Feb. 21, 2026, 5:25 PM EST

As President Donald Trump weighs a second major military assault on Iran in less than a year, congressional Democrats are warning a president known for pushing the boundaries of his executive power against unilaterally waging war on the Middle Eastern country.

Rep. Debbie Wassermann Schultz, D-Fla., said Saturday that Trump “must consult with Congress” and make a clear case for why Iran poses an imminent threat to the United States that would warrant U.S. military action. She pointed to the fact that former President George W. Bush sought congressional authorization before he ordered the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003.

“We have not seen anything about an imminent threat that would necessitate a significant strike like this,” Wasserman Schultz said on MS NOW’s “Alex Witt Reports.”

“So to think that this would be a walk in the park, the president is really not thinking this through carefully, and needs to consult with Congress,” she said.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement on Friday that the Trump administration has not clarified its strategy or objectives — or solicited congressional approval — as it weighs launching a military campaign against Iran.

“Congress has the sole power to declare war,” Schumer said. “We must enforce the War Powers Act and compel this administration to consult with Congress and explain to the American people the objectives and exactly why he is risking more American lives.”

Trump acknowledged on Friday that he is considering limited military strikes to push Tehran into agreeing to end its nuclear enrichment.

“I guess I can say I am considering that,” Trump told reporters amid a massive buildup of U.S. military forces in the Middle East, including two aircraft carriers and dozens of fighter jets, poised within striking distance of Iran.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told MS NOW’s “Morning Joe” on Friday that there is “no military solution for Iran’s nuclear program.” Trump on Thursday warned “bad things will happen” if Iran does not agree to a nuclear deal.

“The only solution is diplomacy,” Araghchi said. “This is why the U.S. is back at the table of negotiation and is seeking a deal. And we are prepared for that.”

Although he is unlikely to face much resistance from congressional Republicans, Democrats have cautioned against striking Iran. Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the ranking member on the Senate Armed Services Committee, warned of wider implications.

“A preemptive attack against Iran at this time would be a strategic misstep, and I am concerned that such recklessness could spark an uncontrolled conflict,” Reed said in a statement.

The administration has “failed to engage with Congress during this latest military build-up,” he added. “It is easy to start a war; finishing one is much harder.”

Clarissa-Jan Lim is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW. She was previously a senior reporter and editor at BuzzFeed News.

Feb. 21, 2026, 2:34 PM EST

President Donald Trump said Saturday he is raising global tariffs to 15% from the 10% import tax he imposed the day before in response to the Supreme Court’s ruling striking down his sweeping tariffs.

“Based on a thorough, detailed, and complete review of the ridiculous, poorly written, and extraordinarily anti-American decision on Tariffs issued yesterday, after MANY months of contemplation, by the United States Supreme Court, please let this statement serve to represent that I, as President of the United States of America, will be, effective immediately, raising the 10% Worldwide Tariff on Countries, many of which have been ‘ripping’ the U.S. off for decades, without retribution (until I came along!), to the fully allowed, and legally tested, 15% level,” he wrote on Truth Social.

Trump had initially set the global tariffs at 10% in an executive order on Friday evening. Those tariffs, enacted under section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, are in effect for 150 days unless Congress approves its extension.

On Saturday, he upped that figure to 15%. The sudden increase was met with immediate criticism from both sides of the aisle.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called it a “dumb” move. “He’s just making it up as he goes and Americans pay the price,” Schumer said on X.

“Trump’s commitment to pickpocketing the American people is relentless,” House Ways and Means Committee Democrats wrote on X. “A little over 24 hours after his tariffs were ruled illegal, he’s doing anything he can to make sure he can still jack up your costs.”

Scott Lincicome, vice president of general economics at the right-leaning CATO Institute, wrote“Clearly, this is all a very legitimate and rigorous ‘balance of payments’ remedy under the statute here. Yet another reason why congress needs to reform the law.”

Trump has been seething over the Supreme Court’s decision to invalidate the tariffs he imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. Three conservative justices — Neil Gorsuch, Amy Coney Barrett and Chief Justice John Roberts — sided with their liberal colleagues in the ruling, which The Wall Street Journal’s conservative editorial board called “a monumental vindication of the Constitution’s separation of powers.”

At a news conference on Friday, Trump said he was “ashamed of certain members of the court” and accused the justices of being “unpatriotic and disloyal to our Constitution.” He claimed without providing evidence that the court was “swayed by foreign interests and a political movement that is far smaller than people would ever think.”

He singled out Gorsuch and Barrett, two of his appointees to the high court, in a post on Truth Social later that day, saying that they “vote against the Republicans, and never against themselves, almost every single time, no matter how good a case we have.”

