Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog. I’m Tom Ambrose and I’ll be bringing you all the latest news lines over the next few hours.

We start with reports that Donald Trump is considering an early strike to force the Iranians to the negotiating table. An early strike could likely target specific government buildings or military sites and may be limited enough so as not to provoke a full-scale retaliation from Iran, according to the Wall Street Journal.

One unnamed official told the Journal that aides had also discussed large-scale operations, which could involve increasingly larger strikes with an eventual aim of ending the Iranian regime’s nuclear work or the collapse of the government.

The reports come after Trump publicly told Iran that it has “10 to 15 days” to cut a deal over its nuclear program, as the US continues its vast military build up in the region.

“We’re either going to get a deal, or it’s going to be unfortunate for them,” Trump told reporters on board Air Force One yesterday.

He added that negotiations could be allowed to continue for another 10 to 15 days, a deadline the president described as “pretty much” the “maximum”.

“I would think that would be enough time,” Trump said.

The US has kept the option of military action against Iran on the table, as it continues to amass the greatest buildup of forces since the Iraq invasion 23 years ago, Bloomberg reported.

It has moved two aircraft carriers, fighter jets and refueling tankers in the region since the start of the year, giving the US the option of a sustained campaign last several days in co-operation with Israel.

In other developments:

• Donald Trump, who is definitely not mad that his more popular predecessor Barack Obama got a lot of attention for saying last weekend that aliens “are real, but I haven’t seen them”, announced that he is directing the defense department and other agencies to release whatever files they have on the search for alien life.

• Sky Roberts, the brother of the late Virginia Giuffre, told CNN that Trump “is potentially implicated” by the Epstein files, “and he may have to answer some questions”. The US president has denied any wrongdoing and yesterday claimed he was “exonerated” by the Epstein filed.

• The English far-right activist Tommy Robinson, who was repeatedly denied entry to the US in the past, spent Thursday in Washington DC, meeting people close to Trump according to images and video posted on his social media accounts.

• FBI Director Kash Patel has jetted off to Italy to watch the men’s ice hockey medal matches, sticking taxpayers with a bill as high as $75,000, according to multiple reports.

• The husband of Trump’s labor secretary, Lori Chavez-DeRemer, has reportedly been barred from the labor department’s headquarters in Washington DC after at least two female staff members accused him of sexually assaulting them, the New York Times reports.

• Trump told supporters in Georgia that there had been less media coverage of the cost-of-living crisis in the past weeks “Because I’ve won, I’ve won affordability.”