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Religion keeps coming up when Trump administration officials discuss their joint military operation with Israel against Iran.

This kind of rhetoric comes as concerns grow over the crumbling of the separation between church and state in the Trump administration’s military. Now, more than two dozen democratic congresspeople are requesting an investigation into a report that some military leaders are using apocalyptic theology in briefings about the conflict – saying that Trump is anointed by Jesus to cause Armageddon.

How is religion showing up in the war against Iran?

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Donald Trump made a clear promise on the campaign trail.

“I will tell you you’re not going to have a war with me and you’re not going to have a third world war with me, that I can tell you,” he said.

And the president doubled down in his inaugural address last year. These have been key promises for much of his MAGA base who’ve applauded his domestic policy focus.

But since taking office, President Donald Trump has ordered military action in Venezuela, Nigeria, Syria, Somalia, Iraq, Yemen, and now Iran. So what does this change mean for Trump supporters and GOP lawmakers who’ve stood by his side?

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Days before the United States dropped its first bombs on Iran, FBI Director Kash Patel fired members of a team that monitored threats from the Islamic Republic. The reason? They had investigated President Donald Trump’s handling of classified documents.

That move came amid a year of layoffs, budget cuts, resignations, and shifting priorities across America’s national security agencies — including the FBI, the CIA, and the Department of Homeland Security.

Now, as U.S. officials warn that Iran could retaliate with cyber attacks or terror attacks on U.S. soil, some experts are asking if the United States still has the capacity to defend itself.

That’s the question we try to answer in this edition of “If You Can Keep It,” our series exploring the biggest stories of the day and what they mean for our democracy.

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President Donald Trump announced Thursday that Kristi Noem, his pick to lead the Department of Homeland Security, was leaving the agency amidst serious questions surrounding funding and the conduct of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in cities around the country.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump’s war with Iran has now claimed the lives of six American. And Iran’s Red Crescent society is saying the death toll in Tehran is well above 1,000.

All politically-inclined eyes were on Texas this week as the state conducted its primaries ahead of the general election. In the Democratic contest, state Rep. James Talerico defeated Rep. Jasmine Crockett to earn the left’s Senate nomination. For the Republicans, a stalemate. Sen. John Cornyn and Attorney General Ken Paxton are going to a runoff — a result that has some GOP strategists wringing their hands.

And, in global news, the world is still searching for answers in the wake of the U.S. and Israeli air strikes that hit Iran last weekend. New satellite images show the bombing of an Iranian elementary school hit more targets than initially believed, killing 165 people. And global leaders are wondering if the federal government’s meetings with Tehran officials ever had any hope of succeeding.

Now, the U.S. is in talks with the Kurdish opposition in Iran in a bid to arm them and spark an uprising against the country’s current government.

Retaliatory Iranian missiles appeared to target Turkey this week, leading to speculation about whether or not European nations might be forced to involve themselves in America’s war with Iran thanks to NATO Article 5.

We cover the most important stories from around the world in the News Roundup.

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It’s been a month since the Justice Department released more than 3 million documents related to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. In that time, dozens of people were scrutinized for their close ties to Epstein, who died by suicide while in prison in 2019.

Among those named in the documents is Donald Trump. The president has long denied any crimes related to Epstein. And there’s no public evidence that the allegations against him are credible.

But a new NPR investigation reveals that the Justice Department withheld some of the Epstein files related to allegations that Trump sexually abused a minor in the ‘80s.

In this installment of our weekly politics series, “If You Can Keep It,” what did the DOJ remove exactly? And what does accountability look like for those connected to Epstein’s crimes?

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