Current Affairs Of Pakistan & World: Trump: U.S. must ‘respond’ against Iran

Trump: U.S. must ‘respond’ against Iran

Jun 09, 2026

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THE CATCH-UP

BULLETIN: President Donald Trump today vowed to “respond” to the downing of an American Army Apache helicopter gunship near the Strait of Hormuz yesterday, which he blamed on Iran. He said the two crew members who were involved in the incident are safe and unharmed. “Nevertheless, the United States must, of necessity, respond to this attack,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social at 12:34 p.m.

It was not immediately clear what the U.S. response would actually entail, but any military action could imperil the already shaky ceasefire.

Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf also rattled the saber in an ominous post on X: “We prefer the language of diplomacy, but we speak other languages far more fluently. Break your commitments, and we'll switch to what we speak best,” Ghalibaf wrote. “You ride the horse you saddled!”

Trump’s fresh warning came about 12 hours after he told reporters that the White House and Tehran could reach a deal to end the conflict “in two or three days,” adding that the Strait of Hormuz would “open up immediately upon signing,” per POLITICO’s Ferdinand Knapp. Keep in mind Trump has been saying the war could be over soon at nearly every stage of the conflict, which began more than 100 days ago.

President Donald Trump told reporters that the U.S. and Iran were close to a deal early Tuesday morning following a Knicks game in New York City. | Samuel Corum/Getty Images

ON THE HILL: House Republicans could pass a hard-fought party-line immigration funding package as soon as tonight — but GOP lawmakers on the Hill are far from catching a break.

First, there’s the Bill Pulte situation. Trump’s housing chief, whom he tapped last week to lead the country’s 18 spy agencies and organizations despite having no apparent intelligence experience, has caused a hiccup in the Senate’s reauthorization of FISA’s Section 702, for which Democrats are withholding their votes as long as Pulte remains in the role.

Speaker Mike Johnson is headed to the White House this afternoon to speak with Trump about FISA, which expires Friday without a reauthorization. He said it was likely Pulte would “come up” during that meeting, per POLITICO’s Meredith Lee Hill, as some GOP senators nudge Trump to change course. Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters today Trump is “weighing seriously” naming a permanent nominee — and he hopes Trump makes an announcement soon, POLITICO’s Jordain Carney reports.

In a closed-door meeting today, Johnson told his caucus the FISA extension fight would go on until Thursday at least, Meredith reports. That’s the day members are supposed to fly out — but that could be in danger. “If we don’t do FISA, we don’t go home,” Johnson told Republicans, according to NOTUS’ Reese Gorman.

Then there’s the decision over whether to pursue yet another reconciliation bill ahead of the midterms. House GOP leaders have been meeting with factions across the conference about what they might support, and the Republican Study Committee convened a meeting last night with congressional scorekeepers to discuss a third reconciliation package.

But Republicans are casting serious doubt on a path forward.

“I think it's safe to conclude there will not be another reconciliation bill,” Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), the top military appropriator, said during a budget hearing today.

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), the top GOP appropriator, said she agreed “with that assessment.”

Good Tuesday afternoon. This is Irie Sentner. Get in touch.

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5 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW

1. WHEN MOORE EQUALS LESS: Trump administration officials, GOP lawmakers, lobbyists and industry officials are jockeying for Rep. Riley Moore (R-W.Va.), a freshman in the House, to be the next Labor secretary, according to nearly 20 people with knowledge of the effort, Jordain and Meredith report. Tapping Moore would further whittle down Republicans’ already razor-thin House majority. Moore declined to comment, but some sources say he has privately expressed interest in the job. White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers said “when there is an announcement on a permanent nomination, it will be made by the President directly.”

2. BACK TO MINNESOTA: VP JD Vance is intensifying his anti-fraud campaign that’s targeted mostly Democratic-led states, pressing federal prosecutors to probe Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and AG Keith Ellison over allegations they failed to stop social services fraud in the state, per AP. It’s not clear which federal laws they could have broken, and the DOJ didn’t immediately respond to questions from the AP about if it would launch an investigation.

3. PEAK PARTISANSHIP: Two-thirds of respondents to a Reuters/Ipsos poll this week who belong to a political party said they sometimes vote for a candidate they don’t like in order to keep the opposite party from winning. More than three quarters of respondents said they “often have to pick the lesser of two evils when voting,” including 83 percent of Republicans and 78 percent of Democrats.

Getting specific: “In a nationwide poll, just 17% of Democrats familiar with [Maine Democratic candidate Graham] Platner said his tattoo of a Nazi-style skull-and-crossbones would stop them from voting for him if they could vote in Maine’s election. The same share of Republicans nationwide said they would refrain from voting for Texas Attorney General [Ken] Paxton, who was indicted a decade ago ⁠on charges of defrauding investors, if they could vote in the state's Senate election in November.”

