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Here is, at this point in the presidency, for both Joe Biden and President Trump, their second year in office, the first half of that year, January to July, inflation. Overall inflation was 12% for Joe Biden, 4% for President Trump. Groceries were up 16% for President Biden, a little over 3% for President Trump. Gas was up almost 70% for Biden. That's up about 12% during that timeframe for Trump. New and used cars were up almost 24% for Joe Biden, down under President Trump. But prices aren't the only numbers that matter. It's no secret Americans are feeling about how they're feeling about the high cost of living. But there's also what you make, what you earn. And that has been moving up. Real median household income hit more than $80,000 last year. That's the highest level on record, according to the Census Bureau. On the flip side, that's median household income. There's poverty. Poverty was down another half point last year to just over 10%. That, as you can see, is a historic low. So this reality and how we feel have to be reconciled. But that's hard to do when you see how these two different stories are covered. See if you can spot the difference. Here's The Washington Post in 2022 under Joe Biden. The stunning drop in child poverty is a huge story. This month, as we hit poverty rates that are the lowest in history, here's the headline in The Washington Post. Both poverty rate dropped slightly, but experts fear worse ahead. Let's reconcile how we feel in reality with Heritage Foundation economist EJ Antoni, who joins me now. EJ, it's good to see you. Listen, I know how people feel. We both talk to people, and we see it showing up in polling. But how do we compare and reconcile that with these numbers, which are historically great? They are, Will, but one of the things I think is important, going back to that first chart you showed, where it was the inflation rate difference between Trump and Biden. At the end of the day, consumers don't as much care about the inflation rate, which is the pace at which prices are increasing. What they really care about are the levels of prices. And so any additional price increases that we see under this administration, it's kind of like the straw breaking the camel's back because they are on top of all of the price increases that we had from the previous administration during Biden. And so even though, again, even though things have gotten better under President Trump, in other words, not only are paychecks bigger, but they can buy you more, which is why, as you were saying, real median household income is up, for a lot of Americans, they still have not yet regained all the lost ground that they saw under Biden. So let me just put this into real numbers so that I, and perhaps the audience, understand exactly what you're saying. If your grocery bill went up 15% under Joe Biden, the fact that it's now only going up 3% doesn't inspire a lot of credit. They're still paying 18% more than what they expected to be paying from the inflation baked in during the four years under Biden. And this, even though wages are growing. Exactly. And I think the other thing that has really left a kind of a bad taste in people's mouths, as well, is the fact that during the first year, really the first 14 months of this second Trump administration, we were making tremendous progress. In fact, if you can believe this, the average American's weekly paycheck adjusted for inflation shrunk 4% under Biden from when he entered office to when he left. But during Trump's first year, it went up 2%. In other words, we clawed back half of the losses that we saw under Biden. And again, this is the Average American's weekly paycheck.

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A screenshot of a social media post (appears to be from Truth Social or a similar platform) from "Secretary Brooke Rollins" (@SecRollins), a verified account with a profile picture of a woman with blonde hair. The post text touts falling meat prices for Labor Day. Below the text is an embedded graphic titled "MAKING LABOR DAY MORE AFFORDABLE" with an American flag background, listing four proteins each with a photo of cooked meat, a price per pound, and a red down arrow noting the price is the lowest since a given year. The graphic cites USDA Economic Research Service Circana retail scanner data. The post shows engagement info ("The White House and 3 others"), a timestamp of 3:47 PM · Sep 7, 2026, and 54.3K views.

Text in image: Secretary Brooke Rollins ✓ @SecRollins This Labor Day, enjoy your favorite proteins at some of their lowest prices in 4+ years. ⬇️ Chicken breast: $3.88/lb — lowest since 2021 ⬇️ Fresh turkey: $1.72/lb — lowest since 2021 ⬇️ Beef chuck: $6.02/lb — lowest since 2022 ⬇️ Pork loin: $3.57/lb — lowest since 2022 Happy Labor Day, America! 🇺🇸 MAKING LABOR DAY MORE AFFORDABLE KEY PROTEINS REACH LOWEST PRICE IN YEARS Chicken Breast $3.88/LB Lowest Price Since 2021 Fresh Turkey $1.72/LB Lowest Price Since 2021 Beef Chuck $6.02/LB Lowest Price Since 2022 Pork Loin $3.57/LB Lowest Price Since 2022 Source: USDA, Economic Research Service (ERS) using Circana Retail Scanner Data (not seasonally adjusted), Multioutlet + convenience (MULO+) for week ending August 23, 2026 compared to the same week in previous years. 👤 The White House and 3 others 3:47 PM · Sep 7, 2026 · 54.3K Views

