. – One week into the U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran, two Republican senators on the Senate Armed Services Committee say the military operation has ‘degraded’ Tehran’s ability to strike back.

But in exclusive interviews with Fox News Digital, Sens. Rick Scott of Florida and Ted Budd of North Carolina emphasized that the fighting will not lead to U.S. involvement in ‘forever wars’ in the volatile Middle East.

‘Our military is doing a great job,’ Scott said. And pointing to Iran, he said, ‘They want to destroy America. We’ve got to stop them.’

Budd highlighted that ‘we have significantly degraded Iran’s ability to shoot back at us… their capacities are degraded. We’ve had great success.’

Budd and Scott were interviewed as they attended an economic conference in Florida hosted by the Club for Growth, an influential and politically potent conservative group that pushes for fiscal responsibility.

President Donald Trump, who called for Iran’s ‘unconditional surrender,’ said on Saturday that Tehran will be ‘hit very hard’ and warned the U.S. is considering ‘areas and groups’ not previously considered to target.

Over the past week, ‘Operation Epic Fury’ has widened in scope as Iran has retaliated against a growing number of nations in the region. This week, the Republican-controlled House and Senate, in separate votes nearly entirely along party lines, rejected moves by Democrats to restrict the president’s ability to steer the fighting.

The president said on Thursday, in an interview with Axios, that he should be involved in choosing Iran’s next leader. Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in the initial strikes against Iran a week ago.

And there are concerns among many on the right that the strikes against Iran could lead to prolonged American military involvement in the region, which Trump has repeatedly campaigned against during his three runs for the presidency.

‘Trump doesn’t want to be in forever wars. Every time I’ve talked to him, he doesn’t want that,’ Scott said. ‘But I think what we do want to make sure we don’t have another Ayatollah that wants to… chant Death to America and death to our allies and try to destroy us.’

Budd added that ‘we’re not up for forever wars. We want to get in, get this thing done, get out and have peace for our country and the rest of the region.’

The latest Fox News national poll indicated that American voters are divided on the U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran, even as a majority sees the country as a security risk. 

Sixty-one percent of those questioned viewed Iran as a danger to the U.S., according to the survey conducted Feb. 28-March 2. But that concern did not translate into majority support for the current U.S. military action, as 50% approved and 50% disapproved.

Support for the attacks was lower in national polling from other news organizations.

But the Fox News poll and the other surveys indicated widespread support among Republicans.

‘Trump’s doing the right thing. He’s saving American lives by making sure that Iran does not have a nuclear weapon or ballistic missile. So he’s doing the right thing,’ Scott emphasized.

Budd added, ‘I’m very excited [about] what President Trump’s done… The goal is American prosperity and American safety, and that’s what President Trump wants.’

Oil prices have shot up since the start of the fighting, instantly resulting in higher costs for gasoline across America. That’s a major concern for Republicans as they aim to keep control of the House and Senate majorities in this year’s midterm elections.

‘Hopefully it’s all going to be short term. Hopefully… the demolition of the Iranian military will happen quickly and actually will get lower oil prices,’ Scott said.

Budd acknowledged that ‘we are going to have some short-term disruptions.’

But the senator was optimistic that ‘very soon we’ll have gas prices much cheaper than ever before. We were already on that pathway. President Trump is all about stability. He’s all about the price of oil.’

– British opposition leader Nigel Farage is taking aim at his country’s prime minister for not supporting the U.S. in its military strikes against Iran.

‘I think not to support America when it asks for support is a pretty extraordinary thing to have done.,’ Farage, the leader of the right-wing Reform UK party, said in an exclusive interview Saturday with Fox News Digital.

President Donald Trump has blasted Labor Prime Minister Keir Starmer for initially blocking the U.S. from using British military bases, specifically Diego Garcia — a strategic base located on an Indian Ocean island — for strikes against Iran during Operation Epic Fury. Starmer later permitted the use of the bases for ‘defensive strikes’ after Trump’s complaints. 

Starmer hasn’t spoken to Trump since they connected on a call last weekend, after the U.S. and Israel launched their strikes on Iran. The British prime minister has made clear his country would not be joining the U.S. in attacking Iran, emphasizing he didn’t believe in ‘regime change from the skies.’

Trump, taking a jab at Starmer, said earlier this week, ‘This is not Winston Churchill we are dealing with.’

Farage criticized Starmer for not changing his stance, ‘even now, despite the fact that we’ve got an RAF base in Cyprus that’s been under attack, we’ve got allies of ours in the Gulf that are under attack.’

