First Run News

President Donald Trump reacted to a series of missile strikes on American targets in Iraq on Tuesday. “All is well!” Trump wrote, noting that the United States was still assessing casualties and damages at the two military bases attacked in Iraq.

PORTSMOUTH, Ohio — Dale King rumbled into the parking lot in his military Jeep, a black 1940s-style clunker that he maneuvered with a skull-tipped stick shift. Heavy metal music blasted from the garage that he and some friends had converted to a gym for the neighboring addiction center. Patients from next door were packed inside wearing worn T-shirts, faded athletic gear, and other hand-me-downs. Half the class were barefoot.

HAZLETON, Pa. — Bob Curry is a man in constant motion, not unlike this fast-changing community he’s always championing. Passing a colorful mural in the community center he runs, its rainbow letters spelling out a Maya Angelou quote about the strength and beauty of diversity, he paused for effect. “You see our mural, if you don’t like it, get back on the elevator, you’re free to leave,” Curry proclaimed. He’s kidding — sort of.

MADISON HEIGHTS, Mich. — The kettle steamed in the background as a familiar yet painful argument began to boil over between father and daughter in the Slewo home last Inauguration Day. “My president is going to be good for the Christians and the economy,” Warda Slewo, an ardent Donald Trump fan, told his daughter, Ashourina Slewo, in her small kitchen in the northeastern suburbs of Detroit on Jan. 20, 2017. “Your president is a racist,” Ashourina shot back.

NEW LONDON, Wis.—After it was clear that neither of her preferred candidates, Ben Carson and Ted Cruz, was going to be elected president in 2016, Linda Behm prayed. Behm is an evangelical Christian and keeps a calendar filled with volunteer shifts at a thrift store and a food pantry in this small community an hour away from Green Bay. She wasn’t sure about supporting Donald J. Trump, the New York business magnate with a penchant for insults and crude behavior.

The surgical strike that took out Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani has torpedoed the U.S.-Iraqi relationship, moving Baghdad closer to Tehran and threatening the Trump administration’s strategic position in the region. In response to the killing of Soleimani at Baghdad International Airport, Iraq’s government is threatening to kick U.S.

MORE is increasingly facing the possibility of a nuclear crisis with Iran, as Tehran takes its biggest step back from the 2015 nuclear deal. Iran’s decision to stop adhering to limits in the Obama-era nuclear agreement comes just days after Trump authorized a drone strike that killed Gen.

Senate Majority Leader MORE’s impeachment trial. Two key moderate senators, MORE (R-Alaska), on Monday evening backed McConnell’s position that the Senate should follow the precedent of the 1999 Clinton impeachment trial and defer until later in the process the question of calling additional witnesses. Collins told reporters at Monday evening votes that the Senate should follow the 1999 precedent and consider the question of subpoenaing additional witnesses and documents only after House impeachment managers and Trump’s defense team present t

Defense Secretary MORE denied Monday that U.S. troops would withdraw from Iraq after a letter circulated online suggested otherwise. Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters the letter — which said U.S. troops were preparing for “onward movement” — was a draft that should not have been released. “That letter is a draft, it was a mistake, it was unsigned, it should not have been released,” Milley told reporters in an off-camera briefing. “Poorly worded, implies withdrawal.

Senate Majority Leader MORE’s statement Monday saying he would testify under subpoena. The decision by Trump’s former national security adviser handed Senate Democrats calling for witnesses to the trial a new talking point, raising pressure on the Senate GOP leader. Senate Minority Leader MORE (D-N.Y.) on Monday said in a statement that Republicans would be “participating in a cover up” if they continue to oppose subpoenas, noting that “Mr.