Described automatically. The words above are a machine's reading of the picture, not Trump's.

welcome back America this is a man who is like super patriotic for this country and so forth and so on and understands the American people better than most people do what do you make of that I agree with you and when he does these things that are controversial but needed you it begs the question why didn't other presidents both Democrat Republican do things and what do I mean by that he why didn't somebody addressed the deterioration of monuments in Washington or the world's capital so to speak was not safe to walk in or the reflecting pool was a miasma or presidents had you know torn parts of the White House to put a bowling alley or basketball court or a swimming pool but they all said there's nowhere to there's nowhere to speak there's nowhere to hold a world class meeting and world-class banquet any of that lectures and he comes along and he does it but he doesn't do it I mean he doesn't do it in the sense that I'm going to be the first person to ever do it he does it because he says why hasn't this been done because we need it and so I think that's what's unusual about him he's always bragging about the US military he calls soldiers up he goes to the funerals he he wants the United States and this is what drives the left crazy because their idea was managed decline a globalist idea were just one of many or to paraphrase Barack Obama were no more exceptional in Greece or Great Britain is but he resented that idea he said we were always exceptional we have the only type of Constitution in the world where the freest people were the most powerful country how did that come across China has one China has four times the population that we do the EU has a hundred more p hundred million more people than we do and yet we have 10 trillion more of a GDP how's that possible so what his whole idea was we're going to be the first in space and they were and people said oh you know NASA is done with they haven't done anything in years he said no no no no we're going to get private enterprise and empower them and then the NASA will have to rise to the challenge and he really almost single-handedly reinvigorated the space race Elon Musk himself launched more missile satellites than the whole world combined last year and when you look at what he did with Silicon Valley he went to all these people who were left you know that the Andreessen's that sacks and all of these people the Elon Musk they all voted against him and he said to them we're in bad trouble we've got to rearm the United States we're short weapon we got to get into the drone racing race we've got to get satellite technology and use it to protect our country we need an iron dome sort of global dome over the United States and just like the war production board of World War Two Trump said I'm appealing to your patriotism not your politics if you will if I can enlist your talent I will protect you from EU censorship from Canadian digital media taxes with you neighbor I'm on your side as long as you're on our side and I define that as America side and it's really amazing when you look at these left-wing companies that opposed him I mean they were censoring news accounts of the the laptop fiasco and almost and they contributed to his defeat Mark Zuckerberg gave over 450 million dollars in 2020 through various surrogates to change helped to change balloting and yet he went back to these people and said you're very talented I'm going to allow you I'm not going to pick winners and losers like Biden wanted to do I'm going to open up I'm going to deregulate I'm going to give you energy I'm going to promote data centers for good or evil but you have to do one thing you have to use those energies and talents for the promotion of the common good and the preeminence of the United States that was very we hadn't seen that in decades somebody take that that type of argument to the opposition and the results are they're undeniable all of a sudden the United States is the greatest producer of oil and gas in history its satellites are preeminent I just looked at the software digital media bioengineering AI companies in terms of market capitalization and things like downloads of the top 10 companies globally in each of those categories the United States has eight or nine corporations in the top ten almost dominates every this is a period when they said you know mark they were saying and just a decade ago that China would have a greater GDP by now than we did and we're ten trillion dollars greater so it's amazing the book is and it is a great book the counter-revolution the fall and rise of Donald Trump and the MAGA movement I encourage you to get it amazon.com come Tuesday when it's released any major bookstore look how he's leading in what I call the next Industrial Revolution data centers you have dime store politicians who are looking at polls for objecting