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This week on “Sunday Morning” (Feb. 22)

2026-02-20T12:25:46-0500 / CBS News

By David Morgan

February 20, 2026 / 12:25 PM EST / CBS News

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The latest GDP data isn’t as bad as it looks. Here’s what to know.

February 20, 2026 / 1:20 PM EST / CBS News

After humming along at a robust pace for much of 2025, the economy hit a wall in the fourth quarter, with a six-week government shutdown and slowdown in consumer spending stunting growth at the end of the year.

Gross domestic product — which measures the nation’s output of goods and services — grew at a meager 1.4% annual rate in the fourth quarter, the Commerce Department said Friday. That came in well under economists’ forecasts of roughly 2% growth and is down sharply from the previous three months, when the economy expanded at blistinerg 4.3% pace.

Yet while the GDP number was weaker than expected, analysts say the economy remains on firm ground and is likely to accelerate in the coming months.

“Today’s headline number is certainly disappointing,” eToro U.S. investment analyst Bret Kenwell told CBS News. “When you peel back the layers a little bit, it’s not quite as bad as it appears on the surface.”

The latest GDP data, which was delayed due to the recent government shutdown, was the first snapshot of fourth-quarter economic growth. The Commerce Department will deliver two more readings for the quarter in the coming months.

The government also released the Personal Consumption Expenditures, or PCE, report on Friday, the Federal Reserve’s preferred measure of inflation. Headline PCE grew at an annual rate of 2.9% in December, a sign that inflation remains sticky.

Here are other key takeaways from Friday’s GDP report.

Government shutdown tipped the scales

---

The main reason the economy slumped in the final three months of 2025, according to economists: the 43-daygovernment shutdownlast year,during which hundreds of thousands of federal workers were furloughed and federal funding for a range of programscame to a halt.

Gregory Daco, chief economist at consulting firm EY-Parthenon, in an email called the shutdown a “self-inflicted black eye.”

“The disappointing end to the year largely reflected a self-inflicted drag from the longest government shutdown in U.S. history,” he said.

The lapse in federal spending lasted for nearly half of the fourth quarter, stretching from October to early November. According to Friday’s GDP report, the shutdown reduced fourth-quarter growth by about 1 percentage point, largely due to a reduction in federal government services. The shutdown also contributed to a steep drop in government spending in the fourth quarter.

Consumers pulled back on spending

---

A slowdown in consumer spending also modestly weighed on economic activity last quarter. Spending rose by 2.4% in the final three months of the year, down from 2.9% in the third quarter.

“Spending didn’t fall off a cliff, but it certainly slowed and decelerated from the pace we had earlier this year,” Kenwell said.

Consumer spending is the nation’s main engine of growth, accounting for around two-thirds of economic activity.

Economists expect a rebound

---

Friday’s GDP print comes as other sectors of the economy display strength. Job growth came in higher than expected last month, with employers adding 130,000 positions. Inflation is also cooling.

With the 2025 government shutdown in the rearview mirror, analysts expect the economy to rebound this year. Investment advisory firm Capital Economics expects the economy to grow at a 3% annual rate in the first quarter of 2026.

Michael Pearce, chief U.S. economist at Oxford Economics, also thinks the economy will pick up because of softening tariff pressures and ongoing tax cuts, which he said will boost spending.

“We expect a sharp rebound in the coming months, driven by a larger tax refund season,” he said in a research note.

Edited by Alain Sherter

Trump says he is ‘considering’ a limited military strike to pressure Iran into nuclear deal

U.S. has been building up its military presence in the Middle East

By Greg Norman-Diamond
Fox News

Published February 20, 2026 10:45am EST | Updated February 20, 2026 11:48am EST

[Donald Trump] said Friday he is “considering” a limited military strike on Iran to pressure its leaders into a deal over its nuclear program.

“I guess I can say, I am considering that,” Trump said at a breakfast with governors at the White House, after being asked by a reporter, “Are you considering a limited military strike to pressure Iran into a deal?”

