President Donald Trump on Monday once again reiterated that Iran must abandon any hope of obtaining a nuclear weapon as the U.S. prepares for more talks in less than a week.

‘Iran has to get rid of the concept of a nuclear weapon. They cannot have a nuclear weapon,’ Trump told reporters from the Oval Office while sitting alongside the president of El Salvador. 

‘Iran wants to deal with us, but they don’t know how. They really don’t know how,’ Trump continued. 

The president confirmed the U.S. will hold more talks with Iran next Saturday in Italy, one week after the first talks began in Oman. 

Details of the discussion remain nil, though they were seen as a launching point as Washington tries to negotiate with Tehran to end its nuclear program. 

Iranian state media reported that Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi ‘briefly spoke’ together during the two-hour meeting, which suggests Tehran viewed the discussions positively given their initial refusal to hold ‘direct’ talks.

The White House similarly described the talks as ‘very positive and constructive,’ though it also conceded that ‘very complicated’ issues remain unresolved. 

Trump has said negotiations with Iran need to happen ‘very quickly’ but he has not provided a specific timeline on how long he will allow the diplomatic process to be carried out before he turns to military options.

The president has repeatedly threatened to ‘bomb’ Iran should it not stop its ambitions to develop a nuclear weapon. 

But the extent that the U.S. intends to shut down Tehran’s nuclear program also remains unclear as some call for complete disarmament as Iran also continues to advance its missile programs. 

‘I’ll solve that problem. It’s almost an easy one,’ Trump told reporters while comparing the end of Iran’s decades-long ambitions to develop a nuclear weapon to the challenge of ending Russia’s war in Ukraine.

‘I think Iran could be a great country as long as it doesn’t have nuclear weapons,’ Trump said. ‘If they have nuclear weapons, they’ll never get a chance to be a great country.’

While a court ordered the U.S. government to pursue ‘steps to facilitate the return’ of a Salvadoran man removed from the U.S. last month, the Justice Department asserted that federal courts do not have the authority to dictate to the executive branch how to handle foreign relations and that the order only requires removal of ‘domestic obstacles’ that would hinder the man’s ability to return to the U.S.

The legal wranglings concern Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, who had been living in Maryland, but was removed from the U.S. last month.

‘Defendants understand ‘facilitate’ to mean what that term has long meant in the immigration context, namely actions allowing an alien to enter the United States. Taking ‘all available steps to facilitate’ the return of Abrego Garcia is thus best read as taking all available steps to remove any domestic obstacles that would otherwise impede the alien’s ability to return here,’ a DOJ court filing declared.

‘On the flipside, reading ‘facilitate’ as requiring something more than domestic measures would not only flout the Supreme Court’s order, but also violate the separation of powers. The federal courts have no authority to direct the Executive Branch to conduct foreign relations in a particular way, or engage with a foreign sovereign in a given manner.’

Abrego Garcia has been accused of being an MS-13 gang member, but his legal challenge has denied that allegation.

‘On March 15, although ICE was aware of his protection from removal to El Salvador, Abrego Garcia was removed to El Salvador because of an administrative error,’ according to a DOJ court filing.

Evan Katz, who identified himself as ‘Assistant Director for the Removal Division, within the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO),’ addressed the issue in a court filing.

‘Although Abrego-Garcia has an order of removal issued by an immigration judge, I understand that he should not have been removed to El Salvador because the immigration judge had also granted Abrego-Garcia withholding of removal to El Salvador. However, I also understand that Abrego Garcia is no longer eligible for withholding of removal because of his membership in MS-13 which is now a designated foreign terrorist organization,’ Katz declared. 

After the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland ordered the U.S. ‘to facilitate and effectuate’ Abrego Garcia’s return to the U.S., the Supreme Court called for the lower court to clarify the instruction.

‘The order properly requires the Government to ‘facilitate’ Abrego Garcia’s release from custody in El Salvador and to ensure that his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent to El Salvador. The intended scope of the term ‘effectuate’ in the District Court’s order is, however, unclear, and may exceed the District Court’s authority. The District Court should clarify its directive, with due regard for the deference owed to the Executive Branch in the conduct of foreign affairs,’ the Supreme Court noted.

The lower court then called for defendants to ‘take all available steps to facilitate the return of Abrego Garcia to the United States as soon as possible.’

Abrego Garcia, whose wife is a U.S. citizen, is being held in El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center.

‘It is my understanding based on official reporting from our Embassy in San Salvador that Abrego Garcia is currently being held in the Terrorism Confinement Center in El Salvador. He is alive and secure in that facility. He is detained pursuant to the sovereign, domestic authority of El Salvador,’ Michael Kozak, senior bureau official in the bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs of the State Department, noted in a filing.

Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele is visiting President Donald Trump at the White House on Monday.

Poland’s foreign minister on Monday urged President Donald Trump to take steps to counter Russian President Vladimir Putin’s continued war in Ukraine following another deadly strike that killed 34, including two children, on Palm Sunday.