‘I think there’s been less than wholehearted support has come for the Americans in this endeavor. And I think the British Prime Minister on the world stage, he’s upset the Americans,’ Farage said. ‘He’s upset the Cypriots. He’s upset the Gulf states. And he’s pretty friendless at the moment.’

Farage, who seven years ago founded the populist Brexit Party, which later transformed into the Reform UK party, was interviewed ahead of an appearance at an annual economic conference in Florida hosted by the Club for Growth, an influential and politically potent political group that pushes for fiscal responsibility.

Starmer has been feeling Trump’s wrath not only for their differences over the attack on Iran, but also over the British deal to hand sovereignty of the Chagos Islands, the Indian Ocean archipelago where Diego Garcia is located, to Mauritius. Starmer has argued his lease-back deal is the only way to secure the British-U.S. military base on Diego Garcia.

Farage, who has been vocal in his opposition to the deal, told Fox News Digital that ‘outside of America itself,’ Diego Garcia ‘is the most important base you’ve got in the whole world. Now it’s there as part of British sovereignty. We have a treaty between us that goes back to 1966 and Keir Starmer is on the verge of giving away the sovereignty of the Chagos islands and Diego Garcia to Mauritius.’

‘If Trump initially had problems with the Brits over using the base, just think what it will be like with the heavily Chinese-influenced Mauritians. They already have said they believe that America should not have struck Iran, that it was against international law, then are calling for a ceasefire,’ Farage said.

Farage, who said his opposition to the deal was a key factor in his weekend trip to the U.S., said, ‘I would just urge the president, this administration, stay firm. Tell the British government you will not accept giving away of sovereignty to Mauritius, and let’s ensure a future for Diego Garcia. I think it’s really important.’

Farage, who’s hoping to become Britain’s next prime minister, argued that Starmer’s relationship with Trump is beyond repair.

‘I think the personal relationship between Keir Starmer and Donald Trump has gone. I mean, Trump can be forgiving, but, you know, that would take a long time. So I think that breakdown is there,’ he said.

But as for the longstanding bonds between the two countries, known as the ‘special relationship,’ Farage was more optimistic.

‘The special relationship went through bad times in the past. We had a massive fallout 70 years ago over Suez, but we got back together again. I’m convinced it can, and it will, be mended,’ he predicted.

During the Shield of the Americas summit in Florida on Saturday, outgoing Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem thanked President Donald Trump for appointing her to a newly created role after she was ousted from overseeing the agency.

Noem, who is moving to the newly created position of special envoy for the Shield of the Americas, showed no ill feelings toward the president and said she was proud of her work at DHS, arguing the department had secured the border and eliminated public safety threats.

‘I do want to thank the president for creating this and for giving me the honor and the opportunity to serve as a special envoy to this region, to the Western Hemisphere,’ Noem said during the summit at Trump National Doral outside Miami. 

‘This Shield of the Americas will be a powerful example to the rest of the world about what’s possible.’

Trump announced this week that Noem would shift into the new role after cutting short her tenure at DHS. 

Noem was removed as the nation’s immigration chief after a turbulent stretch marked by internal clashes and two contentious congressional hearings where even some Republicans pressed her over leadership missteps, including the ad campaign, which she claimed the president had signed off on.

Noem framed the initiative as an effort to expand border security cooperation beyond the United States.

‘The way that we cooperate on our shared ideals of freedom and of democracy and safety and security will be a shining light to all of those who wish to be more like all of us,’ she said.

Noem, who previously served in Congress and as South Dakota governor before leading DHS, defended her record overseeing immigration enforcement during the past year.

‘In the last year, as secretary of Homeland Security, we have focused on securing our border,’ she said. ‘We have transformed our country from one that was being invaded by enemies, millions of them that were coming in unvetted, that we didn’t know who was there and who wished to harm us.’

‘We’ve secured that border,’ she continued. ‘We’ve focused on removing public safety threats, and over 3 million people have been deported or removed from our country in the last year.’

Noem argued that stronger border enforcement has allowed the administration to pivot toward economic and diplomatic engagement with neighboring nations.

‘Secure borders has changed everything for our country,’ she said. ‘Now that America is secure and our borders are secure, we want to focus on our neighbors and to help our neighbors with their borders and challenges that they have so that they may have the security that we enjoy.’

Trump announced on Truth Social that Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., will replace her effective March 31, while Noem shifts to the newly created envoy role.

Members of Trump’s Cabinet, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick and United States Trade Representative Jamieson Greer attended Saturday’s summit. 

