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The president also acknowledged that the possible strikes carry some risk

By Rachel Wolf , Peter Doocy , Morgan Phillips
Fox News

Published February 27, 2026 1:13pm EST | Updated February 27, 2026 2:43pm EST

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Trump addresses possibility of Iran strikes

President Donald Trump spoke with reporters on Friday about the possibility of the U.S. striking Iran, recognizing that it could risk the U.S. getting into a longer conflict.

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President Donald Trump told reporters on Friday that he is “not happy” with the way Iran is negotiating.

“I’m not happy with the fact that they’re not willing to give us what we have to have. So I’m not thrilled with that. We’ll see what happens, we’re talking later. We’ll have some additional talks today. But, no, I’m not happy with the way they’re going,” Trump said.

The president also told reporters that he had yet to make a final decision on striking Iran, something that many have speculated could occur in the near future.

When answering a question from Fox News’ Peter Doocy, Trump acknowledged that if the U.S. strikes Iran, there is a possibility of a long-term conflict sparking in the Middle East.

President Donald Trump stops to speak to the media as he departs on Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House on Feb. 27, 2026, in Washington, D.C.(Heather Diehl/Getty Images)

“I guess you could say there’s always a risk. You know, when there’s war, there’s a risk in anything both good and bad,” Trump said.

The president then spoke about operations against Iran under his first and second terms, such as the assassination of Gen. Qassim Soleimani, head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ elite Quds Force, and last summer’s Operation Midnight Hammer. He said that “everything’s worked out” so far.

A map shows damage to Iran’s Fordow nuclear site after being struck by the United States in Operation Midnight Hammer on June 22, 2025.(Fox News)

TRUMP ISSUES STERN IRAN WARNING AS TEHRAN ANGRILY REACTS TO SPEECH AMID MUTED WORLD REACTION

Tensions between the U.S. and Iran have escalated, even as the two sides take part in indirect nuclear negotiations. The president on Feb. 19 gave Iran a deadline of roughly 10 to 15 days to reach an agreement, and during his State of the Union address, he underscored that his urgency to make a deal was backed by force.

“I will never allow the world’s number one sponsor of terror… to have a nuclear weapon,” he said on Tuesday.

“We are in negotiations with them,” Trump added. “They want to make a deal, but we haven’t heard those secret words: ‘We will never have a nuclear weapon.’”

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks after casting his vote for the presidential runoff election on July 5, 2024, in Tehran, Iran. On the right, President Donald Trump walks toward reporters while departing the White House Sept. 11, 2025, in Washington. (Majid Saeedi/Getty Images; Win McNamee/Getty Images)

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Trump has repeatedly threatened major consequences in the event that the U.S. and Iran are unable to strike a deal.

While the president said he had not made a decision on the strikes, the State Department appeared to be acting out of caution on Friday as it authorized all non-essential employees at the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem to leave Israel. While the warning issued by the embassy did not mention Iran by name, it referenced “increased regional tensions.”

Related Article

Trump meets Netanyahu, says he wants Iran deal but reminds Tehran of ‘Midnight Hammer’ operation

Rachel Wolf is a breaking news writer for Fox News Digital and FOX Business.

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Partial government shutdown starts to hit TSA workers’ paychecks

24 min ago | PUBLISHED Feb 27, 2026, 2:10 PM ET | CNN Politics

By

[Tami Luhby]

Transportation Security Administration workers will receive only a portion of their next paycheck, which they are set to receive as soon as Friday, according to a union official. The reduced pay comes as the partial government shutdown ends its second week with no resolution in sight.

The impasse could lead to staffing shortages and airport delays for some travelers, especially the longer TSA workers go without pay. (Air traffic controllers, however, are not affected by this partial shutdown.)

The agency is also making some changes to at least one trusted traveler program, temporarily halting the Global Entry program. Earlier this week, the Department of Homeland Security announced it would also suspend the popular TSA PreCheck program but then reversed that decision.

