Trump threatens Iran would be ‘obliterated’ if it assassinates him – as he signs ‘tough’ directive against Tehran
Donald Trump has reinstated his “maximum pressure” campaign on Iran – as he threatened Tehran it would be “obliterated” if it assassinates him.
The US president signed a memorandum on Tuesday in an effort to crack down on Iran’s nuclear programme and restrict oil exports – moments before he met Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Mr Trump said he also signed the “tough” directive on Iran because Tehran was “too close” to having a nuclear weapon.
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How will Iran approach a Trump presidency?
He added he would hold talks with his counterpart in Tehran, but warned he has left “instructions” for his advisers that if Iran assassinated him, the US foe “would be obliterated”.
The US Justice Department announced in federal charges in November that an Iranian plot to kill Mr Trump before the presidential election had been thwarted.
The department alleged Iranian officials had instructed Farhad Shakeri, 51, to focus on surveilling and ultimately assassinating Mr Trump. Shakeri is still at large in Iran.
It comes as Mr Trump withdrew the US from the UN Human Rights Council in an executive order.
Pic: AP
The president has also stopped funding of the UN’s relief agency for Gaza.
The order means Mr Trump has reinstated policies that were in place during his first administration.
Joe Biden’s administration previously paused funding to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) after reports its staff were involved in the 7 October attacks.
Mr Trump also claimed that Palestinians have “no alternative” but to leave Gaza, but that he doesn’t necessarily support Israelis settling in the enclave.
Trump maximises leverage over Iran by squeezing where it hurts most
Leverage is the most important thing in negotiations, Donald Trump said in his book The Art Of The Deal. “Don’t make deals without it.”
The US president has just maximised his leverage over Iran’s government, squeezing it where it hurts most.
Oil sales. The move will hurt Iran’s economy already in deep trouble and could lead to more social unrest.
But the impact does not stop there. The global price of oil has already jumped on the news.
The US president also repeated previous suggestions that he would like to see Jordan and Egypt take Palestinians from Gaza.
“The Gaza thing has never worked,” Trump told reporters.
“If we could find the right piece of land, pieces of land, and build them some really nice places…I think that would be a lot better than going back to Gaza.”
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Egypt and Jordan, as well other Arab nations, have flatly rejected calls by Trump to relocate the territory’s population during post-war rebuilding of the territory.
The UN estimates that 60% of structures in the enclave have been damaged or destroyed, with almost all of the 2.3 million people in Gaza having been forced to leave their homes during Israel’s 15-month war to take shelter elsewhere in the territory.
Meanwhile, the president said he thinks he will wind down the US Agency for International Development (USAID), in what would be a dramatic overhaul of how the world’s largest single donor allocates foreign assistance.
When a reporter said to Trump it sounded like he was going to “wind down” the agency, Trump chuckled and said “I think so.”
Chaos has consumed the agency, which distributes billions of dollars of humanitarian aid around the world, since Trump
ordered a freeze on most US foreign aid hours after taking office and tasked billionaire Elon Musk, who has falsely accused USAID of being a “criminal” organisation, with scaling down the agency.
Mr Trump also said he would like to close the US Department of Education with executive action.
Vladimir Putin told Donald Trump he “will not back down” from Russia’s goals in Ukraine during a phone call today, the Kremlin has said.
The Russian president spoke to his US counterpart for almost an hour, and Mr Trump “again raised the issue of an early end to military action” in Ukraine, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters.
In response, Mr Putin said “Russia will not back down” from its aims there, which include “the elimination of the well-known root causes that led to the current state of affairs,” Mr Ushakov said.
The phrase “root causes” is shorthand for Moscow’s argument that it was compelled to invade Ukraine in order to prevent the country from joining NATO.
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Trump and Putin’s latest call on Ukraine
Ukraine and its European allies say this is a pretext to justify what they call an imperial-style war, but Mr Trump has previously shown sympathy with Russia.
At the same time, Mr Putin told the US president that Russia is ready to continue negotiating, the aide said.
The Russian president said any prospective peace deal must see Ukraine give up its NATO bid and recognise his country’s territorial gains.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy, seen with Mr Trump in June, is pushing for Ukraine to join NATO. Pic: Reuters
He also briefed Mr Trump on agreements made last month, which saw Russia and Ukraine exchange prisoners of war and dead soldiers.
Specific dates for the third round of peace talks in Istanbul were not discussed – nor was the US decision to halt some shipments of critical weapons to Ukraine.
Mr Putin and Mr Trump’s call came after the Pentagon confirmed some weapons due to be sent to Ukraine have been held as it reviews military stockpiles.
The paused shipments include air defence missiles and precision-guided artillery, two people familiar with the situation have said.
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The decision led to Ukraine calling in the acting US envoy to Kyiv on Wednesday to underline the importance of military aid from Washington.
Kyiv also cautioned that the move would weaken Ukraine’s ability to defend itself against intensifying Russian airstrikes and battlefield advances.
Mr Putin and Mr Trump’s phone call was the sixth they have publicly disclosed since the US president returned to the White House in January.
Donald Trump’s ‘big beautiful bill’ has been passed by the US congress, sending it to the president to sign into law.
The controversial tax breaks and spending cuts package cleared its final hurdle as the Republican-controlled House of Representatives narrowly approved the bill with a 218-214 vote.
The bill delivers tax breaks Mr Trump promised in his 2024 election campaign, cuts health and food safety programmes, and zeroes out dozens of green energy incentives.
According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO), it will lower tax revenues by $4.5trn over 10 years and add $3.4trn to the US’s $36.2trn debt.
But despite concerns over the 869-page bill’s price tag – and its hit to healthcare programmes – Republicans largely lined up in support, with just two rebelling on the vote.
House Speaker Mike Johnson is congratulated following the vote. Pic: Reuters
Every Democrat in Congress voted against the bill, blasting it as a giveaway to the wealthy that will leave millions of Americans uninsured.
House Speaker Mike Johnson made the Republicans’ closing argument for the bill, telling Congress: “For everyday Americans, this means real, positive change that they can feel.”
Earlier, the House’s Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries gave a record-breaking eight-hour and 44-minute speech against it.
“The focus of this bill, the justification for all of the cuts that will hurt everyday Americans, is to provide massive tax breaks for billionaires,” he said.
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The bill’s spending cuts largely target Medicaid, the health programme that covers 71 million Americans on low incomes.
It will tighten enrolment standards, institute a work requirement and clamp down on a funding mechanism used by states to boost federal payments.
The changes could leave nearly 12 million people without health insurance, according to the CBO.
On the other side of the ledger, it will stave off tax increases that were due to hit most Americans at the end of the year, when tax cuts from President Trump’s first term were due to expire.
It also sets up new tax breaks for overtime pay, seniors and tipped income.
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The bill narrowly passed the US Senate on Tuesday after vice president JD Vance cast the deciding vote to break a 50-50 tie.
Mr Trump will sign it into law on Friday at 5pm local time (10pm in the UK), the White House said.
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