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May 22, 2026 - World

On Thursday, President Donald Trump overruled Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth by ordering troops to Poland that the former Fox News personality had canceled, much to the surprise of high-ranking Pentagon officials.According to the Wall Street Journal, along with countermanding Hegseth’s decision, the president gave him an earful about treating countries with close ties to his administration with greater respect."Based on the successful election of the now President of Poland, Karol Nawrocki, I am pleased to announce that the United States will be sending an additional 5,000 Troops to Poland," Trump wrote in a social media post.Hegseth's earlier decision to cancel the Poland deployment surprised many Pentagon officials and drew immediate concern from Polish officials, who told The Journal they weren't consulted about the move. Republican and Democratic lawmakers condemned the cancellation as damaging to a key U.S. ally.According to current and former U.S. officials, Trump confronted Hegseth in a recent phone call, demanding to know why the troop deployment to Poland had been canceled. Trump told Hegseth that the U.S. "should not treat Poland poorly given it is an American ally with close ties to the White House."There are currently about 10,000 U.S. troops stationed in Poland. Trump's order to send an additional 5,000 represents a significant reinforcement of the U.S. military commitment to the country.The move reflects Trump's transactional approach to alliances. Germany, not Poland, had criticized U.S. strategy in the Iran war, drawing Trump's ire. In early May, Trump responded to criticism from German Chancellor Friedrich Merz by ordering the withdrawal of 5,000 troops from Germany — a process the Pentagon said would take six to 12 months.According to the report, frustration has been mounting in Congress over the Trump administration's bypassing of lawmakers on both the Iran war and troop withdrawals from Europe. Lawmakers and aides have been attempting to piece together the Pentagon's troop withdrawal plan.Republican lawmakers have signaled they could take legislative action to preclude deeper force cuts in Europe by inserting provisions in Pentagon spending bills, including the National Defense Authorization Act, the report notes.

May 22, 2026 - World

WASHINGTON — Rep. Hillary Scholten (D-MI) told reporters on Thursday that House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) pulled a scheduled war powers resolution vote, saying that it was clear that Democrats had enough votes to compel President Donald Trump to withdraw from the Iran war."They just pulled it, unconscionably. It is beyond time that we address this issue," Scholten said. "Gas prices are $5. I'm getting $5 a gallon in Michigan. People on the West Coast are hearing that and they're planning a road trip to Michigan to put it in Tupperware and take it back home with them. I'm getting calls in my office about people cancelling their Memorial Day plans because they literally cannot afford to drive to their cottages in Michigan and celebrate this weekend how they normally would." She described how the economy and skyrocketing gas prices has caused frustration among Americans."It's obviously about a failed plan, not the whims of a president who decides he's bored one day and wants to continue this war," Scholten said. "The power and the decision, whether we go forward with this, belongs in the hands of the people and that's why Congress needs the power to decide." Scholten said that she has questions about what's happening among leadership behind-the-scenes."We do hope that Mike Johnson will answer it and not deflect as he often does, saying 'I don't know anything about that.' It's his decision. We had the votes for it today and I'm not one to speculate, but I do believe that's why he probably pulled it because I think we could have got it done today. And that's unfortunate. It's a disservice to the American people."Rep. Hillary Scholten (D-MI) tells reporters Thursday that House Speaker Mike Johnson pulled a scheduled War Powers resolution vote. “They just pulled it, unconscionably. It is beyond time that we address this issue.”???? @MattLaslo pic.twitter.com/uTWTV9Vzdv— Nicole Charky-Chami (@NicoleCharky) May 22, 2026