Leaders from other nations included Argentina’s Javier Milei, El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele Ortez, Bolivia’s Rodrigo Paz Pereira, Costa Rica’s Rodrigo Chaves Robles, Panama’s José Raúl Mulino Quintero, and Trinidad and Tobago’s Kamla Persad-Bissessar, Chile’s Jose Antonio Kast, the Dominican Republic’s Luis Rodolfo Abinader Corona, Ecuador’s Daniel Roy Gilchrist Noboa Azín, Guyana’s Mohamed Irfaan Ali, Honduras’ Nasry ‘Tito’ Asfura and Paraguay’s Santiago Peña.

Notably missing were the leaders of Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez, and Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo.

Fox News Digital’s Alec Schemmel contributed to this report.

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President Donald Trump declared Saturday that the U.S. is ‘taking out tremendous amounts of oil’ from Venezuela while vowing to ‘take care’ of Cuba’s regime following America’s focus on Iran. 

The president, speaking at the Shield of the Americas Summit in Florida, prefaced his remarks by saying that since the January operation to capture former Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro, the administration has ‘been working closely with the new president of Venezuela, Delcy Rodriguez,’ and, ‘she’s doing a great job working with us.’ 

‘And we’re taking out tremendous amounts of oil. They’re making more money now than they’ve ever made, ever made. We have the big oil companies in. They are making more money, we’re getting some,’ Trump said. ‘They’re getting a lot. They’re making more money now than they’ve ever made in the history of their country.’ 

‘And I’m pleased to say that this week we have formally recognized the Venezuelan government. We’ve actually legally recognized them. We have also just reached a historic gold deal that’s called the gold deal with Venezuela, to allow our two countries to work together to facilitate the sale of Venezuelan gold and other minerals,’ Trump continued, describing a license issued by the Treasury Department Friday that prohibits people and companies from Iran, North Korea, Russia and Cuba from doing business with Minerven – Venezuela’s state-owned gold mining company – among other measures.

‘As we achieve a historic transformation in Venezuela, we’re also looking forward to the great change that will soon be coming to Cuba. Cuba’s at the end of the line,’ Trump also said. ‘They’re very much at the end of the line. They have no money, they have no oil. They have a bad philosophy. They have a bad regime that’s been bad for a long time. And they used to get the money from Venezuela. They get the oil from Venezuela, but they don’t have any money from Venezuela. They don’t have any oil,’ Trump added. 

Trump in January had declared a national emergency via an executive order over Cuba, accusing the communist regime of aligning with hostile foreign powers and terrorist groups while moving to punish countries that supply the island nation with oil. 

Trump said Saturday that Cuba is ‘negotiating with [Secretary of State] Marco [Rubio] and myself and some others. And I would think a deal would be made very easily with Cuba.’

‘But Cuba is in its last moments of life as it was. It’ll have a great new life, but it’s in its last moments of life, the way it is,’ the president added. 

The State Department described the Shield of the Americas Summit in Doral as a gathering of the ‘strongest likeminded allies in our hemisphere to promote freedom, security, and prosperity in our region.’ 

Trump said America’s ‘focus right now is on Iran,’ but ‘many of you have come today, and they say, ‘I hope you can take care of Cuba because you’ve had problems with Cuba, right? You mentioned.’

‘I was surprised, but, four of you said, actually, ‘could you do us a favor? Take care of Cuba.’ I’ll take care of it, okay?’ Trump said, garnering applause.  

Fox News Digital’s Jasmine Baehr contributed to this report. 

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President Donald Trump said Saturday that the ‘hatred’ between Russia and Ukraine is getting in the way of reaching a peace deal in that conflict, where the death toll is getting worse. 

Trump, speaking at the Shield of the Americas Summit in Doral, Fla., told world leaders assembled there that, ‘The hatred between Putin and his counterpart is so great.’ 

‘It’s so great that, you know, Ukraine, Russia, you’d think there would be a little bit of camaraderie, [but] there’s not. And the hatred is so great. It’s very hard for them to get there. It’s very, very hard to get there. So we’ll see what happens,’ Trump said. ‘But we’ve been close a lot of times and one or the other would back out.’ 

‘But we’re losing, you know, they’re losing, you know, doesn’t really affect us very much because we’ve got an ocean separating. I’m doing it as a favor to Europe, and I’m doing it as a favor to life because they’re losing 25,000 souls,’ Trump added. ‘Think of that every month. 25,000. Last month, 31,000.  Both sides, 31,000 people died, mostly soldiers.’ 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told Fox News in late February that Russia is trying ‘to play with the president of the United States’ and stalling U.S.-brokered efforts to end the war. 