While some DHS workers are continuing to be paid, many other employees throughout the agency are also set to receive partial paychecks soon unless Congress acts. Most affected workers will only be paid for the second week of February in their next checks since the agency’s funding lapsed as of February 14.

These smaller paychecks will be the last many DHS employees receive until Congress comes to an agreement to fund DHS for part or all of the fiscal year, which ends September 30. The White House and Democrats have been negotiating reforms to the agency’s immigration enforcement operations after two US citizens were fatally shot by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis in January. Senate Democrats are demanding changes before they’ll support appropriating more money for DHS.

Many TSA employees are already starting to struggle financially, concerned about how they’ll afford their March housing costs and day care, among other expenses, said Johnny Jones, secretary/treasurer of the American Federation of Government Employees TSA Council 100, the union representing 46,000 uniformed TSA workers.

“You’re going to see TSA officers in food bank lines in a couple of days,” he said, adding that several colleagues have taken out payday loans.

In total, about 61,000 TSA employees must remain on the job at the nation’s more than 430 commercial airports during a shutdown. Many live paycheck to paycheck, Ha Nguyen McNeill, a senior official performing the duties of TSA administrator, said in written testimony for a House subcommittee hearing before the funding lapsed.

Overall, more than 90% of DHS’ 272,000 employees will continue working during a lapse, according to the agency’s September shutdown plan covering the first five days of an impasse. More than 93% of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement and US Customs and Border Protection workers will remain on the job.

Only about 44,500 staffers will continue to be paid through other appropriations, according to the shutdown plan.

DHS has other resources to draw on, including a $165 billion infusion from last summer’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which funneled $75 billion to ICE, alone, and $64 billion to CBP.

The president’s signature policy bill gives DHS Secretary Kristi Noem wide-ranging power to move money around to carry out the agency’s operations.

DHS is using funds from the package to pay nearly 58,000 CBP employees, including officers and border patrol enforcement personnel, according to an email sent this week by the National Treasury Employees Union, obtained by CNN.

Last fall, Noem said that 70,000 law enforcement personnel, including in CBP, ICE and other divisions, would receive their paychecks amid that shutdown.

Civilian Coast Guard workers will receive about half their paycheck on or around March 2, according to a FAQ posted by the division. Military Coast Guard members received a full paycheck on February 15, the FAQ said.

Noem said Coast Guard members would continue to be paid, according to a spokesperson for Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, a Republican from New York, who had raised concerns with President Donald Trump last week. Military personnel are scheduled to get their next paycheck on Friday. (It’s unclear whether civilian employees will also continue to receive full paychecks.)

DHS referred questions on pay to the White House Office of Management and Budget, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Federal employees are guaranteed to receive back pay once the shutdown ends, according to a 2019 law.

Nancy Mace says ‘unhinged’ Hillary Clinton erupted during closed-door Epstein deposition

By Elizabeth Elkind | Fox News

Published February 27, 2026 2:28pm EST

Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., says Hillary Clinton refused to answer questions when lawmakers presented her with photographs of former President Bill Clinton with convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., claimed that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was “unhinged” during part of her closed-door testimony to the House Oversight Committee on Thursday.

“I asked her a very pointed question, and you’ll see that in the transcript and the video that comes out, and you’ll see how she responded as well, screaming,” Mace told reporters on Friday morning.

Asked to elaborate, she repeated the word again when telling reporters, “I hope that President Clinton is less unhinged today than his wife was yesterday. You’ll see it.”

Democrats, however, swiftly disputed Mace’s account.

Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., the top Democrat on the Oversight Committee, said shortly afterward: “I hope that the Republicans release the actual video unedited immediately, because to say that the secretary was screaming, I think, is beyond mischaracterization.”

He said House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., should release the unedited video “right now.”

But Mace dug in on her account with a new statement sent to media on Friday morning.

