❓WHAT HAPPENED: The Department of Education has found that California violated Title IX by continuing to allow biological males to compete in women’s sports.
👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: The U.S. Department of Education, the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF), the California Department of Education (CDE), Governor Gavin Newsom (D-CA), U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon, and male and female athletes.
📍WHEN & WHERE: The investigations into California were launched in February and April, with their conclusion announced on Wednesday, June 25, 2025.
💬KEY QUOTE: “Although Governor Gavin Newsom admitted months ago it was ‘deeply unfair’ to allow men to compete in women’s sports, both the California Department of Education and the California Interscholastic Federation continued as recently as a few weeks ago to allow men to steal female athletes’ well-deserved accolades and to subject them to the indignity of unfair and unsafe competitions,” Trump’s Education Secretary Linda McMahon said.
🎯IMPACT: If California refuses to abide by federal directives, the Department of Education will refer the state to the Department of Justice (DOJ) for legal action.
IN FULL
President Donald J. Trump‘s Department of Education says the State of California has violated Title IX with its policies allowing biological males to compete in women’s sports. The determination was announced on Wednesday with the conclusion of two investigations launched in February and April into the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) and the California Department of Education (CDE).
Under California state law, biological males who claim to be transgender are allowed not only to compete in women’s sports but also to use women’s bathroom and locker facilities. Despite an Executive Order signed by President Trump in February barring men from participating in women’s sports, the CIF has publicly said it would not abide by federal law, choosing to only abide by state law instead. This resulted in the Department of Education launching an investigation.
“Although Governor Gavin Newsom admitted months ago it was ‘deeply unfair’ to allow men to compete in women’s sports, both the California Department of Education and the California Interscholastic Federation continued as recently as a few weeks ago to allow men to steal female athletes’ well-deserved accolades and to subject them to the indignity of unfair and unsafe competitions,” Trump’s Education Secretary Linda McMahon said, adding: “The Trump Administration will relentlessly enforce Title IX protections for women and girls, and our findings today make clear that California has failed to adhere to its obligations under federal law. The state must swiftly come into compliance with Title IX or face the consequences that follow.”
As part of its determination against California, the Department of Education is stipulating that the state restore any female athletic record taken by biological males. Additionally, state officials are directed to begin immediately complying with federal law. If California fails to abide by the Department of Education’s directives, the state will be referred to the Department of Justice (DOJ) for potential legal action.
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❓WHAT HAPPENED: Tucker Carlson alleged that the Murdoch family asked him to run against Donald J. Trump for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination—after firing him from Fox News.
👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, Rupert Murdoch, Lachlan Murdoch, and President Trump.
📍WHEN & WHERE: Carlson says this occurred in May 2023, following his termination in April 2023, as discussed on his show with guest Clayton Morris in June 2025.
💬KEY QUOTE: “The Murdochs really hate Trump. Like, there’s no one who hates Trump more than the Murdochs,” said Carlson.
🎯IMPACT: The revelation adds to ongoing speculation about the Murdoch family’s attitude towards the Trump administration, with the President having heavily criticized Fox News in recent weeks.
IN FULL
Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson has claimed that the Murdoch family—owners of Fox News, the Wall Street Journal, and The New York Post—urged him to run against Donald J. Trump in the 2024 Republican presidential primary. Carlson made the claim during a conversation with guest Clayton Morris on his show.
“The Murdochs really hate Trump. Like, there’s no one who hates Trump more than the Murdochs,” Carlson told Morris. He went on to allege that in May 2023, just a month after his firing, Lachlan Murdoch directly proposed the idea of him running against Trump for the Republican nomination, with the promise of full backing from their media empire.
“I got fired in April of 2023. In May of 2023, they asked me to run for President against Trump and said they would back me. Obviously, I’m not gonna be running for any office,” Carlson said, adding, “I like Trump!”
Morris pressed for clarification, asking if the suggestion came directly from Lachlan Murdoch. Carlson confirmed, stating, “Yeah, Lachlan Murdoch said, ‘You should run… We’ll back you, the whole thing.’” He continued, “I was still under contract, but they canceled my show. ‘You should run, we support you, you should run.’”
