim to acquire Greenland and made clear Canada’s support for the Danish territory’s sovereignty.
President Trump, the next day, swiped at Carney’s remarks and said the U.S.’s northern neighbor should be “grateful.”
“Canada gets a lot of freebies from us. By the way, they should be grateful also, but they’re not. I watched your prime minister yesterday. He wasn’t so grateful. They should be grateful to us, Canada. Canada lives because of the United States. Remember that, Mark, the next time you make your statements,” Trump said in his WEF speech.
Carney pushed back on Trump in remarks delivered in Quebec City on Thursday.
“Canada and the United States have built a remarkable partnership in the economy, in security, and in rich cultural exchange,” Carney said. “But Canada doesn’t live because of the United States. Canada thrives because we are Canadian.”
Tensions have flared between Trump and Carney for months over tariffs and over Trump’s repeated calls since his return to office to have Canada become the 51st state of the U.S.
