President Donald Trump said he thinks Israel’s strike on Iran probably improved the chances a U.S.-Iran nuclear deal will come to fruition, according to Axios. 

After an Axios reporter asked Trump whether he thought Israel’s strike jeopardized the administration’s efforts to strike a deal with Iran, the president reportedly responded, ‘I don’t think so. Maybe the opposite. Maybe now they will negotiate seriously.’ 

The president has urged Iran to make a deal ‘before there is nothing left,’ after Israeli Defense Forces began bombing the country’s nuclear and ballistic missile sites.

‘I couldn’t get them to a deal in 60 days. They were close. They should have done it. Maybe now it will happen,’ Trump added in his comments to the Axios reporter. 

Trump withdrew the U.S. from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) nuclear agreement during his first term. The agreement restricted Iran’s development of nuclear weapons, but, in exchange, the U.S. and other countries agreed to ease sanctions against Iran’s economy. 

During former President Joe Biden’s tenure, the U.S. sought to return to the JCPOA, but after years of talks, nothing came to fruition.

Trump has signaled that a deal with Iran is among his top priorities but has repeatedly said the country will not be allowed to have a nuclear weapon. 

Iran has said the U.S. has not respected its right to enrich uranium for non-violent purposes for citizens. Media reports have suggested Trump has signaled an openness to letting Iran continue to enrich uranium for civilian purposes. 

Further nuclear talks between the two powers were scheduled for Sunday, but, after Israel’s attacks, Iran has said it no longer plans to participate in the talks. 

Iranian state media reported that Iran has announced it will be suspending its involvement in the negotiations ‘until further notice.’ 

Fox News Digital has reached out to the White House for further comment. 

Israel’s overnight strike on Iran was not only one of the most ambitious aerial campaigns in recent history, it was the result of years of covert planning, surveillance and infiltration by Israeli intelligence. 

While dozens of fighter jets bombed nuclear and military targets across Iran early Friday morning, the groundwork had long been laid by Mossad agents working in lockstep with the Israeli military.

Code-named ‘Am Kelavi’ (Rising Lion), the preemptive operation was the product of unprecedented coordination between the Israeli air force, the Military Intelligence Directorate, Mossad and the country’s defense industries. For years, they worked ‘shoulder to shoulder’ to gather the intelligence files needed to eliminate Iran’s most sensitive military and nuclear assets.

A senior Israeli security official told Fox News Digital, ‘The Mossad worked with a huge number of people—a mass of agents deep inside Iran, operating at the highest level of penetration imaginable. Some of these agents were retrained as commando fighters to carry out mission-critical operations.’

That work culminated in what the official described as a three-layered strike. ‘We eliminated vast areas of Iran’s surface-to-surface and surface-to-air missile infrastructure, a massive number of senior scientists, and large portions of their air defense systems.’

‘We established a drone base inside Iran, and at zero hour, Mossad operatives retrieved them from hiding spots. We placed precision missiles on numerous vehicles and embedded additional missiles throughout the country, hidden inside rocks. We activated this entire array in precise coordination with the Israeli air force.’

Israeli jets launched simultaneous strikes on dozens of sites, including Iran’s primary uranium enrichment facility at Natanz. Located 1,500 kilometers from Israeli territory, Natanz had long been a critical part of Iran’s nuclear program. Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin, the Israeli Defense Forces spokesperson, described it as an underground compound containing multi-level centrifuge halls and electrical infrastructure.

‘We inflicted significant damage on this site,’ Defrin said. ‘This facility was used by the IRGC to advance Iran’s project for acquiring nuclear weapons.’

Avner Golov, vice president of the Mind Israel think tank, told Fox News Digital, ‘The biggest success was hitting the Natanz facility and neutralizing Iran’s first wave of retaliation—the automatic response. 

‘We took out their opening move—the ballistic missiles that were meant to launch immediately, and the drones that were already on the way. The fact that scientists were eliminated—that’s the true achievement.’

However, far beyond the airstrikes, Israeli sources revealed that a massive intelligence and sabotage campaign was unfolding in parallel inside Iran. A former senior Israeli official told Fox News Digital, ‘There was activity inside Iran—an insane level of intelligence work.

