President Donald Trump took questions from reporters on Monday outside the White House and added some additional details to previous comments he made claiming that the U.S. sent guns into Iran earlier in the year.

Over the weekend, Fox News chief foreign correspondent Trey Yingst reported that Trump told him the U.S. tried to arm the protestors in Iran.

“President Trump told me the United States sent guns to the Iranian protesters. He tells me: ‘We sent them a lot of guns. We sent them through the Kurds,’ and the president says he thinks the Kurds kept them,” reported Yingst on Fox & Friends Weekend.

Trump added some more details to the report, “And the only reason they’re not out protesting — you know that — is because they were informed that if they protest, like the wrestler and his friends, if they protest, they will be shot immediately.”

“And that’s an edict that’s in writing. If they protest, if they go out in the streets, they would be immediately shot. They don’t have guns. You know, we sent some guns. But the group that we’re supposed to give — which I said would happen, I said it to my people, I called it exactly — we sent guns, a lot of guns,” Trump continued, concluding:

They were supposed to go to the people so they could fight back against these thugs. You know what happened? The people that they sent them to kept them because they said, “What a beautiful gun, I think I’ll keep it.”

So I’m very upset with a certain group of people and they’re gonna pay a big price for that. But the Iranian people will fight back. As soon as they know they’re not going to be shot, and as soon as they can get weapons — if they had weapons, not many of them, if they had weapons — that would go the other way, and you know what would happen?

Iran would give up in two seconds because they wouldn’t be able to take it. But in Iran, they have absolutely no weaponry, and they’ve been told point blank: if you come out, if you came out to the streets, you would be killed. As of this morning, and we have this on pretty good information, 45,000 protesters have been killed. Pretty bad.

Watch the clip above via CNN.

The post ‘They’re Gonna Pay a Big Price’: Trump Wildly Claims US Guns Sent to Iran Were Kept by the Wrong People first appeared on Mediaite.

President Donald Trump announced "major combat operations" against Iran on Feb. 28, with massive joint U.S.-Israeli strikes targeting military and government sites, officials said.

Watch special coverage on Nightline, "War with Iran," each night on ABC and streaming on Disney+ and Hulu.

Latest Developments

_{Apr 7, 4:10 AM}
Missile fire targets central Israel, authorities say

Israel's Magen David Adom emergency service reported missile fire toward central Israel in a post to X on Tuesday.

MDA shared photos and videos from the scene showing apparent damage from the attack. The MDA did not specify whether the damage was caused by a missile impact or debris from an interception.

_{Apr 7, 3:55 AM}
IDF hits petrochemical facilities in Shiraz

The Israel Defense Forces on Tuesday confirmed another strike on Iranian petrochemical facilities, with the latest attack targeting a petrochemical complex in the southern city of Shiraz.

The IDF said in a post to X that the complex produced chemical components used to make explosives and materials for ballistic missiles.

The IDF also said in posts to X on Tuesday that it attacked a ballistic missile site in northwestern Iran and that it completed an "extensive strike mission" targeting government infrastructure in Tehran and elsewhere in the country.

_{Apr 7, 2:45 AM}
IDF tells Iranians to avoid railways until Tuesday night

The Israel Defense Forces' Farsi language X account on Tuesday morning issued a warning to all Iranians to "refrain from using and traveling by train throughout Iran" until 9 p.m. local time.

"Your presence on trains and near railway lines endangers your life," the post said.

_{Apr 7, 2:32 AM}
Saudi Arabia says forces intercepted 7 missiles, 18 drones

The Saudi Defense Ministry said in posts to X on Tuesday morning that its forces intercepted seven ballistic missiles and 18 drones fired toward the country.

The ministry said that missile debris fell "in the vicinity of energy facilities" and that damage assessment is ongoing.

_{Apr 6, 5:38 PM}
IRGC calls Trump's threats 'baseless'

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps called President Donald Trump's threats to destroy all of Iran’s bridges and power plants if a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz isn't reached "baseless" and vowed to continue their operations.

