By AAMER MADHANI

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Monday pushed back against mounting criticism that he hasn’t done enough to explain why it was necessary to start a war with Iran now or to articulate his vision for an endgame to the escalating conflict.

The frustration is coming not just from the political left but also from his MAGA base, as the conflict expands, energy prices surge, and the death toll in the Middle East rises in a war that the administration suggests may only be in the opening stages.

Trump also seemed to leave open the possibility for a more extensive U.S. military involvement, telling the New York Post on Monday that he was not ruling out the possibility of boots on the ground. It came as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters that the administration would not get into the “foolish” exercise of telegraphing “what we will or will not do.”

“I don’t have the yips with respect to boots on the ground — like every president says, ‘There will be no boots on the ground.’ I don’t say it,” Trump said. “I say ‘probably don’t need them,’ (or) ‘if they were necessary.’”

The president, and top aides, sought to defend his approach as Iran continues to retaliate by firing drones and missiles at Israel, American bases in the region, and at Persian Gulf neighbors. Israel and Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militia in Lebanon, also traded strikes on Monday, opening another front in the conflict.

Some in MAGA world are fuming

Trump strode back into office last year on an “America First” pledge to keep the U.S. out of the sort of “forever wars” that bogged down some of his recent White House predecessors. Central to his foreign policy outlook dating to his first campaign has been his call to “abandon the failed policy of nation building and regime change.”

He echoed this call during a visit to Saudi Arabia last year, saying that “so-called ‘nation-builders’ wrecked far more nations than they built — and the interventionists were intervening in complex societies that they did not even understand themselves.”

But now Trump finds himself in a war of his own choosing that’s spurring concern the U.S. could be dragged into another prolonged conflict in the Middle East.

“I’m not happy about the whole thing. I don’t think this was in America’s interests,” Erik Prince, a longtime Trump ally and a prominent private security contractor said Sunday in an appearance on former Trump adviser Steve Bannon’s “War Room” podcast “It’s gonna uncork a significant can of worms and chaos, and destruction in Iran now.”

Prince added, “I don’t see how this is in keeping with the president’s MAGA commitment. I am disappointed.”

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Other prominent allies questioning the decision to strike Iran include YouTube host Benny Johnson, influencer Andrew Tate, and conservative commentator Tucker Carlson.

To be certain, many of Trump’s staunch allies say they back Trump’s decision, and see no signs of schism in their movement.

“No, ma’am, I think Iran, they’re bad actors,” Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., told a reporter who asked about the divide. “They’ve killed Americans. In Iraq, they supply armaments. Hezbollah is part of their pact and they’ve supplied them with armaments and funds. And they do business with Chinese, so absolutely not. I think we’re good.”

Trump, speaking at a White House event on Monday, said the joint U.S. and Israel military operation was “substantially ahead of schedule” and estimated that it would take four to five weeks to meet the administration’s objectives — although he said it could take longer.

“We have capability to go far longer than that,” Trump said.

Hegseth was even more vague about the time frame.

“President Trump has all the latitude in the world to talk about how long it may or may not take. Four weeks, two weeks, six weeks,” Hegseth said. “It could move up. It could move back.”

The U.S. military expects to endure additional casualties in its operation against Iran, Joint Chiefs Chairman Dan Caine told reporters. As of Monday, six U.S. service members had been killed in action and others badly injured as Iran carried out a barrage of retaliatory strikes around the region.

Regime change or regime collapse?

The administration has not detailed who it wants to see take control of Iran following the killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and dozens of other top leaders in the opening salvos of the conflict.

Trump in announcing the start of the major combat operations called on the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps to put down their arms. But history suggests that air power alone is unlikely to bring about the kind of regime change that Trump says he wants to see in Iran.

The president also hasn’t committed to assisting members of the Iranian opposition who he has called on to rise up against the ruling Islamic theocracy once the bombing campaign is done.

Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, a Washington think tank, said that Trump may ultimately be willing to settle for a “regime collapse” or “regime implosion.”