‘They located the entire command center of the Iranian Air Force. All the commanders were together, and they were taken out in real time.’

According to the same official, Iran’s military had gathered its top air force brass in one facility as part of a publicized drill meant to project deterrence. Instead, it exposed them. ‘It was partly luck, but also planned—the ability to see them in real time and strike with precision,’ he said. ‘It’s a reminder of what happened in Lebanon—taking out contaminated leadership with surgical intelligence.’

That operation in Lebanon, often referred to as the ‘pagers’ operation, saw Israel infiltrate and sabotage Hezbollah’s command network using Chinese-made radios embedded with explosives. The current operation, Israeli experts say, was broader, deeper, and more strategically impactful.

‘I think this is so much more substantial,’ said Nadav Eyal, an Israeli journalist and analyst for ‘Yediot Ahronot’ newspaper. ‘What was done here was much more than the James Bond kind of type of pagers operation. It’s more about the infrastructure, intelligence needed to read devastating strikes on military installations, and the ingenuity of its intelligence services—electronic surveillance, things that it’s been developing for many years now.’

The Mossad’s infiltration campaign involved the quiet smuggling of sophisticated weaponry into Iran, hidden inside vehicles and embedded near strategic targets. In central Iran, precision-guided weapons were planted near surface-to-air missile batteries and launched on command. Disguised vehicles were also used to destroy Iran’s air defense systems at the moment of the strike. Meanwhile, explosive drones positioned near Tehran were activated to destroy long-range missile launchers at the Esfajabad base.

All of it took place under the watch of Iranian intelligence and succeeded without detection.

Israeli defense officials now say the mission represents one of the most successful intelligence-military integrations in the country’s history. If the Lebanon pagers stunned the world, the message from this strike is even clearer: nowhere is out of reach.

A second federal judge on Friday blocked an executive order from President Donald Trump aimed at overhauling elections in the U.S.

Trump’s March 25 executive order sought to compel officials to require documentary proof of citizenship for everyone registering to vote for federal elections, accept only mailed ballots received by Election Day and condition federal election grant funding on states adhering to the new ballot deadline.

‘The Constitution does not grant the President any specific powers over elections,’ Judge Denise J. Casper of the U.S. District Court in Massachusetts said in Friday’s ruling.

A group of Democratic state attorneys general had challenged the executive order as unconstitutional. 

The attorneys general said the directive ‘usurps the States’ constitutional power and seeks to amend election law by fiat.’

The defended the order as ‘standing up for free, fair and honest elections’ and called proof of citizenship a ‘commonsense’ requirement.

‘Despite pioneering self-government, the United States now fails to enforce basic and necessary election protections employed by modern, developed nations, as well as those still developing,’ Trump wrote in the executive order, titled ‘Preserving and protecting the integrity of American elections.’

‘India and Brazil, for example, are tying voter identification to a biometric database, while the United States largely relies on self-attestation for citizenship. In tabulating votes, Germany and Canada require use of paper ballots, counted in public by local officials, which substantially reduces the number of disputes as compared to the American patchwork of voting methods that can lead to basic chain-of-custody problems,’ he continued.

‘Further, while countries like Denmark and Sweden sensibly limit mail-in voting to those unable to vote in person and do not count late-arriving votes regardless of the date of postmark, many American elections now feature mass voting by mail, with many officials accepting ballots without postmarks or those received well after Election Day,’ he also said.

Casper also noted that, when it comes to citizenship, ‘there is no dispute (nor could there be) that U.S. citizenship is required to vote in federal elections and the federal voter registration forms require attestation of citizenship.’

Casper cited arguments made by the states that the requirements would ‘burden the States with significant efforts and substantial costs’ to update procedures.

The ruling is the second legal setback for Trump’s election order. A federal judge in Washington, D.C., previously blocked parts of the directive, including the proof-of-citizenship requirement for the federal voter registration form.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Iran on Friday confirmed it will not end its nuclear programs despite the overnight attacks by Israel on its atomic facilities and apparent continued U.S. efforts to meet with Iranian counterparts on Sunday.