“Yesterday’s deposition with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will be public soon, and you are not going to want to miss it,” she said. “We asked very pointed questions and got three rounds with her. She was screaming. Unhinged and combative every time we brought up Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. Not exactly the reaction you’d expect from someone claiming she ‘barely knew them.’”

She continued, “Today, former President Bill Clinton sits down with the Oversight Committee. We have just as many questions for him, maybe more. Let’s see if he can keep it together better than his wife did.”

Hillary Clinton’s spokesman Nick Merrill pushed back on the characterization, according to CNN.

“Was she appalled that Congresswoman Mace wouldn’t let her answer a question about her work as a senator after the murder of 3,000 Americans on 9/11? Absolutely,” Merrill added, the outlet reported.

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

It’s not immediately clear what Mace questioned Clinton on in any of her three rounds.

The former secretary of state’s deposition came just a day before her husband, President Bill Clinton, is sharing his own testimony before the committee.

Hillary Clinton told the committee she could not recall ever meeting Epstein and that she only knew his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell as an “acquaintance.”

Elizabeth Elkind is a politics reporter for Fox News Digital leading coverage of the House of Representatives. Previous digital bylines seen at Daily Mail and CBS News.

Follow on Twitter at @liz_elkind and send tips to elizabeth.elkind@fox.com

Trump claimed Iran is building missiles that could soon hit the US. Sources say that’s not backed up by US intelligence.

By Jennifer Hansler, Natasha Bertrand, Kylie Atwood, Zachary Cohen
Updated Feb 27, 2026, 2:48 PM ET
PUBLISHED Feb 27, 2026, 2:41 PM ET

WASHINGTON, DC – FEBRUARY 24: U.S. President Donald Trump delivers the State of the Union address during a joint session of Congress in the House Chamber at the Capitol on February 24, 2026 in Washington, DC.

Kenny Holston/Pool/Getty Images

When US President Donald Trump addressed the American people on Tuesday night, he claimed that Iran is “working to build missiles that will soon reach the United States of America.”

That assertion is not backed up by US intelligence, sources told CNN.

It was one of several claims about threats from Iran made publicly by the Trump administration as it lays the groundwork for possible military action, even as they continue to say the US president wants to reach a diplomatic solution.

An unclassified assessment from the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) from 2025 said that Iran could develop a “militarily-viable” intercontinental ballistic missile by 2035 “should Tehran decide to pursue the capability.”

According to two sources, the claim that Iran will soon have a missile capable of hitting the US is not backed up by intelligence — there is no intelligence to suggest that Iran is pursuing an ICBM program to hit the US at this time, the sources said.

Iran does, however, possess short range ballistic missiles that could threaten US bases and personnel in the region, as the administration has warned.

Three sources told CNN there has been no change in recent assessments about Iran’s intercontinental ballistic missile aspirations.

White House spokesperson Anna Kelly responded to CNN’s reporting, saying “President Trump is absolutely right to highlight the grave concern posed by Iran, a country that chants ‘death to America,’ possessing intercontinental ballistic missiles.”

The State Department did not reply to a request for comment before publication.

Speaking to reporters Friday, Trump said that he is “not happy” with ongoing negotiations between the US and Iran over that country’s nuclear program, saying that Iran was “not willing to give us what we have to have.”

He said he had not “made a final decision” on whether he would proceed with military strikes, saying that there would be additional discussions.

The US has amassed its largest collection of military hardware in the Middle East since the invasion of Iraq in 2003 as Trump has repeatedly suggested he might take military action against Iran.

The matter of Iranian missile technology did not come up in a briefing with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and the “Gang of Eight” congressional leaders this week, sources familiar with the briefing said.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in an interview released this week that his country was not developing long-range missiles.

“We have deliberately limited the range of our missiles to 2,000 kilometers,” he told India Today TV, saying the missiles were for defense.

