(Zeteo) New polling shared exclusively with Zeteo demonstrates just how delusional our president really is: Only 33% of Americans approve of the job he is doing, and 62% disapprove, according to the UMass Amherst national poll. This figure may well represent the worst approval rating of Trump’s political career. The UMass poll finds broad opposition to Trump’s illegal and dangerous war in Iran: 29% say they approve of Trump’s military actions against Iran, while 54% disapprove. Outside of the war, which could get much worse at any moment, Trump’s approval on key issues ranges from bad to catastrophic.

(Axios) Republicans are considering reductions in federal health spending to help pay for a budget bill containing as much as $200 billion to fund the Iran war and immigration enforcement. New efforts to rein in health programs are sure to be controversial and open the GOP up to election-year attacks that they're cutting health care to pay for an unpopular war. Top House Republicans are looking at health care offsets addressing fraud in federal programs, as they did during last year's debate over the budget law that made deep cuts to federal Medicaid spending and imposed first-time work requirements.

(BBC News) Verified pictures show a US command and control aircraft has been destroyed at an air base in Saudi Arabia. The pictures appear to have been first shared by a Facebook page carrying US military news. They show the E-3 Sentry aircraft appears to have been split in two. We've confirmed the photos were taken at the Prince Sultan air base about 100km (62 miles) south-east of the Saudi capital Riyadh. Features seen in the pictures, including pylons, storage units and markings on paved areas, matched with satellite imagery.

(CBS News) Democratic Rep. Jim Himes, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, on Sunday accused President Trump of "flat-out lying" about negotiating with Iran last week amid market turmoil and the ongoing war. "Last Sunday, he realized, 'I've got a financial cataclysm in the market,' so he just made that statement up," Himes said on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" after Brennan asked if he thought Mr. Trump hadn't been engaging in diplomacy because he hadn't been briefed as a member of Congress.

(The Independent) As the Iran war stretches into its second month, anger is mounting among some White House officials, according to a new report. Discontent over the Middle East conflict is concentrated among younger, “more-right wing” staffers, an unnamed source with knowledge of the matter told Politico. “They’re very frustrated,” the individual said. “They didn’t love the war to start with, and since it began, the constantly contradictory messaging from the president himself, is just brutal, brutal for staff to deal with and making their life really hard. He puts his people in a really tough position, especially people who are public-facing.”

(Financial Times) Donald Trump has said he wants to “take the oil in Iran” and could seize the export hub of Kharg Island, as the US sends thousands of troops to the Middle East. The US president told the FT in an interview on Sunday that his “preference would be to take the oil”, comparing the potential move to Venezuela where the US intends to control the oil industry “indefinitely” following its capture of strongman leader Nicolás Maduro in January.

(The Hill) With a Russian tanker loaded with crude oil nearing Cuba, President Donald Trump said late Sunday he would not enforce his effective blockade against fuel supplies to the island. “If a country wants to send some oil into Cuba right now, I have no problem, whether it’s Russia … and if other countries want to do it,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One as he returned to Washington from a weekend at his Mar-a-Lago home. “It’s not going to have an impact,” Trump said. “Cuba’s finished … whether or not they get a boat of oil, it’s not going to matter.”

(The Hill) Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) on Sunday his party needs new leadership in the Senate after the GOP-controlled upper chamber passed a partial funding package for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in the dead of night. Burchett called the package a “huge mistake” and said House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) should have been informed about the legislation sooner.

(ABC News) Some of the nation's airports are still seeing long wait lines as Transportation Security Administration officers continued to call out sick over the weekend, despite President Donald Trump signing a presidential memorandum ordering the Department of Homeland Security to begin issuing paychecks. The TSA workers have been required to work without pay for the past 44 days due to an ongoing fight between Democrats and Republicans over the way immigration enforcement has been handled by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents.

(The Rude Pundit) Noted rapist and warmonger Donald Trump lies to everyone. For his entire life, he has lied. To list his lies would be to write his biography because it is merely a series of lies, from his personal relationships to his business deals to his contracts with others to his image on his stupid TV show to his campaigns for president to his press conferences to his dealings with other countries. Every single thing is a fucking lie. He lies so much he can't keep track of what he lied about and when someone says he said one thing but now says another, he waves it off and tells a third lie and just plows ahead, ready to lie again.