RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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See the full story · 1 sourcesListen to this article with a free profile 00:00 00:00 Firefighters battle a forest fire in Saint-Jean-d'Illac, southwest France, on Sunday. Romain Perrocheau / AFP via Getty Images Share Add NBC News to Google July 30, 2026, 6:58 AM EDT By Elizabeth Robinson , Delia Sara Rangel and David Hickey Without a clear endgame for the Iran war, Trump is growing frustrated. The president adds another D.C.-area renovation to his list of projects. And why some former MLB players feel the league is turning its back on them in retirement.
Add NBC News to Google Trump vows retaliatory strike after failed Iranian attack 01:27 Iran vowed to “punish” the United States today after the American military said it had completed a “heavy wave of strikes” overnight. It was the latest retaliation for an attack by Tehran on U.S. forces in the Middle East. The renewed fighting came hours after President Donald Trump threatened to escalate the war as it enters its sixth month.
As the president weighs what to do next, he has grown frustrated, according to people familiar with discussions, because his top aides and allies can’t agree on a goal of the war — whether it has to do with a nuclear threat, the Strait of Hormuz or Iran’s missile and drone program — and therefore can’t plan for an endgame.
Last week, Trump erupted during a meeting with some of his top national security officials and yelled expletives, two sources familiar with the discussion said. Two others familiar with the White House discussions on the war said the president and his top aides are not pleased with the status quo.
“The president is exasperated,” according to a Trump ally. “I don’t think he believed it was going to be this difficult to get the Iranians to agree to a deal.” They added that “there was not a real strategy for how long or what they should do to get to the endpoint.”
The disagreement raises the possibility of whether the U.S. is trapped in an increasingly unpopular conflict against an adversary that has proved to be resilient.
Where things stand and what Trump allies have said.
Senate committee postpones Blanche attorney general vote
The Senate Judiciary Committee canceled a vote on Todd Blanche’s attorney general nomination over concerns from two Republican senators. It’s not clear when the committee vote to send Blanche’s full nomination to the Senate, which had been scheduled for this morning, would take place.
The hold up stems from Sens. John Cornyn and Thom Tillis, both of whom have clashed with Trump, as they demand written assurances from the Justice Department that it will kill an “anti-weaponization” fund and narrow who is protected from IRS audits — both related to a settlement between Trump and the IRS earlier this year.
How the Justice Department has responded.
NBC News’ Raf Sanchez with firefighters and volunteers in France as they battle the flames
The fire erupted seemingly out of nowhere. On the side of the road in France’s wine region , as waves of firefighting planes passed over a charred forest, flames burst out at the edge of the tree line.
Two white pickup trucks, manned by volunteers, sped toward the small fire, tackling the flames with hoses. A few minutes later, another blaze erupted just a few yards from the first.
“These small fires are like little candles,” Commander Matthieu Jomain, a fire service spokesman, told NBC News. “If we don’t put them out, we can’t win this battle.”
The encounter illustrates the challenge facing French fire crews as they battle one of the country’s largest-ever fires, four times the size of Paris. The fire has threatened the historic city of Bordeaux and forced 220,000 people from their homes, according to authorities in the region.
Add NBC News to Google Trump announces renovations to Dulles International Airport in Washington, D.C. 01:23 Trump announced a sweeping makeover at Washington’s Dulles International Airport. The renovations include replacements of two concourses and a “magnificent” parking garage, Trump said at an Oval Office event. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the plans also include a “horseshoe rail system” to transport travelers through terminals.
The project is estimated to cost $22 billion, but it won’t be federally funded, Duffy said. That’s because “the airlines who participate in the project are going to pay for it,” he said. The administration is hopeful the project could begin next spring and be completed in two years.
What travelers at Dulles think about the airport’s current condition.
Add NBC News to Google Pope Leo details family’s slavery history in visit with Tom Llamas 00:55 Pope Leo XIV discussed his family’s connection with slavery and his love of America in a one-on-one encounter with “NBC Nightly News” anchor Tom Llamas after the pontiff led a “Concert for Peace.”
In the Borgo Laudato Si’ papal gardens southeast of Rome, Llamas asked the Chicago-born pope what he loved about America. He replied, “So many things. In a sense, speaking about principles, what America stands for, the sense of freedom, the sense of opportunity, the sense of having invited for generations people from around the world to be part of America.”
Leo said his grandparents were immigrants. On his mother’s side “we have people who were both slaves and slave owners,” he said. Earlier this year, he apologized for the Catholic Church’s involvement in legitimizing slavery.
What else Pope Leo said about what it means to be an American.
During my high school years in southwestern Ohio, I loved going to Cincinnati Reds baseball games. So I was all-in when Johnny Bench, the Reds Hall-of-Fame catcher and All-Star, called earlier this year suggesting I research inequities in retirement benefits for Major League Baseball players.
I found that retired players, who made a fraction of what current stars do, get benefits that are far less generous than what more recent players receive. They don’t receive cost-of-living increases like younger players ...
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