"The rude rhetoric, arrogance and baseless threats of the delusional U.S. president, arising from the deadlock he faces and aimed at justifying the repeated defeats of the U.S. military, will have no effect on the continuation of offensive and crushing operations by the fighters of Islam against U.S. and Israeli enemies, and will not repair the humiliation of the United States in West Asia," IRGC spokesperson Ebrahim Zolfaqari said in a statement published in Iranian state media.

_{Apr 6, 3:27 PM}
Trump: Planning 4-hour attack Tuesday night if deal not reachedPresident Donald Trump is threatening to destroy all of Iran’s bridges and power plants in a four-hour blitz attack on Tuesday night if the countries don’t agree to a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz by 8 p.m. ET.

"We have a plan because of the power of our military, where every bridge in Iran will be decimated by 12:00 tomorrow night, where every power plant in Iran will be out of business, burning, exploding, and never to be used again," Trump said. "I mean, complete demolition by 12:00, and it will happen over a period of four hours if we want it to. We don't want that to happen."

The president stressed that any deal must include reopening the Strait of Hormuz, saying, “We have to have a deal that's acceptable to me, and part of that deal is going to be we want free traffic of oil and everything else.”

He wouldn’t discuss specifics of ceasefire negotiations but said, “we have a active, willing participant on the other side.”

Trump has sent mixed messages for weeks, saying the war with Iran is winding down while also threatening more attacks. Asked which one it is, Trump replied, “I can’t tell you. I don't know."

“Depends what they do,” Trump said, before repeating his threat to send Iran back to the “stone ages.”

-ABC News’ Mary Bruce

_{Apr 6, 2:22 PM}
Trump says Iranian people have asked US to 'keep bombing'
ABC News' Mary Bruce asked President Donald Trump at a White House briefing about whether some in Iran might welcome U.S. attacks on the country's infrastructure.

“Why would they want you to blow up their infrastructure?" she asked.

Trump responded that the Iranians “would be willing to suffer that in order to have freedom.”

He said the Iranian people have asked the U.S. to “please keep bombing.”

“These are people that are living where the bombs are exploding,” Trump said. "And when we leave and we're not hitting those areas, they're saying, ‘Please come back, come back, come back.’”

“All I can tell you is they want freedom,” he said. “They have lived in a world that you know nothing about. It's a violent, horrible world where if you protest, you are shot.”

_{Apr 6, 2:08 PM}
CIA director says Iran 'humiliated' by successful rescue mission
CIA Director John Ratcliffe said the U.S. deployed both human assets and "exquisite technologies that no other intelligence service in the world possesses" to locate the weapons system officer during a rescue operation in Iran this weekend.

Ratcliffe said some of the unique capabilities the CIA used are ones that only the president can deploy. He would not publicly divulge what they were.

"At the president's direction, we deployed both human assets and exquisite technologies that no other intelligence service in the world possesses to a daunting challenge comparable to hunting for a single ... grain of sand in the middle of a desert," Ratcliffe said.

"This was also a race against the clock, as it was critical that we locate the downed aviator as quickly as possible, while at the same time keeping our enemies misdirected," he said.

Ratcliffe also said U.S. “intelligence reflects that the Iranians were embarrassed and ultimately humiliated by the success of this audacious rescue mission.”

A U.S. fighter jet with two airmen on board was shot down over Iran on Friday, and the jet’s pilot was rescued the same day. The U.S. launched a search for the second missing airman, who was trapped in the "treacherous mountains of Iran" with the Iranian military closing in, President Donald Trump said. That airman was rescued on Sunday.

-ABC News’ Mariam Khan

_{Apr 6, 2:02 PM}
Trump rails against alleged media leak about downed fighter jetDuring a briefing at the White House, President Donald Trump railed against an alleged leak to the media about the downed U.S. fighter jet, threatening to have the journalist jailed.

“They put this mission at great risk. They put that man at great risk, and they put the hundreds of people that went in looking for him, because everyone now knows that we're going in,” Trump claimed.

