Ed O'Keefe

"Where are the almonds?! Bring out the almonds!" A spirited @jmart chat with @GavinNewsom worth your time. youtube.com/watch?v=gzOJFW…

CBS News’ @EdOKeefe: “What would be your message today to the TSA agents who have been staying home in recent days amid this impasse?” President Trump: “I blame the Democrats more than anything else.”

President Trump said the killing of Iran's leaders constitutes "regime change." "We killed all their leadership," he told @edokeefe when asked which Iranians the U.S. is negotiating with now. The president also said Iran gave the U.S. a "big present" related to oil and gas.

NEWS from Oval - Trump told us: "We've won this. This war has been won." He said Iran gave the US an oil- and gas-related “gift" that showed him "we're dealing with the right people.” It's "related to the flow, to the Strait," he told me. "It was a very significant prize, and they gave it to us, and they said they were going to give it," he told @edokeefe. Trump: "We have, really, regime change. You know, this is a change in the regime. Because the leaders are all very different than the ones that we started off with, that created all those problems." Trump said @VP Vance, @SecRubio, @JaredKushner and @SEPeaceMissions Steve Witkoff currently doing negotiations with Iran. Hegseth told us: "We see ourselves as part of this negotiation as well. We negotiate with bombs." At that, Trump said two people were "quite disappointed" when the president said the conflict could be settled soon: Pete Hegseth and Dan Caine.

Attorney General Pam Bondi swears-in Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin, as @POTUS looks on in the Oval Office.

ALSO: As the Oval Office Q&A broke up, I asked President Trump about ongoing construction on the West Wing colonnade outside. He confirmed he's installing black granite on the walkway. TRUMP: “It’s a great contrast. The white [walls], with the black. The black is going to be on the walkway. It’s going to be clean. The thing I do best. It’s going to be beautiful. It’s a beautiful, black granite. Polished granite for the areas you don’t walk on, because when you walk on it, it’s [inaudible].” ED Q: Who’s going to pay for it? TRUMP: “Uh, paid for by, [Long pause as he looks at an aide] me.”

READ: Several questions to President Trump today in the Oval Office, mostly about Iran. ED O'KEEFE Q: On Iran, Can you give us any more sense of who exactly in Iran, either you or Witkoff, are speaking with? TRUMP: I hate to say this in front of these young people. (Looks at Markwayne Mullin) They're not children. I spoke to most of them, they sound like adults to me, even though they are sort of children, right? They'll always be your children. But I hate to say it, but we killed all their leadership. And then they met to choose new leaders, and we killed all of them, and now we have a new group. And we can easily do that, but let's see how they turn out. It'--- we have really, regime change. You know, this is a change in the regime. Because the leaders are all very different than the ones that we started off with, that created all those problems. So this was, I think we can say, Jason, this is regime change. ED Q: What makes you trust them? TRUMP: I don't trust anybody. I don't trust you. That's only because I know you, but if I didn't know you, I'd probably have more trust. But I don't trust that. Why do you-- why do you say that? Why do you say what makes you-- do you think I trust them? I don't trust them. ED Q: Well then why bother talking to them? TRUMP: *shrugs* Because they're gonna make a deal. They're gonna make a deal. They did something yesterday, that was amazing actually, they gave us a present, and the present arrived today. It was a very big present worth a tremendous amount of money, and I'm not going to tell you what that present is. But it was a very significant prize, and they gave it to us, and they said they were going to give going to give it. So that meant one thing to me, we're dealing with the right people. ED Q: Was it nuclear related? TRUMP: It wasn't nuclear related, it was oil and gas related, and it was a very nice thing they did. But what it showed me is that we're dealing with the right people. Because, you know, you don't know, because the leadership was killed, all gone, Khamenei, all gone, as the expression goes the past, supreme leader. And then the new Supreme Leader was racked up, at a minimum, racked up pretty good. And everyone else was gone. And then many of the people in the third tier are gone, but we're dealing with a group of people that I think turned out. And the present, the gift they made to us, was very significant, and they said they were going to do it and it happened. And they're the only ones that could have done it. @JenniferJJacobs Q: Was it related to the Strait of Hormuz? TRUMP: Yeah, it was related to the flow, to the Strait. Jennifer Q: Are you negotiating on who is going to control the strait from now on? TRUMP: No, we're going to-- we'll have control of anything we want. Look, if we can end this without more lives being done, without knocking out $10 billion electric plants that are brand new, the apple of their eye, I'd like to be able to do this, yeah. But we-- they can't have certain things. I mean, you know the things, I'll have to go over the list. But again, it starts with no nuclear weapons, and they've agreed to that. There won't be any nuclear weapons. and they're not going to have enrichment, any of those things. But look, I hate to say that we're in a very good bargaining position. I position until that last missile is fired, little power, but we are in about the best bargaining position. We're way ahead of schedule. And again, they have no navy, they have no air force, and they have no missile protection, and most of their missiles are gone, most of their launches. We've killed, we've killed about 82% of their launches. So even if they had a missile, they can't launch it. We've been very fat. We have the greatest military in the world. Nobody even comes close. We have the best military equipment in the world