In a statement released by the Iranian government, Tehran claimed Israel’s attack proved it has a ‘right to enrichment and nuclear technology and missile capability.’

‘The enemy has caused our victimhood and legitimacy to be proven as to who is the aggressor and which regime threatens the security of the region,’ the statement said.

The comments not only followed Israel’s strike that killed seven top officials – including four military commanders, one official allegedly involved in the nuclear talks with the U.S., and two nuclear scientists – but also after the board of governors from the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog on Thursday declared Iran is in breach of its non-proliferation obligations for the first time in nearly 20 years.

Despite the formal rebuke over its nuclear violations, including its substantial stockpiles of near-weapons-grade uranium, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian vowed Tehran would continue to enrich uranium – the core hiccup in ongoing U.S.-Iran nuclear negotiations. 

‘The cowardly nocturnal operation while the diplomatic process on the nuclear issue of Iran was underway is a sign of this regime’s fear of Iran’s power of persuasion and defense for the world,’ Tehran said Friday. 

Iranian political heads have claimed that the overnight strikes mean Tehran will not continue with nuclear negotiations with Washington, D.C., and that a meeting set with Middle East Special Envoy Steve Witkoff in Oman on Sunday was off. 

However, the Trump administration has not confirmed these claims and neither has the Iranian regime. 

When asked if Iranian officials have notified the U.S. that Iran is withdrawing from nuclear negotiations, a US official said, ‘We still hope to have talks.’

Neither the White House nor the State Department immediately responded to Fox News Digital’s questions regarding the talks. 

President Donald Trump is set to hold a security meeting at 11 a.m. on Friday, when the future of the talks is expected to be addressed. 

Rich Edson contributed to this report. 

International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi called Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Friday following airstrikes on Iran’s Natanz nuclear facility, an Israeli presidential spokesperson told Fox News. 

Grossi told Herzog that the facility was severely damaged in the strikes, according to Israeli media reports. 

‘We are currently in contact with the Iranian nuclear safety authorities to ascertain the status of relevant nuclear facilities and to assess any wider impacts on nuclear safety and security,’ Grossi said in a statement. 

‘At present, the competent Iranian authorities have confirmed that the Natanz enrichment site has been impacted and that there are no elevated radiation levels. They have also reported that at present the Esfahan and Fordow sites have not been impacted.’ 

‘This development is deeply concerning. I have repeatedly stated that nuclear facilities must never be attacked, regardless of the context or circumstances, as it could harm both people and the environment. Such attacks have serious implications for nuclear safety, security and safeguards, as well as regional and international peace and security,’ Grossi continued. 

‘As Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, and consistent with the objectives of the IAEA under the IAEA Statute, I call on all parties to exercise maximum restraint to avoid further escalation. I reiterate that any military action that jeopardizes the safety and security of nuclear facilities risks grave consequences for the people of Iran, the region, and beyond,’ he also said. 

The Israel Defense Forces said in a statement that ‘Overnight, Israeli Air Force fighter jets, guided by precise intelligence from the Intelligence Directorate, struck the Iranian regime’s uranium enrichment site in the Natanz area.’ 

‘This is the largest uranium enrichment site in Iran, which has operated for years to achieve nuclear weapons capability and houses the infrastructure required for enriching uranium to military-grade levels. As part of the strikes, the underground area of the site was damaged. This area contains a multi-story enrichment hall with centrifuges, electrical rooms, and additional supporting infrastructure,’ according to the IDF. 

‘In addition, critical infrastructure enabling the site’s continuous operation and the Iranian regime’s ongoing efforts to obtain nuclear weapons were targeted,’ it said. 

Fox News’ Yael Rotem-Kuriel contributed to this report. 

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., and her DOGE subcommittee are launching an investigation into Planned Parenthood on Friday.

Greene is sending a letter to Planned Parenthood CEO Alexis McGill Johnson, questioning whether the nonprofit is commingling ‘federal funds and using them for unpermitted purposes.’