Pressed on Trump’s claim that Iran could “soon” have missiles that could reach the US, Rubio said he would not speculate “as to how far away they are,” but said Iran is “certainly” trying to achieve intercontinental ballistic missiles.

“You’ve seen them increasing the range of the missiles they have now, and clearly they are headed in the pathway to one day being able to develop weapons that could reach the continental US,” he told reporters at a press conference in St. Kitts Wednesday.

He argued that Iran’s refusal to discuss its ballistic missile program in negotiations is “a big problem.” The rounds of discussions between Washington and Tehran have, so far, only focused on nuclear issues.

Asked about the DIA report on Iranian intercontinental ballistic missile development, Rubio said, “I won’t comment on assessments or anything that the Intelligence Community says. Suffice it to say that it’s a threat. We can see that it’s possible.”

“Beyond just the nuclear program they possess these conventional weapons that are solely designed to attack America and attack Americans, if they so choose to do so. These things have to be addressed,” the top US diplomat said.

On the nuclear program, Rubio acknowledged that Iran is “not enriching right now,” but said “they’re trying to get to the point where they ultimately can.”

However, Special Envoy Steve Witkoff – one of two main US negotiators – claimed in an interview released last Saturday that Iran was “probably a week away from having industrial-grade bombmaking material.” That claim came despite the Trump administration’s repeated assertions that the US had “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear program in military strikes last year.

According to a source, intelligence shows that Iran is actively trying to build back its enrichment capability, including installing additional centrifuges, getting back online centrifuges that survived military strikes last year, and rebuilding facilities – many of which were damaged or destroyed – needed to weaponize the enriched uranium.

However, sources and experts say that work would take far longer than a week. And, according to a source, the work to build back the nuclear program is happening in places that are not likely to be impacted by military strikes.

CNN’s Alejandra Jaramillo contributed to this report

Rival bills want to make homebuying more affordable. Here’s how they would tackle the problem.

February 27, 2026 / 1:15 PM EST / CBS News

With Americans facing a housing affordability crunch, lawmakers from both parties are advancing rival bills aimed at curbing institutional investors’ purchases of single-family homes. One proposal would eliminate tax advantages for large real estate investors, while the other would bar big firms from buying single-family properties altogether.

The two proposals come after President Trump reiterated his push to ban institutional investors from buying single-family homes during Tuesday’s State of the Union address. Mr. Trump first proposed the idea last month, writing in a social media post that “people live in homes, not corporations.”

While the bills take sharply different approaches to reining in institutional investors, some housing experts say neither addresses a larger underlying problem — years of underbuilding that have left the nation short several million homes needed to meet demand.

But some lawmakers say pushing institutional investors from the housing market could help homebuyers by cutting out deep-pocketed competition. Investment firms own about 3.8% of single-family rental properties, although that share is above 20% in cities including Atlanta and Jacksonville, Florida, according to a 2023 Urban Institute analysis.

Here’s how the two bills, the American Homeownership Act and the Homes for American Families Act, compare.

The American Homeownership Act

The American Homeownership Act was introduced on Tuesday by Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Jeff Merkley of Oregon, as well as 16 other Democratic senators.

The proposal would eliminate tax breaks for corporations that own more than 50 single-family homes, barring them from taking deductions for depreciation and mortgage interest payments. These investors would also be blocked from federally backed mortgages and buying foreclosed homes sold by federal agencies.

“This bill will take on predatory landlords while making investments to increase housing supply and boost homeownership for Americans,” Sen. Warren said in a Tuesday statement. She added that it is essential to tackle the housing crisis from “every angle.”

Tax savings from ending these deductions would be reinvested in new home construction and programs aimed at helping Americans buy homes, according to a fact sheet about the bill.

The bill would not eliminate tax breaks for what the lawmakers describe as mom-and-pop landlords, or individuals who own fewer than 50 properties, because they typically “charge affordable rents, live in the community and invest in the homes they own.”