“That is very different (than regime change), not only because potentially it could be achieved, but it’s also something that enables the Trump administration to wash their hands of the consequences of this,” Parsi said.

Still, Israel is pressing Trump for a sustained operation that could deliver a decisive blow to Iran’s clerical rule.

“I think the Israelis’ biggest concern may be that President Trump would take … sort of the early offering, declaring victory,” said Daniel Shapiro, a former U.S. ambassador to Israel during the Obama administration who is now a distinguished fellow at the Atlantic Council. “I think they’d like to see this go longer, with the president’s support.”

Questions about Trump’s rationale

Trump administration officials told congressional staff in private briefings Sunday that U.S. intelligence did not suggest Iran was preparing to launch a pre-emptive strike against the U.S. The administration officials instead acknowledged there was a more general threat in the region from Iran’s missiles and proxy forces.

Yet Trump on Monday repeated his assertion that the U.S. needed to take action because of concerns that Iran was aiming to build ballistic missiles that could reach the United States.

Iran hasn’t acknowledged it is building or seeking to build intercontinental ballistic missiles. The U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency, however, said in an unclassified report last year that Iran could develop a militarily viable intercontinental ballistic missile by 2035 “should Tehran decide to pursue the capability.”

The president also repeated his claim that Iran was seeking to rebuild its nuclear program even after U.S. strikes carried out last June during the 12-day Israel-Iran war had in his words “obliterated” three key nuclear facilities.

Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, on Monday reaffirmed that Iran has an “ambitious” nuclear program but doesn’t have a program for building nuclear weapons currently. Iran has refused to let IAEA inspectors visit its damaged nuclear sites.

Kelsey Davenport, the director for nonproliferation policy at the Arms Control Association, said “regime change is not a viable nonproliferation strategy.”

“Iran’s nuclear program cannot be bombed away. Iran’s nuclear knowledge cannot be bombed away,” she said. “Even if there’s regime change, Iran’s program will still pose a proliferation risk.”

AP journalists Seung Min Kim, Nathan Ellgren, and Didi Tang contributed reporting.

By JACK BROOK

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The Louisiana National Guard announced Monday that 120 troops will remain deployed in New Orleans through August.

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The six-month extension comes after 350 Guard members deployed to New Orleans in late December, in the run-up to New Year’s and other high-profile events like the Sugar Bowl. The troops, which had mainly clustered in the city’s historic French Quarter, had been scheduled to depart in the aftermath of Mardi Gras.

New Orleans is one of several Democrat-run cities, such as Washington and Memphis, Tennessee, where the federal government deployed armed troops under the administration of President Donald Trump. Hundreds of federal agents also converged on Louisiana in December as part of a separate immigration crackdown in and around New Orleans.

During his State of the Union address last week, Trump touted the deployment in New Orleans as a “big success.” In January, Trump credited the troops with reducing the city’s violent crime within a week of their deployment. City police data shows violent crime rates have significantly declined over the past three years in parallel with national trends.

According to a press statement from the Louisiana National Guard, the remaining guard members will serve as a “visible presence to deter criminal activity in New Orleans.”

New Orleans Mayor Helena Moreno, a Democrat who initially opposed the deployment, said that the troops would benefit the city in the coming weeks. She pointed out that National Guard troops had assisted the city during last year’s Mardi Gras in the aftermath of a vehicle-ramming attack in the French Quarter that killed 14 people on New Year’s Day.

“I continue to support the partnership with the LA National Guard to assist in our major events and there are several coming up in the next few weeks,” Moreno said in a statement.

While Moreno did not address which events she referred to, visitors flock to New Orleans in the spring for events like the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.

Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry, a Republican and staunch Trump ally, requested the deployment of the National Guard last September, citing rising violent crime rates in New Orleans despite the data showing crime was down.

“This continued deployment will help us combat violence in New Orleans and other parts of Louisiana,” Landry wrote on the social platform X on Monday, noting Louisiana had also sent National Guard troops to Washington, D.C., last year.

Kate Kelly, a spokesperson for Landry, said the federal government would cover the cost of the extended deployment. She did not respond to a question about whether Guard members would be deployed outside New Orleans.

