Trump accused of 'grave human rights violations' by UN panel calling for investigation

Ewan Gleadow
March 12, 2026 

RAW STORY

A United Nations committee has accused Donald Trump of violating the human rights of immigrants living in the United States.

A statement from the UN's Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination suggested the US should investigate the president and several high-profile politicians, as their language in public could incite hate crimes. The UN Watchdog also noted that Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity could further incite racial hatred across the US. A report released by the intergovernmental organization confirmed further
action should be taken by the US government.

It reads, "The Committee was deeply disturbed by the growing use of derogatory and dehumanizing language, and the dissemination of negative and harmful stereotypes targeting migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers.

"It underscored that the systematic use of racial profiling and arbitrary identity checks by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) against people of Hispanic/Latino, African or Asian origin has resulted in widespread arrests of refugees, asylum seekers, migrants, and people perceived as such.

"The Committee also raised alarm that the lives and physical integrity of the above vulnerable groups are jeopardized by the excessive use of force and violence by enforcement officers during immigration operations.

"It cited that at least eight people have died since January 2026 during ICE operations or while in ICE custody, including protesters exercising their right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association and detained refugees, asylum seekers, and migrants."

A spokesperson for the committee also noted the rhetoric from the government, including from Trump, has affected migrants and asylum seekers negatively.

“Portraying them as criminals or as a burden, by politicians and influential public figures at the highest level, particularly the President,” the Committee said, “may incite racial discrimination and hate crimes.

"Racist hate speech by political leaders, including the President, combined with intensified immigration crackdowns in the United States, notably near schools, hospitals and faith-based institutions, has sparked grave human rights violations."

The panel also suggested an internal review from the Trump administration. They wrote, "The Committee urged the US to conduct a human rights-based review of its legislative measures adopted since January 2025, including by suspending immigration enforcement operations, such as identity checks and arrests, in and around schools, hospitals, and faith-based institutions."

White House spokesperson Olivia Wales told Axios the UN's findings were filtered by an "extreme bias" that "continues to prove why no one takes them seriously."

"President Trump is delivering on his
promise to make our country safe again: the murder rate has plummeted to a 125-year low, with last year marking the biggest one-year drop in recorded history, crime categories are dropping across the board, and we have the most secure border in history."

‘Catastrophic,’ Says UNICEF: 1,100+ Children Killed or Wounded in Mideast Since US-Israel Launched Iran War

The agency demanded that all parties protect civilians and reiterated the secretary-general’s call “to end the fighting and engage in diplomatic negotiations.”


Children stand next to damaged cars at the site of an Israeli airstrike that hit the Imad Tower in the Aicha Bakkar neighborhood of Beirut, Lebanon early on March 11, 2026.
(Photo by Jonathan Labusch/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)

Jessica Corbett
Mar 12, 2026
COMMON DREAMS

Since the United States and Israel launched an unprovoked war on Iran at the end of February, more than 1,100 youth have been killed or injured in related violence across the Middle East, the United Nations Children’s Fund said Wednesday, calling for a swift diplomatic resolution.

“The situation is becoming catastrophic for millions of children across the region,” UNICEF said in a statement, noting that at least 200 children are reportedly dead in Iran, 91 in Lebanon, four in Israel, and one in Kuwait. “These numbers will likely climb as the violence intensifies and spreads.”



‘10 Classrooms Full of Children’: US-Israeli War Kills Hundreds of Iranian, Lebanese Kids

Most of the kids killed in Iran died in what mounting evidence suggests was a US attack on the Shajareh Tayyebeh girls’ school in Minab on February 28. That attack killed an estimated 175 people, mostly students ages 7-12, part of an overall death toll that the Iranian government has said exceeds 1,300.

Responding to the school bombing, Gordon Brown, a former UK prime minister who’s now the UN special envoy for global education, argued in a Guardian opinion piece Thursday that “the world will now need stronger mechanisms to ensure accountability,” such as a body complementing the International Criminal Court but specifically for children, “focusing its attention on the bombing of schools, abductions of pupils, and militias that enslave boys and girls.”

With the widening conflict in the Middle East, UNICEF noted Wednesday, “widespread disruption to education has left millions of children out of school across the region, while hundreds of thousands of children have been displaced by unrelenting bombardment.”