The bill would also incentivize new home construction by extending tax credits for up to five years for people who build new homes, as well as providing tax breaks for those who rehabilitate properties that had been deemed uninhabitable.

Homes for American Families Act

On Thursday, Merkley and Sen. Josh Hawley, a Republican from Missouri, introduced the Homes for American Families Act.

The bipartisan legislation would amend the landmark Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 to create an outright ban on investment companies with assets of more than $150 million from buying single-family homes, townhouses and condominiums. It doesn’t apply to homebuilders that are constructing units for sale.

The proposal would also task the Justice Department’s antitrust division with enforcing the law.

“Wall Street has exploited the American housing crisis, turning the nation’s housing stock into a portfolio of rental properties,” Sen. Hawley said in a statement Thursday. “Families deserve to be able to buy their own homes and achieve the American dream without competing with big investment companies that irrevocably drive up housing prices.”

The bill more closely follows Mr. Trump’s executive order seeking to bar institutional home buying than the Democrats’ American Homeownership Act. During Tuesday’s State of the Union address, the president urged Congress to pass a permanent ban on institutional buyers of single-family homes.

Are institutional investors really the problem?

Some housing experts say that while they applaud efforts to try to make housing more affordable for Americans, placing restrictions on institutional investors isn’t likely to meaningfully bring down housing costs across much of the U.S.

However, in some markets — like Atlanta, where investors own 28% of single-family rental properties — a ban on investment firms could provide some relief for homebuyers, housing experts said.

A more effective approach would be to spur new construction of single-family homes and apartments, which would address the supply shortage and reduce costs, experts note.

“The primary cause of America’s growing housing affordability problem is a lack of sufficient new supply of housing, single-family owner-occupied units especially,” Joe Gyourko, a nonresident senior fellow in economics at Brookings, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, said in a Feb. 23 report.

Banning investors from single-family home purchases “fails to address that issue in a meaningful way,” he added.

TSA officers get fraction of pay as government shutdown drags

February 27, 2026 4:49 PM UTC / Reuters / By Doyinsola Oladipo and David Shepardson

A TSA agent checks travelers at San Diego International Airport during the 2025 government shutdown in San Diego, California, U.S., November 7, 2025. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo

• Summary
• Companies

• TSA officers face financial strain due to partial government shutdown
• Union officials expect rise in TSA resignations amid financial pressures
• TSA plans staffing surge for upcoming travel season despite challenges

NEW YORK, Feb 27 (Reuters) – Airport security screeners across the U.S. received a fraction of their usual pay on Friday as the partial government shutdown drags on, increasing the risk that more officers will call in sick to take second jobs, or even quit.

Funding for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security lapsed on February 13 after Congress failed to reach a deal on immigration enforcement reforms demanded by Democrats. That halted funding for the operation of several government agencies, including the Transportation Security Administration.

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This shutdown is more limited than the record 43-day October-November event that closed numerous departments of government. But with TSA agents facing the possibility of losing even more pay if this one drags on further, the ripple effects could emerge again: absences, departures, and bottlenecked security lines at the nation’s airports.

“People are going to get discouraged a lot quicker this time,” said Philip Glover, national vice president of District 3 of the American Federation of Government Employees, who represents TSA workers at 19 airports in Delaware and Pennsylvania.

EXPECTING MORE RESIGNATIONS

Local AFGE officials said they are expecting TSA resignations to rise, while other TSA workers, some of whom are still repaying debts from the last shutdown, again tighten their finances.

Ha Nguyen McNeill, the top official at the TSA, told Congress this month that around 1,110 transportation security officers (TSOs) left the TSA in October and November 2025, a more than 25% increase from the same time period in 2024.

“We heard reports of officers sleeping in their cars at airports to save money on gas, selling their blood and plasma and taking on second jobs to make ends meet,” McNeill said of last year’s shutdown, adding that the TSA is working to surge staffing in March, April, and May to be prepared for spring break, summer, and World Cup travel.

