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  • Trump Orders Federal Agencies to Dump ‘Woke’ Anthropic AI After Pentagon Dispute

    Trump Orders Federal Agencies to Dump ‘Woke’ Anthropic AI After Pentagon Dispute

    In brief

    • Trump ordered federal agencies to “immediately cease” using Anthropic’s AI technology.
    • The order follows a dispute between Anthropic and the Pentagon over the use of Claude for unrestricted military use.
    • Trump has given agencies six months to phase out Anthropic systems.

    President Donald Trump has directed all U.S. federal agencies to stop using artificial intelligence technology developed by Anthropic, escalating a dispute between the AI company and the Pentagon over how the military uses the technology.

    In a Truth Social post on Friday, Trump said agencies must “immediately cease” using Anthropic products, with a six-month phase-out period for departments that already use the company’s technology.

    “The United States of America will never allow a radical left, woke company to dictate how our great military fights and wins wars!” Trump wrote. “That decision belongs to your commander-in-chief and the tremendous leaders I appoint to run our military.

    The directive follows Anthropic’s refusal on Thursday to remove safeguards preventing Claude from being used for “mass domestic surveillance” or “fully autonomous weapons,” after Pentagon officials demanded contractors allow their systems to be used for “any lawful use.”

    “The left-wing nut jobs at Anthropic have made a disastrous mistake trying to strong-arm the Department of War and force them to obey their terms of service instead of our Constitution,” Trump wrote.

    President Trump called the situation a threat to U.S. troops and national security.

    “Their selfishness is putting American lives at risk, our troops in danger, and our national security in jeopardy,” Trump said.

    Anthropic has resisted Pentagon demands to grant unrestricted military use of its models, while also recently walking back safety language in its Responsible Scaling Policy.

    On Friday, CNBC reported that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said he is working to “help de-escalate” the situation. De-escalating the tension could be a heavy lift, however.

    In his post, Trump said decisions affecting U.S. military operations must remain under presidential authority rather than “some out-of-control, radical left AI company run by people who have no idea what the real world is all about,” he said.

    “Anthropic better get their act together and be helpful during this phase-out period, or I will use the full power of the presidency to make them comply, with major civil and criminal consequences to follow,” Trump said.

    Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth chimed in on the matter following Trump’s post, offering similar comments regarding the decision and calling Anthropic’s move a “a master class in arrogance and betrayal as well as a textbook case of how not to do business with the United States Government or the Pentagon.”

    “I am directing the Department of War to designate Anthropic a Supply-Chain Risk to National Security,” Hegseth wrote on X. “Effective immediately, no contractor, supplier, or partner that does business with the United States military may conduct any commercial activity with Anthropic. Anthropic will continue to provide the Department of War its services for a period of no more than six months to allow for a seamless transition to a better and more patriotic service.”

    “America’s warfighters will never be held hostage by the ideological whims of Big Tech,” he added. “This decision is final.”

    Following Trump’s announcement, the nonprofit Center for Democracy and Technology commented on the move in a statement sent to Decrypt.

    “The President is wielding the full weight of the federal government to blacklist a company for taking a narrowly-tailored, principled stance to restrict some of the most extreme uses of AI you could imagine—fully autonomous weapons and the mass surveillance of Americans,” said CDT President and CEO Alexandra Givens.

    “This action sets a dangerous precedent. It chills private companies’ ability to engage frankly with the government about appropriate uses of their technology, which is especially important in national security settings that so often have reduced public visibility,” she added. “Retaliating against a company for setting tailored, principled conditions on its product’s use undermines basic market freedoms and makes us all less safe.”

    Editor’s note: This story was updated after publication to include comments from Hegseth and the CDT.