In Lebanon, where Israeli attacks are allegedly targeting the Lebanese political and paramilitary group Hezbollah despite a November 2024 ceasefire deal, nearly 800,000 people, including around 200,000 children, have been forced from their homes, according to Mercy Corps. The Lebanese government has said at least 570 people have been killed and 1,444 injured.

“Civilian infrastructure, including hospitals, schools, and water and sanitation systems—upon which children depend to survive—have been attacked, damaged, or destroyed by parties to the conflict,” UNICEF said. “Nothing justifies the killing and maiming of children, or the destruction and disruption of essential services that children depend on.”

“Grave violations against children in armed conflict can constitute violations of international law, including international humanitarian law, and international human rights law,” the UN agency continued.

Across Iran, several United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage sites have also been damaged by the US-Israeli war, which experts worldwide argue violates both the US Constitution and UN Charter.




The UN Security Council, which is currently led by President Donald Trump’s administration, on Wednesday adopted a resolution condemning Iran’s retaliatory attacks on Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Jordan—nations that host US military bases—without even mentioning the US-Israeli bombing campaign.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres last Friday demanded a return to negotiations. Trump, who abandoned a previous Iranian nuclear deal during his first term, ditched recent talks with Iran in favor of bombing the country with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—who has used war on Iran to again close crossings into the Gaza Strip, or as critics have put it, reinstate a “starvation policy” in the Palestinian territory devastated by Israel’s 29-month genocidal assault.

In addition to reiterating “the secretary-general’s call on parties to the conflict to end the fighting and engage in diplomatic negotiations,” UNICEF on Wednesday urged everyone involved “to take all necessary precautions in the choice of means and methods of warfare to minimize harm to civilians, including by avoiding the use of explosive weapons that disproportionally affect children.”

“The region’s children—all 200 million of them—are counting on the world to act quickly,” the agency concluded.

A Wednesday letter signed by every member of the US Senate Democratic Caucus but Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.)—who previously helped Republicans block a war powers resolution intended to halt Trump’s assault on Iran—called for a probe of the Minab school attack and sounded the alarm about Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s rhetoric that “only serves to endanger civilians.”

Specifically, Hegseth has said that the US assault on Iran, which they’re calling Operation Epic Fury, would have “no stupid rules of engagement,” and there will be “death and destruction from the sky all day long.”

Amnesty Condemns US ‘Murder’ of 6 More People After Latest Trump Boat Bombing

“Human life cannot be left to the mercy of a president’s whim.”

This unclassified US Department of Defense photo shows a boat that was bombed by US forces in the Caribbean Sea on October 3, 2025.
(Photo: screenshot/Donald Trump/Truth Social)

Brett Wilkins
Mar 12, 2026
COMMON DREAMS

Amnesty International on Wednesday denounced this week’s killing of six more people as US forces bombed another boat the Trump administration said—without evidence—was operated by narco-traffickers.

“Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations,” US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) said Sunday on social media. “Intelligence confirmed the vessel was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations. Six male narco-terrorists were killed during this action.”

The US has bombed at least 40 vessels in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean since last September, killing at least 156 people, according to the Trump administration.

“Amnesty International strongly condemns these acts and reiterates that they constitute extrajudicial killings, a form of murder, prohibited under international law, and represent a grave affront to the most basic principles of humanity and legality,” Amnesty said in a statement. “No circumstances justify the arbitrary deprivation of life.”

The boat strikes were fraught from the start. In the first known attack, US forces killed nine people in an initial strike and then two men clinging to the boat’s wreckage in a follow-up bombing. Legal experts have debated whether those strikes were a war crime or simply murder, and many argue that all of the boat bombings violate international law.

“The United States cannot claim the right to blow up boats with people on board based solely on suspicions of drug trafficking or other allegedly illicit activities,” Amnesty International Americas director Ana Piquer said Wednesday. “The rest of the international community cannot normalize these extrajudicial killings, in which the United States military is judge and executioner.”

“No president or military has the right to arbitrarily take life.”

“Human life cannot be left to the mercy of a president’s whim,” Piquer stressed. “No president or military has the right to arbitrarily take life. The level of dehumanization and cynicism reflected in these acts is deeply alarming and should be of global concern.”