A TSA officer at Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas who asked to remain anonymous told Reuters the back-to-back shutdowns are making her reconsider the future of her nine-year career at the agency. “I want to keep this job at least for the medical benefits, but sometimes I think I would be better off to abandon ship to reinvest myself elsewhere,” the 34-year-old said.

Airline CEOs recently met with McNeill and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to talk about the shutdown and the effect on TSA, American Airlines CEO Robert Isom said in a social media post.

Airlines raised concerns about the recent suspension of the Global Entry program – which was not affected during last year’s shutdown – while lawmakers have urged DHS to restore the program, used to expedite U.S. customs and immigration clearance.

Senator Jacky Rosen of Nevada said in a Friday letter to Noem the government is using the program “to maximize the administration’s political leverage and create uncertainty.”

MAKING ENDS MEET

Workers for a second time in four months have to find a way to make ends meet without pay as the agency’s management is pressing workers more on absences, as some call in sick to take on odd jobs to pay bills and fill their gas tanks, local AFGE officials said.

“Officers are looking at other alternatives just to maintain some kind of stability,” said Darrell English, president of AFGE Local 777, which represents TSA workers in Illinois and Wisconsin. “That’s the backlash that’s coming down the line from these continuous shutdowns.”

Neal Gosman, treasurer of the AFGE Local 899 in Minnesota, said that several of his colleagues with high seniority decided to retire shortly after this shutdown started.

“Maybe it’s just coincidence and these are older people who’ve been there a while, but somehow they decided to pull the trigger this week,” he said.

Reporting by Doyinsola Oladipo in New York; additional reporting by David Shepardson in Washington; editing by David Gaffen;

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Bill Clinton is testifying before Congress. Democrats say Donald Trump should be next. | CNN Politics

By Dana Bash, CNN
Published 1:11 PM EST, Fri February 27, 2026

Former President Clinton’s deposition after being mentioned several times in the Epstein files could open the door for President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump being deposed in the future. “It definitely raises the prospect of, if this president is called before the committee, will another president ever be called before the committee,” CNN’s Jeff Zeleny told the Inside Poltiics panel. CNN’s Alayna Treene added, “In the future if Democrats have the gavel… they might be in their rights to try and call the First Lady in.”

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DOJ says 30 more defendants charged for roles in anti-ICE protest at Minnesota church

February 27, 2026 / 1:50 PM EST / CBS News

The Justice Department on Friday announced it was charging 30 additional defendants for their roles in a January anti-ICE protest at Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota, in a criminal civil rights case that has also ensnared journalist and former CNN anchor Don Lemon.

The department moved to unseal the superseding indictment in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota. Attorney General Pam Bondi in a statement on X said that 25 of the 30 have been arrested, with more to come.

The original nine defendants in the case, including Lemon and another fellow journalist, have all pleaded not guilty.

The new version of the indictment does not add any additional criminal charges.

It accuses all 39 people of violating two civil rights laws. One is a misdemeanor offense in the FACE Act, which prohibits people from intimidating or interfering with people exercising their constitutional freedom to practice religion. The other is a felony charge of conspiring to interfere with individuals’ religious rights.

Scouting America will alter its policies to maintain support from the US military, Pentagon says

Published Time: 2026-02-27T16:10:51.701Z / Source: CNN

Scouting America will alter its policies to maintain support from the US military, Pentagon says

Associated Press

3 hr ago

PUBLISHED Feb 27, 2026, 11:10 AM ET

Federal agencies US military LGBTQ issues Pete Hegseth

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Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth enters the House Chamber before President Donald Trump delivers the State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress in the House chamber at the US Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, February 24, 2026.

Kenny Holston/The New York Times/Pool/AP

Scouting America will alter several policies at the urging of the Pentagon, including one targeting transgender youths, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced on Friday as he pushes a campaign against military support for diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.

