President Donald Trump canceled a planned trip to Pakistan by his top envoys for negotiations over the Iran conflict, raising questions about the durability of the current ceasefire.
The president on Saturday told his son-in-law Jared Kushner and special envoy Steve Witkoff to skip the trip, adding in a social media post that there has been “Too much time wasted on traveling.”
Americans are growing more pessimistic about the economy, according to a new Gallup poll.
Of the people polled, 47% say the current economic conditions are "poor." That's 7% higher than the results from Gallup's poll in March.
21% say they think the economy is "excellent" or "good." 23% of respondents felt that way last month.
Gallup says 73% feel the economy is getting worse, as opposed to better. That number is also higher than it was in March.
The University of Michigan's Consumer Sentiment Index dropped to 49 points in April, down from 53 points in March.
The April reading is the lowest ever recorded by the index.
The disconnect between official economic data and how ordinary Americans feel about their finances has led experts to describe the current environment as a "K-shaped economy."
What they're saying:
"A K-shaped economy is when a majority of the population has reduced their spending as if feeling the effects of a recession, yet the wealthiest of the population have actually increased their discretionary spending," said Brie Mason, a financial advisor with Authentikos Advisory Group. "That keeps the economy moving forward."
In the eight weeks since the Iran war started, the conflict has driven gas prices above $4 a gallon, strained homebuyers and pushed inflation to its highest level in nearly two years. Even if the war ends soon, Americans are likely to feel the financial sting for months, economists say.
"I think the damage has already been done, in part because there's no going back on oil prices, at least not any time in the near future," Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics, told CBS News.
The war has disrupted traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic waterway through which one-fifth of the world's oil supply normally flows. Oil prices have jumped as a result, creating widespread consequences for Americans as they fuel their cars and book travel. As of midday Friday, Brent crude, the international benchmark, was trading at $105 a barrel, up 44% since before the war started.
[. . .]
Economists told CBS News they expect inflation to come in hot in April and remain elevated throughout 2026. Last month, the Consumer Price Index reached 3.3% on an annual basis, the highest level since May 2024, driven by a jump in energy prices.
Another key inflation gauge, the Personal Consumption Expenditures price Index, could hit 4% by the end of the year, double the Federal Reserve's target rate of 2%, according to Scott Lincicome, vice president of general economics at the Cato Institute, a nonpartisan think tank. The measure rose by 2.8% on an annual basis in February.
"Consumers, of course, want deflation, and we're definitely not getting that," he said. "We should expect things to remain higher than what people want."
At MS NOW, Julia Jester and David Rohde observe:
A race is on to see whose economy breaks first in the war with Iran.
President Donald Trump is using a U.S. naval blockade to slowly strangle Iran’s economy to force the country’s leaders to relent — a process that could take weeks or even months. Meanwhile, Iran is betting that its closure of the Strait of Hormuz will send oil prices soaring and inflict enough pain on the U.S. economy to force Trump to back down — a risk that oil analysts say could be just a few weeks away from playing out.
Who blinks first in the standoff could determine whether the eight-week war ends soon or escalates into something worse. It is a new stage of a conflict that points to prolonged pain for Iranians, Americans and a global economy that is being starved of critical energy supplies.
“The battlefield has moved from the military to the economy, for right now,” said Dan Pickering of Pickering Energy Partners, an energy-focused financial services platform. “We’ve stopped dropping bombs, and now we’re just trying to squeeze each other. And I think both sides are probably showing more resilience than you would have expected.”
Oil prices rose and stocks were mixed on Monday after President Trump called off a trip to Pakistan by two of his top negotiators for a new round of peace talks with Iran.
His latest change of heart leaves the countries locked in a stalemate, still under a cease-fire agreement but without a clear path to ending the war.
In the meantime, the United States and Iran are trying to inflict economic damage on each other by strangling shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping artery that connects the Persian Gulf to buyers around the world.
King Charles III and Queen Camilla will arrive in Washington on Monday afternoon during Week 8 of President Trump’s war with Iran. This time, Britain’s refusal to take part in what Prime Minister Keir Starmer has characterized as the United States’ latest war of choice has infuriated Mr. Trump, and deeply strained relations between the two governments.