“It is urgent to demand accountability and immediately end these types of attacks,” she added. “Due to the current acquiescence of the attorney general’s office, Congress must step in with its oversight power and investigate.”

In addition to bombing boats—and 10 countries—President Donald Trump launched an invasion of Venezuela to abduct its president, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife, who are jailed in the US awaiting trial for dubious narco-trafficking charges.

Earlier this month, Trump also authorized a joint campaign with Ecuador to combat “narco-terrorists” in which US ground troops have been deployed in the Andean nation.

Trump warned he's taking his fans for granted: 'The numbers are just heinous'

Tom Boggioni
March 12, 2026 

RAW STORY

U.S. President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump arrive on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., February 16, 2026. REUTERS/Ken Cedeno

Donald Trump’s sojourn to Kentucky on Wednesday, where he used his bully pulpit to attack Rep. Thomas Massie (R) in his home territory, led to questions over whether the president is his own worst enemy.

Massie, a far-right Republican, has been a thorn in Trump’s side not only on the Jeffrey Epstein files, but also with his attacks on the president for not living up to his promises to the MAGA supporters.

That led “Morning Joe” co-host Joe Scarborough to question whether the president has lost his connection with his supporters and to suggest he has turned his back on the people who handed him a second term.

“Can I ask, just open table here and I'm not being facetious here, does he care anymore?” he asked his panel. “Does he does he care what happens to the Republican party? Or has he decided we're going to lose, I know we're going to lose, I'm going to do whatever the hell I want to do. Are we at that stage, John Lemire?"

“Some of his aides have actually tried to get him to be less pessimistic about the midterms," co-host Lemire replied. “I mean, yes, there's a sense that he feels the House is likely gone, right? They think the Senate can be can can still be kept. He knows that's bad for him. He does not want that, right, if the Democrats take the House.”

“He looks at the polls and he sees that the numbers are just heinous,” Scarborough pointed out. “All these off-year elections have been heinous for Republicans. Is he just getting to a point where he just doesn't care anymore?”

“He's even said in his public remarks a couple of times now; ‘Oh, history tells you that the party out of power does well in the midterms.’ Like sort of suggesting he sees sort of seeing a loss on the horizon,” Lemire stated. “And this is also a particularly tough one in Kentucky. First of all, it's a state where voters pride themselves on independence. There's a Democratic governor in Kentucky, as much as it is a red state. And also his ability to sort of dictate who he wants to win Republican primaries. Though he still has a very good record, he's not undefeated anymore. He's taken a few losses, including recently, so there's not any sense here that this could work.”

CRIMINAL  MONOPOLY CAPITALI$M

Ticketmaster parent execs privately laugh over price-gouging: 'These people are so stupid'

Matthew Chapman
March 12, 2026
RAW STORY




Vancouver, CANADA - Dec 3 2022 : Twitter account of popular US singer-songwriter Taylor Swift in Twitter website seen in iPhone on Live Nation logo background. (Photo: Koshiro K/Shutterstock)

Newly revealed internal communications show a pair of executives at entertainment venue giant Live Nation laughing about how much they are able to gouge people for concert tickets.

"In a series of chats from 2022, Ben Baker and Jeff Weinhold, two regional directors of ticketing for Live Nation amphitheaters, boasted about their ability to raise so-called 'ancillary fees' – like parking, lawn chair rentals and VIP access – and still get concertgoers to pay for them," reported Bloomber News. "In one exchange, Weinhold gloated about raising VIP parking costs at a Virginia concert venue to $250. 'These people are so stupid. I almost feel bad taking advantage of them,' Baker wrote, adding later, 'I gouge them on ancil prices.' In another exchange, he bragged about charging '$50 to park in the grass' and '$60 for closer grass.'"

“Robbing them blind, baby, that’s how we do it,” Baker wrote.

Live Nation has been accused in a series of lawsuits of holding a monopoly over venues, that squeezes both performers and ticketholders alike — resulting in people being charged hundreds or thousands of dollars more than reasonable to see concerts, shows, and performances around the country. They also own the booking platform Ticketmaster, which has infamously hiked booking fees to higher and higher levels over the years, and can often be the only way to book tickets for Live Nation owned venues. The fiasco surrounding tickets for Taylor Swift's Eras Tour brought many of these issues into national focus.