Watch Season 1 of On the Road with Jonathan Martin

From South Philly to Baltimore, Chicago, Augusta and San Francisco, Jonathan Martin hits the road for candid conversations with key political players where they call home. Catch up on Season 1 featuring Josh Shapiro, Wes Moore, JB Pritzker, Brian Kemp, Gavin Newsom and more on American politics, the road to 2026 and what’s next. Watch Season 1 now.

4. FADE TO RED: Democrats have lost voters in 27 of 28 battleground House districts since November 2024 — a total of more than 275,000 registered voters, or an average of 10,000 voters per district, according to the results of a NRCC analysis shared with NOTUS. All but one of those districts (Colorado’s 3rd) are still considered competitive by the Cook Political Report, and the analysis doesn’t include some key districts Cook considers toss-ups, including California’s 22nd and Michigan’s 7th.

What Dems are doing: Democratic super PAC American Bridge plans to spend a record of about $50 million in ads targeting Republicans in 14 House races and four Senate races, mostly in Republican strongholds, per NYT.

5. FOR YOUR RADAR: “Gates Said to Have Hired Ex-Oversight Chief to Advise on Epstein Testimony,” by NYT’s Annie Karni: “The former chief investigations counsel for the House Oversight Committee has been helping to prepare Bill Gates, the billionaire co-founder of Microsoft, to testify privately in the panel’s Jeffrey Epstein investigation on Wednesday … In preparing for the deposition, Mr. Gates has turned to Jake Greenberg, who until December was spearheading the oversight panel’s Epstein inquiry in his role as the committee’s top investigative official. … The arrangement, while not uncommon, raised eyebrows among government ethics experts who said it could create questionable optics.”

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TALK OF THE TOWN

PLAYBOOK HISTORY SECTION — “From tennis to T-ball, the White House’s South Lawn is no stranger to sports. But not like the UFC,” by AP’s Will Weissert: “The White House and its storied South Lawn are no strangers to sporting events. But they’ve never seen anything like the UFC bout President Donald Trump is hosting to celebrate his 80th birthday on Sunday or the eight-sided, wire-mesh cage complete with an open overhead dome featuring large screens that are surrounded by thousands of arena seats.”

EXPECT DELAYS — D.C.’s primaries for mayor, delegate and city council are one week from today, when voters in the District will elect their first new mayor in a dozen years and their first new delegate to Congress since 1990. But don’t expect those results to come in quickly: D.C. election officials are warning that the races might not be decided for at least five days after polls close. One reason is due to ranked-choice voting, which is being used for the first time since D.C. voters approved the practice November 2024 and will take more time than the traditional method. It’s also because about two-thirds of D.C. voters vote by mail — and a significant number of those ballots aren’t received until Election Day or after. More from NOTUS

SPOTTED: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) watching last night’s NBA Finals game between the New York Knicks and San Antonio Spurs at Sports & Social with her D.C. staff.

OUT AND ABOUT — Shakespeare Theatre Company’s annual “Will on the Hill” event last night featured speakers Angela Lee Gieras, Mike Evans, Carol Danko and Karishma Page. SPOTTED: Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), Reps. Gabe Amo (D-R.I.), Suzanne Bonamici (D-Ore.), Sean Casten (D-Ill.), Laurel Lee (R-Fla.), Andrea Salinas (D-Ore.) and James Walkinshaw (D-Va.), Carolyn Maloney, Jim Moran, Elizabeth MacDonough, Phil Mendelson, Christina Henderson, Charles Allen, Wendell Felder, Marla Allard, Olivia Beavers, Maureen Dowd, Rich Edson, James Hohmann, Mara Liasson, Jon Beal, Renea Brown, Felicia Curry, Bess Kaye and Faith Lee.

POLITICO MOVES — POLITICO has added Georgena Mierow and Jackson Barton as associate producers for the social-video team. Mierow previously was most recently a producer for The Hill. Barton previously led social video efforts for Bloomberg Opinion and worked at WaPo. Rachel Ishikawa, an experienced audio producer, is joining to oversee the Playbook DC podcast.

TRANSITIONS — Zach Brown is joining RYE Digital Strategies as senior director of accounts. He previously worked in California Republican politics, including for James Gallagher, Jim Nielsen, Doug LaMalfa and Josh Hoover. … Alexis Sargent is now a speechwriter for Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.). She is an alum of SKDK's executive comms team, Boston Globe Opinion and WaPo. …

… Anna McCleaf is now director of federal agency relations for Penn State University. She previously worked in Rep. Robert Aderholt’s (R-Ala.) office. … Riva Sciuto is now head of external affairs at Kalshi. She previously spent 11 years at Google and YouTube.

WELCOME TO THE WORLD — John Howes, principal of Magis LGA, LLC, and a Marcy Kaptur alum, and Domantė Howes, executive director of the Kazickas Family Foundation, recently welcomed daughter Klara Howes. Mom and baby are both doing well, and Klara is proudly both American and Lithuanian.

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