Officially, the king’s four-day visit has nothing to do with that dispute. Government officials say the monarch is above day-to-day politics and does not have a role in policy or commenting on affairs of the state.
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) on Sunday urged King Charles III to acknowledge the victims of the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein during his address to Congress this week, when the monarch will make his first state visit to the U.S.
“I am hopeful that King Charles, when he speaks to the Congress, will acknowledge the Epstein survivors, will call for justice, will call for investigations and prosecutions,” Khanna said during a Sunday appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
“It would be an enormous gesture if when he’s speaking at the Congress, he does that. And I’m hopeful that he will,” he added.
The family of Virginia Giuffre has made a desperate plea for King Charles to meet them during his US tour.
Sky Roberts, Ms Giuffre's brother, said the monarch would "show unity with survivors" if he were to see them, and survivors of paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein. Charles and Queen Camilla are due to arrive in the US on Monday for a four-day visit during which they will meet President Donald Trump.
And Mr Roberts and his family see this as an ideal opportunity for Charles to spend just 10 minutes with them for the relations "to show him that we're real people, with real feelings".
And Luke Alsford (METRO) notes:
Epstein survivors will hold high-profile meetings and protests in Washington DC to mark King Charles’ state visit, Metro has learned.
Virginia Giuffre’s family will join a meeting with survivors and a top US lawmaker hours before the King addresses Congress on Tuesday.
Separately, Epstein survivor Rina Oh and other advocates will hold a ‘live art protest’ in front of the White House as the Monarch meets Donald Trump inside.
The events could pile more pressure on the Monarch over his brother Andrew’s links to the paedophile financier and the Royal Family’s response to the scandal.
Donald Trump was not happy with Norah O'Donnell during a segment of her 60 Minutes interview regarding Saturday's shooting at the White House Correspondents' Dinner.
[. . .]
Less than 24 hours into the aftermath, Trump sat down for his first interview about the third attempt on his life since the 2024 presidential campaign. 60 Minutes correspondent Norah O'Donnell, who has interviewed Trump on several occasions, spoke to the president on a wide range of topics regarding the shooting, from accusations of poor security to Melania's reaction, and — to his fiercest resistance — the alleged shooter's intentions in his own words.
NBC News quoted the alleged manifesto on Saturday, which an unnamed senior administration official told the outlet Allen had sent to family members within minutes of the shooting. On Sunday, the New York Post published the alleged manifesto in full.
O'Donnell pointed the president to one particular section, which follows Allen's alleged apologies to family and friends, in which he notes, "I am no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist, and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes."
"I was waiting for you to read that because I knew you would, because you're horrible people. He did write that. I'm not a rapist, I didn't rape anybody," Trump responded. O'Donnell noted that Allen doesn't refer to Trump by name in that section, but the president cut in: "Excuse me. I'm not a pedophile. You read that crap from some sick person. I get associated with stuff that has nothing to do with me. I was totally exonerated."
Robert Davis (RAW STORY) notes online reaction to Chump's lies:
Observers offered the president a swift fact-check on social media.
"A jury and a judge adjudicated him as a rapist," Norman Ornstein, a contributing editor at The Atlantic, posted on X. "A woman credibly accused him of rape when she was 13. He bragged about walking into a dressing room with naked teenagers. He bragged about grabbing women by the p----."
"Trump is a clinical-grade psychopath," journalist Nancy Levine Sterns posted on X.
"Trump is literally a court adjudicated rapist," novelist Patrick S. Tomlinson posted on X.
"Wow. This interview was epic. Trump’s nastiness and consciousness of guilt were off the f------ charts," podcaster Andy Ostroy posted on X.
In 2023, a jury found Trump liable in a civil sexual abuse and defamation case filed by E. Jean Carroll. A judge later clarified that the jury's guilty verdict meant Trump had been found liable for rape, the Washington Post reported at the time.
And his "exonerated" remark? He's been saying that since the January releases by the Justice Dept of some of The Epstein Files. He maintained that they proved he was innocent. He has not addressed the later release prompted by NPR's reporting -- the woman who gave four interviews to the FBI in 2019 ad stated in three of them that Chump had assaulted her when she was underage. He's never been asked about that -- not why did the Justice Dept not release those, not for his response to the accusations.