The company has also been accused in litigation of stonewalling congressional investigators.


This comes as the Trump administration Justice Department's antitrust division reached a settlement with Live Nation, which requires them to pay $200 million to several states, allow third-party sellers access to Ticketmaster, limit their exclusivity agreements, divest 10 of its amphitheaters, and cap service fees for amphitheater tickets to 15 percent of ticket price.

This settlement has been rejected by over two dozen state attorneys general as inadequate to resolve Live Nation's monopoly power, since it doesn't require Ticketmaster to be divested altogether, and state-level litigation is expected to continue.

RED/BROWN FASCISM

Czech ruling coalition drafts Russian-style NGO bill

/ Image by Annie from Pixabay

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By bne IntelliNews March 12, 2026

The Czech ruling coalition has drafted a bill aimed at curtailing non-governmental organisation (NGO) activities in the country.

Critics of the bill say it imitates Russian legislation aimed at restricting the activities of NGOs, initially via the Foreign Agents Law and later expanded. Several other countries in the region including Georgia and EU members Hungary and Slovakia have since put forward similar legislation. 

The draft contains formulations such as need to counter “risk of covert or undeclared foreign influence” and penalising NGOs by up to CZK15mn (€614,000), or a five-year-ban on “foreign ties” in the event NGOs failed to register and provide details of foreign links, including funding and employee details.

Online news outlet Seznam Zprávy (SZ), which reported first on the draft bill, referring to a digital document it examined, noted that the loose definitions which the draft contains could affect the Catholic Church, universities which are part of international research, or even the country’s municipalities as these are recipients of EU funding.   

The anti-NGO and anti-green rhetoric of the Czech government officials caused an outcry among the country’s liberals, who are sensitive to democratic backsliding after seeing similar developments in neighbouring Slovakia. 

“We have direct experience with what happens when the state labels an independent organisation as a threat just because it cooperates with international partners,” Tomáš Urban, spokesperson of the largest Czech NGO Man in Need, which is active in humanitarian aid in more than 40 countries worldwide, told SZ.

“Anyone who does not want [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s influence in Czechia should be the first to refuse to copy paste Putin’s bill,” he said, in reference to Babiš’ commitment to uphold Czechia’s EU membership and observe the bloc’s policies.

“Political NGOs”

However, members of the ruling coalition have defended the legislation. “We are preparing it [the bill] primarily as legislators and I am proudly part of it,” Jindřich Rajchl, chairman of the radical rightwing PRO party elected on the SPD list was quoted as saying by SZ.

Rajchl, who argued that the bill aims at greater “transparency” of NGOs, also told SZ that “citizens of the Czech Republic should know that there are organisations and entities active here which do not represent their interest, but an interest of financial groups behind those”. He declined to provide more details apart from defining these as “political NGOs”.

“It should be a legislators draft bill,” Rajchl aded to SZ, which noted that in such a case the draft bill does not have to be consulted by relevant public experts, as would have been the case had a government ministry drafted the bill.

According to SZ, the prime minister’s aide for freedom of speech Natálie Vachatová took part in the drafting of the controversial bill alongside legislators from billionaire Prime Minister Andrej Babiš populist Ano party, and its coalition partners far-right Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD), and the anti-green and Eurosceptic Motorists for Themselves.

SZ’ reporting sparked wide attention in the Czech media, including criticism of Vachatová’s links to Russia through her brother Fedor Vachata, who runs a debt-collecting business in Russia, according to the Czech Kremlin analyst Roman Máca.

Vachatová told SZ she had only “consulted the material”, and that she is not the author of the bill despite the digital footprint leading to her computer. 

Plans to slash funding 

The Ano party joined forces with SPD and Motorists for Themselves after winning the October general election to the country’s parliament, where the parties have a comfortable majority with 108 seats.

The cabinet’s programme signaled it wants to slash state funding for NGOs, and the Czech expert community already condemned plans to cut foreign and humanitarian aid programmes by approximately half, announced by Minister of Foreign Affairs Petr Macinka of the Motorists as part of an austerity drive.

In parallel, the Babiš government announced cuts to the funding of cultural institutions and literary magazines, which drove thousands of students to the streets in Prague in protest on March 11.