Carlson also suggested that the Murdochs’ motivation was to counter Trump’s presidential campaign, with Morris summarizing, “We want to stop Trump.” Carlson replied, “Yeah, well, he was running.”
❓WHAT HAPPENED: Top Trump officials have denied a CNN report claiming U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear sites failed to destroy core components. Notably, the report was penned by Natasha Bertrand, who was also a key figure in the promotion of the bogus Steele Dossier and the infamous letter from 51 intelligence officials alleging the Hunter Biden laptop was Russian disinformation.
👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Natasha Bertrand, and unnamed CNN sources.
📍WHEN & WHERE: U.S. military strikes occurred last weekend on three Iranian nuclear facilities; CNN report published June 24, 2025.
💬KEY QUOTE: “The leaking of this alleged assessment is a clear attempt to demean President Trump, and discredit the brave fighter pilots who conducted a perfectly executed mission to obliterate Iran’s nuclear program.” – Karoline Leavitt
🎯IMPACT: The conflicting reports on the strikes raise questions about the motivations behind leaked assessments, possibly by deep state factions in favor of more extensive U.S. involvement in a war with Iran.
IN FULL
Top Trump administration officials have denied a CNN report alleging that U.S. military strikes on three Iranian nuclear sites failed to destroy core components of the country’s nuclear program. The CNN report is supposedly based on an early U.S. intelligence assessment. Notably, its lead author is Natasha Bertrand—a journalist notorious for laundering information for partisan actors within the intelligence and security community, such as an infamous, discredited letter from 51 intelligence officials wrongly suggesting that the Hunter Biden laptop was Russian disinformation ahead of the 2020 election.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt dismissed the CNN report, calling it “flat-out wrong” and attributing the leak to a “low-level loser” in the intelligence community. “The leaking of this alleged assessment is a clear attempt to demean President Trump, and discredit the brave fighter pilots who conducted a perfectly executed mission to obliterate Iran’s nuclear program,” Leavitt said.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth also refuted the claims, stating, “Based on everything we have seen, and I’ve seen it all, our bombing campaign obliterated Iran’s ability to create nuclear weapons. Our massive bombs hit exactly the right spot at each target and worked perfectly.” He added that the impact of the strikes is “buried under a mountain of rubble in Iran.”
CNN’s report claimed the strikes “did not destroy the core components of the country’s nuclear program” and suggested they may have only set Iran’s nuclear ambitions back by months. The report cited a supposed early assessment from the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), which is still ongoing and subject to change as more intelligence becomes available.
In addition to the aforementioned intelligence community efforts to undermine the Hunter Biden laptop story, Bertrand has also pushed the bogus Steele Dossier that spurred the Russiagate investigation into Trump.
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❓WHAT HAPPENED: Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell faced bipartisan pressure from House Democrats and House Republicans to begin cutting interest rates during a Tuesday hearing on Capitol Hill.
👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: Democrat and Republican members of the House Financial Services Committee, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, President Donald J. Trump, and Federal Reserve Board of Governors members Christopher Waller and Michelle Bowman.
📍WHEN & WHERE: Powell testified before the House Financial Services Committee on Tuesday, June 24, 2025.
💬KEY QUOTE: “From our side, we’d love to see the rates go down,” said Congressman Juan Vargas (D-CA), adding: “I know a number of my colleagues on the other side would love to see the rates go down. I think it’s pretty unanimous.”
🎯IMPACT: With President Trump, GOP and Democrat lawmakers, and Federal Reserve governors increasingly opposed to Powell’s refusal to cut rates, he may be forced to begin climbing down from his position.
IN FULL
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell is facing mounting pressure both internally at the central bank and externally from the White House and a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers on Capitol Hill to begin reducing U.S. interest rates. Appearing before Congress on Tuesday, Powell was peppered by House Republicans and Democrats alike to explain his reasoning for not moving to reduce the cost of borrowing.
“From our side, we’d love to see the rates go down,” Congressman Juan Vargas (D-CA) told the Fed chairman during a House Financial Services Committee hearing on Tuesday. The California Democrat added: “I know a number of my colleagues on the other side would love to see the rates go down. I think it’s pretty unanimous.”
