By Nathan Layne and Aleksandra Michalska MANCHESTER, New Hampshire, March 4 (Reuters) - When Michael Leary learned the United States had struck Iran, he questioned whether the move honored the "America First" pledge that earned his vote for President Donald Trump and feared it could pull the country into another Middle East quagmire.

Trump and The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) have agreed on a mediator on Tuesday to help resolve the president’s massive $10 billion defamation lawsuit.

President Trump, in a phone call with ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl, mentioned the assassination plot when discussing the U.S. and Israeli strike that killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. "I got him before he got me," Trump told ABC's Karl on Sunday night. "They tried twice. Well, I got him first."

Asif Merchant testified in his own defense, saying he participated in the plot to protect his family in Iran. Prosecutors reject his account of his motives.

Ryan Routh, the man convicted in a 2024 assassination attempt of President Trump at his Florida golf course, has been sentenced to life in prison.

Calls for Trump's youngest son to enlist intensified in March 2026 during the U.S.-Israel war with Iran.

Testimony and evidence in Asif Merchant’s trial has so far portrayed him as a zealous yet bumbling operative who never came close to his mission, which prosecutors say was backed by Iran.

The U.S. president and Iranian Ayatollah Ali Khamenei turned a meme war into an actual war. Only one of them came out alive.