Zelenskyy said Ukraine is ready to freeze the conflict along its current lines, proposing a ceasefire followed by negotiations. But he said he would not accept a Russian demand for Ukraine to surrender territory the Russian army has not been able to capture in four years of fighting. 

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said in January that Russia is losing between 20,000 and 25,000 troops each month in its war against Ukraine as fighting drags on into a fourth year. 

Rutte told the Renew Europe Global Europe Forum in Brussels at the time that the staggering number of casualties reflects the intensity of Ukraine’s defense but warned that Russia remains NATO’s most significant long-term threat. 

Fox News’ Simon Owen, Greg Palkot and Ashley Carnahan contributed to this report. 

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SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk gave a two-word retort after Anthropic leader Dario Amodei claimed in an interview that he isn’t sure if his company’s AI models have gained consciousness.

‘Anthropic CEO says Claude may or may not have gained consciousness, as the model has begun showing symptoms of anxiety,’ read a post on X by cryptocurrency-based prediction market Polymarket, to which Musk replied, ‘He’s projecting.’ 

The comment from Musk, who is also the founder of xAI, comes as Anthropic is at odds with the Pentagon over its use in a separate matter.  

In an interview with The New York Times, Amodei, when asked about AI and consciousness, said, ‘We’ve taken a generally precautionary approach here,’ and, ‘We don’t know if the models are conscious.’

‘We are not even sure that we know what it would mean for a model to be conscious or whether a model can be conscious. But we’re open to the idea that it could be,’ he continued. 

‘We’re putting a lot of work into this field called interpretability, which is looking inside the brains of the models to try to understand what they’re thinking. And you find things that are evocative, where there are activations that light up in the models that we see as being associated with the concept of anxiety or something like that. When characters experience anxiety in the text, and then when the model itself is in a situation that a human might associate with anxiety, that same anxiety neuron shows up,’ Amodei also told the Times. 

The interview comes as the Trump administration is moving federal agencies away from Anthropic after the tech company pushed back against the War Department’s usage of its tools.

The Pentagon has called for Anthropic to allow the Department of War to utilize the company’s artificial intelligence product for ‘all lawful purposes,’ but Amodei has suggested the government could potentially use their product for ‘mass domestic surveillance’ or ‘fully autonomous weapons,’ and that the company would not be willing to allow such use cases.

President Donald Trump said last Friday, ‘The Leftwing nut jobs at Anthropic have made a DISASTROUS MISTAKE trying to STRONG-ARM the Department of War, and force them to obey their Terms of Service instead of our Constitution. Their selfishness is putting AMERICAN LIVES at risk, our Troops in danger, and our National Security in JEOPARDY.’ 

‘Therefore, I am directing EVERY Federal Agency in the United States Government to IMMEDIATELY CEASE all use of Anthropic’s technology. We don’t need it, we don’t want it, and will not do business with them again! There will be a Six Month phase out period for Agencies like the Department of War who are using Anthropic’s products, at various levels,’ Trump added on Truth Social.

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth later wrote on X, ‘In conjunction with the President’s directive for the Federal Government to cease all use of Anthropic’s technology, I am directing the Department of War to designate Anthropic a Supply-Chain Risk to National Security. Effective immediately, no contractor, supplier, or partner that does business with the United States military may conduct any commercial activity with Anthropic. Anthropic will continue to provide the Department of War its services for a period of no more than six months to allow for a seamless transition to a better and more patriotic service.’ 

Fox News Digital’s Alex Nitzberg contributed to this report. 

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. – One week into the U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran, two Republican senators on the Senate Armed Services Committee say the military operation has ‘degraded’ Tehran’s ability to strike back.

But in exclusive interviews with Fox News Digital, Sens. Rick Scott of Florida and Ted Budd of North Carolina emphasized that the fighting will not lead to U.S. involvement in ‘forever wars’ in the volatile Middle East.

‘Our military is doing a great job,’ Scott said. And pointing to Iran, he said, ‘They want to destroy America. We’ve got to stop them.’

Budd highlighted that ‘we have significantly degraded Iran’s ability to shoot back at us… their capacities are degraded. We’ve had great success.’

Budd and Scott were interviewed as they attended an economic conference in Florida hosted by the Club for Growth, an influential and politically potent conservative group that pushes for fiscal responsibility.

President Donald Trump, who called for Iran’s ‘unconditional surrender,’ said on Saturday that Tehran will be ‘hit very hard’ and warned the U.S. is considering ‘areas and groups’ not previously considered to target.

Over the past week, ‘Operation Epic Fury’ has widened in scope as Iran has retaliated against a growing number of nations in the region. This week, the Republican-controlled House and Senate, in separate votes nearly entirely along party lines, rejected moves by Democrats to restrict the president’s ability to steer the fighting.

