The briefing for Saturday, April 4.

The White House is asking Congress to approve a $1.5 trillion defense budget, marking the largest expansion in military spending since World War II. The proposal includes funding for Trump's proposed Golden Dome missile defense system and increased domestic production of naval vessels, including new Trump-class battleships. The Pentagon separately requested $200 billion for the Iran war effort. The budget request pairs military spending increases with cuts across domestic programs, including climate, housing, and education initiatives.

The administration said cuts would be achieved by 'reducing or eliminating woke, weaponized and wasteful programmes.' Non-defense spending in the proposed budget has fallen by 10%, or about $73 billion. Trump signaled at a private White House event that military spending should be a national priority, saying 'It's not possible for us to take care of day care, Medicaid, Medicare, all of these individual things.' The budget includes pay raises for troops and $65.8 billion in shipbuilding funding.

The proposal represents a 42% increase over the previous fiscal year. Approximately $1.1 trillion would go to discretionary Pentagon spending, while another $350 billion for the industrial defense base would come through budget reconciliation, requiring only 51 Senate votes. According to the BBC, administration officials have warned the U.S. currently lags behind China in both shipbuilding capacity and total output. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated the space-based systems alone could cost $542 billion over 20 years.

Iran shot down a U.S. F-15E Strike Eagle fighter jet on Friday, with one service member rescued and search continuing for a second. Iranian state media also reported a U.S. A-10 attack aircraft was hit by Iranian defense forces. The losses mark the first time American aircraft have been shot down by enemy fire in more than 20 years—the last being an A-10 during the 2003 Iraq invasion. The development contradicts President Trump's earlier claims that Iran's military has been 'completely decimated.'

The downing demonstrates Iran's continued ability to strike back despite five weeks of punishing U.S.-Israeli airstrikes. According to the AP, experts suggest the fighter jet was likely hit by a portable, shoulder-fired missile rather than a surface-to-air missile. Retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Houston Cantwell said the lack of more losses is 'an absolute miracle' given that U.S. forces have flown more than 13,000 missions and struck over 12,300 targets. American planes have been flying at lower altitudes, making them more vulnerable to Iran's missiles.

The incidents occurred as Iran continued attacks across the region. Kuwait's Mina al-Ahmadi oil refinery came under attack, with firefighters working to control multiple blazes, and a desalination plant suffered 'material damage.' Sirens sounded in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia destroyed several Iranian drones, and Israel reported incoming missiles. Local Iranian state television urged residents to search for downed pilots and hand them over to police, marking the first time Iran publicly called for such action during the conflict.

President Trump removed Attorney General Pam Bondi from her post on Thursday, less than two months after a combative congressional hearing. Bondi, who had been attorney general since February 2025, will be replaced by her former deputy, Todd Blanche, who previously served as Trump's criminal defense lawyer. The president praised Bondi in a Truth Social post, saying she would be 'transitioning' to a role in the private sector, though the specific position was not identified.

According to the BBC, Trump had grown increasingly frustrated with Bondi, particularly over her handling of files relating to Jeffrey Epstein and the investigation into the convicted sex offender. Two sources told CBS News that Trump's support for Bondi had been eroding over months. When sworn in, Bondi vowed transparency on the Epstein case and promised to release an alleged client list, but the department later said no such list existed. Millions of files were eventually released under pressure, only after Congress passed a law requiring the Department of Justice to make unclassified records public.

Blanche denied reports that the Epstein files had been a factor in Trump's decision, telling Fox News that Bondi 'made our country safe again' and 'did a great job.' However, Bondi faced bipartisan backlash after the justice department was accused of failing to obscure identifying information about survivors while protecting the identities of non-victims. During her tenure, her department encountered resistance from judges and grand juries in efforts to prosecute Trump's political enemies, including cases against James Comey and Letitia James that either were dismissed or stalled.

Iran fired on targets across the Middle East on Friday, damaging a desalination plant and setting a refinery ablaze in Kuwait, while American and Israeli airstrikes hit the Islamic Republic as the war neared the end of its fifth week. Tehran has maintained pressure on Israel and Gulf Arab neighbors despite U.S. and Israeli assertions that Iran's military capabilities have been destroyed. Kuwait's Mina al-Ahmadi oil refinery came under Iranian attack, and authorities in the UAE shut down a gas field after missile interception debris reportedly started a fire.