to it and so forth and so on it's local governments that make a determination where they are and how these buildings look and so forth but the president knows this is the next Industrial Revolution every single thing we use is related to AI I just think that's another example of his of his foresight we'll be right back welcome back America we're here with America's wise man that's what I call him because that's what he is the counter-revolution is his brand new book and comes out Tuesday I would pre-order on amazon.com that's the way I roll the fall and rise of Donald Trump and the MAGA movement there is so much in here that is so compelling because the man himself is compelling and the author is compelling Victor Davis Hanson well let's get a little bit into national security and foreign policy let's dig right in to Iran and what the president's been doing in Iran we have people who said he campaigned against this kind of thing and we we call a lot of those isolationists and so forth and so on but did he not also say peace through strength again that is sort of a Reagan phrase peace through strength and hasn't he also demonstrated as you demonstrate in your book a hesitance to use military power but if he feels it's necessary he will use military power explain yeah he never ran as an isolationist he never ran as a nation builder he ran as a Jacksonian his idea was don't tread on the United States where you'll have no better friend but you'll have no worse enemy if you do that and to carry out that policy we had to be have a preeminent military so he really in the first term tried to rebuild it but when he looked at Iran there were two kind of contrast or antithetical positions he had to guide he had to navigate between them one was given the misadventures in Afghanistan and Iraq we don't do well when we put thousands of troops on the ground we if we don't win very quickly and winnings very hard in those societies because you have to change the government and they have no experience with consensual rule and then on the other hand he said well seven prior prior presidents have said this is intolerable that this huge country that was once so pro-western and so powerful under the Shaw and earlier rulers now is using that 93 million population and all of its traditions and its resources with oil fourth largest reserve or third in the world for nefarious purposes and most of the problems in the Middle East come from Iran they bully the Arab Gulf exporters they have a ring of fire of terrorist appendages around Israel they subsidize terrorism all over Europe and the Western world but nobody has done anything so I'm gonna do something with one caveat I am NOT going to invade this country and try to overthrow the government and rack up a decade and casually then he hasn't done that I think people don't realize that he knew something had to be done because every year they were getting closer and closer to nuclear weapons and once they got them with that lunatic attitude whether genuine or contrived they had deterrence and with deterrence they could do almost anything and they would dominate the entire Middle East and prior administrations like the Obama administration said well maybe we can balance Iran and the Shia crescent Syria Lebanon's taken over there's Iran the Houthis Hamas and then we'll kind of play them against Israel in the Gulf States and we'll adjudicate that was a crazy idea but that was kind of US policy under Biden but especially under Obama so he said no no it's intolerable time has run out but I've got to find a way to squeeze them and disarm them without invading them and without trying to nation-build and he thought that the popular popular revolt might happen right after the Berlin Wall it took two years with Soviet Union to fall but it did fall it took many months for Eastern European governments so I think it's kind of a Civil War Union anaconda strategy now we're squeezing them economically financially they can't import goods they can't export oil the people are getting restive and I think his big worry right now is at what point will things get so terrible in Iran I think we're getting there how do you ensure that the people are not hurt by this awful regime that doesn't care about their own people and that's a concern I think he has and that that explains why some of us were surprised that we thought maybe at 38 days he should not have stopped or 40 days or 45 but I think he was thinking that if I destroy the entire infrastructure that regime it'll take a year or two for the people to rise up and you'll get mass starvation or something disease or so much chaos it'll be counterproductive so it's kind of a strategy right now to just say we can we can continue with American problems and issues and policies without being obsessed with Iran they are frozen they can't do anything we've got them in a stranglehold and all time is not on their side it's on our side