May 22, 2026 - World

Days after the U.S. Senate took a pivotal step that could end the war in Iran, Arizona veterans gathered at the state Capitol to urge Congressional Republicans to coalesce behind that effort.On Tuesday, the U.S. Senate voted 50-47 to advance a War Powers Resolution that could block President Donald Trump from engaging in further military conflict against Iran without congressional approval. Several Republicans broke from their party to back the resolution, but it has yet to undergo a final vote, and it’s likely to be defeated in the GOP-controlled U.S. House of Representatives.Almost every Democrat in the upper chamber, including Arizona’s Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego, who are both veterans and have been vocally opposed to the war, voted in favor of moving the resolution forward. Pennsylvania’s John Fetterman voted against doing so.More than a dozen former and current military members in Arizona called on GOP lawmakers to support the bid to end the war, and lamented the deaths that have already occurred. Since the war’s beginning in February, 13 American service members have died. Ricardo Reyes, a Marine Corps veteran and the executive director of Vets Forward, a progressive veterans advocacy group, denounced any effort to dismiss those deaths as inevitable and said elected officials should think twice about the potential human toll before agreeing to continue the war.“Today, we say to every elected leader in this country: Do not dare treat these lives like the price of doing business,” Reyes said. “Don’t dare ask more families to pay that cost without any answers. Don’t you dare send more sons and daughters into harm’s way because it’s easier to escalate rather than to lead with courage.”Derek Duba, an Army veteran and top staffer for Gallego, added that wars also affect the families and communities of military members and often harm their lives for years.“The truth is, in war, there are no unwounded soldiers,” he said. “And the friends, families, and communities we return to, dead or alive, continue carrying the cost of it for generations to come. There is no ‘four to six week’ victory.”Over the past three months, Trump has offered conflicting and vague estimates on how long the war would last, claiming multiple times in March that it would end after just a few weeks.On Wednesday, Trump said that he was “in no hurry” to make a deal that could end the conflict. Last week, the president said he wasn’t concerned about the economic toll the war he launched was having on Americans.“I don’t think about Americans’ financial situations. I don’t think about anybody. I think about one thing: We cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon,” Trump told reporters.State Rep. Aaron Marquez, D-Phoenix, a veteran who was deployed twice to Afghanistan and still serves in the Army Reserve, said that he’s hopeful more Republicans will buck their party to advance the resolution. He added that military conflict should be the last resort, but Trump jumped prematurely into the war at Israel’s prompting without seeking alternative solutions.“Going to war must be exhausting all diplomatic options,” he said. “We clearly did not exhaust all diplomatic options.”Marquez added that a failure to rein in the Trump administration will be noticed by voters.The war has been widely unpopular. In a recent New York Times poll, 64% of people said they believed Trump made the wrong decision when he launched a military campaign against Iran. But that same survey found that respondents who identified as Republican overwhelmingly supported that decision.And that’s been reflected in at least one primary race. Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie, who vocally criticized the Iran War, lost his party’s nomination to a Trump-endorsed opponent. Massie also led the charge to force the release of the Epstein files, over Trump’s objection. Trump and convicted sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein were close in the 1990s, and he is mentioned more than 38,000 times in the files that have been released so far.To memorialize the 13 Americans who have been killed so far in the Iran War, the group paused to observe a moment of silence, and then each member took turns reading their names, their military rank, and a short biography.Thomas Solnit, a Marine Corps veteran, read the name of 42-year-old Noah L. Tietjens, who served as a vehicle mechanic. Tietjens was killed along with five others in a strike in Kuwait and left behind a wife and a teenage son.“Today we honor his life and his years of commitment,” Solnit said. “We hold his family in our hearts, and we say his name because he deserves to be remembered with dignity, not lost in the noise of war: Sgt. 1st Class Noah L. Tietjens.”Arizona Mirror is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Arizona Mirror maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jim Small for questions: [email protected].

May 21, 2026 - World

President Donald Trump has signaled plans for an "endgame in the Iran war," infuriating a key ally, according to a report from The Atlantic published Thursday.Robert Kagan, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and contributor to The Atlantic, described how a Trump administration insider revealed that during a phone call on Wednesday with Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump determined the next steps with Iran. The president reportedly told Netanyahu his plan to negotiate a "letter of intent" and that Iran would "formally end the war and launch a 30-day period of negotiations" focusing on Iran's nuclear program and the Strait of Hormuz."The purpose and effect of such an agreement should be clear: The United States is walking away from the crisis," Kagan wrote. "Trump may launch another limited strike to look tough and satisfy the demands of the war’s supporters, but it would be a performative gesture. Endgame in this case is a euphemism for 'surrender.'"Netanyahu, the source said, was not pleased."According to one U.S. official, Netanyahu’s 'hair was on fire' after the call with Trump—for good reason," Kagan wrote. "The Iran war may end up as the single most devastating blow to Israel’s security in its brief history. On the present trajectory, Iran will emerge from the conflict many times stronger and more influential than it was before the war. It will exercise leverage with dozens of the richest nations in the world, all of which will have an acute interest in keeping Iran happy. They will be unlikely to take Israel’s side in any conflict that it has with Tehran or with its proxies in Lebanon and Gaza, because Iran will have the means to punish them if they do. Israel will emerge more isolated than it has been at any time in its history—and not least from its only reliable protector, the United States."

May 21, 2026 - World

A GOP congressman had a hard time during an appearance on Newsmax selling the Trump administration's newest moves against a foreign country.Rep. James Comer (R-KY) was trying to convince Newsmax anchor Rob Finnerty that the United States needed to take action against Cuba and its former president, Raúl Castro. The Trump administration declared on Wednesday that it indicted Castro."I get it, the Ayatollah is gone, Nicolas Maduro is in jail, but now Cuba?" Finnerty said, shaking his head. "Look, I think people struggle with how this is America first, when gas is $4.55 a gallon right now."Comer responded, "It is, and you're absolutely right," but then toed the Trump line by insisting that going after another foreign leader is necessary."Cuba has always been a national security threat," Comer said. "It's just minutes away from Miami.""But do you really think they're a threat?" Finnerty asked."If some country went in and loaded Cuba with the same drones Iran had when we first started bombing Iran, then yes, I think it could be a threat," Comer answered. "We've got to be on guard because of the new types of warfare that's out there."Finnerty didn't buy it, though."To me, this just sounds like we're just trying to make the case to attack Cuba," Finnerty said. "I don't buy it. It sounds like a false flag operation."