President Donald Trump's war with Iran has largely stalled, and it's becoming increasingly clear, sources tell me, that Trump feels stuck. In Washington, however, he has responded differently to resistance: even as courts and critics complicate his efforts to remake the capital, he remains determined to push forward.  

Trump on Wednesday led the press corps in a guided tour of the granite helipad he's constructing on the White House's historic South Lawn for his Marine One helicopter. It features the presidential seal; Trump autographed the underside of the bald eagle crest. Some members of the construction crew also signed their names. 

In the future, he told reporters, White House guests could sip cocktails on the newly paved space before proceeding to the $400-million state ballroom he's building on the site of the old East Wing. His administration asked the Supreme Court late last week to quash a legal challenge blocking ballroom construction. 

Trump's allies on the board of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, meanwhile, told another federal court that the president's name needed to remain on the building's facade - after a judge ruled the board could not add it to the building. 

Trump is also not giving up on securing convictions tied to problems with the newly refurbished Reflecting Pool. The White House asked the Justice Department to pursue new vandalism charges, after federal prosecutors recently dropped charges against a former Olympian accused of ripping the pool's new lining. Justice Department officials blamed the issues on poor construction. 

But outside of Washington, and especially in the Middle East, Trump's agenda is moving much more slowly. 

Shipping traffic in the vital Strait of Hormuz is a fraction of what it was before the war with Iran, which is nearing its six-month mark. On Monday, Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law and unofficial U.S. envoy, said negotiations with Tehran were "probably more robust than it's maybe ever been." By Tuesday, Trump denied any talks were ongoing or even scheduled.

Global borrowing costs, including in the U.S., fluttered near multi-decade highs in part because of inflation caused by the war. The U.S.'s public debt eclipsed the $40 trillion mark. Higher inflation and interest rates have made recent U.S. borrowing more expensive. Amid all of that, polling this week showed Trump's approval rating at its lowest in his second term 

In a world – and war – in which some things are out of Trump's control, Washington itself is not. Sunday's IndyCar Freedom 250 Grand Prix is another example. Trump's motorcade will take an honorary loop around the racetrack, surveying a city on which he's left an indelible mark. 

Follow Reuters/Ipsos polling on the president's approval ratings here.

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee has warned militant Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank not to steal property owned by Palestinian Americans, describing such behavior as "a violation of God's law". Huckabee, a Baptist minister and longtime supporter of Israel's settlements, told Reuters in an interview ‌that settlers found to have taken part in a siege of homes in the West Bank village of Qusra, including one belonging to Palestinian American Loui Ridi, could be punished with U.S. sanctions.