update - USSC strikes down CO's conversion therapy ban 8 - 1

Two weeks into war with Iran, Trump has been knocked back on his political heels


WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — In the two weeks since the U.S. and Israel launched strikes on Iran, President Donald Trump increasingly has been knocked on his political heels.

He's grown more agitated with news coverage and has failed to find a way to explain why he started the war — or how he will end it — that resonates with a public concerned by American deaths in the conflict, surging oil prices and dropping financial markets. Even some of his supporters are questioning his plan and his overall poll numbers are declining.

Meanwhile, Moscow is getting a boost from the war's early days after Trump eased sanctions on some Russian oil shipments. That, combined with rising oil prices, undercut the yearslong push to crimp President Vladimir Putin's ability to wage war in Ukraine.

Then there are Democrats, who were left reeling after Trump won the 2024 election. With control of Congress at stake in November's midterms, the party has come together to oppose Trump's Iran policy and point to the economic turmoil as proof that Republicans haven't kept their promises to bring down everyday costs.


“I think Democrats are well-positioned for this November and the midterms,” said Kelly Dietrich, CEO of the National Democratic Training Committee, which trains party backers to run for office and staff campaigns.

Dietrich said the past two weeks show the Trump administration has failed at long-term planning. “They're flying by the seat of their pants, and the rest of us are paying the price,” he said.


The president used both days of the weekend to spend hours at his golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida. He also attended a closed-door fundraiser for his MAGA Inc. super PAC at his Mar-a-Lago estate on Saturday night.

Last weekend, Trump played golf at another of his South Florida properties a day after witnessing the dignified transfer for six U.S. soldiers killed in the Iran war. That death toll rose this past week.

Trump is increasingly complaining about media coverage of the conflict, on Saturday writing: “Media actually want us to lose the War.” His broadcast regulator subsequently threatened to pull broadcast licenses unless they “correct course.”

The president — who kept allies other than Israel in the dark about his war plans for Iran — also for the first time suggested the U.S. would need to lean on the international community to help oil tankers move through the Strait of Hormuz, where transportation has been severely disrupted, throwing global energy markets into a tailspin.

Related video: The implications of the US.-Israel war with Iran (Global News)


Iran has said it plans to keep up attacks on energy infrastructure and use its effective closure of the strait as leverage against the United States and Israel. A fifth of the world’s traded oil flows through the waterway.

“Many Countries, especially those who are affected by Iran’s attempted closure of the Hormuz Strait, will be sending War Ships, in conjunction with the United States of America, to keep the Strait open and safe,” Trump wrote on Saturday, later adding, “this should have always been a team effort.”

It was not clear if that multination push was set to begin or if Trump only hoped it might, however. That's because he also wrote: “Hopefully China, France, Japan, South Korea, the UK, and others, that are affected” will “send Ships to the area so that the Hormuz Strait will no longer” be threatened by Iran.

The White House has not provided further details on what Trump's post meant but other countries have reacted to it only cautiously so far.

South Korea plans to “closely coordinate and carefully review” Trump's comments, while Japan is closely watching developments. Britain’s defense ministry said it was "discussing with our allies and partners a range of options to ensure the security of shipping in the region.”

A spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington said keeping the strait “safe and stable serves the common interests of the international community” and that "as a sincere friend and strategic partner of Middle Eastern countries, China will continue to strengthen communication with relevant parties.”

Trump had pledged at the beginning of the war that U.S. naval ships would escort tankers through the waterway. But that hasn’t happened yet. “It’ll happen soon. Very soon,” he said before boarding Air Force One to fly to Florida.

Still, questions about the strait continue to undermine Trump's recent pronouncement during a Kentucky rally that, “We’ve won.”

“You know, you never like to say too early you won. We won,” he said. “We won the, in the first hour, it was over.”

The war has far-reaching political implications

The U.S. Treasury Department also announced this past week a 30-day waiver on Russian sanctions aiming to free up Russian oil cargoes stranded at sea to help ease supply shortages caused by the Iran war.

That's despite analysts saying that spiraling oil prices due to Persian Gulf production blockages are benefiting the Russian economy. Moscow relies heavily on oil revenue to finance its war on Ukraine, and sanctions were a growing handicap.

