The United States is “going to end up with a great deal” with Iran, President Donald Trump said in an interview Tuesday morning. “I think they have no choice,” he said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “We’ve taken out their Navy, we’ve taken out their Air Force, we’ve taken out their leaders.“ Trump said he doesn’t plan to extend the current ceasefire’s Wednesday deadline, which would give Iran until Wednesday night to agree to a peace deal. “We’ve taken out their leaders, frankly, which does complicate things in one way, but these leaders are much more rational,” Trump said. “It is regime change, no matter what you want to call it, which is not something I said I was going to do, but I’ve done it indirectly.” Trump said the U.S. would resume bombing if Iran does not agree to a deal by the deadline. “I expect to be bombing because I think that’s a better attitude to go in with,” he said. “But we’re ready to go. I mean, the military is raring to go. They are absolutely incredible.” Vice President JD Vance and other negotiators are expected to fly to Islamabad, Pakistan, for a second round of negotiations Tuesday after the first set of talks was unsuccessful. Oil prices surged Monday, with Brent and WTI benchmarks rising by 5.6% and 6.9%, respectively after Iran shut the Strait of Hormuz again and the U.S. seized an Iranian cargo ship as part of its ports blockade. Shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a corridor for about a fifth of the world’s oil supply, remained limited on Monday. The conflict is creating the worst energy crisis ever faced by the world, the head of the International Energy Agency said on Tuesday. Reuters contributed to this report.

Two mothers who lost their sons and another whose daughter remains permanently injured will testify before Congress on Thursday about how these tragedies—each involving illegal aliens—could have been prevented through stricter enforcement of immigration law. This forum could be uncomfortable for House Democrats who oppose enforcing immigration laws, said Rep. Jeff Van Drew, R-N.J., chairman of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Oversight, which is holding the hearing. “People keep arguing the legal loopholes and technicalities. I want members of this committee who don’t believe in enforcement to look these mothers in the eyes,” Van Drew told The Daily Signal. “We are not going to have lawyers, not analysts, but real people.” Van Drew said illegal immigrants charged or convicted of serious crimes should be returned to their country of origin. Instead, many blue cities and states refuse to cooperate with federal immigration authorities such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement. “I hope that those colleagues on the other side of the aisle who don’t believe in detention or deportation of criminal illegal aliens—people who have been indicted or convicted of major crimes like drug distribution or rape—will see the toll of sanctuary policies,” Van Drew said. Van Drew pointed to Minnesota and California as among states with some of the worst sanctuary policies. He also included his own state of New Jersey, where he said state and local law enforcement is barred from assisting ICE. Jen Heiling—the mother of Brady Heiling, who was killed last July at age 19—is set to testify to the panel. Last July in Wisconsin, an illegal alien from Honduras was charged with two felony counts—vehicular homicide and impaired driving—after she allegedly struck a vehicle, killing 18-year-old Hallie Helgeson and severely injuring Heiling, who died from his injuries days later, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Also scheduled to testify is Patricia Fox, the mother of Carissa Aspnes, who was severely brain-damaged at age 22 in March 2025. Aspnes was riding on the back of a friend’s motorcycle, wearing a helmet and protective gear, when a car driven by an illegal alien from Venezuela crossed multiple lanes and struck the motorcycle, causing her brain damage, CBS News reported. The driver pleaded guilty and was deported last month. Also scheduled to testify to the House panel is Laura Wilkerson, the mother of Joshua Wilkerson, who was tortured and murdered in 2010 by an illegal alien who overstayed his visa for eight years. Wilkerson, 18, was from Pearland, Texas, and was killed by a 19-year-old illegal immigrant from Belize, who admitted to beating him to death, according to the Houston Chronicle. Van Drew said he is hopeful the hearing will help change the narrative, as most Democrats and much of the legacy media tend to focus on the plight of illegal aliens and ignore the victims of crime. Most members of Congress won’t experience the pain of losing a child, Van Drew said. But he said needless deaths are occurring because illegal aliens have often been arrested and released. “We only have three witnesses. We could have 30, or 300, or 3,000,” Van Drew said. “I don’t look forward to this hearing. Sometimes members of Congress, or others, will tell parents who lost a child, ‘I know how you feel.’ No, you don’t. I pray to God you never do.” He noted continuous news coverage of ICE, particularly after two fatal shootings in Minnesota earlier this year. “Cut it out and stop it,” he said of the anti-ICE criticism. “I want body cams for ICE agents—I’m good with that. But they should keep their masks because they and their families are being targeted. They should have a badge ID. There should be more training for how to handle sensitive areas like churches. But the basic fact is they are catching criminals. How can you say we don’t need that?” Deadly confrontations have occurred in sanctuary jurisdictions, Van Drew noted.