Just before the hearing, President Donald J. Trump urged lawmakers to grill Powell, posting on Truth Social: “I hope Congress really works this very dumb, hardheaded person, over.”
The bipartisan pressure faced by Powell was compounded in recent days, which saw two members of the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors, who sit on the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), announce their support for the central bank to begin cutting rates in July. On Friday, Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller acknowledged that fears over President Trump’s tariffs reigniting inflation were overblown. “I think we’re in the position that we could do this as early as July,” Waller stated, adding: “That would be my view, whether the committee would go along with it or not.”
Waller was joined on Monday by his fellow Fed governor and FOMC member, Michelle Bowman, who echoed her colleague. “It is likely that the impact of tariffs on inflation may take longer, be more delayed, and have a smaller effect than initially expected,” Bowman said in a speech at a research conference in Prague. She added: “Should inflation pressures remain contained, I would support lowering the policy rate as soon as our next meeting.”
Despite increasing internal and external pressure on Powell to slash rates, the Federal Reserve chairman remains obstinate. “As long as the economy’s strong, we can take a little bit of a pause,” Powell told House lawmakers in response to their push for a July rate cut. While the central bank chief acknowledged that the hard data suggests he should have continued reducing rates after the Fed’s last cut in December, Powell—repeating a mantra he has stated for months—insisted: “The difference, of course, is at this time, all forecasters are expecting pretty soon, that some significant inflation will show up from tariffs.”
However, there has been no evidence of a resurgence of inflation due to the tariffs imposed by the Trump White House. In fact, as Trump’s Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has noted, the tariffs may actually be having a deflationary effect, which should—under normal circumstances—spur the Federal Reserve to reduce interest rates.
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❓WHAT HAPPENED: A new detention center for illegal immigrants in Florida’s Everglades, nicknamed “Alligator Alcatraz,” is under construction.
👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem, and Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava.
📍WHEN & WHERE: The facility is set to open in July 2025 on a former airfield in the Everglades.
💬KEY QUOTE: “Nowhere to go, nowhere to hide.” – James Uthmeier.
🎯IMPACT: Once completed, the detention facility will be able to host an estimated 5,000 illegal immigrants awaiting deportation, with its remote location—surrounded by the Everglades—making escape challenging.
IN FULL
Florida has announced the construction of a detention center for illegal immigrants on a former airfield in the Everglades. Nicknamed “Alligator Alcatraz,” the facility will primarily consist of tents and is estimated to cost $450 million annually to operate. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will provide funding support, according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier highlighted the remote location of the site, surrounded by wildlife such as alligators and pythons, as a novel security measure. “Nowhere to go, nowhere to hide,” Uthmeier said in a video posted to social media.
Alligator Alcatraz: the one-stop shop to carry out President Trump’s mass deportation agenda. pic.twitter.com/96um2IXE7U
— Attorney General James Uthmeier (@AGJamesUthmeier) June 19, 2025
The new facility will be able to hold an estimated 5,000 illegal immigrant detainees once completed, with its remote location making escape difficult. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem stated, “Under President Trump’s leadership, we are working at turbo speed to deliver cost-effective and innovative ways to deliver on the American people’s mandate for mass deportations of criminal illegal aliens.”
Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava requested more time to evaluate the project, citing potential ecological impacts on the Everglades. Notably, the southern 20 percent of the massive subtropical wetland—approximately 1.5 million acres—is federally protected as part of the Everglades National Park. Far-left environmental groups like Friends of the Everglades have opposed the development. However, the fact that an airfield already exists at the site suggests “green” objections are a only a pretext to hinder the Trump administration’s deportation agenda.
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❓WHAT HAPPENED: President Donald J. Trump said he does not want “regime change” in Iran, after facilitating a ceasefire between the Islamic Republic and the State of Israel.
👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: President Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Iranian leaders.
📍WHEN & WHERE: Trump made the comments on Tuesday aboard Air Force One.
💬KEY QUOTE: “Regime change takes chaos—and ideally, we don’t want to see so much chaos.” – Donald Trump.