He then continued his streak into Saturday morning, lavishing praise on the conservative justices who disagreed with the majority decision.

“My new hero is United States Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh and, of course, Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito,” Trump wrote. “There is no doubt in anyone’s mind that they want to, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

The additional 5% increase on the tariffs he hastily imposed on Saturday could further shake global markets, which have been rattled by the president’s unpredictable tariff threats.

The Supreme Court ruling raised more uncertainty for consumerswho were left wondering whether they might be reimbursed for all the extra money they paid for goods and products over the past year.

While the court didn’t explicitly address reimbursement, Kavanaugh did in his dissent, saying, “Refunds of billions of dollars would have significant consequences for the U.S. Treasury. The Court says nothing today about whether, and if so how, the Government should go about returning the billions of dollars that it has collected from importers.”

Clarissa-Jan Lim is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW. She was previously a senior reporter and editor at BuzzFeed News.

Feb. 21, 2026, 6:00 AM EST

ByHussein Ibish

The inaugural meeting of the President Donald Trump-led “Board of Peace” on Thursday was fittingly described as a “show” in the White House readout circulated to the press. It was indeed merely a show. And while it is supposed to address post-war reconstruction in Gaza, there is no mechanism for connecting it to anything that could happen in reality.

The initial impulse for creating this board was the resolution of the war in Gaza and the reconstruction of the almost totally demolished living areas for the 2.2 million Palestinian civilians there, almost all now huddling in makeshift tents waiting for the next box of food aid. But the board’s remit recently expanded to ending multiple conflicts, including the war in Ukraine.

Notably, there are no Ukrainians or Palestinians on the board, although such champions of peace as Russian President Vladimir Putin, Belarus President Boris Lukashenko and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to join. The governments joining this board don’t include any of the United States’ Western allies.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney was specifically disinvited — not that he ever showed any inclination to participate — after he criticized Trump’s attitude toward traditional U.S. partners. It is a self-selected group, in some cases, pledging a $1 billion permanent membership fee. The press release announcing the “run of show” of the board’s inaugural meeting was also replete with errors, including misstating the United Arab Emirate’s representative’s title and the name of the Saudi minister of state for foreign affairs. Such simplistic errors regarding major leaders of long-standing and key U.S. partners reflects not only sloppiness and a lack of proofreading, but also, fundamentally, a downright disinterest in accuracy when it comes to foreign officials.

Despite the common misconception, the war in Gaza is still ongoing, with over 500 Palestinians killed, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run Health Ministrysince the so-called ceasefire went into effect on Oct. 20, 2025 — and the reconstruction project is entirely disconnected from facts on the ground. Israel Defense Forces officials said at the time that they would control roughly half of Gaza, including almost all of its arable land, while Hamas has retaken control of the smaller western portion, which includes most of the demolished cities and towns, almost all the Palestinian civilians and sandy beaches.

Neither Israel nor Hamas appear inclined to cooperate in preparing for any meaningful reconstruction project, and both appear to be hunkering down to make this partition and attenuated war a semipermanent reality. Reconstruction, therefore, remains a diplomatic fantasy.

The reconstruction “master plan,” developed by Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, is an absurdist fantasy resembling decades of careful development in places like Dubai and Singapore. It ignored the inconvenient fact that essentially the entirety of the Gaza Strip is in rubble, and that the urgent need is for Palestinians to be provided with basic housing, food and water, health and education and the minimal necessities of life.

Instead, this real estate developer’s hallucination includes data centers, airports, train systems, beachfront resorts and any number of wild and inappropriate fantasies that disregard the needs of the people, the utter devastation in the area and the existence of major historical and religious sites in a place that has been of great strategic and cultural significance since ancient times.

One of the dead giveaways about this “Board of Peace” is that its inaugural gathering was held at the former premises of the tragically disbanded Institute for Peacenow renamed the “Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace.” That only underscores the extent America’s once-national institutions are being rapidly personalized and rebranded for the narcissistic gratification of a president with no regard for the inherent fiduciary responsibility of the office — and every determination to stamp his name and identity on everything possible.

The bottom line, though, is that, for all the pledges of billions and Kushner’s “Master plan” for Gaza reconstruction (he insists, chillingly, “there is no plan B”), there is, at present, absolutely no connection between the diplomatic kabuki show being run by the Trump administration, joined by countries interested in currying his favor for one reason or another, and actual events on the ground in Gaza or anywhere else. Unless there is a dramatic change in fundamental realities in Gaza, reconstruction will remain a cruel fantasy and even a diplomatic hoax.

So what will happen to the billions pledged, if, indeed, they are ever delivered? At present, it seems more than likely they will be spent on something dedicated to the greater glory of Trump, rather than saving or serving any of the millions of homeless, destitute and starving people of Gaza.