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  • Tilly Norwood Creator Plans ‘Rapid Expansion’ With the ‘Tillyverse,’ Where Norwood and Other AI Actors ‘Will Live, Collaborate and Build Careers’

    Tilly Norwood Creator Plans ‘Rapid Expansion’ With the ‘Tillyverse,’ Where Norwood and Other AI Actors ‘Will Live, Collaborate and Build Careers’

    Tilly Norwood creator Eline van der Velden is planning a “rapid expansion” for her digital creation including building an entire universe around her.

    As part of the expansion Van der Velden has tapped Prime Video’s Mark Whelan as head of strategy and operations at her new AI talent studio Xicoia.

    Whelan will be tasked with helping Van der Velden create the “Tillyverse,” described in a press release as a “dynamic, constantly evolving digital universe where Tilly and a new generation of AI characters will live, collaborate and build careers.”

    It is set to launch later in 2026.

    According to the press release, Xicoia is not just “experimenting” with AI but “building IP at scale and redefining how talent is created, developed and experienced in the AI era.”

    It will also create “bespoke AI talent” for third parties.

    Van der Velden caused a storm in 2025 after revealing during a panel in Zurich that Norwood, an entirely fictional twenty-something actor rendered in AI, was set to sign with an agency. Her comments immediately prompted outrage on both sides of the Atlantic, from actors unions SAG-AFTRA and Equity as well as stars such as James Cameron, who called the idea of AI actors “horrifying” and Emily Blunt, who said it was “really scary.”

    In the press release unveiling her new plans, Van der Velden said: “Tilly Norwood isn’t just an AI character — she’s a personality, a brand, and a future global superstar with a compelling narrative arc. Mark will help us craft and shape every layer of her world, from her humour, daily life and career choices to how she interacts with fans across various platforms. It all promises to be bold, playful, a little chaotic – and impossible to ignore.”

    Whelan said: “Tilly already has the momentum, an audience and the cultural spark. Now we’re writing her story and building her universe. It’s a huge responsibility — but an incredibly exciting one. I think the world is going to have a lot of fun watching what happens next.”

    At Prime Video, Whelan was responsible for social strategy for projects including “The Grand Tour” and “Clarkson’s Farm.” He was previously a comedy producer and also had a short stint at Van der Velden’s other company Particle6.

  • ‘Pinocchio Unstrung’ Trailer: Wooden Doll Turns Homicidal in Next IP Bludgeoning From ‘Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey’ Team (EXCLUSIVE)

    ‘Pinocchio Unstrung’ Trailer: Wooden Doll Turns Homicidal in Next IP Bludgeoning From ‘Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey’ Team (EXCLUSIVE)

    As everyone knows, Pinocchio just wants to be a real boy.

    In the trailer for “Pinocchio Unstrung,” the next blood-splattered battering of beloved children’s IP by the creators of 2024’s micro-budget smash hit “Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey,” he wants to be a real boy so bad he’ll go on a gory murderous rampage to get there.

    Arguably the most twisted take on the much-adapted classic story sees Geppetto’s (Richard Brake) famed creation, having discovered that the difference between wooden dolls and boys is “organs and stuff,” look to acquire the necessary body parts in the most slasher-friendly way imaginable.

    We see him use his razor sharp wooden nose to impale a girl’s foot as she comes out of the shower, rip the skin from the face of a screaming man and appear to collect a load of intestines from another casualty. All the while, Pinocchio is goaded on by probably cinema’s most evil Jimmy Cricket (voiced by Robert Englund, best known for playing Freddie Krueger).”Piece by piece, we’ll take everything you need to be real,” he tells him.

    If anyone thought Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio was a little on the dark side and perhaps not something for their children, that film was basically Disney compared to this.

    “Pinocchio: Unstrung” is directed by Rhys Frake-Waterfield and produced by Scott Jeffrey, the duo behind “Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey” and their prolific horror banner Jagged Edge Productions.

    Alongside Brake and Englund, the cast also includes Cameron Bell, Jessica Balmer, Jack Art Gray and Peter De Souza-Feighoney, while Emmy winner Todd Masters oversees the the practical animatronics. ITN Distribution is overseeing the release, with theatrical date currently being scheduled worldwide. Premiere Entertainment Group is repping sales.