‘I just want to say how appalled I am by the latest spate of Russian attacks on Ukraine,’ Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski told reporters ahead of the European Union’s foreign ministers meeting in Luxembourg.

‘Ukraine unconditionally agreed to a ceasefire over a month ago,’ Sikorski said. ‘The heinous attacks on Kryvyi Rih and Sumy are Russia’s mocking answer.’

Russia fired two ballistic missiles into Sumy’s city center Sunday, claiming it targeted a meeting of top Ukrainian military officials. The northeastern city lies about 30 miles from the Russian border. Moscow said 60 troops were killed but provided no evidence, and it remains unclear if any officials were among the 30 dead and 119 injured.

The attack came just over a week after Russia struck Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s hometown of Kryvyi Rih, in what was the deadliest strike against children since the war began in an attack near a playground that killed 19 people, including nine children.

‘I hope that President Trump and his administration see that the leader of Russia is mocking their goodwill and I hope the right decisions are taken,’ Sikorski told reporters Monday. 

The attacks were met with a swift international rebuke from European leaders, with Germany’s chancellor-designate, Friedrich Merz, calling it a ‘serious war crime.’

Leaders from Lithuania made similar claims and summoned a Russian diplomat over the incident on Monday.

France’s foreign minister ahead of the top international talks called for tougher sanctions on Russia to ‘suffocate’ its economy and stop its war effort. 

Trump similarly condemned the attacks as ‘terrible’ but said he ‘was told they made a mistake.’ 

‘But I think it’s a horrible thing,’ he added.

Russian forces over the last month have dropped 2,800 air bombs on Ukraine, fired more than 1,400 drones – including 62 Shahed drones Sunday night – and levied some 60 other missiles of various types, according to The Associated Press. 

El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele told President Donald Trump in the Oval Office on Monday that he has 350 million Americans to ‘liberate’ by ending crime and terrorism in the United States. 

‘We know that you have a crime problem and a terrorism problem that you need help with. And we’re a small country, but we can help,’ Bukele said. ‘We actually turned the murder capital of the world — that was [what] the journalists called it – the murder capital of the world to the safest country in the Western Hemisphere.’ 

‘And I like to say that we actually liberated millions,’ Bukele said, with the line drawing praise from Trump. 

‘Mr. President, you have 350 million people to liberate,’ Bukele told Trump. ‘You cannot just, you know, free the criminals and think crime is going to go down magically, you have to imprison them so you can liberate 350 million Americans that are asking for the end of crime and the end of terrorism, and it can be done.’ 

Trump also referenced how the left has pushed for biological men to compete in women’s sports. 

‘Do you allow your men in women’s sports? Do you allow men to box women?’ Trump asked Bukele. 

The president of El Salvador remarked, ‘That’s violence.’ 

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

As Tax Day approaches, the Senate’s DOGE leader announced a new effort Monday aimed at cracking down on federal bureaucrats who have racked up billions in unpaid taxes.

Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, is introducing the Tax Delinquencies and Overdue Debts are Government Employees’ Responsibility (Tax DODGER) Act in response to reports of tax scofflaws within the bureaucracy the taxes themselves are supposed to bankroll.

The Tax DODGER Act would require the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to publish an annual report on tax delinquencies of current and retired federal employees, including those who failed to file a 1040 or other tax return.

‘It is outrageous that while hardworking Americans fork over their money to Uncle Sam, nearly 150,000 bureaucrats refuse to pay their own taxes,’ Ernst told Fox News Digital.

The bill also establishes a new section in the law that could consider a federal job applicant ineligible for hire if they have ‘seriously delinquent’ tax debt, unless already granted a hardship exemption.

‘If you don’t pay taxes, you should not work for the federal government,’ Ernst said. 

‘I am ending the ‘rules for thee, but not for me’ mentality in Washington.’

Ernst highlighted a recent Treasury Inspector General report showing that while 96% of IRS employees were found to be tax-compliant, more than 2,000 employees had past-due balances totaling more than $12 million as of the end of last year.

Meanwhile, a 2023 IRS report found 149,000 total federal employees owed $1.5 billion in tax liabilities for fiscal year 2021.

She wrote to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent in March that Americans and many lawmakers had ‘lost confidence in the IRS’ and that he had an opportunity as the agency’s new ultimate boss to address several issues that don’t need congressional approval.

The lawmaker referenced past political weaponization of the agency – such as when Obama-era staffer Lois Lerner allegedly targeted conservative groups – as well as upgrading the IRS’ reportedly outdated technology.

As part of her initial effort last fall to forge a working relationship with DOGE leader Elon Musk, Ernst similarly launched a call for an audit of the IRS.

If passed, the bill would require that reports on tax-scofflaw bureaucrats be sent on an annual basis to the Office of Personnel Management, Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, and House Oversight Committee.

Additionally, any agency leader may take personnel action up to and including the firing of a federal employee if there is administrative or judicial determination they understated their tax liability or failed to file a return.