Some of the changes mirror what the organization suggested to the Defense Department in January, which included discontinuing its Citizenship in Society merit badge and introducing a Military Service merit badge as well as waiving registration fees for the children of military personnel.

Under Hegseth, the Pentagon has taken aim at the military’s partnership with Scouting America, decrying its historic rebrand in 2024 from the Boy Scouts and other changes in recent years that he sees as part of “woke culture” efforts that he wants to root out.

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Hegseth said in a video posted on X that the Pentagon will “vigorously review” the changes the organization has made in six months and will cease its support of Scouting America if it fails to comply.

“We hope that doesn’t happen, but it could,” Hegseth said. “Ideally, I believe the Boy Scouts should go back to being the Boy Scouts as originally founded, a group that develops boys into men. Maybe someday.”

Scouting America, which is based in Irving, Texas, didn’t immediately comment.

The organization began allowing gay youth in 2013, ended a blanket ban on gay adult leaders in 2015 and announced in 2017 that it would accept transgender students. It began accepting girls as Cub Scouts as of 2018 and into the flagship Boy Scout program — renamed Scouts BSA — in 2019. As of May 2024, more than 6,000 girls had earned the coveted Eagle Scout rank.

The Pentagon said in a statement earlier this month that it was reviewing its relationship with Scouting America, claiming it had “lost its way” in many ways and calling the organization’s diversity, equity and inclusion efforts “unacceptable.”

“Scouting America’s leadership has made decisions that run counter to the values of this administration,” the February 6 statement said, “including an embrace of DEl and other social justice, gender-fluid ideological stances.”

The Pentagon previously said it and Scouting America were nearing an agreement to continue their partnership if the organization “rapidly implements the common-sense, core value reforms.”

“Scouting America remains far from perfect, but they have firmly committed to a return to core principles,” the statement said. “Back to God and country—immediately!”

The US military and the Boy Scouts have had longtime ties, including the military providing logistical support for the National Boy Scout Jamboree since its inception in 1937.

The military also has a long history of sponsoring Scout troops and activities on US military bases and has maintained a strong relationship with the Eagle Scouts, whose members often enlist in the armed forces.

In a statement last year, Scouting America raised concerns following a report from NPR that the Pentagon planned to cut support for Scouting programs on military bases as well as for the National Jamboree and would eliminate increases in pay grade for Eagle Scouts who enlist.

The Scouts told Hegseth in January that after hearing his suggestions, they had come up with a plan for him to review, which included discontinuing their Citizenship in Society merit badge and introducing a Military Service merit badge, waiving registration fees for military personnel and holding a ceremony to rededicate themselves to leadership, duty to God, duty to country and service, besides dissolving their DEI board committee.

[Related article President Donald Trump speaks Monday as he issues executive orders and pardons from the Oval Office of the White House. Carlos Barria/Reuters What is DEI, and why is it dividing America? 8 min read]

Founded in 1910, the Boy Scouts of America achieved a vaunted status in the US over the decades, with pinewood derbies, the Scout Oath and Eagle Scouts becoming part of the lexicon.

Lore has it that American businessman William Boyce was inspired to start the organization after he became lost in the fog in London and was guided to his destination by a youth who turned down a tip, telling Boyce that because he was a scout (they were formed in Britain in 1907) he couldn’t accept money for a good deed.

Since then, the organization has faced controversies and undergone significant changes.

In 1990, the organization expelled an Eagle Scout who had become an assistant scoutmaster after discovering he was co-president of his university’s gay and lesbian organization. He sued in 1992 alleging discrimination and lost at the US Supreme Court, which ruled that the Scouts could maintain membership and leadership criteria that excluded gay people.

Conservative groups rallied around the Boy Scouts, but scores of institutions curtailed support as the ban continued. The ban ended in 2013. In 2015, the organization ended its blanket ban on gay adult leaders while allowing church-sponsored Scout units to maintain the exclusion for religious reasons.