🎯IMPACT: The ceasefire has temporarily halted hostilities, with Trump coming out strongly against early violations and retaliatory actions by both sides.
IN FULL
President Donald J. Trump stated on Tuesday that he does not want “regime change” in Iran, following a weekend of military actions targeting Iranian nuclear facilities and subsequent ceasefire negotiations. When asked aboard Air Force One if regime change in Iran was a goal, Trump said, “No. If there was, there was. But no, I don’t want it.”
The President highlighted the potential for Iran to rebuild, saying, “Regime change takes chaos, and ideally, we don’t want to see so much chaos… The Iranians are very good traders, very good business people, and they’ve got a lot of oil. They should be fine. They should be able to rebuild and do a good job,” he said, cautioning, “They’re never going to have nuclear, but other than that, they should do a great job.”
Trump’s remarks followed a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Iran. Shortly before this went into effect, Israel launched heavy strikes on the Iranian capital of Tehran, with Iran retaliating with a missile strike that killed four civilians in Israel’s Beersheba. Both parties conducted some follow-up strikes after the ceasefire officially took effect at 7:00 AM.
President Trump was angered by these actions, with most of his ire directed at Israel. He argued that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not act in “good faith” by launching a massive attack on Iran just hours before the ceasefire was due to take effect. In a phone call to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump delivered a “firm and clear” message urging restraint.
Trump’s public comments against regime change will reassure anti-war members of the America First coalition, concerned by a Truth Social post from the President suggesting he was open to it following the U.S. strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities. “It’s not politically correct to use the term, ‘regime change,’ but if the current Iranian regime is unable to MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN, why wouldn’t there be a regime change?” he wrote.
Having now brokered a ceasefire and denounced regime change, it now seems likely this message was mainly intended to pressure Iran into coming to the negotiating table.
❓WHAT HAPPENED: Israel has defended striking Iranian targets in Tehran hours before a ceasefire went into effect, resulting in Iranian strikes and Israeli counter-strikes after the ceasefire and angering President Donald J. Trump.
👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Iran, and President Trump.
📍WHEN & WHERE: June 24, 2025, Israel and Iran.
💬KEY QUOTE: “Pursuant to the conversation between President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu, Israel has refrained from additional attacks.” – Office of the Israeli Prime Minister.
🎯IMPACT: President Trump, who intervened in the Israel-Iran war to deliver a decisive blow to Iran’s nuclear facilities, is now adopting a more aggressive diplomatic posture to bring the conflict to a close.
IN FULL
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has responded to President Donald J. Trump’s criticism of Israeli forces launching a massive attack on Iran shortly before a ceasefire was due to take effect, resulting in subsequent violations by both parties.
According to a statement from Netanyahu’s office, the Israeli Air Force “forcefully attacked in the heart of Tehran, struck regime targets and eliminated hundreds of Basij and Iranian security forces personnel” at 03:00 AM, just hours before a scheduled ceasefire was to begin at 07:00 AM.
“Shortly before the ceasefire was due to take effect, Iran launched a barrage of missiles, one of which took the lives of four of our citizens in Be’er Sheva,” the statement continues, asserting that six minutes after the ceasefire took effect at 07:00 AM, “Iran launched one missile at Israeli territory, and two additional missiles at 10:25.”
Despite acknowledging that the missiles “were either intercepted or fell in open areas, and caused neither casualties nor damage,” the Israeli statement defends subsequent strikes on Iran as a response to the Islamic Republic’s “violations.”
President Trump was highly critical of Israel’s actions on Tuesday morning, saying, “Israel, as soon as we made the deal, they came out and they dropped a load of bombs the likes of which I’ve never seen before. The biggest load that we’ve seen.”
“I’m not happy with Israel. You know, when I say, ‘OK, now you have 12 hours,’ you don’t go out in the first hour and just drop everything you have on them,” he continued, adding that Israel and Iran “don’t know what the f**k they’re doing.”
Despite defending its strikes before the ceasefire officially went into effect, Netanyahu’s office acknowledged that, “Pursuant to the conversation between President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu, Israel has refrained from additional attacks.”