The president on Thursday suggested the window for a breakthrough is narrowing, indicating [Iran has no more] than “10, 15 days, pretty much maximum” to reach an agreement.

“We’re either going to get a deal, or it’s going to be unfortunate for them,” he said.

[THE ONLY MAP YOU NEED TO SEE TO UNDERSTAND HOW SERIOUS TRUMP IS ABOUT IRAN]

President Donald Trump speaks during a breakfast with the National Governors Association in the State Dining Room of the White House, on Friday, Feb. 20, 2026, in Washington.(Evan Vucci/AP)

Trump’s remarks come as the U.S. is building up military assets in the Middle East, sending the USS Gerald R. Ford and its strike group toward the region.

The [USS Abraham Lincoln] and three guided-missile destroyers arrived in the Middle East more than two weeks ago.

[TRUMP SAYS IRAN HAS 15 DAYS TO REACH A DEAL OR FACE ‘UNFORTUNATE’ OUTCOME]

F/A-18 Super Hornets from Strike Fighter Squadron 14 land on the deck of USS Abraham Lincoln in the Arabian Sea in this image released Wednesday, Feb. 18, by U.S. Central Command.(U.S. Central Command)

On Wednesday, U.S. Central Command posted photos showing F/A-18 Super Hornets landing on the decks of the USS Abraham Lincoln in the Arabian Sea.

The next day, Russia warned Iran and “all parties in the region to exercise restraint and caution.”

The world’s largest aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford is seen in the North Sea during the NATO Neptune Strike 2025 exercise in September 2025.(Jonathan Klein/AFP via Getty Images)

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“Russia continues to develop relations with Iran, and in doing so, we call on our Iranian friends and all parties in the region to exercise restraint and caution, and we urge them to prioritize political and diplomatic means in resolving any problems,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, [according to Reuters.]

Fox News Digital’s Emma Bussey and Greg Wehner contributed to this report.

Greg Norman is a reporter at Fox News Digital.

US Supreme Court ruling overturning Trump tariffs could spook bond vigilantes

By Laura Matthews and Suzanne McGee
February 20, 2026 4:58 PM UTC Updated 7 mins ago

节点运行失败
Item 1 of 2 A person uses a video camera to record outside the U.S. Supreme Court building, where justices released their opinion today striking down President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs in Washington, D.C., U.S., February 20, 2026. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

[1/2]A person uses a video camera to record outside the U.S. Supreme Court building, where justices released their opinion today striking down President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs in Washington, D.C., U.S., February 20, 2026. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst [Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab]

• Summary
• Companies

• Stocks, bond yields edge higher as justices strike down IEEPA tariffs
• Refund uncertainty looms on $175 billion tariffs
• Potential for Treasury selloff remains amid deficit concerns

Feb 20 (Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court’s Friday ruling striking down President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs produced a muted rally in global stock markets while stoking worries among so-called bond vigilantes about government finances and higher bond yields.

The decision could dent risk appetite among investors, especially after Trump announced Friday afternoon, as widely expected, that he will explore other options to re-impose the import duties. That could weigh on sectors with high foreign revenues or those sensitive to changes in the price of raw materials and components, investors said, citing tech, materials, energy, and industrials.

The Reuters Inside Track newsletter is your essential guide to the biggest events in global sport. Sign up here.

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The court upheld a lower court’s decision that the Republican president exceeded his authority under the 1977 law that he used to justify the duties. The government may now have to pay back $150 billion to $200 billion to U.S. and foreign companies that paid them. This could boost automakers, consumer goods importers and other sectors, said investors.

The benchmark S&P 500 stock index (.SPX), opens new tab initially rose about 0.5% on the news and after a bumpy trade was up 0.4% mid-afternoon. Retailers, other consumer cyclical stocks and ETFs with exposure to overseas markets enjoyed a healthy bounce initially, while the State Street SPDR S&P Retail ETF, which tracks large retailers, gyrated from a small loss to a small gain of 0.5%.