and that I think is that the strategy right now and I think it will eventually work but boy he's taken a lot of criticism from people say the war is lost on no evidence I can't believe people on the conservative side even have said this was a fight fiasco it's destroyed his presence it hasn't at all if people give it time you will see radical changes in Iran for the first time in 50 years very very well put when we come back really I want to address two issues what comes post-Trump and also the president's really bold condemnation of antisemitism of antisemites some who used to be friends of his and so forth and so on let's see if we can address both of those because I think he's been quite the leader in trying to deal with with that and in the future of the Republican Party and so forth depending on who is capable of picking up the mantle and getting elected as a Republican do you think that they will share his principles and his belief systems and have the guts to say the kind of things that he says we'll be right back welcome back America tour de force the counter-revolution written by a great author of Victor Davis Hanson so Victor Davis Hanson what do you see in the future in terms of MAGA and what do you see in the future in terms of a Republican MAGA type candidate fighting antisemitism or gaslighting antisemitism yes well I we know that pumps been trolling and kidding around he's not gonna run for a third term I don't think he wants to we couldn't I think easily and he doesn't want to so the question is what's the MAGA movement I think it's irreversible the idea that we're gonna go back and allow China to dump product here below the cost of production or we're going to semi embrace the green agenda or we're gonna have open borders again as many Republicans did in the past I don't think that's gonna happen he's created a workers a working class middle class party and as I said earlier race is incidental not essential so he's trying to say that the black truck driver the Hispanic electrician the white sheetrock person and the suburban people like them they all have more in common and they're their enemies are not themselves but the East Coast liberal progressive establishment and that's not going to change and the question is who's going to succeed him I mean can you have sunlight without the Sun as one person put it and I think we have kind of an arbitrary divide between the Vance and Rubio even though Marco Rubio quite magnanimous Lee said he wouldn't run if JD Vance did JD Vance was selected contrary to all popular wisdom they said it well he's from Ohio and that's a red state they're gonna get it win it anyway in 24 and he's so he's a white male no diversity and yet Trump said well he's a masterful debater he's great on repartee and you better watch out media he's gonna destroy you and he did but I think his problem right now is that this mega movement that which I was talking about there are elements within it that want to be sort of a nationalist party in the sense of isolationism and they feel that Israel is a pernicious influence is dragging us into the two wars that are not in our interest etc etc and I'll go a little further I think a lot of the people in that movement want to deliberately be provocative to force JD Vance to say try to disown me and see what happens in 2028 so he's he feels he's in a dilemma but at some point I think that he'll do the right thing and I think he's gonna have anybody who's going to run for the office in 2028 is going to have to do two things as far as foreign policy they're gonna have to say whether you like it or not Israel has been the best friend that we've had in the Middle East in every sense of the way it's the only oasis of democracy of liberality of compassion and humanity and we're going to support it and number two people that are Jewish have a natural right to have an affinity with Israel's the historical home of the Jews there's no conspiracy they reflect the majority of our party and we're going to stop trying to demonize them we're not the left the left is completely anti-semitic it's completely anti-israeli they'll pay a price for that so we're not going to go there and for all of you who want to draw me in I think JD Vance will say and draw me in and try to make an artificial divide I'm gonna have to come out and say you don't represent the Republican Party values you don't represent the magma movement and you don't represent the legacy of Donald Trump and I think he can do it if he's the candidate but it's not just a D Vance any candidate who's nominated is gonna have to do that well I sit on the edge of my chair waiting for that I look forward to that very very much this is a fantastic book by Victor Davis Hanson the counter-revolution you get it at amazon.com any major bookstore starting on Tuesday Victor God bless you my friend you look good and healthy and you've written a real fantastic book thank you mark