Maj. Gen. Thomas Friloux, adjutant general of the Louisiana National Guard, said in a statement the troops had already worked closely with other city, state and federal agencies to improve public safety during a stretch of high-profile events in the city, including the flood of visitors over Mardi Gras and the city’s carnival season.

“We remain committed to those partnerships as we continue supporting efforts to keep the City of New Orleans safe for residents and visitors,” Friloux said.

Brook is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

Some bans make sense

I have a conceal-and-carry permit, two handguns, three shotguns and two rifles, yet I strongly support the concept of banning assault weapons, large-capacity magazines and binary triggers. Assault weapons were designed for military, not civilian use, and during the decade that assault weapons were banned, “Mass-shooting fatalities were 70% less likely to occur during the federal ban period” between 1994 and 2004, according to an article published in 2019 in the Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery.

The logic that “if assault weapons are banned is the first step in limiting gun ownership” is absolutely false. IF that statement were true, why didn’t gun sales decrease during the time that there was a national ban on purchasing assault weapons? IF military weapons continue to be purchased by civilians, what’s next … the ability to buy hand grenades or surface to air missiles … it sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it?

I urge the gun owners’ advocates to use some degree of logic when addressing this situation and remember that without assault weapons in the hands of civilians, the number of dead children would have been a fraction of what it has been today. Please review the historical factual data and use common sense when debating this issue … our children’s lives depend on it.

Jack M. Bert, MD, Woodbury

 

Warming to the idea of voter I.D.

As one who has who has in the past rather vigorously opposed and advocated against voter-identification requirements, I am warming up to the idea, which President Trump falsely claimed the other day that 98% of the public supports.

I doubt that 98% of the public approves of anything; even motherhood and apple pie might register more than 2% detractors.

However, I’m now inclined to join the president’s  camp, depending upon what counts as “identification.” Under the pending Trump/MAGA legislation approved  on partisan grounds in the House  of Representatives, it would generally require a passport or birth certificate.

These are two documents that most people do not carry around with them and often  do not have readily available or even easily accessible, especially older people, younger people, racial and ethnic minorities, people who have moved around a lot, and even married women who have taken their spouse’s surname, as about 80% of them have done. That comprises a large number of Americans for whom providing “identification,” especially for mail-in voters (but that’s another issue) may be quite a travail, a bit costly, and possibly discourage them from even trying to register or vote, another feature of the GOP’s broad-based voter suppression strategy.

Nonetheless, if a sensible and non-discriminatory, cost-free identification process can be devised, count me in the voter-identification approval column,  along with the other 98%.

Marshall H. Tanick, Minneapolis

 

Disenfranchising shovelers?

So let me get this straight: With the recent heavy snowstorm in the northeast, New York City’s Mayor Mamdami is hiring snow shovelers to clean up the massive amount of snow across the city. One of the requirements is two forms of I.D.

I’m confused. Democrats are against I.D.s when it comes to voting because they say it disenfranchises primarily minority voters.

So isn’t the mayor disenfranchising those who want to shovel?

Thomas McMahon, White Bear Lake

 

Enduring songs of protest

Songs of protest have been part of the history of the United States for decades. “What’s Going On” and “We Shall Overcome”,  to name two, are still relevant today. I agree with the letter writer’s comment in Thursday’s Pioneer Press (“Grow up”). Some of the current songs of protest say little and often offend. Those that withstand time carry an intelligent message.

Ursula Krawczyk, St. Paul

 

Minnesota should reimburse the Feds

The state of Minnesota should reimburse DHS for the cost of extra immigration enforcement in Minnesota. I don’t want that on my federal tax tab. The Minnesota mess is rooted in years of incompetent DFL political executives and their lax immigration law enforcement, soft-on-crime approach and general lack of management skills, now exposed in fraud investigations. No ICE surge in Wisconsin or Iowa or Michigan or Missouri, etc. — just Minnesota. What I can’t understand is why do Minnesota folks keep electing these DFL incompetents who focus on ideological nonsense over the simple delivery of efficient and cost-effective services that are common basic needs?  Minnesota electors must like reoccurring drama.