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Shares in some major U.S. trading partners fared better, with the iShares MSCI Mexico ETF (EWW.P), opens new tab 1.26% ahead, the iShares MSCI South Korea ETF (EWY.P), opens new tab logging a 4.29% gain and Canada’s TSX Composite Index (.GSPTSE), opens new tab rallying 0.40%.

Republicans counter Democrat claims on SAVE Act voter ID legislation | Fox News

By Alex Miller, Elizabeth Elkind | Fox News

Published February 20, 2026 12:23pm EST

[Democrats fight ‘SAVE Act’ for election integrity, Rep. Steil responds to Schumer’s stance]

Rep. Bryan Steil, R-Wis., weighs in as White House and Republicans criticize Democrats for opposing the SAVE Act for election integrity, which includes voter ID.

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5 min

Congressional Republicans are pushing back against Democratic claims that their marquee voter ID legislation would wreak havoc on elections in the country.

Congressional Democrats have panned the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act as a tool of voter suppression — saying it’s a bill that allows the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to monitor Americans’ voter information and create barriers for married women to vote, among several other claims.

Along with requiring photo ID to vote, the bill would require proof of citizenship to register to vote in federal elections, mandate states to actively verify and remove noncitizens from voter rolls, expand information sharing with federal agencies, including DHS, to verify citizenship and create new criminal penalties for registering noncitizens to vote.

[GOP WARNS DEMOCRATS USING DHS SHUTDOWN TO STALL SENATE VOTER ID PUSH]

[chuck schumer and hakeem jeffries]

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., right, have panned the SAVE America Act as “Jim Crow 2.0” and warned it would be a mechanism of widespread voter suppression.(J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo)

Trump has time and again pushed voter ID, calling the election reforms in the bill a “CAN’T MISS FOR RE-ELECTION IN THE MIDTERMS, AND BEYOND.”

Some of the bill’s strongest proponents fact-checked those claims in interviews with Fox News Digital.

“If you look at what it actually says, rather than what Democrats aggressively and, I believe, disingenuously are arguing right now — they’re overlooking the requirements of the [SAVE America Act] — those requirements are actually really generous,” Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, told Fox News Digital. “They’re really flexible.”

Here’s a closer look at some of the most common claims Democrats have made about the SAVE America Act — and how Republican supporters of the bill are responding.

Claim: ‘Federalizing voter suppression’

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has routinely bashed the SAVE America Act as “Jim Crow 2.0” — the segregationist laws of the Deep South largely done away with by the Civil Rights Act.

“It has nothing to do with protecting our elections and everything to do with federalizing voter suppression,” Schumer said earlier in February on the Senate floor.

But Republicans argued that Democrats were being “hypocritical” in their voter suppression charge, particularly when it comes to voter ID.

[TOM EMMER BLASTS DEMOCRATS’ DOUBLE STANDARD ON SAVE ACT: ‘THEY REQUIRE PHOTO IDS’ AT THEIR OWN DNC]

[Chip Roy talks with members of the press after a Capitol Hill news conference during a government shutdown.]

Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, speaks to reporters after a news conference on Capitol Hill on Oct. 20, 2025, in Washington, D.C.(Andrew Harnik/Getty)

Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., whose home state is one of 36 that either requests or requires a form of photo identification before voting, argued that voter ID laws across the country had no effect on turnout.

“This idea that they’re saying that it’s going to suppress any vote — it’s never done that anywhere,” Scott told Fox News Digital. “They said that when Georgia passed it, and they had record turnout. So it’s not true at all. I mean, how many people do you know who don’t have an ID?”

Claim: DHS will have access to legal voters’ data

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., argued during a press conference that this iteration of the SAVE Act — with its new name — is “worse” than the version that passed the House in April because it gave DHS access to Americans’ voter data.

He appeared to be referring to a provision that would allow DHS to begin potential deportation proceedings against a noncitizen found on a state’s voter rolls.

