UKMTO reports that a tanker is struck by an unknown projectile 68 nautical miles northeast of Al Jubayl, Saudi Arabia.

Trump initially wanted to appoint former Fox News host Maria Bartiromo as White House press secretary, but she indicated she would not accept the position, according to two administration sources.

Conservative commentator Scott Jennings was also considered but was never offered the job.

Source: Axios

JD Vance:

So much of the power in our government does flow from the president of the United States.

It's actually funny. Sometimes you'll interact with leaders from the PRC or from Russia, or these places that I think the American people think of as dictatorships.

And the reality is that those systems, while yes, they're dictatorial in terms of electoral power — they don't have real elections — man, they are so bureaucratic.

Decisions get made very slowly in some of these countries.

The president just has a lot of authority.

JD Vance:

All of these voters who were so in love with Trump and ultimately made Trump president through two or three election cycles, depending on your perspective — fundamentally, they are Trump voters.

They're not ideological conservatives.

These are not people who wake up every day and say, "We can't do this because Milton Friedman said that."

They're people who are very pragmatic.

And I think one of the things they were attracted to with Donald Trump is he said a very pragmatic thing, which is: America has been losing for too long. We want to get America winning again.

JD Vance:

Trump and I are very much aligned on how we think about military action, which is that it has to accomplish a discrete objective.

You can't just go to war because it feels good.

You can't go to war because you're angry or because you're frustrated.

You have to say, how is this military objective connected to a strategic goal that we have for the United States of America?

JD Vance:

If a kid goes to a playground and they see a piece of candy, it's not going to be a piece of fentanyl that was imported by the Mexican drug cartels.

Because that was one of the craziest things we saw during the Biden administration.

One of the ways these cartels were importing these drugs was by masking them as children's candy.

JD Vance on Iran:

We've lost, I think, 20 soldiers and troops from other services in the Iran conflict.

We have to be getting something very, very beneficial if we're asking these people potentially to pay the ultimate sacrifice.

JD Vance:

I think the American voter is impatient, and I actually think that's a good thing.

I like that they're constantly like Donald Trump: their foot is constantly on the gas.

JD Vance:

The country was not broken in two years.

As much as I would like to blame Biden for everything, the reality is that we had a bipartisan 40-year consensus of shipping American jobs overseas and underinvesting in the American worker.

JD Vance:

People think that Ohio is a red state because Donald Trump and I won it by 11 points in 2024.

I would say that it is a pro-Trump state, but it's not a hardcore Republican state.

JD Vance on running for president:

The implication is almost, well, you're the vice president. Don't you feel kind of entitled to it?

And the answer is, of course not.

JD Vance on Tucker Carlson:

Tucker, obviously, one of the reasons he's very, very angry is over the Iran war. He does not like the Iran war.

He and I have had that conversation in private, in public. I know how he feels, and I understand.

What I've said to Tucker is, "Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater."

JD Vance:

Some reporter will come and say, "Well, Donald Trump said this terrible thing. Do you disavow it?"

And then I'll go and look at what he said. I'll be like, "Actually, not only do I not disavow it, you're lying about what he said. And what he actually said is totally correct. It's 100% right."

JD Vance on Tucker Carlson:

When Tucker says, for example, that Abdul El-Sayed is the America First candidate, what I'd say to Tucker, again, I've said this to him privately and I'll say it publicly:

Abdul El-Sayed is a guy who you agree with about the Iran war, and I understand that.

But wait a second. This is a guy who says that the Iran conflict is a problem because it violates international law.

How is that America First?

Putin’s envoy Kirill Dmitriev:

There is a whole range of economic and investment projects being discussed with the American side that will be implemented.

The diesel deal is one of these projects, and it is extremely important not only for the United States but for the entire world.

Putin’s envoy Kirill Dmitriev:

We will continue, because it's not just uranium that is supplied to the United States. We need to supply more fertilizers, aluminum and rare earth metals.

Our list of projects being discussed with the American side also includes various projects in the Arctic, energy projects, LNG projects and other areas.

Putin’s envoy Kirill Dmitriev:

More and more Americans, including within the administration, understand that sanctions harm the United States itself.

I can confirm today's news that the U.S. Treasury Department asked the Russian Direct Investment Fund to help with the diesel deal, including processing payments and resolving purely tactical issues related to the deal.

The Russian Direct Investment Fund will be involved specifically at the request of the U.S. Treasury Department.

Putin’s envoy Kirill Dmitriev:

We see that the Graham Act undoubtedly harms joint Russian-American projects and harms the role of Russia and the United States in restoring energy markets and working in global markets.

And we see that this law, which is supposed to come into force within the next two days, is increasingly being recognized in the United States as the wrong law.

Putin’s envoy Kirill Dmitriev:

What is important is that this hostility, this criticism of any deal between Russia and the United States, has finally begun to have very significant consequences.

We see that the hostility from the Ukrainian side has effectively and significantly worsened relations between Ukraine and the United States.

We see President Trump's reaction to this criticism.

Hillary Clinton:

People ask me all the time, are we going to be able to rebuild and repair the damage? I hope so, but it's going to take time because a lot of people feel that they've been let down, maybe even lied to from time to time.

And that's not just a problem of our government. That's really a national problem.

We have to restore our trustworthiness in order to restore our leadership.