Civic platform Million Moments for Democracy, which was behind the 2018-2019 mass protests against Babiš’ previous cabinet, held anti-government protests in more than 400 Czech cities and towns on February 15, and announced a mass rally at the Letná plateau scheduled on March 21.

Similar legislation has been adopted elsewhere in the region. A Russian-style NGO bill aimed at political opponents drove the Hungarian government of Viktor Orbán into a further conflict with the EU over rule of law.

Last April, Slovak PM Robert Fico’s left-right government also passed the NGO bill, which opposition and anti-graft watchdogs criticised as a local version of the Russian anti-NGO bill aimed at silencing critics, and the country’s Constitutional Court struck down parts of it incompatible with Slovak Constitution earlier this year.

END ZIONIST IMPERIALISM

France triples emergency aid to Lebanon as more than 700,000 displaced

France will send 60 tonnes of aid to Lebanon this week, Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said on Wednesday, announcing an increased relief shipment as the country faces growing humanitarian needs.


Issued on: 11/03/2026 - RFI

Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli air strike in Beirut’s southern suburbs on Wednesday, as France announced it would send 60 tonnes of humanitarian aid to Lebanon amid escalating fighting. AFP - -


The aid will include sanitation kits, hygiene supplies, mattresses, lamps and a mobile medical post intended to support civilians, Barrot told the French broadcaster TF1.

“What we have decided is to triple the volume of aid that will arrive this week," he said.

The announcement comes as violence linked to the regional war spreads in Lebanon.

Israeli air strikes have hit several areas of the country in recent days as fighting with the Iran-backed Hezbollah movement continues.

The United Nations refugee agency, the UNHCR, said more than 667,000 people had been displaced in Lebanon within days as civilians flee bombardment amid evacuation orders.

UN agencies have warned that hospitals and aid services are struggling to cope with the surge in casualties and displaced families.

France said on Monday it was deeply concerned by the escalation of violence and the displacement of people – calling on all parties to respect international humanitarian law and protect civilian populations.

Strikes in Beirut

Israel has intensified strikes against its northern neighbour in recent days, targeting fighters and infrastructure belonging to the Iran-backed Hezbollah movement.

Beirut and its southern suburbs have been hit repeatedly, with the latest strike taking place overnight in the densely populated Aicha Bakkar district, according to Lebanon’s National News Agency.

The seventh and eighth floors of a residential building were reportedly destroyed in the strike and several nearby cars were damaged.

Since the start of the hostilities, 759,300 people have been displaced in Lebanon, according to the latest figures released by Lebanese authorities.

Nearly 500 people have been killed so far, the authorities said.

(with newswires)

From Lebanon to Iran, Says Sanders, US Must End Complicity in ‘Netanyahu’s Wars’

“In less than two weeks, Israel has killed 570 people and displaced 750,000—over 10% of the entire country,” the senator said of Lebanon. “Residential buildings are being bombed with no warning.”


Smoke rises over Dahieh, a suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, following Israeli airstrikes 

on March 11, 2026.
(Photo by Adri Salido/Getty Images)

Jessica Corbett
Mar 11, 2026
COMMON DREAMS

Just a day after tearing into US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for “unraveling international law, the Geneva Conventions, and the legitimacy of the United Nations” with their illegal war on Iran, Sen. Bernie Sanders stressed that “it’s not just Iran.”

“It’s Lebanon,” Sanders (I-Vt.) said on social media Wednesday. Since Trump and Netanyahu began bombing Iran a dozen days ago, Israel has also ramped up attacks against its northern neighbor—claiming to target the Lebanese political and paramilitary group Hezbollah—despite a November 2024 ceasefire deal.



That agreement to protect the Lebanese people was struck just over a year into Israel’s retaliation for the October 2023 Hamas-led attack, which has also left the Gaza Strip in ruins. Despite the Lebanon truce, and another for Gaza reached this past October, Israeli forces have continued to slaughter civilians in both places.

In Lebanon, Sanders noted Wednesday, “in less than two weeks, Israel has killed 570 people and displaced 750,000—over 10% of the entire country. Residential buildings are being bombed with no warning.”

“The US cannot continue to be complicit in Netanyahu’s wars,” declared the senator. His comments came after the White House tried to walk back Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s suggestion last week that Trump followed the Israeli prime minister’s lead on Iran.