“This version, as I understand it, would actually give DHS the power to get voting records from states across the country,” Jeffries said earlier in February. “Why would these extremists think that’s a good idea? That we as Democrats are going to accept at this moment in time? We’d want DHS and ICE, who have been brutally, viciously and violently targeting everyday Americans, to have more data about the American people? It’s outrageous.”

Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, who led both the SAVE Act and SAVE America Act in the House, argued Democrats were “really reaching” for criticism.

“This actually allows and empowers states to be able to — as many of them want to do — check their voter rolls against the citizenship database that they’re currently prohibited from doing under a judicial interpretation of federal law,” Roy said.

“So, long-winded way of saying, no — the SAVE system exists, we have citizenship data, and we’re simply going to allow the checking of voter rolls against citizenship data.”

[THUNE GUARANTEES VOTER ID BILL TO HIT THE SENATE DESPITE SCHUMER, DEM OPPOSITION: ‘WE WILL HAVE A VOTE’]

[Senator Mike Lee during a confirmation hearing]

Senator Mike Lee, a Republican from Utah and chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, during a confirmation hearing in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, Jan. 16, 2025.(Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Claim: Suppresses married women’s right to vote

Another oft-repeated argument by Democrats is that the legislation would make it harder for American women to vote — specifically married women whose last names are now different from those on their birth certificates.

That’s because the bill would require proof of citizenship, like a birth certificate or a Real ID, to register to vote.

“Republicans aren’t truly afraid of noncitizens voting, which we all know is already illegal, already grounds for deportation,” House Minority Whip Katherine Clark, D-Mass., said earlier this month. “They’re afraid of women voting.”

Rep. Emilia Sykes, D-Ohio, said during the same press conference, “If your current name does not exactly fit and match the name on your birth certificate or citizenship papers, you could be blocked from registering to vote, even if you are a lifelong naturalized or American-born citizen.”

But Roy again said this was untrue.

[CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP]

“This is absolute nonsense, and we specifically allow for a provision to make sure that no one can possibly be left behind,” he said.

“If a woman tried to register to vote with different names on her birth certificate and driver’s license,” Roy said. “We literally put in the statute that all you have to do is sign an affidavit under penalty of perjury that, ‘I am that person. This is my birth certificate … and this is my driver’s license that is reflecting my married name.’”

Alex Miller is a writer for Fox News Digital covering the U.S. Senate.

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NASA targets March 6 for launch of long-awaited Artemis II moon mission

February 20, 2026 / 2:55 PM EST / CBS News

With a successful fueling test behind them, NASA managers on Friday said the agency has a good shot at launching the Artemis II mission on March 6, sending four astronauts on a long-awaited trip around the moon.

Artemis II commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, mission specialist Christina Koch and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen are expected to enter pre-flight medical quarantine Friday evening at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.

An early evening shot of NASA’s huge Space Launch System rocket atop pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center, awaiting launch on a mission to send four astronauts on a flight around the far side of the moon. NASA

Assuming a two-day flight readiness review next week confirms all systems are “go” for launch, the astronauts will fly to the Kennedy Space Center on March 1 to begin final preparations and enjoy a bit of private time with their families.

They will be the first astronauts to be shot into space by a gargantuan SLS rocket, the most powerful operational launcher in the world. They will be the first to fly aboard an Orion deep space crew capsule and the first people to leave low-Earth orbit for a trip to the moon in more than half a century.

They will follow a free-return trajectory, looping around the far side of the moon and then heading back to Earth for a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean. They will not go into orbit or land on the moon, but they will travel farther from Earth than anyone in human history, beating a distance record set by the Apollo 13 crew in 1971.

Getting through a second “wet dress rehearsal” countdown on Thursday marked a major step in that direction.

“Following that successful wet dress yesterday, we’re now targeting March 6 as our earliest launch attempt,” said Lori Glaze, manager of NASA’s Moon-to-Mars Program. “I am going to caveat that. I want to be open, transparent with all of you that there is still pending work.”