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meeting and we're hitting hold on to your seats folks non-farm payrolls for the month of August up one hundred and sixty two K 162,000 that's basically three times what expectations are now here's the fly in the ointment the two month net revision is minus excuse me it was minus 103,000 last month it's plus plus 55,000.

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but take a look, June 19th, a male, blue shirt, reaches in, stays there for a little while. He goes back down, comes back up multiple times. What's he doing? Then a female, white tote bag, she reaches in, needs a better angle, sets the bag down, dives in a little deeper. And we don't know who these people are. No one was stopped or questioned by police, so no arrests. And we don't have the police report yet. But what are they doing with their hands in the pool? Are they cutting the lining? Are they peeling off the paint? And we don't know if they're committing a crime. They'll probably tell you they dropped their wedding ring. The Department of Interior says this, quote, "In the video, you're seeing two suspects observe destroying and removing a piece of the lining and attempting destruction of the lining. This incident took place on June 19th, 2026, and we are investigating. Destroying, injuring, defacing or removing cultural or architectural resources is a federal crime." The Department of Interior says the Department of Interior

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Trace, my theory is that he saw Mondami's speech and said, you know what, I want to respond to that. Yeah. I want to respond to the rise of godless communism. He called it the inhuman vision that they have for our world as opposed to the American vision, which is about the flourishing of all humanity. I think that he did obviously dive into politics, but I think it was necessary. The country is at risk.

