THE WAR ROOM: President Trump is stuck where he can’t make peace and can’t make war.

  After promising for days that a peace agreement is imminent, Trump ordered US forces to again attack Iranian targets overnight. Among the sites damaged in the past two days are waterworks in Sirik County depended upon by as many as 20,000 people.

  Iran fired at US bases in the region. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps said in a statement that they will respond “forcefully and definitively.”

  Trump said the US fired 49 Tomahawk missiles and bragged on Fox News that, “They didn’t know what the hell hit them.”

  “If we need to negotiate with bombs, we’ll negotiate with bombs,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said just before yesterday’s attacks.  “And we’re very good at it. Nobody better in the world.”

  After claiming to have utterly destroyed the Iranian military, neither Hegseth nor Trump have explained how there are still military targets to hit. 

  In the continuing debate about who controls the Strait of Hormuz, Trump on his social media claimed to have ordered a “secret mission” to escort commercial ships and oil tankers through the strait that  “resulted in more than 100 MILLION Barrels of Oil making its way through the Straight, and into the Open Market.” Again, if Iran has no military or control of the strait, why the need for escorts?

  But Trump also posted: “Iran is doing ZERO business, not paying their military, or any of their bills, and quickly becoming a FAILED NATION! Lots of oil is getting out. Praise be to Allah!”

ECON 101: Driven by the rising price of oil because of the Iran war, consumer prices rose 4.2 percent in May compared with last year, posting the highest pace of inflation since April 2023 when Joe Biden was president.

  At the White House Trump said, “I love it. The numbers were great. You know what I really love? I love the inflation.” But he promised that rising prices would “come down like a rock” when the war with Iran is over.

THE SOCIETY PAGES: Microsoft founder Bill Gates yesterday told a congressional committee that he never victimized young women in the orbit of sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein and that Epstein even tried to use Gates’s extramarital affairs “to pressure me to re-engage with him” after Gates had begun to sever ties.

  When a geek like Bill Gates admits having affairs it’s hard to know whether it has to be true or he’s trying to burnish his image.

  In a statement released before his appearance Gates said that he had never seen Epstein engage in any criminal conduct. Meeting with Epstein was “a grave error in judgment” that puts his good works in jeopardy Gates said in his statement. “His behavior was antithetical to all my efforts to contribute to a world where everyone has a chance to live a healthy and productive life.”

INFINITE SCROLL:

— President Trump indicated in a social media post that he has tasked

William Pulte as Acting Director of National Intelligence to downsize staff and send some back to their home agencies. Pulte, who comes from the housing and financial world, has no experience in national security.

  Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee demanded for Pulte  to be subjected to a full security check. “Never has a person with so little experience or understanding had at their fingertips the sources and methods of the intelligence community,” the Democrats wrote in a letter to Trump.

— The Trump administration is preparing to deport nearly two dozen people to the Central African Republic, a country the US has warned you should not travel to for any reason.  The deportees include two Iranian women who had sought refuge in the United States, the NY Times reports. 

— Speaking about Maine’s Democratic nominee for Senate, President Trump said in the Oval Office, “I mean he’s worse than any human being that’s run for office, probably. Because he’s just an outright pig. He’s like a pig.”   

MIRACLE N THE PAINT: The New York Knicks last night staged the biggest comeback in the history of the NBA finals, coming from 29 points behind the San Antonio Spurs to win game four 107-106. 

  New York had been 27 points down at the half and it looked grim. In the final seconds New York’s OG Anunoby tipped in Jalen Brunson’s missed 3-pointer to make the one point margin. New York City went nuts.

  With the Knicks leading 3-1 the series resumes Saturday in San Antonio. 

FUTBOL: Soccer’s World Cup begins today with 48 national teams playing in the US, Mexico, and Canada to determine the champion of the world’s most popular game.

  For the uninitiated, “nil” means no score and a “yellow card” is a meaningless warning for bad behavior. “Stoppage time” is a mystery amount of time added to the game by referees that only they know.

  The first matches kick off with Mexico vs. South Africa and South Korea vs. Czech Republic. Game one for the US is against Paraguay tomorrow at 9 pm ET.

 The top 32 countries advance after the first round ending June 27^th. The following rounds end July 11^th and 15^th. The final game is July 19^th at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, where a single ticket in what’s called the “Trophy Lounge” is $35,000.

THE SPIN RACK: The initial public stock offering from Elon Musk’s SpaceX could make 4,400 employees millionaires. — Thousands of Southern Baptists voted overwhelmingly yesterday to advance a formal ban on women pastors in the nation’s largest Protestant denomination. The vote by a 3-1 margin among 8,000 delegates will have to be repeated next year to make the ban a part of the church’s constitution. Southern Baptist leaders say their opposition to women clerics is based in the Bible.

BELOW THE FOLD: The giant arched structure towering over the White House built to host a UFC cage fight has been nicknamed “The Claw.”

-30-