Federal funds are barred from being used for abortions under a measure called the Hyde Amendment. President Donald Trump has also taken executive action toward affirming the Hyde Amendment and blocking federal dollars from organizations that provide transgender healthcare to youth.

However, Greene’s letter suggested she is accusing Planned Parenthood of doing both.

‘Despite receiving 39 percent of its annual revenue from federal funds intended for essential health services, such as cancer screenings and wellness exams, Planned Parenthood is increasingly using its resources to offer abortions to its patients,’ Greene wrote.

Greene said the data show that the ‘latest Planned Parenthood annual report shows that it performed more than 400,000 abortions, an increase of 23 percent over the last 10 years.’

The letter also accused Planned Parenthood of providing ‘gender-affirming care’ with ‘allegedly little to no medical or psychological evaluation.’

An annual report by Planned Parenthood, cited by Greene, showed 45 ‘affiliate health centers’ providing hormone therapy for so-called ‘gender-affirming care.’

However, Greene said other gender transition services were reported as ‘other procedures,’ including pediatric care and infertility services as well, which she said obscured the ‘true number of transgender services provided.’

‘Planned Parenthood’s official policy varies by state, but some Planned Parenthood health centers will provide cross-sex hormones to minors as young as 16 years old with parental consent,’ Greene wrote, while also accusing the group of ‘not consistently adhering to its own parental consent policies.’

To assist her probe, Greene is seeking Planned Parenthood’s non-public financial statements from between January 2020 through June 2025, as well as a list of its independent affiliate health centers, informed consent documents, and other documentation.

Notably, that period includes when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and sent the issue of abortion back to the states in June 2022.

Republicans have long targeted Planned Parenthood, accusing the nonprofit of misusing federal dollars despite the longstanding anti-abortion funding measure.

The group’s supporters, meanwhile, have held it up as a key nationwide provider of women’s healthcare – which they believe has only gotten more critical after the high court’s June 2022 decision.

Greene’s panel, which is under the House Oversight Committee, is opening the probe weeks after House Republicans passed their version of Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill,’ which includes a provision to block federal funds from organizations that provide abortions.

Fox News Digital reached out to Planned Parenthood for comment but did not immediately hear back.

Far-left House Democrats are hammering Israel for its Thursday night strikes on Iran.

Members of the House’s progressive ‘Squad,’ already critical of Israel’s war on Gaza, are denouncing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a ‘war criminal’ after his government launched attacks on Tehran and surrounding areas.

‘Israel has once again bombed Iran, a dangerous & reckless escalation. The war criminal Netanyahu wants to ignite an endless regional war & drag the US into it,’ Rep. Summer Lee, D-Pa., wrote on X. ‘Any politician who tries to help him betrays us all. The American people do not want this.’

Reps. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., and Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., claimed Israel would drag the U.S. into war in the Middle East.

‘The Israeli government bombing Iran is a dangerous escalation that could lead to regional war. War Criminal Netanyahu will do anything to maintain his grip on power,’ Tlaib wrote.

‘We cannot let him drag our country into a war with Iran. Our government must stop funding and supporting this rogue genocidal regime.’

Omar said, ‘Regardless of what [President Donald Trump] thinks, Israel knows America will do whatever they want and feels confident about their ability to get into war and have the American government back them up. Israel also knows they can always rely on getting America to protect and serve its needs.’

‘Everyone in America should prepare themselves to either see their tax dollars being spent on weapon supplies to Israel or be dragged into war with Iran if this escalates,’ Omar said.

Washington and Tehran have been engaged in talks about a new Iran nuclear deal aimed at reining in the Islamic republic’s uranium enrichment.

Trump posted on Truth Social Friday morning that Iran now had a ‘second chance’ to come to the table after Israel’s strikes.

Democrats, meanwhile, were more concerned.

Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said on MSNBC’s ‘Morning Joe’ that he thought Israel’s strikes, which it called preemptive, were a bid to scuttle those talks.

‘It appears as if this was an attempt by Israel to scuttle Donald Trump’s negotiations with Iran. Of course, our preferred pathway here to keep Iran from getting a nuclear weapon is diplomacy,’ Murphy said.