    “We built Pinocchio as a fully practical animatronic because I wanted him to feel real,” said Frake-Waterfield. “This is a twisted coming-of-age story told from the puppet’s perspective: a creation struggling for autonomy while being manipulated by the sinister forces around him, from Robert Englund’s sinister ‘Jiminy Cricket’ to Richard Brake’s obsessive Geppetto.”

    “Pinocchio Unstrung” is the latest standalone addition to Jagged Edge’s growing low-budget Twisted Childhood Universe, which currently includes “Blood and Honey” and its sequel, “Bambi: The Reckoning” and “Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare.” A third “Blood and Honey” is set to shoot soon, while “Poohniverse Monsters Assemble,” the Avengers-esque crossover film bringing all the characters together for an IP bloodbath is in development.

    Added Frake-Waterfield: “Our Twisted Childhood Universe continues to grow in darker and more ambitious ways as we’re gearing up for Poohniverse Monsters Assemble!”

    See the “Pinocchio Unstrung” trailer below:

  • Sony faces a $2.7 billion antitrust lawsuit in the UK

    Sony faces a $2.7 billion antitrust lawsuit in the UK

    Another major antitrust lawsuit has launched in the UK. This time its against Sony, which could be on the hook for almost £2 billion ($2.7 billion) for overcharging PlayStation users.

    A class action case for about 12.2 million users argues that Sony “occupies a dominant position in relation to the digital distribution of PlayStation games and in-game content and that it has been unfairly charging its UK customers too much for digital games and in-game content purchased through the PlayStation Store.”

    It argues that Sony “has a near monopoly” on add-on content and digital games through the PlayStation store, allowing it to set the prices and take a 30 percent commission.

    The class action encompasses anyone in the UK who owned a PlayStation console and purchased digital games or made in-game purchases through the PlayStation store between August 19, 2016 and February 12, 2026. It’s being run as an opt-out lawsuit, so anyone meeting the criteria can qualify without taking any action. If the lawsuit is successful then each person could receive about £162 ($217).

    Sony has argued that allowing downloads from third-party stores could bring security and privacy risks, according to the Financial Times. It further states that the digital sales commission makes up profits lost for selling their consoles with minimal profit.

    This lawsuit follows the success of a similar class action decided in October. The UK’s Competition Appeal Tribunal found that Apple had been abusing its dominant market position and overcharging App Store users. In December, Apple filed an appeal against the £1.5 billion ($2 billion) fine.

  • Vivo’s X300 Ultra goes global and gets a huge 400mm Zeiss telephoto lens

    Vivo’s X300 Ultra goes global and gets a huge 400mm Zeiss telephoto lens

    Vivo barely has a presence outside of China but that seems to be changing with the company’s next flagship phone. At Mobile World Conference 2026, the company unveiled the X300 Ultra smartphone that comes with a 200MP telephoto sensor, along with multiple accessories designed for pro photographers and content creators, including a SmallRig video cage and 400mm Zeiss telephoto extender lens.

    Vivo didn’t go into detail about the phone’s specs, but you can likely expect a high-end processor, screen, battery and other internal components when it’s fully unveiled later on. Vivo did say that like the X300 Pro, the X300 Ultra will have an impressive 200MP telephoto sensor, and is likely to offer features like 4K 120fps Dolby Vision HDR recording. Vivo’s Daniel Goetz said it couldn’t yet reveal the specs for its primary camera sensor — which will likely be deeply involved with the new device’s push into video.

    Vivo's X300 Ultra will launch globally with pro camera accessories

    Mat Smith for Engadget

    Another thing Vivo revealed is that you’ll be able to get the Vivo X300 Ultra with a 400mm equivalent lens accessory called the Vivo Zeiss Telephoto Extender Gen 2 Ultra. That will allow about an 8x zoom compared to the native field-of-view, plus much more when combined with the high-quality digital zoom. It will also offer “gimbal-grade” optical image stabilization and motion-tracking focus technology, Vivo says.

