Trump Threatens Iran, Warns of Dire 'Consequences'
*By Alisha Haridasani*
President Trump on Sunday lashed out against Iranian president Hassan Rouhani on Twitter, deepening the tension between the two countries.
“Never, ever threaten the United States again,” the president admonished in an all-caps [tweet](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1021234525626609666). “You will suffer consequences the likes of which few throughout history have ever suffered before.”
Trump’s tweet followed Rouhani’s own incendiary message for the U.S., which warned the American president not to “play with the lion’s tail,” because a war with Iran would be the “mother of all wars.”
Throughout his presidency, Trump has decried America's softening relationship with Iran. In May, he withdrew from the landmark nuclear deal, agreed to in 2015 by Iran and a group of world powers, and reinstated sanctions against the country. Last month, the United States also explored sanctioning all of Iran’s oil exports.
Trump’s message to Iran echoes a tweet he addressed to the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un last year. Relations with North Korea took a surprising turn after that, culminating in a historic meeting between the two leaders in Singapore in June.
A legislative package to end the government shutdown appears on track. A handful of Senate Democrats joined with Republicans to advance the bill after what's become a deepening disruption of federal programs and services. But hurdles remain. Senators are hopeful they can pass the package as soon as Monday and send it to the House. What’s in and out of the bipartisan deal has drawn criticism and leaves few senators fully satisfied. The legislation includes funding for SNAP food aid and other programs while ensuring backpay for furloughed federal workers. But it fails to fund expiring health care subsidies Democrats have been fighting for, pushing that debate off for a vote next month.
Sabrina Siddiqui, National Politics Reporter at The Wall Street Journal, joins to break down the SNAP funding delays and the human cost of the ongoing shutdown.
Arguments at the Supreme Court have concluded for the day as the justices consider President Donald Trump's sweeping unilateral tariffs in a trillion-dollar test of executive power.
President Donald Trump said he has decided to lower his combined tariff rates on imports of Chinese goods to 47% after talks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on curbing fentanyl trafficking.
The Federal Reserve cut its key interest rate Wednesday for a second time this year as it seeks to shore up economic growth and hiring even as inflation stays elevated. The move comes amid a fraught time for the central bank, with hiring sluggish and yet inflation stuck above the Fed’s 2% target. Compounding its challenges, the central bank is navigating without much of the economic data it typically relies on from the government. The Fed has signaled it may reduce its key rate again in December but the data drought raises the uncertainty around its next moves. Fed Chair Jerome Powell told reporters that there were “strongly differing views” at the central bank's policy meeting about to proceed going forward.
