Said Mrs. Obama: “You told me all those years ago that you couldn’t promise me the world, but you could promise me an interesting life and of course you outdid yourself and managed to give me both.”

The Wrap: Mike Pence says Trump’s Iran peace deal is “bigger than a mistake.”

“The first vote, taken under a cloak of secrecy, came in January, when the board reviewed Ms. Peters’s application during one of its meetings…”

“A month later, the board got an unusual request from the Democratic governor’s office, which was under enormous political pressure from President Trump to free Ms. Peters, two board members said — take a second look.”

“The clemency board obliged, but again, its vote was a unanimous no.”

“After weeks of haggling over how to end the war, he and his Iranian counterpart have signed a short peace memo. It amounts to the promise of lots and lots of money for Iran, so long as it can satisfy Mr Trump that it has abandoned any plans for a nuclear weapon. That is a huge and unlikely gamble and it leaves the countries of the Middle East with some hard thinking.”

“Trump’s surprising move will give Pulte access to the most secret of U.S. intelligence data despite concerns he could use such information to target foes of the president.”

New York Times: Bill Pulte, a bulldog for Trump, prepares to take reins at spy agency.

Nothing seems to irritate President Trump quite like having his newly-signed Iran deal compared to Barack Obama’s.

Which is strange, because the comparison is unavoidable.

Said Khamenei: “It is obvious that the face-to-face negotiations that will be held in the future will not mean accepting the enemy’s opinion.”

“But if left unchallenged, the maneuver could embolden the agency to impose the same restrictions on high-end models across the entire AI industry, allowing them to potentially choke off access for any foreign person who uses models such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini.”

Bloomberg: Anthropic Lays Out Vision for How to Bolster AI Models’ Safety.

Said Vance: “Donald J. Trump is the only head of state in the entire world who is sympathetic to the nation of Israel at this moment in time.”

He added: “If I was in the cabinet of the Israeli government, I might not be attacking the only powerful ally that I have anywhere left in the entire world.”

New York Post: Vance issues harsh warning to Israelis slamming Trump’s Iran deal.

“Senate Armed Services Committee Chair Roger Wicker (R-MS) said in a statement that the U.S. memorandum of understanding with Iran ‘negotiates away the victories of Operation Epic Fury in ways that are completely out of step with the President’s goals.'”

“His comments come after a recent report alleged that Vance led the administration’s response to fallout from the release of files tied to deceased financier Jeffrey Epstein. A separate report from the Times detailed President Trump’s discussions in a series of meetings inside the Situation Room pertaining to U.S. strategy throughout the Iran war.”

Said Vance: “We have all of the cards. If the Iranians want the benefit of the bargain, they have to give us the things that are necessary to get those benefits.”

Bloomberg: Vance Says Iran Deal Is a ‘Win-Win’ for the US.

“Its future, he told reporters, is essentially up to President Donald Trump.”

Said Thune: “I’ve never been asked to slow a nomination down before.”

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“And now? With a misguided war going poorly, with global economic chaos spreading, with Iran handed maximum leverage by its closure of the Strait of Hormuz, in an instant, Trump has upended every pillar of his approach to a still-dangerous Iran.”

“But they worry that victory will paint a too-cheery gloss over the party’s bigger issues—and prolong the time it takes to solve them.”