Sen. Thom Tillis praised President Donald Trump’s nominee for Federal Reserve chair, Kevin Warsh, but he maintained that he will not support Warsh as long as Trump is investigating current chair Jerome Powell. “I look forward to supporting your nomination, and I look forward to this investigation being taken down,” the North Carolina Republican told Warsh on Tuesday as the nominee testified before the Senate Banking Committee. Tillis celebrated Warsh’s “impeccable” credentials. “I love your opening statement. I love your focus on the independence of the Fed,” Tillis said. “I love the idea of Fed independence with respect to achieving the dual mandate.” Though Tillis said Warsh is the perfect candidate, he said he is unwilling to vote for him during a criminal investigation into Powell’s construction of the Fed headquarters going over budget. The U.S. attorney’s office in Washington, D.C. opened the investigation in November at President Donald Trump’s bidding, reviewing whether Powell lied to a Senate committee about cost overruns. Federal prosecutors appeared last Tuesday at the construction site for the Federal Reserve headquarters in Washington, D.C. Trump nominated Kevin Warsh to succeed Powell, but Powell has said he won’t step down until after the current investigation is finished. Powell has also said he will remain as chair of the Fed’s Board of Governors until the Senate confirms a replacement. Tillis said that a construction project going over budget is not grounds for a criminal investigation. “There were a variety of reasons why this building went over budget,” Tillis said. “As a matter of fact, if we put everybody in prison in federal government that had had a budget go over, we’d have to reserve an area roughly the size of Texas for a penal colony because of the way government projects work.” “And the reality is, the overage of inflation-adjusted was about $730 million,” he added, “the majority of which seems to be legitimate.” He said the $2.5 billion construction project was “not acceptable, unfortunate, but legitimate.” Tillis said he has a problem with DOJ attorneys “thinking it would be cute to bring chair Powell under an investigation just a few months before the position was going to be open.” The senator “can’t go forward” with Warsh “until this bogus investigation is done with,” he said. “We have got to end this investigation,” he said. “Big DOJ didn’t know about it. The president didn’t know about it. Let’s get rid of this investigation so I can support your confirmation, Mr. Warsh.”

FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—The State Department is enforcing President Donald Trump’s policy banning men from using women’s restrooms and other private spaces, according to a new memo obtained by The Daily Signal. The State Department issued a memo on Monday titled “Updates Regarding Biological Sex and Intimate Spaces, Including Restrooms,” which clarifies that the agency must abide by Trump’s executive order protecting sex-segregated private spaces. “The Administration affirms that there are two sexes—male and female—and that federal facilities should operate on this objective and longstanding basis to ensure consistency, privacy, and safety in shared spaces,” State Department Principal Deputy Spokesman Tommy Piggot told The Daily Signal. “In line with President Trump’s Executive Order this provides clear, uniform guidance to the department by grounding policy in biological sex as determined at birth.” “ACTION: Post must abide by the President’s directive in E.O. 14168, ensuring intimate spaces are designated by biological sex,” the memo reads. President Trump signed an executive order on his first day in office directing agencies to designate private spaces by biological sex. Last summer, the Office of Personnel Management issued guidance that federal bathrooms, locker rooms, and lactation rooms must be designated by biological sex. On Feb. 26, 2026, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ruled that “under Title VII, federal agency employers may lawfully exclude men from the women’s bathroom, and women from the men’s bathroom.” The ruling reverses an Obama-era EEOC decision from 2015 which required federal agencies to allow employees who identify as transgender to use bathrooms in accord with their “gender identity,” rather than biological sex. “When it comes to bathrooms, male and female employees are not similarly situated,” EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas said at the time. “Biology is not bigotry.” The new memo does not prohibit single-occupancy restrooms.

