Lawmakers press Hegseth about troop deaths

Taurean Small, thank you. Joining us now is CBS News White House Reporter Aaron Navarro. Aaron, the president took to social media earlier today, and I want to put it up on the screen. He told Iran to "get smart soon" on a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. And the post also said, as you can see here, "No more Mr. Nice Guy." It shows the president there armed with explosions going off in the background. And we also heard the president discuss Iran during an event in the Oval Office today. So where do things stand on talks? According to President Trump, at least from what he said in the Oval Office, is that the talks are happening right now. They're just happening over the phone. At one point, he said that he did not want to keep sending representatives from the United States on an 18-hour flight to the Middle East just to hear an offer that the US likely won't like. President Trump said that Iran has to, quote, "cry uncle" and capitulate to his demand that they give up on ever enriching uranium that will enable them to build a nuclear weapon and said that there will never be a deal unless that happens. He also told Axiosin an interview earlier today that he's rejected Iran's proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for the US lifting the blockade and then postponing nuclear talks to a later stage. It seemed clear from his interview with Axios and what he said in the Oval Office that that's not an offer that President Trump is going to take. And senior Iranian leaders are threatening new military action if the US doesn't suspend its blockade of the Strait, a blockade that the president today called genius. Tehran has said it will never give up the Strait and it holds all of the cards. So how is the White House responding to that? By doubling down on this blockade. Central Command announced earlier today that they redirected the 42nd commercial vessel that was attempting to violate the US blockade and says that they prevented 41 other tankers with 69 million barrels of oil from getting to Iran in order for them to sell, claiming that that's an estimated $6 billion in financial losses for Iran. How the blockade is hurting Iran economically was something that President Trump talked about in the Oval Office today. And in that interview with Axios, he said at one point that he actually sees the blockade as being, quote, "somewhat more effective" than a mass bombing campaign, though he made clear that more military strikes remains an option for him and the US. And, Aaron, the president says he spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin today. What are we learning about that? Well, we learned that he asked Putin for a ceasefire in the war with Ukraine, and according to Russian state media, that is something that President Putin agreed to, at least a short-term ceasefire on Russia's Victory Day on May 9.

Aaron Navarro, thank you.