    The device’s camera mount is part of an ecosystem that remains consistent with the X200 Pro, so the camera automatically reads the connected lens. This means the first-gen telephoto extender will also work with Vivo’s newest flagship. The large 1/1.4-inch telephoto sensor and high megapixel count allow shooting up to 30x zoom (roughly 800mm) while retaining high levels of detail, according to Vivo.

    Along with the lens, Vivo is introducing a “pro-grade camera cage” designed by the well-known accessory company SmallRig. It’s expandable and offers multiple cold shoe mounts and quick-release ports so you can easily add things like handles, lights and microphones. It also comes with dedicated physical buttons for tactile shutter and zoom adjustment, plus a multi-level piezo cooling fan to keep the phone running cool. You also get an “External Lens Expansion Frame” to accommodate the X300 Ultra Telephoto Extender. Other SmallRig collaborations include Bluetooth connected gri controllers, which you can see above, mounted on the X300 Pro.

    During a brief teaser presentation, we learned a few more details. The telephoto camera will include three degrees of optical image stabilization, and you’ll be able to shoot video in Log with your favorite LUT active in the X300 Ultra’s preview view. The video you record, however, will still be an unedited Log file. Color grading will also be available inside the device.

    For videographers, it will also natively support ACES (Academy Color Science), making it easier to fit into professional workflows in DaVinci Resolve or Final Cut Pro without requiring specific color conversion.

    Vivo's X300 Ultra will launch globally with pro camera accessories

    Mat Smith for Engadget

    Vivo showed off the phone at MWC 2026 in Barcelona to a fair amount of enthusiasm. The company emphasized that the X300 Ultra will be the first device in the series to reach international markets, including all European regions in which it already does business. It didn’t specify the price. The X300 Pro costs about €1,400 in Europe. Availability in the US is still TBC.

    The move, Vivo said, “signals Vivo’s more proactive and confident approach to expanding its presence in the global premium smartphone segment.” Given the likely price, though, it’s debatable if pro creators will want to buy this instead of, say, a pretty nice mirrorless camera and lens.

  • Option Whales Turn Bullish on Bitcoin (BTC) After Five-Month Decline! This Price is Expected in March!

    Option Whales Turn Bullish on Bitcoin (BTC) After Five-Month Decline! This Price is Expected in March!

    Bitcoin (BTC), which has been fluctuating between $70,000 and $63,000 since February, experienced a sharp drop over the weekend due to the US-Iran conflict, but subsequently recovered.

    While Bitcoin remains around the $66,000 level, Singapore-based cryptocurrency analysis platform QCP Capital has shared its latest analysis for Bitcoin.

    According to QCP analysts, the cryptocurrency market remained within a narrow range amid escalating US-Iran tensions. Following the US attack on Iran, Bitcoin and Ethereum fell to $63,000 and $1,910 respectively before recovering.

    Saturday’s US attack on Iran resulted in the liquidation of approximately $300 million in long positions, but this was subsequently brought under control.

    According to the analysis, options reacted moderately. 1-day implied volatility rose to 93% but then retreated to below 60%.

    In particular, even as the conflict between the US and Iran escalated, option buyers continued to purchase Bitcoin call options with strike prices of $74,000 and $75,000 for the March expiry.

    This suggests that some investors are positioning themselves for a rebound in March after five consecutive months of decline.

    QCP analysts emphasize that the market is currently able to tolerate the fact that the Donald Trump administration has indicated that the military operation against Iran will last “approximately four weeks.”

    *This is not investment advice.