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Yeah, okay, so there's a reason why this 14% became 80% and that is because when it comes to Senate primaries, Donald Trump's record is magnificent. You can see it right here, okay. Trump and Dorsey is one Senate primaries of non-elected incumbents, so we're not just looking at elected incumbents, right? We're looking at open seats or appointed incumbents who have never actually won the Senate seat. Look at this. Since 2022, it's about 95% of the time. This year, in fewer races, it's 100% of the time. No wonder why the prediction markets and the conventional wisdom have moved so rapidly once Trump made that endorsement, because at least in Senate races, Trump's record this year, 100%, and since 2022, nearly 100%, there has never been somebody I have seen as powerful in terms of their ability to move the electorate in primaries than the current president of the United States, Donald John Trump. What's one reason for that? One reason why is because Trump is still very popular with Republicans. Just take a look here. A 21st century own party approval rating about at this point in the second term. We got Trump. We got Obama. We got Bush. Look, they're all fairly popular, but the one who is the most popular, and we have seen this time and time out, no matter when you look, is Donald John Trump. He's the only one who's over 80%. 83% of Republicans still approve of the job that Donald Trump is doing as president. He still has that magic touch. We'll see if it carries over to South Carolina, but we've seen it in primaries this year, Senate primaries, and that's because he is still a very popular man, historically popular when it comes to his own party, liking and approving of the job that he's doing.

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A screenshot of a declassified U.S. government document page, stamped in red at the top and bottom "DECLASSIFIED BY PRESIDENT TRUMP on 3 July 2026." The document is a National Intelligence Council Assessment dated 19 August 2020, titled "Foreign Threats to 2020 US Federal Elections" (document number NICA 2020-06885D). It has the seal of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence in the upper left. The body text is organized in two columns under a "(U) Key Takeaways" header, discussing foreign influence on the 2020 US elections, with several passages and section headers redacted in black bars. Visible text states the assessment covers ongoing/potential influence by Russia, China, and Iran; that Russia is using measures "primarily to denigrate former Vice President Biden" and that "some Kremlin-linked actors are also seeking to boost President Trump's candidacy on social media," while broader Moscow efforts aim to "amplify social discord in the US and undermine Washington's global standing"; and that China "prefers that President Trump be defeated" and has "stepped up public rhetoric criticizing his Administration." A footer notes classification/declassification authority lines, mostly redacted.

Text in image: DECLASSIFIED BY PRESIDENT TRUMP on 3 July 2026 [REDACTED BLACK BAR] NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE COUNCIL ASSESSMENT 19 August 2020 NICA 2020-06885D [REDACTED] Foreign Threats to 2020 US Federal Elections (U) Key Takeaways [REDACTED] Scope Note: This is a downgraded version of a paper originally published on 19 August, 2020, and includes information current as of that date. This paper updates NICM 2020-32, [REDACTED] and NICM 2020-033, [REDACTED] which also addresses China's broader influence efforts. This paper does not make assessments about the impact of these efforts on the US. It also does not discuss efforts that the IC cannot attribute to foreign actors. (U) Ahead of the 2020 US elections, foreign states will continue to use covert and overt influence measures in their attempts to sway US voters' preferences and perspectives, shift US policies, increase discord in the United States, and undermine the American people's confidence in our democratic processes. [REDACTED] Foreign states or other actors may seek to compromise our election infrastructure for a range of possible purposes, such as interfering with the voting process, stealing sensitive data, or calling into question the validity of the election results. We judge that Russia, China, Iran, as well as many nonstate actors, have the capability to conduct such activities, although it would be difficult for them to manipulate voting processes at scale and without detection. [REDACTED] We are primarily concerned about ongoing and potential influence activity by Russia, China, and Iran. • [REDACTED] We assess that Russia is using a range of measures primarily to denigrate former Vice President Biden and what it sees as an anti-Russia establishment. For example, it is directing or encouraging proxies to spread claims about Vice President Biden. Some Kremlin-linked actors are also seeking to boost President Trump's candidacy on social media. More broadly, Moscow's efforts seek to amplify social discord in the US and undermine Washington's global standing. • [REDACTED] We assess that China prefers that President Trump be defeated; in the past few months it has stepped up public rhetoric criticizing his Administration, which it recognizes may affect the election. Although [REDACTED] Beijing did not intend to try to affect the election, [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] online [REDACTED] influence, and collecting (U) This assessment was prepared under the auspices of the National Intelligence Officer (NIO) for Cyber. It was drafted by the National Intelligence Council[REDACTED] Questions may be directed to the NIO [REDACTED] Classified By: [REDACTED] | Derived From: [REDACTED] | Declassify On: [REDACTED] DECLASSIFIED BY PRESIDENT TRUMP on 3 July 2026