That work includes installing platforms at the launch pad to service batteries in the SLS rocket’s self-destruct system, carrying out a detailed analysis of the wet dress rehearsal countdown and the comprehensive flight readiness review.

The practice countdown started Tuesday night and ended late Thursday after engineers successfully loaded the SLS rocket with more than 750,000 gallons of supercold liquid oxygen and hydrogen fuel. The team then carried out two problem-free runs through the last 10 minutes of the countdown, ending with a cutoff at T-minus 29 seconds as planned.

The smooth-running test stood in sharp contrast to an initial dress rehearsal earlier this month that was derailed by major hydrogen leaks during fueling.

Those leaks were detected in a cavity between the umbilical plates where 8-inch and 4-inch hydrogen lines enter the base of the SLS first stage. That cavity is purged with inert nitrogen gas during fueling and during the first practice run earlier this month, hydrogen concentrations close to NASA’s 16 percent safety limit were noted.

Toward the end of the countdown, when the first stage hydrogen tank was being pressurized as it would be for launch, concentrations shot up to 90 percent.

Engineers replaced suspect seals where those fuel lines attach to the rocket and during the fueling operation on Thursday, concentrations never climbed above 1.6%.

“Obviously, yesterday was a really good day for us,” said John Honeycutt, chairman of NASA’s Artemis II mission management team. “I thought the test went extremely well.”

Engineering teams “are off looking at the data,” he said. “I met some of them this morning (and) so far, we don’t have any indications of anything that we’re worried about. But we’re just getting started, so we’ll go through that and see what the teams come up with.”

DOJ files antitrust civil complaint accusing OhioHealth of blocking patients’ access to affordable healthcare

Updated on: February 20, 2026 / 2:00 PM EST / CBS News

The Justice Department on Friday accused one of Ohio’s largest healthcare systems of engaging in anticompetitive behavior that forces patients to pay high prices for their healthcare.

The complaint, brought jointly by the Justice Department and Ohio Attorney General against OhioHealth Corporation in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, is the first civil antitrust enforcement action by the department’s Antitrust Division in about a year, officials said.

It comes a week after Gail Slater, the division’s Trump-appointed assistant attorney general, was fired from her post amid rising tensions with Attorney General Pam Bondi’s office and replaced by Omeed Assefi, who is serving in an acting capacity.

“The mission of the department under the leadership of Attorney General Bondi and of this administration is to be laser-focused on affordability,” Assefi said in an interview Friday.

“What we want to do here is be as aggressive in enforcement as possible because of the returns that come to everyday people.”

“We have not yet been served with the complaint and it would be inappropriate for us to comment on pending litigation,” a spokesperson for OhioHealth told CBS News.

OhioHealth owns or manages 16 hospitals and outpatient facilities and is the dominant hospital system in the Columbus area. It competes with Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, and with the Mount Carmel Health System, which is owned by Trinity Health.

The complaint alleges that since at least 2003, OhioHealth’s contractual restrictions have prevented commercial health insurance companies from offering lower-cost plans to patients.

“These restrictions deprive patients of a choice among a full spectrum
of competitive health insurance plans, where patients could decide for themselves whether going to OhioHealth for care is worth the high prices it charges. If such plans were available, the employers and patients who choose them would benefit immediately from lower premiums and out-of-pocket costs,” the complaint alleges.

Justice Department officials told CBS News that OhioHealth has about a 40% market share, and it has negotiated prices with insurance companies that are about 50% higher than competitors.

They added that the investigation into OhioHealth has been underway for several years and is one of several ongoing probes into dominant healthcare systems across the U.S.

The most recent similar case was settled in 2018 with Charlotte, North Carolina-based Atrium Health, formerly known as Carolinas HealthCare System. It involved similar claims of anticompetitive steering restrictions in contracts between commercial health insurers and Carolinas HealthCare System providers.

“The enforcement agenda is very much alive and thriving,” Assefi told CBS.