Some of Washington's key allies have decried the move as empowering Putin. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called easing sanctions “not the right decision” and “certainly does not help peace” because it leads to a “strengthening of Russia’s position.”


With midterm races now starting to heat up, Trump was asked Friday night about his message to voters who believe gas is too expensive.

“You’re going to see a very big decrease in the prices of gasoline, gas, anything having to do with energy, as soon as this is ended,” Trump said.

Still, Energy Secretary Chris Wright said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday of higher energy prices: “Americans are feeling it right now" and would "for a few more weeks.”

The longer the conflict goes, the more pronounced questions about the midterms will become. Sen. Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican, recently suggested on Fox Business’ “Mornings with Maria” that if gas and oil prices continue to stay high “you’re going to see a disastrous election” for the GOP.

Iran also has even divided Trump’s “Make America Great Again” base, between those who support the action and others who say that Trump expressly campaigned on ending wars.

Leading figures on the right, including Tucker Carlson and Megyn Kelly, have sharply criticized Trump. Trump, though, has continued to insist that he created the MAGA movement and that it will follow him anywhere, on any issue.

The political turbulence has some Democrats predicting their party could see midterm gains rivaling 2018’s “blue wave” election during Trump’s first term.

“Democrats just have to keep reminding people that he made a promise to bring prices down, and they’re still going up,” Democratic strategist Brad Bannon said of Trump. “And now they’re going to go up even more because prices in gasoline can increase prices of everything else, including at the grocery store.”

Will Weissert, The Associated Press

Woman detained by ICE despite coming to U.S legally aged four


A woman who has lived and been educated in the U.S since she was four was detained by ICE.
Milena Araya-Davis, 26, originally entered the country legally from Peru with her parents on a tourist visa.
At 15, she applied for DACA, which lets young immigrants live and work in the U.S. without immediate deportation. After marrying Matthew Davis, 27, in April 2025, she applied for a green card.
During the green card interview on December 15, 2026, the couple had their proof of relationship approved, but three ICE agents entered the room and started questioning Milena about how she entered the U.S.


(Pix via Milena Araya-Davis / SWNS)
Milena was arrested, tied by her wrists and ankles and taken to the Federal Building in San Diego, before spending seven days in Otay Mesa ICE Detention Center, in a cell with 150 other women.
She was later released by a judge and is now waiting for her green card.
Milena, an associate marriage and family therapist, from San Diego, California, said: “It is a very confusing situation.


“I am a proud Peruvian and Latina, but I grew up here; the U.S. is my home. I consider myself a Peruvian American.
“It feels strange to think that I came here at the age of four and did everything my parents wanted me to do.
“I contribute to my community, yet I am not considered an American, and it feels like people don’t want me here.”
Milena entered the US at the age of four, on a tourism visa with her parents, Guisella Donayre and Jose Araya, from Peru.
Her sister, Miranda, was born in the US, automatically making her a citizen, and Miranda supported their green card application when she turned 21.


Milena Araya-Davis and her husband Matthew Davis. (Pix via Milena Araya-Davis / SWNS)
Milena said: “My parents came from Peru; they wanted better opportunities and education for my sister and me.
“There were more opportunities for growth in the US than there were in Peru at the time.”
During her green card interview on December 15, 2025, Milena said it was “very casual”, and the interviewer was asking her about their wedding and how the day went.


But towards the end of the meeting, Milena says that three ICE agents entered the room and started questioning her.
“The woman who was interviewing us was very casual,” Milena said.
“At the end of the interview, she said our I-130 – a petition for a relative – was approved, and then said, ‘I am so sorry this is not my decision, but some people want to speak to you’.
“She walked out of the room, and three ICE agents walked in and arrested me.
“I was completely terrified. I cried when they entered the room – I was overwhelmed.”
Milena was bound by her hands and wrists and taken to the Federal Building in San Diego before she was taken to Otay Mesa ICE Detention Center.