  • Bitcoin outperforms equities in risk-off session as Iran conflict enters third day

    Bitcoin outperforms equities in risk-off session as Iran conflict enters third day

    Bitcoin BTC$66,299.23 is trading near $66,500 after adding 1.1% since midnight UTC and more than 5% from the weekend low of $63,000.

    The crypto market is back in the middle of a trading range that has persisted since the start of February, with a volatile past week testing $70,000 to the upside and $62,500 to the downside.

    Weekend price action was driven by the military strikes that killed Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, triggering retaliatory attacks and raising concerns about potential disruption to traffic in the Strait of Hormuz.

    According to trading firm QCP, the strike sparked roughly $300 million in long liquidations — but the scale of forced selling was relatively contained, suggesting markets were already positioned for a volatile weekend.

    The escalation pushed investors toward traditional havens, sending gold and silver to their highest levels in more than a month. Oil surged 13% to $82 a barrel, the highest price since July 2024.

    U.S. equity index futures fell, with the S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq 100 down 1.1% and 1.5%, respectively, since midnight UTC.

    The crypto market showed resilience, with most of the losses occurring on Saturday when U.S. markets were closed.

    Derivatives positioning

    • The fallout from the Iran war has been more contained than might have been expected. While cumulative crypto futures open interest has dropped 2% to $93.78 billion, it remains above the recent low of $92.40 billion.
    • Over $300 million in leveraged bets have been liquidated by centralized exchanges in 24 hours, with bullish bets accounting for most of the tally.
    • Annualized perpetual funding rates for major cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin and ether, are little changed to negative, indicating a slightly bearish bias.
    • Still, the market isn’t showing signs of panic, as evidenced from the bitcoin 30-day annualized implied volatility index, BVIV. It remains steady at around 58.8%, well within the price range seen last week. The same is true for the ether volatility index.
    • On Deribit, short-term bitcoin puts traded at an 8%-10% volatility premium to calls, a sign of heightened downside worries. The $60,000 put, or bearish bet, remains the most popular on the exchange.
    • Block flows featured demand for bitcoin put spreads.

    Token talk

    • The altcoin market largely tracked bitcoin over the weekend, but one of the fastest to recover was lending token MORPHO, which continued its impressive two-week streak with a 5% jump over the past 24 hours having risen by 2.6% since midnight UTC.
    • Decentralized finance (DeFi) tokens JUP, AAVE and LDO are all in the black as speculative appetite remains relatively strong despite a global shift to haven investments.
    • Hyperliquid’s HYPE token surged by more than 29% on Saturday to snap February’s downtrend. While it lost 3.8% on Monday, losing 3.8% it remains above the crucial $30 level of support.
    • WLFI$0.1051, the DeFi token linked to U.S. President Donald Trump’s family, exentended declines, falling 2.5% of its value since midnight. It is now down by more than 44% since mid-January following a series of lower highs and lower lows.
    • CoinDesk’s DeFi Select (DFX) Index is the only benchmark that is positive over the past 24 hours. The worst performing was the CoinDesk Computing Select Index (CPUS) and the CoinDesk Smart Contract Platform Select Capped Index (SCPXC), down by 1.87% and 1.71%, respectively.
  • Gwyneth Paltrow’s Business Partner Blasts Democrats Over Iran Strike Criticism

    Gwyneth Paltrow’s Business Partner Blasts Democrats Over Iran Strike Criticism

    Moj Mahdara, the co-founder of Gwyneth Paltrow‘s investment company Kinship Ventures, has sharply rebuked Democrats for failing to support Donald Trump’s war against Iran.

    Mahdara, an Iranian-American entrepreneur, former CEO of Beautycon as well as co-founder of the Iranian Diaspora Collective, appeared on CNN on Saturday to discuss the U.S. and Israel’s pre-emptive attacks on Iran, and ultimately successful “decapitation” airstrikes on the Islamic Republic’s leadership, including Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

    Speaking to Dana Bash about what she felt was the lack of support from the Democrats for the military action, Mahdara said, “I think it is imperative the Democratic Party wake up and get past their dislike of President Trump and their feelings on international conflicts… This is about national security. This is about what’s possible in the Middle East. This about being a good partner to the Gulf states and what their aspirations are.”