The president emphasized the need to uncover whomever “leaked” such information.

“We have to find that leaker because that's a sick person. Probably didn't realize the extent of how bad it was. I can't imagine that the person did. But we're going to find out. It's national security, and the person that did the story will go to jail if he doesn't say, and that doesn't last long,” Trump said.

-ABC News' Fritz Farrow, Allie Pecorin and Emily Chang

_{Apr 6, 1:52 PM}
Rescued airman's 1st message was 'God is good,' Hegseth says

When the injured airman who was shot down “was finally able to activate his emergency transponder, his first message … [said] ‘God is good,’” Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said during a briefing at the White House.

“In that moment of isolation and danger, his faith and fighting spirit shown through,” he said. “Shot down on a Friday, Good Friday, hidden in a cave, a crevice all of Saturday, and rescued on Sunday. Flown out of Iran as the sun was rising on Easter Sunday.”

A U.S. fighter jet with two airmen on board was shot down over Iran on Friday, and the jet’s pilot was rescued the same day. The U.S. launched a search for the second missing airman who was trapped in the "treacherous mountains of Iran" with the Iranian military closing in, President Donald Trump said. That airman was rescued on Sunday.

Trump said the rescued airman “was injured quite badly and stranded in an area teeming with terrorists.”

“Despite the peril, the officer followed his training and climbed into the treacherous mountain terrain and started climbing toward a higher altitude,” Trump said. “He scaled cliff faces, bleeding rather profusely, treated his own wounds, and contacted American forces to transmit his location.”

Click here to read the rest of the blog.

Amid a day with dozens of threats and escalating rhetoric toward Iran, President Trump took a significant step back on one key issue for energy markets: a US campaign to control Iran’s oil.

“I’d like to take the oil because it’s there for the taking,” the president told reporters at the White House easter egg roll. “Unfortunately, the American people would like to see us come home.”

The president said multiple times on Monday that he personally wants to take the oil. “We’d make plenty of money,” he said

But the president repeatedly acknowledged that there might not be political will for such a move, which would likely require a ground operation, saying, “I just don’t think the people of the United States would really understand.”

“I’m a businessman first,” Trump said, recounting the operation in Venezuela that saw the US take some oil proceeds. He expressed nostalgia for previous eras when “to the winner belong the spoils.”

Read more: What an extended war with Iran could mean for gas prices

Monday’s comments — which came between ever-escalating threats to annihilate Iran’s bridges and electric grid as early as Tuesday night — appear to lessen the odds of a potential US operation that energy traders and observers have been watching closely for weeks.

An operation to seize Iranian oil would be risky and costly and would likely require the use of ground troops to take strategic points like Kharg Island, a seaport that handles up to 90% of Iran’s oil exports.

Read more: How oil price shocks ripple through your wallet, from gas to groceries

Going further and seizing Iranian oil production itself, which is predominantly drilled onshore in the southwestern portion of the nation, would be an even more complex operation.

For weeks, Trump has repeatedly teased the idea of taking the oil.

Last Friday, the president posted, “KEEP THE OIL, ANYONE?” after another message earlier that day suggested that taking the oil would be easy with “a little more time” and that the world would make a fortune in response.

The ongoing US operation has included missile attacks on Kharg Island, but Trump and his aides have repeatedly said that only military targets were hit and oil infrastructure was spared.

Other times, Trump has threatened to go further, suggesting destroying Iran’s oil infrastructure.

The president posted on March 30 that he might leave Iran, but only after “blowing up and completely obliterating” targets like Kharg Island.

Ben Werschkul is a Washington correspondent for Yahoo Finance.

Click here for political news related to business and money policies that will shape tomorrow's stock prices

Read the latest financial and business news from Yahoo Finance

A federal judge has rejected a proposed IRS settlement that would have allowed churches to endorse political candidates without risking their tax-exempt status, keeping a decades-old restriction firmly in place—for now.