U.S. officials have been warning Iran not to respond to what Israel has said will be a multi-strike operation.

President Donald Trump promised that Israel’s next round of attacks on Iran would be ‘even more brutal’ in a Truth Social post pressuring Iran to cut a deal on its nuclear activity. 

‘There has already been great death and destruction, but there is still time to make this slaughter, with the next already planned attacks being even more brutal, come to an end,’ Trump said. 

‘Iran must make a deal, before there is nothing left, and save what was once known as the Iranian Empire. No more death, no more destruction, JUST DO IT, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE.’

Trump said he warned Iran that ‘the United States makes the best and most lethal military equipment anywhere in the World, BY FAR, and that Israel has a lot of it, with much more to come – And they know how to use it.’

‘Certain Iranian hardliner’s spoke bravely, but they didn’t know what was about to happen. They are all DEAD now, and it will only get worse!’

The U.S. and Iran have another round of nuclear talks scheduled for this weekend in Muscat, Oman, while the two sides remain on opposite ends over whether Iran should have the capacity to enrich uranium at all, even for civil energy purposes. 

It is not clear whether those negotiations will carry on in light of the attack. Trump had urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to let talks play out before launching any strikes. 

 ‘I think it would blow it,’ Trump said earlier yesterday of the prospect of a premature Israeli attack. But then, he mused, it ‘might help it actually, but it also could blow it.’ 

After the attack, Secretary of State Marco Rubio put out a statement insisting the U.S. had no part in the strikes and urged Iran not to attack U.S. positions. Earlier, non-essential embassy staff in Iraq had been evacuated in light of the prospect of an attack. 

Tehran fired over 100 drones toward Israel on Friday morning in a counter-move, which Israel intercepted. 

Netanyahu revealed the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) struck a key nuclear site, Natanz, during the attack on the regime.

Among those killed were top nuclear scientists and top military leaders: General Hossein Salami, the commander-in-chief of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and Major General Mohammad Bagheri, Iran’s highest-ranking military official and chief of staff of the IRGC, along with most of the IRGC air force high command, who were convened in an underground bunker at the time. 

The first wave of strikes hit over 100 targets with 200 Israeli fighter jets dropping ‘330 different munitions,’ the IDF said, adding the strikes will carry on for days. 

Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., expressed staunch support for Israel’s assault against Iran, calling for the U.S. to back Israel’s efforts by providing the ally with anything it needs.

‘Our commitment to Israel must be absolute and I fully support this attack. Keep wiping out Iranian leadership and the nuclear personnel. We must provide whatever is necessary—military, intelligence, weaponry—to fully back Israel in striking Iran,’ Fetterman asserted Thursday night in a post on X.

The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs reposted the senator’s post. 

It also shared a post in which U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson expressed support for the U.S. ally. 

‘Israel IS right—and has a right—to defend itself!’ Johnson declared.

Sen. Lindsey Graham suggested that if Iran targets U.S. interests, America should execute ‘an overwhelming response’ that annihilates the foreign country’s oil infrastructure.

‘People are wondering if Iran will attack American military personnel or interests throughout the region because of Israel’s attack on Iran’s leadership and nuclear facilities,’ Graham noted Thursday night in a post on X. 

‘My answer is if they do, America should have an overwhelming response, destroying all of Iran’s oil refineries and oil infrastructure putting the ayatollah and his henchmen out of the oil business.’

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement on Thursday night that the U.S. was ‘not involved in strikes against Iran’ and declared that ‘Iran should not target U.S. interests or personnel.’

President Donald Trump issued a Truth Social post on Friday morning in which he urged Iran to agree to a deal, apparently referring to a nuclear deal.

‘I gave Iran chance after chance to make a deal. I told them, in the strongest of words, to ‘just do it,’ but no matter how hard they tried, no matter how close they got, they just couldn’t get it done. I told them it would be much worse than anything they know, anticipated, or were told, that the United States makes the best and most lethal military equipment anywhere in the World, BY FAR, and that Israel has a lot of it, with much more to come – And they know how to use it. Certain Iranian hardliner’s spoke bravely, but they didn’t know what was about to happen. They are all DEAD now, and it will only get worse!’ Trump warned in his post.