    Mahdara then linked regime change in Iran to issues including Venezuela, the U.S.’s China policy, Ukraine and more. Describing themselves as a “huge” Democrat, Mahdara added that Americans “have to trust the Iranian people.” “We know this government better than anyone else. When you dismember and decapitate this regime, you are going to see a change in the Middle East, in Venezuela, in China, [and] in Ukraine,” Mahdara said.

    Mahdara believes that toppling the Islamic Republic will be “like ending the Soviet Union, [taking down] the Berlin Wall.” She concluded: “This is a transformational moment for humankind, for security, and, as an American, this is in our interest to complete it.”

    Opinion polls like the recent Reuters/Ipsos poll found that only roughly one in four Americans support war against Iran, and prominent Democrats such as New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani have also publicly slammed the military action.

    The entrepreneur and activist criticized Democrats for their lack of full support for Trump’s military action, adding, “I am a Democrat. I have been a huge Democrat. I am incredibly disappointed with my party. I do not see myself in them at this moment.”

  • Dish TV Owner EchoStar Loses 168,000 Pay-TV Subs in Fourth Quarter

    Dish TV Owner EchoStar Loses 168,000 Pay-TV Subs in Fourth Quarter

    Charlie Ergen’s EchoStar reported a net pay-TV subscriber drop of approximately 168,000 in the fourth quarter, compared to a decrease of approximately 253,000 in the year-ago period.

    The company ended the year 2025 with 7.00 million pay-TV subscribers, including 5.02 million Dish TV subscribers and 1.98 million Sling TV subscribers. The company lost 636,000 Dish TV subs in all of 2025, down from a loss of 785,000 in 2024. The firm also recorded a loss of 167,000 Sling TV subs in 2025, a swing from a 37,000 gain in 2024.

    The decrease in net Dish TV subscriber losses “primarily resulted from a lower Dish TV churn rate, partially offset by lower gross new Dish TV subscriber activations,” EchoStar said in a regulatory filing. “The change in net Sling TV subscribers was primarily related to lower Sling TV subscriber activations, partially offset by lower Sling TV subscriber disconnects in 2025 due to our emphasis on acquiring higher quality subscribers.” The filing added: “We continue to experience increased competition, including competition from other subscription video on-demand and live-linear OTT service providers, many of which are providers of our content and offer football and other seasonal sports programming direct to subscribers on an a la carte basis. For example, in August 2025, ESPN Unlimited and Fox One sports packages were launched.”

    Retail wireless subscribers decreased by approximately 9,000 in the fourth quarter, compared to an increase of 90,000 in the year-ago period. The company ended 2025 with 7.51 million retail wireless subscribers. And broadband subscribers dropped by approximately 44,000 in the fourth quarter, compared with a decrease of 59,000 in the fourth quarter of 2024. The company closed the quarter with 739,000 broadband subscribers.

    The company’s fourth-quarter loss of $1.2 billion compared with a year-ago profit of $335 million, as revenue declined from $4.0 billion to $3.8 billion. Operating income before depreciation and amortization had hit $397 million in the year-ago period, but swung to a $567 million loss in the latest quarter.

    EchoStar’s 2025 loss widened to $14.50 billion from $119.55 million in the year-ago period, “primarily attributable to non-cash asset impairments and other expenses totaling approximately $17.63 billion.” The net loss in 2024 was positively impacted by a noncash gain totaling approximately $689 million related to the firm’s debt exchange offer and the resulting debt extinguishment.

  • Poll suggests only a quarter of Americans support attacks on Iran

    Poll suggests only a quarter of Americans support attacks on Iran

    A poll conducted in the hours after the United States and Israel launched a major military operation against Iran, sparking regional retaliation, shows dismal approval for the strikes from the US public.