The Israeli statement added that, “In the conversation, President Trump expressed his great appreciation for Israel, which achieved all of its objectives for the war, as well as his confidence in the stability of the ceasefire.”
❓WHAT HAPPENED: President Donald J. Trump chastised Iran and especially Israel for breaking a freshly-brokered ceasefire deal in the Middle East, telling reporters, “They don’t know what the f**k they’re doing.”
👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: President Trump, Israel, Iran.
📍WHEN & WHERE: Remarks made on Tuesday at the White House before a NATO summit in the Netherlands.
💬KEY QUOTE: “We basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don’t know what the f**k they’re doing.” – Donald Trump.
🎯IMPACT: Trump’s comments highlight his frustrations with Israel, in particular, as he attempts to wind down the war between the Jewish State and Iran, which saw the U.S. participate in strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities.
IN FULL
President Donald Trump expressed frustration with both Israel and Iran early Tuesday morning, stating that the two nations “don’t know what the f**k they’re doing.” The profanity-laced remarks were made as Trump departed the White House for a NATO summit following a ceasefire agreement between the two countries.
President Trump on Israel and Iran: "We basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don’t know what the fuck they’re doing." pic.twitter.com/xrztmebALZ
Trump criticized Israel for its actions shortly after the ceasefire began. “I’m not happy with Israel. You know, when I say, okay, now you have 12 hours, you don’t go out in the first hour and just drop everything you have on them,” he said. “I’m not happy with Iran either, but I’m really unhappy if Israel is going out this morning.”
On his Truth Social account, Trump urged Israel to halt its planned attack. “ISRAEL. DO NOT DROP THOSE BOMBS. IF YOU DO IT IS A MAJOR VIOLATION. BRING YOUR PILOTS HOME, NOW!” Shortly after, he announced Israel had canceled its plans, writing, “ISRAEL is not going to attack Iran. All planes will turn around and head home, while doing a friendly ‘Plane Wave’ to Iran. Nobody will be hurt, the Ceasefire is in effect!”
The ceasefire for what Trump referred to as a “12-day war” was brokered with the help of Qatar’s Prime Minister after Iran launched limited strikes on a U.S. airbase in Qatar. Despite the agreement, tensions remain high as a senior Israeli official reported that Iran fired additional missiles toward Israel, with more potentially on the way.
“Unfortunately, the Iranians have decided to continue to fire toward Israel,” the official told Fox News. “Now we will have to retaliate, this will happen of course. It could end within several hours, but they [the Iranians] need to make a decision.”
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❓WHAT HAPPENED: President Donald J. Trump’s Justice Department secured a landmark criminal antitrust conviction against a home healthcare staffing executive for orchestrating a wage-fixing scheme aimed at suppressing the wages of home healthcare nurses in the Las Vegas area.
👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: The Department of Justice (DOJ) Antitrust Division, Assistant Attorney General Abigail A. Slater, federal prosecutors, defendant Eduardo “Eddie” Lopez, Las Vegas area home healthcare companies, and home healthcare nurses.
📍WHEN & WHERE: The criminal conviction was issued in April 2025.
💬KEY QUOTE: “Wage-fixing agreements are nakedly unlawful attempts at unjustly profiting off American workers.” — Assistant Attorney General Abigail A. Slater.
🎯IMPACT: The jury verdict marks the first successful criminal conviction against individuals accused of wage-fixing and labor market collusion.
IN FULL
The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) secured a historic antitrust jury verdict against a home healthcare executive over a wage-fixing scheme in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act. In April this year, federal prosecutors secured the criminal conviction of Eduardo “Eddie” Lopez—a home healthcare staffing executive who served with three separate home healthcare agencies—for conspiring with a number of healthcare staffing agencies to suppress the wages of home health nurses in the Las Vegas area and defrauding buyers of his staffing services by concealing the ongoing federal antitrust investigation against him.
Notably, the case marks a significant legal landmark for the DOJ, affirming its legal authority to pursue criminal charges against individuals accused of wage-fixing and labor market collusion. Prior attempts at criminal prosecution on similar charges had failed to secure a conviction.