Sanders has also criticized and even attempted to curb US complicity in Netanyahu’s genocidal assault on Palestinians in Gaza—under the Biden and Trump administrations—by forcing unsuccessful votes to cut off some weapons to Israel.

The Israeli government has used the operation against Iran—which experts argue violates the US Constitution and UN Charter—to again cut off necessary humanitarian aid to Gaza, claiming last week that “the existing stock is expected to suffice for an extended period.”

Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner-general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, called the move “a new chokehold on Gaza,” adding that “after more than two years of unspeakable suffering and a spreading man-made famine, people still lack the most basic supplies, despite increases in aid since the ceasefire.



As for Lebanon, Axios reported Monday that “the Lebanese government proposed direct negotiations with Israel—through the Trump administration—aimed at ending the war and reaching a peace agreement.”

However, the Financial Times reported Tuesday that “Israel has rejected diplomatic overtures by Lebanon,” with one unnamed source saying that the Lebanese “are ready to talk to Israel, but under the condition of a cessation of fire. Not a ceasefire, but a cessation... so talks can get going in Cyprus.”

“Israel has so far refused and says it will only negotiate ‘under fire,’” according to that unnamed source.

Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations, Mike Waltz, made US support for Israel’s bombing of Lebanon clear in his Wednesday remarks to the UN Security Council.

“The United States condemns the attacks that Hezbollah, a long-time proxy of the Iranian regime, has launched against Israel. Hezbollah has yet again made it clear that it does not represent nor does it defend the people of Lebanon. It defends the interests of the Iranian regime,” Waltz said, stressing Israel’s “right to defend itself.”

Waltz also welcomed the Lebanese Council of Ministers’ recent decision “to immediately prohibit Hezbollah’s military and security activities,” and declared that “now is the time for the government of Lebanon to take back control of the entirety of its country.”

Meanwhile, Tom Fletcher, United Nations under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, noted to the Security Council that UN Secretary-General António Guterres “has insisted... we need the protection of civilians, de-escalation, an immediate cessation of hostilities, and genuine dialogue and negotiations towards a peaceful settlement, in line with the charter.”

Fletcher concluded his comments at the briefing on Lebanon with calls for the protection of “all civilians throughout the region,” “generous funding for a principled, scaled-up humanitarian response,” and “a revival of strategic, calm, rational, hopeful diplomacy.”

“Lebanon is exhausted by other people’s wars,” he said. “It is not asking for help, but for oxygen. Its people can defy the history, the geography, even the politics. They can be stronger than the forces pulling them apart. But they can only do that if Iran and Israel stop fighting their war in Lebanon.”

'He wants to get out': Insiders spill about Trump's panicked plan to leave Iran

Nicole Charky-Chami
March 11, 2026 

RAW STORY

President Donald Trump gestures at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on March 11, 2026. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

White House insiders divulged what President Donald Trump was considering next after the U.S. and Israel started launching military strikes in Iran, a Wall Street Journal reporter said Wednesday.

Josh Dawsey, WSJ political investigations reporter, told a CNN panel that although Trump hasn't mentioned an exact exit strategy, his administration was panicking amid rising oil prices, looming midterms, and Americans' dissatisfaction over the escalating conflict to figure out what the off-ramp would be to leave the war in the Middle East.

"He doesn't have an appetite for a long term war, at least according to my sources that I've talked to, he's looking for ways to sort of message 'We've done this, we've done that. Now it's time to leave,'" Dawsey said. "The question is, have they said how much of that can he control? Right. If he says we're out of here, and then let's say the Iranians keep attacking with the missiles or drones or they have left, what does the president do? The president has a lot of power. He's obviously, you know, in a lot of ways, the most powerful figure in the world but he can't control everything, right. And some of these things are beyond his control. But he wants to get out at some point."

Trump has appeared to be influenced by a variety of factors, which could ultimately determine how the U.S. strategizes its moves with Iran.

"He watches the markets closely, you see when he makes comments, when he wants the markets to sort of go back up, he watches the markets closely, watches oil prices closely," Dawsey said. "He watches the MAGA supporters closely. I mean, Joe Rogan, I can quite tell you the president notices that he's watching voices, he's watching polling in his party. He's watching the midterms. And I don't think he has an appetite for a long term sustained conflict with Iran, at least according to what I'm told by folks inside the White House."