    The Reuters Ipsos poll was conducted beginning on Saturday and closing on Sunday, before the administration of President Donald Trump announced that the first US troops had been killed in the conflict. Only one in four respondents approved of the US-Israeli attacks.

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    The early findings could have a significant effect on how the Trump administration moves forward in the days ahead and on how lawmakers respond to the attacks, particularly as they look to a punishing midterm election season.

    Trump on Sunday promised to continue what he described as a “righteous mission” until “all objectives are achieved”. Referencing the three US military members announced killed on Sunday, Trump said that “there will likely be more before it ends”.

    After a US-Israeli strike killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Trump again framed Iran as an existential threat to the US, claiming that the country’s leaders “have waged war against civilization itself”.

    The Reuters-Ipsos poll suggested that the US public does not share that view, with 43 percent of respondents saying they disapproved of the war and another 29 percent saying they were unsure.

    Approval among Republicans was stronger, but not resounding, with 55 percent saying they approved of the strikes, 13 percent disapproving and 32 percent unsure.

    Perhaps most significantly, about 42 percent of Republicans said they would be less likely to support the operation if it led to “US troops in the Middle East being killed or injured”.

    About 74 percent of Democrats disapproved of the strike, with 7 percent approving and 19 percent unsure.

    Midterms loom

    The poll released on Sunday comes as Republican lawmakers have largely coalesced around Trump’s message on Iran, even as its contradiction to Trump’s campaign promises risks alienating his Make America Great Again (MAGA) base.

    Trump had run on a pledge to cease “endless wars” and halt US interventionism abroad in an “America First” pivot.

    While Trump has shown a unique ability to shape the views of his staunchest supporters in his likeness, some conservative commentators have warned that he is playing with fire.

    “If this war is a swift, easy, and decisive victory, most of them will get over it,” Blake Neff, a former producer for late conservative activist Charlie Kirk, wrote on X on Saturday.

    “But if the war is anything else, there will be a lot of anger.”

    He added that “success can override bad explanations. So we must pray for success.”

    Speaking to Al Jazeera, Doug Bandow, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, said the confirmation that US soldiers had been killed “brings home the cost of the war”.

    “Americans, by a very large margin, don’t want to be tied up in an ongoing conflict in the Middle East,” he said during a television interview. “The fact that Americans have died suddenly shows this is not just a video game from the standpoint of America.”

    Beyond the three US military personnel killed, at least 201 people have been killed in Iran, nine in Israel, two in Iraq, three in the United Arab Emirates and one in Kuwait.

    Meanwhile, 45 percent of respondents to the Reuters-Ipsos poll, including 34 percent of Republicans and 44 percent of independents, said they would be less likely to support the campaign against Iran if gas or oil prices increased in the US.

    The conflict has threatened arterial trade routes, with several companies suspending shipments in the area.

    Democrats will also be keeping a close eye on public sentiment on the war, which will surely hang over the campaign season ahead of the midterm elections in November.

    The party has made affordability a key issue, with incumbents and upstart challengers alike portraying Trump’s military adventurism, which has also included the US abduction of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, as out of touch with his messaging.

    Elected Democrats, meanwhile, have given a range of responses to the US operation against Iran, with at least one Democratic senator praising Trump’s strikes. Others celebrated Khamenei’s killing, but remained more circumspect on Trump’s justification for the attacks, while several others were forthright in condemning the strikes.

    Several Democrats on Sunday said the killing of US soldiers underscored the urgency of passing a war powers resolution, which would require approval from Congress before further military action is taken.

    “I’m thinking of the brave American soldiers killed today,” Senator Chris Van Hollen, a proponent of the resolution, posted on X on Sunday. “They should still be with us.”

    “Trump said he would keep us out of war. This is his war of choice.”

    A vote on the resolution is expected early this week.