Described automatically. The words above are a machine's reading of the picture, not Trump's.

retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel James Carofano, 25 years in the U.S. military as an Army veteran and senior counselor now to the Heritage Foundation president. You joined me live recently when we were broadcasting just ahead of the 4th of July and the tall ships were starting to come in on the Hudson River. And that's really when I learned a lot about your military strategy, more than I had ever known. So I'm so grateful to you to join us on this day. This war is now ratcheted up. We could see it coming. The president promised if Iran didn't come to the deal or come to the table to do a deal. How do you categorize this day? Yeah. So first I would go back to something I said when we were together before the 4th of July, which was that people said, well, why doesn't the president go just go in and finish it? Why don't we do more of this? And because the president doesn't want to waste lives. I mean, we tragically lost some American in uniform because they're always at risk. So here's the good news, which is the strikes are relatively limited. The way they did this was relatively novel that they had a successful strike. I'm pretty sure the U.S. is going to adjust for that, so they won't be able to do that again. And what's really important is all of our regional allies are even more with us than ever. So and that's, I think, really important. And then the most important thing is, look, I mean, we went from saying the big deal is the Iranians can close the strait to them be saying, well, they can interdict the strait. And now they're rapidly losing the capacity to do that. So they're there the longer they fight this war, the worse off they are. And the most important thing is look at what a whole they're digging themselves in. Now they've got to rebuild bridges, power plants, all their military. I mean, to get back to where they were a year ago, that is just going to take forever. Look, I have a couple of questions that just have to do with getting the job done in whatever amount of time it would take. And everybody roots for quickly, I'm certain. We don't want to see any loss of life. I mean, the president says that on all sides. We don't want any loss of life, especially not our own as American citizens. But you talk about the Gulf and everybody being on our sides in terms that you've got the Abraham Accords, got a lot of partners, now friends in the region. When they take incoming, though, it's a lot different than us. Our militaries are not our military. And our protection mission just got bigger. Right. And we are seeing a rapidly increasing capacity in the region for countries to protect themselves. And what's really interesting is working with Israel and seeing Israeli capabilities being brought to the table. But again, a lot of this is there's a much diminished capacity in the part of the Iranians to do anything. This has enormous long term consequences. These people are never as long as that regime is there, they're never going to trust this regime again. So these countries will work together in the future to build up deterrence against future Iranian threats. I'm really sure of that. Yeah. And that took me right to my second question. You did it. We know we can't trust them like we know they've shown us many times who they really are. Now everybody in the region says, well, wait a minute. We don't want to sink money and time and resources into something that's also not going to bear fruit. Who do you deal with on the ground in Iran? Well, I don't know. The important thing is you deal with the things you can deal with. What we can deal with is really build up the deterrent force against that. So for example, we are in Iraq in a way that we have not been since the early days of the war. We have an Iraqi government which is cooperating with the United States more than ever. We just sealed a huge oil deal with them to bring more resiliency to the oil industry in the region. They are working to kick the Iranian militias, diminish them and get them out of the country. This was unthinkable four or five years ago. So I know people are fixated by the losses, which are terrible, and how long does this take, but our position in the region is the strongest that it's been since the end of World War II. I mean, we are so – we have been dealing with this from Jimmy Carter. Since the days of Jimmy Carter, we have never had a position in the region this strong to create a better future for the region. And then that means less trouble for us, less work for us, safe for America. And I just think that this is at the price we are paying. Trust me, it is going to pay off for decades. An Iranian-American academic identified as a regime mouthpiece says that Tehran, the capital of Iran, wants U.S. troops on the ground in Iran. Watch this. The focus of Iranian strikes are on Bahrain and Kuwait, and that's because that's where all the American – most of the American assets have been placed for a ground invasion. The Iranians – we discussed this too during the 40-day war before on your show when I said that the Iranians actually want the Americans to carry out a land invasion. And the same is true now. Because they felt that if there was a land invasion, they would win. My dad said one of the lessons that you learn from wars like Vietnam is that some people just like to fight. And while the communists in that war, my dad would say, may have had a vision, the one that we were clear eyed on was they wanted to kill and they wanted to fight, which is why it was so hard. Your take on what was just said in that clip. Yeah, you don't fight the war of the enemy once, right? This is a country that's the size of Texas. We could put every American in uniform in the middle of Iran, and we could not control that country. So the idea that we're going to go invade this thing, that's just nuts. We're not going to fight them on their terms. That's just stupid. And then when they try to bring the fight to us like they have, what do they get in return? They get absolutely decimated. So I don't see this administration changing course. You know, again, we've talked about regime change. It brings all other kinds of challenges and things. The point is, we don't know the dollar figure or the life figure, you know, what would it take to get the regime? We don't know that. So that's, I don't think, a credible goal for the U.S. But the U.S. can do what it's doing now, which is completely eliminating their capacity to interdict the straits. They've taken nuclear weapons off the table. The country can't build a nuclear weapon. Their arsenals are shadow. A matter of fact, these attacks show, actually, that Iran cannot threaten the reign of death, that it literally could have threatened a country with a year ago. And what have we heard from the surrogates, the Hamas, Hezbollah and everybody else? I mean, they're just sitting on their hands, which is exactly what we want. So I think we're in good shape.