In a potential diplomatic opening, former Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif published a proposal in Foreign Affairs magazine calling for an end to the conflict. Zarif, who helped negotiate Iran's 2015 nuclear deal, wrote that 'prolonged hostility will cause a greater loss of precious lives and irreplaceable resources without actually altering the existing stalemate.' His proposal suggested Iran should offer to place limits on its nuclear program and reopen the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for an end to all sanctions. While Zarif has no official government position, he likely would not have published such a piece without authorization from senior leaders.

The diplomatic effort comes as the humanitarian toll mounts. According to ABC News, more than 1,900 people have been killed in Iran since the war began on February 28, with more than two dozen deaths in Gulf states and the occupied West Bank, 19 in Israel, and 13 U.S. service members killed. The U.S. has presented Iran with a 15-point ceasefire plan, but no signs of progress are apparent. President Trump has vacillated between saying the U.S. is negotiating an end to the war and threatening to expand it, with thousands of Marines and paratroopers ordered to the region raising speculation about a potential ground offensive.

Six weapons experts have disputed the U.S. military's claim that an Iranian missile may have been responsible for a deadly strike on the town of Lamerd on the first day of the war. The experts, examining footage of the strike independently, contested the Pentagon's suggestion that it was an Iranian Hoveyzeh cruise missile, citing the missile's visual features, explosion pattern, trajectory, and number of strikes in the area. Iranian officials said 21 people, including four children, were killed in the February 28 attack on a residential area.

U.S. Central Command released a statement on March 31 denying it was a U.S. missile and claiming the footage was consistent with an Iranian Hoveyzeh cruise missile. However, weapons analysts from Janes defense intelligence company and McKenzie Intelligence told the BBC that the missile lacked distinctive features of the Hoveyzeh, such as belly-mounted turbojet and mid-body wings. Multiple experts said the missile's appearance, including visible 'canard fins,' was consistent with a U.S. PrSM missile manufactured by Lockheed Martin. The munition appeared to explode mid-air in an airburst pattern typical of PrSM warheads.

When presented with the experts' analysis, Centcom said it had 'nothing to add' to its original statement. The statement had claimed 'U.S. forces do not target civilians, unlike the Iranian regime which has attacked civilian locations in neighboring countries more than 300 times.' Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the incident was under investigation, adding that U.S. forces 'never target civilian targets.' Trevor Ball, a weapons expert with Bellingcat, said on social media that the missile's length was 'much more consistent with the PrSM' and that the Hoveyzeh has a distinctly different silhouette with visible wings and engine.

The Iran war is creating major political challenges for Republicans six months before midterm elections, with an unpopular conflict, surging energy costs, and military setbacks threatening to erode the party's control of Congress. President Trump's claim that Iran's military has been 'completely decimated' was contradicted by Friday's downing of a U.S. fighter jet, while gasoline prices have climbed to $4.08 per gallon—nearly a dollar higher than when President Biden left office. At least 13 U.S. service members have been killed and hundreds more injured.

According to the AP, veteran Republican pollster Neil Newhouse warned that 'you're looking at an ugly November' as the party's electoral edge is 'being chipped away.' Republicans, who control all branches of government, are bracing for painful political backlash. Many privately concede the House is all but lost and Democrats have a realistic shot at taking the Senate. The Republican National Committee has largely avoided the war in talking points issued to surrogates, and vulnerable Republican candidates are sidestepping the issue, unwilling to publicly defend or challenge Trump.

Trump offered little clarity during a prime-time address earlier this week, simultaneously suggesting the war was ending and expanding. He said the U.S. is 'on track to complete all of America's military objectives shortly' while also promising to 'hit them extremely hard over the next two to three weeks.' The Strait of Hormuz remains closed, threatening a fifth of the world's oil supply. Former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, once among Trump's most vocal allies, lashed out against his Iran policy on social media, reflecting growing unease even among his base supporters.