In 2017, the Boy Scouts announced that they would allow transgender children who identify as boys to enroll in their boys-only programs. That came after an 8-year-old was asked to leave his Scout troop in New Jersey after parents and leaders found out he was transgender.

The Boy Scouts also faced a flood of sexual abuse claims and sought bankruptcy protection in 2020, when it had been named in about 275 lawsuits and had told insurers it was aware of another 1,400 claims.

In 2023, a judge upheld the $2.4 billion bankruptcy plan allowing the organization to keep operating while compensating more than 80,000 men who filed claims saying they were sexually abused while in scouting.

Last year, Scouting America’s President and CEO Roger Krone acknowledged some backlash to the rebrand but described the overall response as a positive one that generated wider interest.

“The fact that we were going with a more kind of gender-neutral name, a lot of people kind of wanted to know more about it,” Krone said.

The organization said it saw a gain in membership of about 16,000 new scouts, less than 2% from the prior year. The organization said at the time that it had just over 1 million members.

Federal agencies US military LGBTQ issues Pete Hegseth

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Trump says he’s “not happy” with progress in Iran negotiations

February 27, 2026 / 1:50 PM EST / CBS News

Washington — President Trump said Friday that he is “not happy” with the pace of progress in negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program, as tensions continue to ratchet up amid the administration’s deployment of military assets to the Middle East.

In remarks to reporters before leaving the White House for Texas, where the president will deliver remarks on energy, Mr. Trump said he has not yet made a decision on whether to authorize strikes against Iran, but said he is not happy with how the Iranians have been negotiating.

“I’m not happy with the fact that they’re not willing to give us what we have to have,” he said. “I’m not thrilled with that. We’ll see what happens. We’re talking later.”

Mr. Trump said there is “always a risk” of drawn-out war with the Iranians, and reiterated that they cannot get a nuclear weapon.

“It’d be nice if we could do it without [the military], but sometimes you have to do it with,” he said. “We have the greatest military anywhere in the world. There’s nothing close. I’d love not to use it, but sometimes you have to.”

U.S. special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Mr. Trump’s son-in-law, met with Iranian negotiators in Geneva, Switzerland, on Thursday for talks brokered by Oman that are aimed at averting a potential U.S. military assault. While Middle Eastern nations have warned that strikes could lead to a major international conflict, the president has overseen a buildup of forces, which he calls a naval “armada,” consisting of military jets, two aircraft carriers and guided-missile destroyers in the region.

On Friday, the State Department authorized non-emergency personnel and their family members to leave Israel “due to safety risks.” It also announced Secretary of State Marco Rubio is set to travel to the country next week to discuss a “range of regional priorities,” including Iran.

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Neither the White House nor Witkoff and Kushner provided a readout of Thursday’s talks in Geneva. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who led the delegation for the Iranians, said following the meeting that “there was perhaps more seriousness on both sides than before, with the aim of reaching a negotiated solution.” He said there will be a fourth round of negotiations next week.

Vice President JD Vance told the Washington Post on Thursday that the president was still considering strikes to “ensure Iran isn’t going to get a nuclear weapon.” But he said there is “no chance” the U.S. would get involved in a yearslong war in the Middle East “with no end in sight.”

Negotiations between the U.S. and Tehran over its nuclear program come months after U.S. strikes on three Iranian nuclear facilities last June. Mr. Trump said in his State of the Union address Tuesday that the strikes “obliterated Iran’s nuclear weapons program,” but said Tehran wants to “start it all over again.”

The president has said he prefers a diplomatic resolution to the ongoing standoff with Iran but would use the military if he decides it’s necessary to prevent Tehran from building a nuclear weapon.

“My preference is to solve this problem through diplomacy, but one thing is certain: I will never allow the world’s number one sponsor of terror, which they are by far, to have a nuclear weapon,” Mr. Trump said during his address to a joint session of Congress. “Can’t let that happen.”

Kathryn Watson and Tucker Reals contributed to this report.