‘There has already been great death and destruction, but there is still time to make this slaughter, with the next already planned attacks being even more brutal, come to an end. Iran must make a deal, before there is nothing left, and save what was once known as the Iranian Empire. No more death, no more destruction, JUST DO IT, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE. God Bless You All!’

When it comes to the nation’s federal government, GOP Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin is ‘not a fan.’ 

He believes that it ’causes or exacerbates more problems than it actually solves,’ telling Fox News Digital during an interview on Wednesday that the bulk of his oversight is ‘to expose how awful government is’ in order to obtain ‘public support for reducing it, limiting its size, limiting its cost, limiting its influence over our lives.’

‘As our federal government grows, our freedoms recede,’ he said. ‘You see what the federal government does, how it wastes money.’

The national debt has ballooned to the eye-watering sum of more than $36 trillion, with lawmakers and presidents from both parties presiding over the deficit spending that has led the nation to this point. 

Johnson said he’s ‘trying to force reality’ upon everyone in the nation’s capital, regardless of whether they want to face that reality.

He said for decades the nation has been suffering a ‘chronic debt crisis,’ illustrating the dramatic decline in the value of the U.S. dollar by noting that ‘the dollar you held back in 1998 is now only worth $0.51 cents,’ while ‘a dollar you held in … 2019 is only worth $0.80 cents.’

The senator referred to inflation as ‘the silent tax.’

But he’s certainly not staying silent.

Johnson indicated that the elected leaders are mortgaging the future of American children, but ‘don’t talk about it.’

‘I’m forcing everybody to look at it,’ he said, noting that his ‘primary role’ is to force ‘acknowledgment of our problem.’

But as keenly as Johnson advocates the idea of slashing the sprawling tentacles of the massive federal bureaucracy, right now he’s just pushing to pare spending down to pre-pandemic levels.

The conservative fiscal hawk has been making headlines for taking a stand against the Trump-backed One Big Beautiful Bill Act that cleared the GOP-controlled House of Representatives last month. 

But Johnson told Fox News Digital that he actually likes a lot of the measure.

‘I’m really not critical of the bill as far as it goes,’ Johnson explained, noting that he’s a ‘big supporter’ of much of what’s in it, though he noted that has not read all of it — the measure is more than 1,000 pages long. 

‘My main beef is it just doesn’t go far enough,’ he said, noting that after the COVID-19 pandemic Democrats failed to return to pre-COVID spending and deficit levels.

The Congressional Budget Office’s estimated budgetary impact for the measure indicates that the net effect on the deficit would be a more than $2.4 trillion increase over the fiscal years 2025-2034.

But White House Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought has said the measure would decrease deficits.

‘The bill REDUCES deficits by $1.4 trillion over ten years when you adjust for CBO’s one big gimmick–not using a realistic current policy baseline. It includes $1.7 trillion in mandatory savings, the most in history. If you care about deficits and debt, this bill dramatically improves the fiscal picture,’ Vought said in a post on X.

Johnson also noted during the interview that there has not been a ‘reckoning’ regarding the ‘abuse’ at all levels of government during the COVID-19 pandemic.

He noted that he does not refer to the COVID-19 jab as a vaccine. Instead, he referred to it as an ‘injection,’ asserting that it is ‘not a vaccine,’ and that it caused injuries and death.

The senator said that he thinks the shots should have ‘black box warnings.’ 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website states that the ‘CDC recommends a 2024-2025 COVID-19 vaccine for most adults ages 18 and older’ and claims that the ‘vaccine helps protect you from severe illness, hospitalization, and death.’

Johnson, who has served in the Senate since 2011 and won election to a third term in 2022, said he’d prefer not to seek another term in office.

‘I don’t covet this job,’ he said, noting that he wants to leverage his post to help save America and aid those who are ‘ignored by the system.’

While he’s not ruling out another run, Johnson, who turned 70-years-old earlier this year, said he’d ‘be happy’ to return to Oshkosh and ‘live a nice, peaceful life.’