In a ruling issued on Tuesday, U.S. District Judge J. Campbell Barker in Tyler, Texas, said he lacked jurisdiction to approve the consent judgment between the Internal Revenue Service and two Texas churches, plus the National Religious Broadcasters (NRB). The judge cited the Tax Anti-Injunction Act, which prevents courts from ruling on matters that could directly affect tax collection.

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The July settlement aimed to exempt routine religious communications from the Johnson Amendment, a 1954 tax code provision that bars nonprofits, both religious and secular, from endorsing political candidates.

The IRS did not immediately respond to Benzinga’s request for comment.

Tax Season in Full Swing

The ruling comes during peak filing season. IRS data through March 20 shows average refunds climbed 10.9% to $3,571 from $3,221 a year earlier. Total refunds have topped $202 billion, with nearly 57.3 million direct deposits, up 6.5% year-over-year. The filing deadline remains April 15.

Trending: This Startup Thinks It Can Reinvent the Wheel — Literally

The agency is operating with a significantly smaller workforce. IRS staffing fell roughly 26% to about 75,700 employees from over 102,000, following buyouts and layoffs. National Taxpayer Advocate Erin Collins has warned that the reduced headcount, combined with significant tax law changes, poses risks to the filing season.

Scams Rise Amid Growing Refunds

Higher refunds have drawn fraudsters. A McAfee survey found 23% of Americans reported losing money to tax scams, averaging $1,020 per victim. Young adults aged 18–24 were most at risk, with 42% reporting at least one scam encounter.

The IRS flagged its annual "Dirty Dozen" scams, including AI-generated calls, phishing, and fake charities. Taxpayers are urged to get an Identity Protection PIN and verify communications only through official IRS channels.

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• The ‘ChatGPT of Marketing' Just Opened a $0.91/Share Round — 10,000+ Investors Are Already In

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This article Federal Judge Kills Trump-Backed IRS Pact That Would Have Allowed Churches To Endorse Political Candidates Tax-Free originally appeared on Benzinga.com

NEW YORK — Mayor Zohran Mamdani inched further away from his campaign promise to ban the NYPD gang database on Monday, suggesting he could be open to reforming the database as opposed to abolishing it altogether.

The mayor on the campaign trail called the database a “vast dragnet” and said his administration wouldn’t use the database. But he has moderated that position since taking office.

“I’ve made my critiques of the database clear, and the NYPD has also implemented a number of reforms as per the recommendation that came through,” Mamdani said at an unrelated press conference on Monday. “And the implementation of those reforms, the results of that are part of the active discussion that we’re having.”

The reforms he referenced were announced in October 2025, and included changes such as notifying the parents and guardians of minors whose names are entered into the database of thousands of people suspected of being gang members.

Though the mayor’s criticism of the database continued after that report came out, the mayor has recently stood alongside police commissioner, Jessica Tisch as she has extolled the gang database and its help in preventing retaliation in situations involving gang violence.

That point has been highlighted recently by the tragic death of a seven-month old in Brooklyn.

“Are we going to set up for retaliation? Yes,” Tisch said of the possible fallout from the possibly gang-related shooting that left the little girl dead on Thursday. “We will look at the gang database, and that will help our deployment to prevent things like retaliatory shootings.”

The database contains thousands of names, including those of minors, that the police department suspects of being in a gang. The database has been criticized by civil rights groups and advocates as racially profiling young New Yorkers and adding them to the list for things like a passing comment on social media.

According to the police department, the database has helped go after violent gang members.

“I continue to have concerns about the vast dragnet and ways in which many New Yorkers are being put into that database,” Mamdani said in November, after the reforms had been announced.

The city’s Department of Investigation initially issued a report in 2023 that was the culmination of a five-year investigation into the database. The NYPD accepted over half of its 17 initial recommendations.

In October, the DOI issued more recommendations in a new report and applauded the police department for making “substantial improvements to its handling of the database.”

Tisch and Mamdani also stand opposed on the NYPD’s Strategic Response Group, a controversial unit that Mamdani pledged to disband during the campaign. Mamdani also pledged to keep the NYPD’s headcount flat, while Tisch has advocated for expanding it.

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