📺DEBUT: ‘Nightline’ hosted by Ted Koppel premiered 45 years ago, March 24, 1980, on ABC

Trump told @edokeefe the Iranians sent a "very big present worth a tremendous amount of money" that arrived today, that was "oil and gas-related." He told @JenniferJJacobs it's related to the flow/control of the Strait of Hormuz, and a sign they're dealing with the "right people"

It's not a palace, but next month the White House is set to be overrun by royals. In separate visits, President Trump is planning to host monarchs from the United Kingdom and the Netherlands next month cbsnews.com/news/trump-kin…

NEW w/ @JenniferJJacobs: King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima of the Netherlands are scheduled to attend a dinner and stay overnight in the White House when they visit the United States next month, according to U.S. and Dutch officials. This is a reciprocal visit - President Trump stayed in a Dutch palace (Huis ten Bosch Palace) in The Hague during the 2025 @NATO summit. The Dutch royal couple are also scheduled to visit Philadelphia and Miami as part of their visit, per previous Dutch media reports.

Good bit of Cabinet history here: x.com/APjoshgoodman/…

ABOUT TODAY: Why is @SecRubio scheduled to be in a Miami courtroom? I spoke on @TakeoutPodcast Monday with @DeFede who's tracked the saga of former @marcorubio roommate David Rivera for years.

WATCH: Face it, your #MarchMadness bracket is busted. So, what to bet on now? Spoke Monday to @kenzbrooksbets of @cbssports on @TakeoutPodcast on @cbsnews 24/7.

WATCH: The new @cbsnewspoll shows broad disapproval of the war with Iran, but the poll shows his MAGA base remains with him. Why? @SalvantoCBS showed us on Monday's @TakeoutPodcast on @cbsnews 24/7

BREAKING: USC cancels gubernatorial debate amidst roiling controversy about methodology that excluded every candidate of color latimes.com/california/sto…

Former President Bill Clinton was in SF yesterday & spent four hours lunching and chatting with friends at The Waterfront — including Willie Brown, @GavinNewsom, and longtime Arkansas buddies Martha Whetstone and Sarah Staley.

NSTB Chair Homendy says the board's air traffic control specialist was stuck in the TSA line at Houston for THREE HOURS while trying to get to the LGA crash.

COMING UP ON @TakeoutPodcast when I sit in for @MajorCBS at 5pm ET: - @NicoleSganga and @krisvancleave on the deadly crash at LaGuardia and today’s transportation woes - @schoolofwarpod with Iran latest - @DeFede explains why @marcorubio is testifying in a Miami court Tuesday - @LevinsonJessica and @MikeHurstMS on today’s SCOTUS hearing on mail-in ballots - @MarkBednar and @JohnWMcCarthy on political news of the day - @kenzbrooksbets on #MarchMadness.

"Everybody loves Elvis," Trump says as he walks into Graceland