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A photographed or screenshotted newspaper opinion column from The Washington Times, headlined "The grand strategy behind the Trump-Vance Iran deal" by Alexander B. Gray, with subheading "The president has displayed uncommon vision." The article argues that the Trump administration's Iran deal (following "Operation Epic Fury") achieved Trump's long-stated goal of preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, credits Trump for reorienting U.S. grand strategy away from the Middle East and toward great-power rivalry with China, and praises his handling of Iran policy since 2015 as strategically sound. Below the article is the Washington Times masthead listing publisher and editorial staff.

Text in image: The grand strategy behind the Trump-Vance Iran deal The president has displayed uncommon vision By Alexander B. Gray The Trump administration's deal with Iran accomplishes the objectives set by the president at the outset of Operation Epic Fury, and it represents the culmination of his continuous strategic policy focus to prevent Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons. Most important, though, it begins the process of reorienting American grand strategy away from the Middle Eastern conflicts that have characterized the first quarter of the 21st century and toward the great power rivalries that will likely define the next. Essentially, President Trump obliged to use decisive military force against Iran to disengage from a region of peripheral concern to long-term U.S. interests. Since announcing his first campaign for president in 2015, Mr. Trump has been unequivocal that Iran cannot acquire a nuclear weapon. In 2018, he withdrew from the fatally flawed Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action negotiated by President Obama — a deal that paid Iran large sums of cash in exchange for flimsy promises not to acquire nuclear weapons. Instead, the first Trump administration imposed substantial economic pain on Tehran and maintained that pressure until Mr. Trump's last day in office. The Biden administration almost immediately proposed further negotiations with Iran. Mr. Trump, returning to office in 2025, addressed the threat posed by the mullahs' unrepentant march toward nuclear weapons. He launched Operation Midnight Hammer in June 2025. Iran's weapons program was largely destroyed. Operation Epic Fury achieved the limited goals set by Mr. Trump. Tehran's leadership was destroyed, its missile program was degraded, and its economy and supply chains were profoundly disrupted by the U.S. Navy's successful blockade. The Iranian regime is at its weakest since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Although Mr. Trump has expressed hope that the Iranian people will ultimately choose a different future, regime change was never a goal of Epic Fury. Rather, Mr. Trump has clearly understood the core American interest at stake with Iran: preventing a fanatical regime from gaining a nuclear weapon and preventing the disruption of a region that still supplies substantial global energy resources. In the process, Iran's myopic decision to militarily target U.S. Gulf Arab allies will solidify those states' efforts to increase their own defense while demonstrating the fallacy of the entreaties by China that proliferated during the Biden years. The United States will emerge from the Iran deal having met (and in some cases exceeded) its modest strategic goals for the region. Epic Fury's success will ultimately rest on America's ability to execute Mr. Trump's 2025 National Security Strategy, which prioritizes the defense of the U.S. homeland and the Western Hemisphere, as well as the projection of American power into the Indo-Pacific to deter China's attempt at hegemony. Although every administration since Mr. Obama's has promised some form of "pivot" or "rebalance" to the Indo-Pacific, only the Trump administration has done the difficult statecraft needed to position the U.S. for that strategic shift. Unlike every previous post-Cold War president, Mr. Trump has been honest about the trade-offs required to meet a challenge as formidable as that posed by the Chinese Communist Party. Mr. Trump's National Security Strategy identifies regions of greatest U.S. interest and directs resources accordingly. His conduct of Epic Fury and the accompanying peace deal reflect the realization of this strategy. By recognizing that, without American leadership, Iran will continue to divert U.S. attention and resources away from our most significant priorities, and acting accordingly, Mr. Trump displayed uncommon vision. His willingness to wage war for limited ends and to conclude a peace that serves core U.S. national interests will satisfy neither hawks nor doves, but it will place the U.S. in a better strategic position. The Trump-Vance administration approaches its second half with enviable strategic flexibility. The proposed $1.5 trillion defense budget would begin to reverse the steady erosion of the military balance between the United States and China that has threatened deterrence in the Indo-Pacific. Continued investments in American energy dominance at home make de-prioritizing the Middle East a realistic possibility. The president's agenda for American reindustrialization is bearing fruit, reviving the U.S. defense industrial base and encouraging the U.S. private sector to dominate the frontier technologies of the future, including artificial intelligence, quantum computing and fusion energy. America is on track to emerge from Operation Epic Fury in a far stronger position to win the competition that will define the remainder of the 21st century. Alexander B. Gray, a nonresident senior fellow at The Atlantic Council, served as deputy assistant to the president and chief of staff of the White House National Security Council from 2019 to 2021. The Washington Times Published by The Washington Times LLC THOMAS P. McDEVITT, Chairman CHRISTOPHER DOLAN, President & Executive Editor NEWS CATHY GARDNER, Managing Editor ANN WOG, Managing Editor Digital JOHN BOURANTAS, Assistant Managing Editor STEPHEN DINAN, Assistant Managing Editor S.A. MILLER, Assistant Managing Editor MARIA STAINER, Assistant Managing Editor JOSEPH SZADKOWSKI, Assistant Managing Editor BUSINESS RAYNARD BOLDING, Chief Financial Officer TORY HILL, Advertising Director DESHONDA MURRAY, Director of Human Resources and Building Operations JORGE CARRASQUILLA, Information Technology Director

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First, they show that over a period of years, starting during the 2020 election cycle, the People's Republic of China carried out what is believed to be the largest compromise of election data in history, resulting in China's illicit acquisition of 220 million U.S. voter files. That information includes names, addresses, phone numbers, political party preferences, and other sensitive data that would be needed to register to vote and engage in other nefarious activities, which is exactly what was happening. This data loss presents an unprecedented election security nightmare. The intelligence even shows that China has signed a data exploitation unit specifically to this new project.

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>> A complete reversal, this is an excellent number on the consumer price index, down 4/10 percent, underlining what we saw in the second quarter with regard to energy, and we are seeing a complete reversal in markets this morning.

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