Milena Araya-Davis and her parents. (Pix via Milena Araya-Davis / SWNS)


Milena Araya-Davis and her husband Matthew Davis. (Pix via Milena Araya-Davis / SWNS)
She said she was “terrified” not knowing what to expect, and was placed in a cell with 150 women.
Milena said: “The first few days were awful.
“When I was in the detention center, I was in a holding cell for seven hours on my own – it was absolutely freezing.
“I remember not knowing how I could survive in there.
“There were 150 girls in my pod. When I got there, I was terrified as I did not know what to expect.”
Milena’s lawyer requested a bond hearing, and on December 22, 2025, she was released from the detention center.


Milena Araya-Davis and her husband Matthew Davis. (Pix via Milena Araya-Davis / SWNS)
Then, a month later, on January 26, 2026, Milena had a case hearing where a judge closed her case and referred it to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services – and Milena is waiting for her green card.
“The whole situation was dehumanizing,” Milena said.
“I don’t have a criminal record, I don’t even have a speeding ticket.
“I studied in the US, I have a bachelor’s and master’s degree.
“It was wrong how I was treated; I was being treated like a criminal.

A federal judge Monday dealt a major blow to the Trump administration's efforts to overhaul the nation's vaccine policies, including the controversial decision to slash the number of federally recommended vaccinations for children.



U.S. District Court Judge Brian Murphy in Boston put a hold on the decisions made by an influential Centers for Disease Control and Prevention vaccine advisory committee, ruling that Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had improperly replaced the entire committee.


The decision was hailed by the American Academy of Pediatrics and other leading health groups that brought the lawsuit, as well as infectious disease experts around the country.


"Today's ruling is a historic and welcome outcome for children, communities, and pediatricians everywhere," said Dr. Andrew Racine, the pediatric academy's president.




The administration plans to appeal the decision, according to Department of Health and Human Services spokesman Andrew Nixon. "HHS looks forward to this judge's decision being overturned just like his other attempts to keep the Trump administration from governing," Nixon wrote in an email to NPR.


Nixon, confirmed, however that the ruling had forced the CDC vaccine committee, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP, to postpone a meeting that was planned for Wednesday and Thursday. The committee was expected to raise new questions about the COVID-19 vaccines and possibly revamp how federal vaccine policies are formulated.


The judge ruled that Kennedy and his committee had made arbitrary and capricious decisions, ignoring a long-used, well-regarded scientific process for developing vaccine policies. He wrote in his ruling, "the government has disregarded those methods and thereby undermined the integrity of its actions."



The ACIP, whose members Kennedy fired and replaced largely with new members who also criticized vaccines, had issued a series of contentious recommendations, including a recommendation that all babies get vaccinated against hepatitis B at birth. The judge's ruling stays the appointment of 13 committee members appointed by Kennedy since June 2025, when the previous members were fired.


Administration lawyers had argued that the changes were the result of different interpretations of vaccine data.


"This is a significant victory for public health, evidence-based medicine, the rule of law, and the American people," Richard Hughes, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, told reporters after the ruling.

Reporter arrested by ICE doesn’t have First Amendment rights, DOJ says


A journalist in Nashville who was arrested by immigration officers earlier this month argues that the federal government violated her First Amendment rights by “retaliating” against her reporting on the local impacts of Donald Trump’s mass deportation efforts.

Lawyers for the Department of Justice, however, claim she has no such constitutional rights.



Nashville Noticias reporter Estefany Rodriguez Florez, who is originally from Colombia, was stopped by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers on March 4 while in a gym parking lot inside a car stamped with her network’s logo.

Her arrest — which sparked widespread outrage from press freedom groups and free speech advocates — amounts to unconstitutional “retaliation” for “exercising her First Amendment rights as a journalist reporting on ICE enforcement activities,” according to her attorneys.

But in their response on Tuesday, lawyers with the U.S. the Attorney's Office in Tennessee argue that the Supreme Court has never “explicitly ruled that undocumented immigrants or illegal aliens have protections under the First Amendment.”

Government lawyers said her attorneys “incorrectly represent” that she “clearly has First Amendment rights.”

“Neither history nor precedent indicates that the First Amendment definitively applies to illegal aliens,” they wrote.



Rodriguez Florez legally entered the U.S. on a tourist visa in 2021 and is married to a U.S. citizen. She has a seven-year-old daughter.