Trump has plenty on his mind — and it's not just the war.

"He launches a war, and then he goes to a MAGA fundraiser where he polls everyone in the room. 'Do you think it should be JD Vance or Marco Rubio?' That's what he does the first weekend," Dawsey said. "He's done college football events. He goes in the White House and he's talking about the ballroom. I mean, I'm not saying he's not focused on the war. I'm just saying he has so many other things that he's talking to people about."

Dawsey argued that the Trump administration doesn't appear to be making an aggressive case for the public as to why Americans should support the war. Instead, the president has focused on multiple things at once.

"He's spent two hours on Friday afternoon of the college sports, and NIL roundtable, he had all these celebrities, he's talking to them," Dawsey added. "I'm not saying president couldn't weigh in on that. A lot of people care about college sports but I mean, it's sort of discordant from what's going on in the world."

'Which one is it?' Fox News tires of Trump calling Iran conflict a 'war' and 'excursion'

David Edwards
March 11, 2026 
RAW STORY


U.S. President Donald Trump looks on during a visit at Thermo Fisher Scientific in Hebron, Kentucky, U.S., March 11, 2026. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy seemed to tire of President Donald Trump's doublespeak on the Iran conflict and pressed him to define the operation.

"And we did a little excursion. We had to take this little couple of weeks, a few weeks of excursion, but it's been incredible," Trump said while touring a factory in Ohio on Wednesday. "Our military is unbelievable, the job they're doing. I would say, to put it mildly, way ahead of schedule. We've knocked out their Navy, their military in it, all forms. We've knocked out just about everything there is, including their leadership, twice. We knocked out twice their leadership."

"Now they have a new group coming up," he continued. "Let's see what happens to them. But 47 bad years we suffered with them, not only us, the rest of the world. We're doing our jobs. So we had to take an excursion, but it's going well."

"You just said it is a little excursion, and you said it is a war," Doocy noted. "So which one is it?"

"It's both," Trump replied. "It's an excursion that will keep us out of a war. And the war is going to be, I mean, for them it's a war. For us, it's turned out to be easier than we thought."

"But think of it, they had thousands of missiles, 7, 8,000 missiles," he added. "We got many of them before they got to launch. They have drones all over the place. We got many now, we're knocking out the drone plants, as you know, going fast."

'Say what?' Outrage as cost of Trump's first week at war with Iran revealed

Robert Davis
March 11, 2026 
RAW STORY

U.S. President Donald Trump talks to the media upon his arrival at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, U.S., March 11, 2026. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

Experts raged on Wednesday night after the cost of President Donald Trump's first week at war with Iran was revealed.

The Associated Press reported that the first week of the war cost $11.3 billion, which includes all of the munitions used in the bombing operations that killed former Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and destroyed a girls' school, killing 175 civilians in the process. The report was published at a time when the Trump administration is facing considerable backlash for bombing Iran, which Trump himself described as both a "war" and an "excursion" during a press conference on Wednesday.

The total cost of the war caused a stir on social media

"Say what? How can we afford these massive outlays?" political strategist Donna Brazile posted on X. "Every President since Clinton has opposed Iran getting a bomb, destroying the neighbors (Middle Eastern nations), and being a state sponsor of terrorism worldwide. But we still have no real strategy or endgame?"

"That money was enough to save the lives of more than 3 million children worldwide, with nutritional paste for malnutrition, bed nets against malaria, vaccination programs, and community health workers," NYT columnist Nicholas Kristoff posted on X. "Instead, we spent it blowing up people and things, and raising gas prices."

"$11.3 billion on war for Iran, but tell me again how we don’t have enough money for health care," Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) posted on X.

"Affordability," legal expert Joyce Vance posted on X. "From the people who don’t think hardworking taxpayers deserve assistance with food, medical care, or housing."

"The same people who cut pediatric cancer research on their 'waste, fraud, and abuse' crusade apparently have a blank check for a war they can't even explain," author Chasten Buttigieg posted on X.

"We could have provided housing for every homeless person in the country for less than what Trump spent in the first week of his war with Iran," TV commentator Kaivan Shroff posted on X.