Jeff Bump, River Falls

 

A break for baseball

We all need a break from Mr Trump, the ICE Follies, fraud at the local level and the lingering Minnesota winter. Fortunately, baseball is always a convenient  distraction along with our hopes that baseball miracles can still happen here in Minnesota. Catchers and pitchers reported to the Twins camp at Fort Myers a couple of weeks ago and the rest of the team is now there as well. Maybe it  is because baseball has an almost Norman Rockwell tradition that helps us feel hopeful again.

It also has a certain zaniness to its structure. A surefire riddle is why has it always taken baseball runners longer to run from second base to third base than for them to run from first base to second base. Well, there has always been a shortstop between second and third.

Hey Ernie, let’s play two today.

Mike Greeman, Woodbury

 

Putting growth on a pedestal

The Pine Island city administrator made a comment that rural towns are either growing or they’re dying. The mindset of ‘’you’re either growing or you’re dying’’ is a false dichotomy and an exploitative framework to have as a guiding principle. The growth is never enough, people’s homes and farms are only viewed as commodities, objects, things to conquer and bulldoze to make way for something “bigger and better.” This mindset places growth on a pedestal that can do no wrong and is used to justify any and all harm caused. The goal should be healthy, stable and sustainable population and communities, not growth at all cost. Harm needs to be prevented, not treated as “just part of the process.”

Google uses market-based emissions instead of location-based emissions. Franz Ressel states to The Guardian: “Market-based emissions are a corporate-friendly metric that obscures a polluter’s actual impact on the environment. It allows companies to pollute in one place, and try to ‘offset’ those emissions by purchasing energy contracts in another place.” This is exploitation. You cannot just throw out money and say “Hey look! We’re giving money to the school so everything is fine!” That’s not how it works. We have been stating over and over again that the permanent loss of our rural town identity, property value depreciation, permanent damage to our ecosystems, adverse health effects from light, noise and air pollution are not fair tradeoffs.

Pine Island continues to show they’re using exploitative frameworks as their guiding principles. Google is a trillion-dollar company and does not need any sort of tax abatement. We still don’t know how much power it’s going to use. The NDAs are still signed. The lawsuit is still being dismissed as inconsequential by the city. Public process and resident voices are still being ignored. Google is in the Epstein Files, release the Epstein Files. The city and the developer continue to spout false information and half truths at best. We are fed up.

Aubree Derksen, Pine Island

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CI Division: South Suburban 11, Mankato 2

The Jets (12-3) won their first adapted hockey CI Division title since 1995 via a dominating trip through the state tournament in which they outscored their three opponents 34-7 over the weekend at Bloomington Jefferson High School — their home court.

The co-op program also consists of children from Bloomington Kennedy, Eden Prairie, Edina and Richfield.

South Suburban sophomore Easton Anderson scored seven goals apiece in the team’s semifinal and championship game victories.

South Washington County won the consolation title.

On the South Suburban roster are: Isaih Urena, Nicole Crear, Jordan Cavness, Thomas Fyler, Josh Ruz, Ana Page, Betsy Malecha, Will Dawson, Josiah Wright, Mason Bordeaux, Easton Anderson, Jemarie Wright and Prince Yeakehson Jr.

PI Division: Brainerd 7, Maple Grove 0

Brainerd dominated on its path to a repeat title over the weekend, outscoring a trio of state tournament foes 25-1 to win the championship.

It was a continuation of the team’s excellence from the regular season. In total, Brainerd (16-0) outscored its opponents 137-11 this season.

Freshman Josh Pence scored a hat trick in the title bout.

Dakota United won the consolation title.

On the Brainerd roster are: Khloe VanNorman, Logan Kargel, Aiden Olsen, Anthony Slipp, Landon Brotherton, Summer Headlee, Henry Rivers, Josh Pence, Eric Fordyce, Caleb Keran, Owen Olsen, Andrew Kargel, Robert Coolie-Gilbertson and James Martin.

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