She applied for asylum after fleeing threats against her as a journalist in her native Colombia, and she also has applied for a green card for lawful permanent status after marrying her husband Alejandro Medina.

With a work permit, Rodriguez Florez reported for Nashville Noticias on the state of the Trump administration’s “immigration nightmare,” her attorneys wrote in court filings.



Attorneys for Estefany Rodriguez Florez argue the Trump administration ‘retaliated’ against her for critically reporting on ICE efforts in Tennessee (AP)
She alleges that the government “retaliated against her for her past protected speech and in order to prevent or chill the future speech of herself and other journalists who report critically on ICE,” according to her attorneys.

In January, Rodriguez Florez received an unexpected notice to appear at an ICE office, what she believed was a precursor to force her asylum claim through immigration court rather than present her case through her U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services interviews while pursuing a green card.



When she showed up, the ICE office was closed for a snowstorm that day, according to her attorneys.

The next time she appeared, she was provided a note from an agent who could not find her name in the system, and rescheduled her next appointment to March 17, according to court filings.

She was arrested March 4 and held inside a county jail in Alabama.

ICE scheduled to fly her to a detention center in Louisiana the next day, but she was forced back to the local jail by an officer who was suspicious she had lice, which she did not, according to documents filed by her attorneys on Monday.

She was held in isolation for five days and forced to strip naked in a shower while an officer “poured some kind of chemical liquid on her head, which seemed to be something used to clean floors and burned her eyes,” according to her attorneys.

A woman assisting her in the shower “cried to see the abuse,” attorneys wrote.



Her husband Alejando Medina says the nation’s ‘broken immigration system has deeply harmed thousands upon thousands of families across the country’ (AP)
On Monday, an immigration court judge granted her release from custody on $10,000 bond, an unusually high sum, but she remains detained while ICE considers an appeal.

“The First Amendment clearly protects the past and future speech of Rodriguez, who entered this country lawfully, who has developed substantial connections to the community by residing here for five years and by marrying a U.S. citizen, and who works as a journalist, both informing community members and helping their stories reach the public discourse,” according to her attorneys.


The Committee to Protect Journalists said she should be released “without delay.”

“The Department of Homeland Security and its affiliates are increasingly being used to police First Amendment rights, including freedom of the press. Rodriguez’s arrest is the latest example in a troubling pattern,” said Katherine Jacobsen, the group’s U.S., Canada and Caribbean Program Coordinator.

Medina, her husband, said he’s “heartbroken.”

“I’m hoping and praying Estefany comes home soon and we’re able to proceed for her to become a permanent resident and eventually a citizen,” he told reporters Monday.

“I have the same hope and prayer for everyone across the country who is in a similar situation with a loved one that is unjustly detained or who has been deported,” he said. “Our families belong together and this broken immigration system has deeply harmed thousands upon thousands of families across the country.”

President Donald Trump’s former top Border Patrol officer, Gregory Bovino, chose to quit rather than be pushed out as he faces multiple investigations into his conduct, according to a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) insider.
Bovino, 55, broke the news of his departure via Breitbart on Monday, saying he planned to leave by the end of March after nearly three decades with the agency, and calling the role “the greatest honor of my entire life.”

A senior DHS insider offered an insight into why he had chosen to go now. “He sees where the wind is blowing,” the source told the Daily Beast.

“He’s got an internal investigation looming, and he’s already been sent back to El Centro. Now with Noem out, it’s a sign of things to come. Chosen to jump before he’s pushed.”

That investigation—first reported by The New York Times—centers on a phone call Bovino made to federal prosecutors in Minnesota in January. According to multiple people familiar with the exchange, Bovino complained that U.S. Attorney Daniel Rosen, an Orthodox Jew, was hard to reach at weekends because he observes Shabbat, used the term “chosen people” in voicing his frustration, and asked sarcastically whether Orthodox Jewish criminals also took the weekend off.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) investigator John Breckenridge subsequently opened a formal inquiry into the allegation that Bovino had made “unprofessional comments.”

A DHS spokesperson dismissed the original reporting as gossip, saying the probe was triggered by a congressional letter about “anonymous allegations” and did not confirm wrongdoing.