At trial, DOJ prosecutors revealed that Lopez had orchestrated, between 2016 and 2019, a wage-fixing conspiracy aimed at artificially suppressing the wages of home health nurses in the Las Vegas area. The scheme saw Lopez and several other home healthcare executives enter into a covert agreement to set the hourly wages for nurses, insulating their companies from labor market forces. Federal prosecutors successfully argued that the wage-fixing scheme was akin to price-fixing in labor markets and that each incidence of wage suppression should be treated as per se violations of Section 1 of the Sherman Antitrust Act.
Lopez’s communications with the executives of other area home healthcare agencies proved pivotal. In one message shown to jurors, Lopez wrote to an executive at an ostensibly competing agency, “We all have a mutual agreement that with the pay increase, all 3 companies will stay within the same hourly rate.” The April verdict saw Lopez convicted on five criminal counts, including one antitrust charge and four wire fraud charges.
Assistant Attorney General Abigail A. Slater, who leads the DOJ’s Antitrust Division, praised the conviction: “Wage-fixing agreements are nakedly unlawful attempts at unjustly profiting off American workers.” She added that the “verdict highlights what should be a clear message with antitrust crimes: the agreement is the crime. The Antitrust Division will zealously prosecute those who seek to unjustly profit off their employees. The nurses here deserved better and, under President Trump’s leadership, they will be protected.”
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❓WHAT HAPPENED: The United States is preparing for potential retaliation from Iran after President Donald J. Trump launched strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities using B-2 stealth bombers and Tomahawk missiles.
👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: The United States, Iran, Israel, and key figures such as Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
📍WHEN & WHERE: U.S. strikes occurred over the weekend, targeting nuclear facilities in Iran, including Isfahan and Fordow. Retaliatory strikes by Iran could occur this week.
💬KEY QUOTE: “The full strength and might of the U.S. Armed Forces will come down on you at levels never seen before,” warned President Trump regarding the potential for Iranian retaliation.
🎯IMPACT: Iran faces pressure to retaliate, threatening regional stability, with potential economic and geopolitical consequences, including disruption of oil tankers moving through the critical Strait of Hormuz.
IN FULL
The United States has carried out targeted strikes on Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, utilizing B-2 stealth bombers and Tomahawk missiles. While the exact damage to Iran’s nuclear program remains unclear, concerns over Tehran’s potential retaliation are mounting.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi condemned the American strikes as “lawless and criminal behaviour” and warned of “everlasting consequences.” He stated that Iran “reserves all options to defend its sovereignty, interest, and people.”
Among the initial moves Iran could make would be to disrupt oil tanker traffic through the critical Strait of Hormuz. This could impact oil and natural gas markets globally, with exports largely being blocked out of Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The National Pulse previously reported that, in the past, Iran has demonstrated its capacity to threaten shipping in the strait, using tactics such as deploying mines and targeting oil tankers during the Iran-Iraq War. Notably, if Iran were to deploy a significant number of mines in the strait’s waters, it could effectively close the passage to ships for the foreseeable future.
Another path the Iranian regime could take would be to redouble efforts on pursuing a nuclear weapon. In the coming days, Iran is expected to attempt to salvage whatever materials and equipment it can from their devastated nuclear facilities. If enough material remains—and if the Iranians have maintained other previously unknown facilities—besides up to 880 pounds of enriched uranium previously moved from the sites—the regime could restart its program.
The more radical elements in the regime, including the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), will likely demand a more immediate and tangible response to the U.S. strikes. This could include using existing fissile materials to build a so-called “dirty bomb” radiation weapon.
The most anticipated response is Iranian missile and drone strikes against U.S. military bases, diplomatic facilities, and allied assets in the Middle East. Iran has engaged in similar actions in the past—including after President Donald J. Trump ordered the elimination of IRGC commander Qasem Soleimani on January 3, 2020. Using short and medium-range ballistic missiles and suicide drones, Iran could again target U.S. military bases and assets in Iraq, Bahrain, and Qatar—which are notably less protected than Israel, with its multi-layered anti-missile defense shield.
President Donald J. Trump has issued a stark warning to Tehran, stating, “The full strength and might of the U.S. Armed Forces will come down on you at levels never seen before” if American assets are attacked.
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