Today, Virginians are flocking to the polls to vote on whether to amend the Virginia Constitution and let the state Legislature redraw the state’s congressional maps. The map state Democrats have proposed would give their party a 10-1 seat advantage, likely leaving just one Republican to represent the historically purple state. The Republican majority in the U.S. House of Representatives could be on the line. Four Virginia Republicans could be out of a job, and nearly half of Virginia could lose accurate representation in Washington. GOP Is Hopeful “People deserve to have representation in Congress that reflects their political ideologies, and right now we have that,” Rep. Jen Kiggans, R-Va., told The Daily Signal, referencing the current 6-5 congressional map in Virginia. All five Virginia Republicans are home in their districts today—at polls, knocking on doors, and talking to voters. “We have spent time, we’ve spent money, we’ve spent energy educating voters about these gerrymandered maps. We’re optimistic that voters are going to reject them,” Rep. Ben Cline, R-Va., said. “I think that we can win this, and especially since … we know historically that on voting day is when we have strong Republican turnout,” Rep. Rob Wittman, R-Va., said. On the Virginia redistricting referendum today @RobWittman tells me: “Describing this as ‘restoring fairness’ is a lie. It would be more accurate to say it destroys fairness!”— Virginia Grace McKinnon (@virginiagmck) April 21, 2026 Kiggans, who represents Virginia’s 2nd Congressional District, said the GOP has done its work to inform voters and motivate them to get out to the polls. “Republicans are much more organized this time,” she said. “I think we learned some important lessons last November that we are applying now.” She described voters as having a lot of energy about this election, and added, “I absolutely think the momentum is on our side.” Rep. Morgan Griffith is the only Virginia Republican whose district is predicted to stay red. He told The Daily Signal he believes all of the hard work will “bear fruit for Republicans tonight, because all we have to do is show people the map and give them the facts.” Is This ‘Restoring Fairness’? A recent poll from Heritage Action showed that close to 50% of Virginia voters were confused by the language on the ballot, which asks whether they want to “restore fairness.” A “Yes” vote will allow the Democrats to change the maps, while a “No” vote would keep the status quo. “Going from a 6-5 delegation to a 10-1 delegation redistricting? That disenfranchises 2 million voters in Virginia, disenfranchises rural Virginia, and is completely opposed to what would be fair,” Wittman told The Daily Signal. “They say it restores fairness. It actually destroys fairness.” VIRGINIA SCOOP: @Heritage_Action is out with a new poll that shows 70% of Virginia Democrats oppose gerrymandering redistricting efforts happening now!“It’s very possible that this can be defeated.” @StefaniBuhajla told @DailySignal pic.twitter.com/RnTJu2a8Bg— Virginia Grace McKinnon (@virginiagmck) March 25, 2026 Rep. John McGuire, R-Va., said he thinks the wording on the ballot contains “leading language” and is “illegal.” Cline agrees the ballot is misleading, which is why he joined a lawsuit to nullify the election. “That’s why I’m a plaintiff in a lawsuit to challenge the wording of the ballot,” he told The Daily Signal. “The Virginia Supreme Court decided to wait until after the election to hear the case on whether this language is legal.” “Shame on the Supreme Court,” Kiggans said. “It’s extremely biased.” Griffith said he’s still hopeful the state Supreme Court will strike the language, calling it “very confusing.” Democrats Have Spent Millions This April election has had massive influence from Democrats nationwide. The party has spent nearly $100 million on the effort to redraw the maps, while Republicans have spent less than a third of that. “The amount of money that’s been spent on this election alone should make a statement to everyone about the importance of what’s going on in Virginia,” Kiggans said. Wittman said this spending makes sense given what he described as misleading claims Democrats are promoting. Virginia, Democrats are spending tens of millions of dollars to buy 4 congressional seats. They’ve even resurrected President Obama in their quest to gerrymander the Commonwealth. Get everyone you know in VA to vote NO — tomorrow — April 21st. pic.twitter.com/aoCq7R0c9k— ThePersistence (@ScottPresler) April 20, 2026 Newly elected Gov. Abigail Spanberger has given her all to support the redistricting effort—a shift from what she said during her campaign. “She lied in the fall of last year when she looked directly at a camera and said she had no intention to gerrymander Virginia, then turned around in January and made that a top priority—so her credibility is shot. Nobody is believing anything she’s saying,” Kiggans said. “It’s like she doesn’t care about the people she represents,” McGuire said, calling the governor “drunk with power.” “She’s out of touch with Virginians, and I hope that Virginians—regardless of race, party, religion, or creed—send a loud message that we don’t agree with her radical leftist, anti-American policies,” McGuire concluded.