Separately, Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty announced a criminal investigation that could result in charges, with prosecutors already examining 17 cases—among them a January 21 incident in which Bovino was filmed warning “I’m going to gas—get back!—gas is coming” before lobbing a smoke canister at protesters in Minneapolis.

As the Beast has chronicled, Bovino’s rise was almost as speedy as his fall. His authority rested on a direct back-channel to then-DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, 54, and her chief aide and rumored lover Corey Lewandowski, 52, bypassing CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott entirely.

In an email obtained by NBC News, he spelled out the arrangement to acting ICE Director Todd Lyons: “Mr. Lyons said he was in charge, and I corrected him saying I report to Corey Lewandowski.”

Everything unraveled in Minneapolis. ICE agent Jonathan Ross fatally shot unarmed mother Renee Nicole Good, 37, in early January. On January 24, a mob of Bovino’s Border Patrol “Green Machine” agents flung VA intensive-care nurse Alex Pretti, also 37, to the pavement while he shielded a female protester, then shot him.


Bovino went on television to back Noem’s branding of Pretti as a would-be “terrorist”—a performance that, as the Beast reported, sealed his fate at the White House. Border czar Tom Homan was dispatched to take over, with Bovino sent back to El Centro in California, and stripped of his government social media access.

Trump fired Noem on March 5 following two days of bruising Senate hearings. Lewandowski is set to leave with her. Bovino is the third casualty of the power struggle that consumed them all.



Upon retiring, Bovino will have more time to go drinking in Vegas, as the Beast reported he had done after being benched by Trump.

DHS is now run on an acting basis by Deputy Secretary Troy Edgar while the Senate considers the nomination of Sen. Markwayne Mullin, 48, of Oklahoma, as permanent secretary.

The Daily Beast contacted the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Customs and Border Protection for comment. A DHS spokesperson said Bovino had not submitted any retirement paperwork.

A federal judge ejected a top prosecutor from the New Jersey U.S. attorney’s office out of his courtroom Tuesday, accusing the government of “operating unlawfully” in light of recent reports that Alina Habba, a former personal lawyer to Donald Trump, was still illegally involved in the office’s functions.

U.S. District Court Judge Zahid Quraishi was markedly frustrated as soon as Tuesday’s proceeding began, grilling the office’s head of appeals, Mark Coyne, for failing to provide proper documentation prior to his appearance before the court. As a result, Quraishi ordered Coyne not to speak, though he allowed Coyne to remain in the room “for moral support.”

But Coyne would not comply with the mute order—particularly as Quraishi’s conversation with Coyne’s more junior colleague, Daniel Rosenblum, turned to the office’s current triumvirate leadership structure and Habba’s rumored involvement.

Habba resigned from her position atop the office in December, when a federal appeals court ruled that her appointment was unlawful. Last week, the office’s trio of replacement leaders were also found to be occupying their positions unlawfully. Habba has since been serving as a senior adviser to Attorney General Pam Bondi, overseeing myriad U.S. attorneys’ offices and reportedly stepping back into the New Jersey office.

Rosenblum, the line prosecutor on the case, told Quraishi that he had been with the office for just two and a half years and that he was “not aware of” Habba’s involvement in the office’s operations—but that response was not as clear cut as the judge wanted.

“All right. So she could be operating the office?” he asked.

That’s when Coyne could no longer stay silent.
“She is not,” Coyne said, which Rosenblum repeated.

“Sit down, Mr. Coyne. If you speak again, I’m going to have you removed. I already told you not to speak,” Quraishi said.

Coyne then started to speak again, though Quraishi cut him off.

“You didn’t file a notice of appearance. You don’t get to blindside the court and do whatever it is you guys want to do. So if you continue to speak, you can leave,” Quraishi stated.

As Coyne continued to interrupt, Quraishi ordered the guards.

“I’m directing the court security officers to remove Mr. Coyne,” Quraishi said. “Mr. Coyne, I told you not to address this court. You didn’t file a notice of appearance. You don’t get to blindside this court. I’m going to ask you to leave … or I’ll have you removed.”