US sugar industry weighs impact from new dietary guidelines regulation

By Marcelo Teixeira
February 20, 2026 7:27 PM UTC Updated 22 mins ago

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Sugar and flower for the upcoming Thanksgiving Holiday are shown for sale in a grocery store in Encinitas, California, U.S., November, 25, 2024. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab

NEW YORK, Feb 20 (Reuters) – The U.S. sugar industry could be impacted by regulatory changes as the federal government prepares to implement stricter dietary guidelines that could further reduce domestic demand for the sweetener, a top industry executive said on Thursday.

New school meal standards, updated dietary recommendations calling for zero added sugars, and rising use of GLP-1 weight-loss drugs could reduce sugar consumption at a time when federal agencies are also working to define what is classified as “processed food,” potentially triggering new labeling requirements or taxes on products.

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Courtney Gaine, president and CEO of the Sugar Association, a scientific body which supports the U.S. sugar industry, told the USDA Outlook Forum that the school meal standards taking effect next year might prohibit added sugars in kindergarten meals and significantly restrict them in other grades. That change alone would cut sugar demand by over 130,000 short tons.

“Right now it is kind of a storm, a lot of disinformation, a lot of fear,” Gaine said, adding that sugar appears to be “the low-lying fruit” for regulators despite, according to her, a lack of evidence that restrictions will improve health.

The industry faces additional pressure from rising GLP-1 weight-loss drug usage, which jumped from 12% in May 2024 to 18% in November 2025, though Gaine cautioned it remains “premature to assess the impact.”

“If you are going to have some policy, you should have evidence that it is going to work,” Gaine said, noting that while the “Make America Healthy Again” movement polls well, scientific evidence supporting sugar restrictions remains elusive.

There are many studies, however, defending the reduction of added sugars in food.

An umbrella review published in the BMJ, one of the world’s oldest and most influential general medical journals, found harmful associations between higher dietary sugar intake and health – including metabolic and cardiovascular risks – supporting public health recommendations to reduce added sugars in foods.

Reporting by Marcelo Teixeira; Editing by Aurora Ellis

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Trump says he’s considering limited military strike on Iran

February 20, 2026 / 11:35 AM EST / CBS News

Washington — President Trump says he’s considering a limited military strike on Iran, as the U.S. military builds up its presence in the region.

“I guess I can say I am considering that,” the president said when a reporter asked him Friday if he’s considering a limited military strike on the country. The press didn’t have the chance to hear the rest of the president’s response as reporters were ushered out of the room where the president was meeting with governors from across the country.

On Thursday, CBS News reported Mr. Trump had not yet made a final decision about whether to strike, according to sources familiar with the discussions. Top national security officials have told the president the military is ready for potential strikes as soon as Saturday, but the timeline for any action is likely to extend beyond this weekend, the sources said.

The president this week said Iran has no more than 10 to 15 days to reach a deal on its nuclear program, and warned that “bad things” would happen if they didn’t.

“Now is the time for Iran to join us on a path that will complete what we’re doing,” Mr. Trump said Thursday at the inaugural meeting of his Board of Peace, which also focused on security in Gaza. “And if they join us, that’ll be great, if they don’t join us, that’ll be great, too. But it’ll be a very different path. They cannot continue to threaten the stability of the entire region and they must make a deal. Or, if that doesn’t happen, I maybe, can understand if it doesn’t happen, it doesn’t happen. But bad things will happen if it doesn’t.”

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In:

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Latest on U.S.-Iran talks

Trump warns Iran as nuclear talks continue 03:13

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https://www.cbsnews.com/video/trump-warns-iran-as-nuclear-talks-continue/

A look at the military hardware the US has positioned for potential war with Iran

Published Feb 20, 2026, 12:01 PM ET / Source: CNN

By Avery Schmitz, Annette Choi
3 hr ago

An F/A-18E Super Hornet prepares to launch from the flight deck of Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln in the Arabian Sea, on January 29, 2026.

Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Daniel Kimmelman/US Navy

The Middle East Donald Trump

The US military has assembled a massive collection of weapons systems in the Middle East amid diplomatic negotiations between the US and Iran, flooding ships and aircraft to nearby waters and the constellation of US bases in the region.

Military planners have told President Donald Trump they will soon be ready to launch a strike, CNN reported Wednesday. However, sources said that Trump still hasn’t indicated a clear preference as to whether to give diplomatic talks, which included a meeting in Geneva Tuesday, more time or to pursue military action, or even what military action might be desirable. Potential strike plans presented to the White House range from quick strikes to more in-depth operations.

Most of the forces ordered to the region as part of Trump’s escalating pressure campaign against Iran’s leadership have already been moved into place, though the USS Gerald Ford carrier strike group was still transiting to the region, having been spotted entering the Mediterranean on Friday.

At least 18 US F-35 Lightning II stealth fighters are now stationed at Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in northern Jordan. The fifth-generation fighters first appeared at the base on Tuesday and are seen clearly in new satellite imagery captured by Planet Labs.

Satellite imagery also shows several E/A-18 Growlers arrived at the base, capable of waging electronic warfare campaigns against enemy air defenses and communications infrastructure.

Just southwest of the runways, a newly-expanded air defense installation can be seen – one of several defensive positions set up to protect US assets in the event of strikes by Iranian forces. Similar sites have cropped up at key bases across the region, like Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar.

Nearly 850 miles southeast at Saudi Arabia’s Prince Sultan Air Base, new images confirm the arrival of additional US military aircraft. Several E-3 Sentries, critical for warning US commanders of incoming enemy forces or missiles and facilitating battlefield communications, have been positioned at the base.

An E-3 Sentry appears parked at the eastern edge of a ramp. At least four E-3s have moved into the Middle East since Wednesday, according to flight data shared with CNN by research consultant Steffan Watkins.

Two E-11 Battlefield Airborne Communications Nodes can also be seen nearby – another vital link in the US military’s tactical communications network. The modified Bombardier luxury jets enable American assets to communicate in complex environments. Flight data indicates at least two other E-11s are based out of Prince Sultan Air Base, for a total of four.

These aircraft appear alongside nearly a dozen tankers used to refuel smaller planes in midair.

A MQ-4C Triton unmanned aircraft system in flight at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, in September 2014.

US Navy/Reuters

Amid these developments, US forces continue surveillance of the Strait of Hormuz at a near-constant pace, according to data from FlightRadar24, with P-8 Poseidon planes and MQ-4 Triton drones based in the UAE, Bahrain, and elsewhere patrolling the channel.

Another major US asset, the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group, was moved from the Pacific and arrived in the Arabian Sea last month. On February 15, the aircraft carrier was spotted just 422 miles south of the Iranian coast in satellite imagery published by the European Space Agency.

The aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford arrives in St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands, for a port visit on January 21, 2026.

Seaman Apprentice Nathan Sears/US Navy

The deployment was followed by the USS Gerald Ford carrier strike group which was making its way to the coast of Israel.

Those carriers travel with a constellation of other ships including destroyers as well as F/A-18E and F-35C fighter jet squadrons.

A US Air Force F-35 Lightning II flies over the North Sea during an exercise on January 29, 2026.

Airman 1st Class Iris Carpenter/US Air Force

As the US has collected its military hardware in the area, Iran is fortifying several of its nuclear facilities, using concrete and large amounts of soil to bury key sites, according to new satellite imagery and analysis from the Institute for Science and International Security.

Trump, in his statements on Iran over the past weeks, has done little to gain buy-in from the American public or Congress for a large military operation in the country. He has hinted at a desire for regime change, and insisted Iran not obtain a nuclear weapon, but has not said what precisely his objectives would be in ordering an attack.

CNN’s Natasha Bertrand, Kevin Liptak and Abigail Watts contributed to this report.