The president said on Thursday, in an interview with Axios, that he should be involved in choosing Iran’s next leader. Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in the initial strikes against Iran a week ago.

And there are concerns among many on the right that the strikes against Iran could lead to prolonged American military involvement in the region, which Trump has repeatedly campaigned against during his three runs for the presidency.

‘Trump doesn’t want to be in forever wars. Every time I’ve talked to him, he doesn’t want that,’ Scott said. ‘But I think what we do want to make sure we don’t have another Ayatollah that wants to… chant Death to America and death to our allies and try to destroy us.’

Budd added that ‘we’re not up for forever wars. We want to get in, get this thing done, get out and have peace for our country and the rest of the region.’

The latest Fox News national poll indicated that American voters are divided on the U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran, even as a majority sees the country as a security risk. 

Sixty-one percent of those questioned viewed Iran as a danger to the U.S., according to the survey conducted Feb. 28-March 2. But that concern did not translate into majority support for the current U.S. military action, as 50% approved and 50% disapproved.

Support for the attacks was lower in national polling from other news organizations.

But the Fox News poll and the other surveys indicated widespread support among Republicans.

‘Trump’s doing the right thing. He’s saving American lives by making sure that Iran does not have a nuclear weapon or ballistic missile. So he’s doing the right thing,’ Scott emphasized.

Budd added, ‘I’m very excited [about] what President Trump’s done… The goal is American prosperity and American safety, and that’s what President Trump wants.’

Oil prices have shot up since the start of the fighting, instantly resulting in higher costs for gasoline across America. That’s a major concern for Republicans as they aim to keep control of the House and Senate majorities in this year’s midterm elections.

‘Hopefully it’s all going to be short term. Hopefully… the demolition of the Iranian military will happen quickly and actually will get lower oil prices,’ Scott said.

Budd acknowledged that ‘we are going to have some short-term disruptions.’

But the senator was optimistic that ‘very soon we’ll have gas prices much cheaper than ever before. We were already on that pathway. President Trump is all about stability. He’s all about the price of oil.’

An Iranian official warned that any European countries that enter the conflict against Iran will become ‘legitimate targets’ for Tehran’s retaliation. 

Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Majid Takht-Ravanchi made the remark to France24 as Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Saturday apologized to neighboring countries that have been attacked by the regime. 

‘We have already informed the Europeans and everybody else that they should be careful not to be involved in this war of aggression against Iran,’ Takht-Ravanchi told the network. ‘If they help, I’m not trying to name any country, but if any country joins in the aggression against Iran, joins America and Israel in the aggression against Iran, definitely they will be also the legitimate targets for Iranian retaliation.’ 

‘This war has imposed on us, and we will continue to defend ourselves to the best of our abilities,’ he added. ‘We have an obligation to defend our people and that is what exactly we are doing.’

Takht-Ravanchi also claimed Iran was ‘negotiating in good faith‘ in talks with the U.S. about its nuclear program, before America launched Operation Epic Fury and Israel began Operation Roaring Lion on Feb. 28. 

‘We are sincere. We are sincere in our endeavor to arrive at a peaceful conclusion of this issue,’ he told France24. 

Pezeshkian said Saturday that any future attacks coming out of Iran would only be in response to attacks against the country. 

‘I should apologize to the neighboring countries that were attacked by Iran, on my own behalf,’ he said, according to The Associated Press. ‘From now on, they should not attack neighboring countries or fire missiles at them, unless we are attacked by those countries. I think we should solve this through diplomacy.’

Pezeshkian made the apology during a prerecorded televised speech on Saturday after Iran launched repeated strikes on Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Oman. 

Despite the vow, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Ministry of Defense said on Saturday that the country’s air defense systems intercepted 16 ballistic missiles, 15 of which were destroyed while one fell into the sea.

Fox News Digital’s Elizabeth Pritchett and The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

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Kristi Noem will reportedly join President Donald Trump and 12 Latin American leaders at his resort in Florida for a ‘Shield of the Americas’ summit Saturday after her ouster as the Secretary of Homeland Security and appointment by President Donald Trump to be special envoy for the new coalition of nations. 

On Thursday, Trump announced Noem would be exiting her role as Homeland Security secretary and would be appointed a Special Envoy for the ‘Shield of the Americas,’ a summit for which will be held at the president’s resort in Doral, Florida, on Saturday. The new coalition of 13 countries has been formed to advance strategies that will tackle mass illegal immigration, narco-terrorist gangs and cartels. 

‘After years of neglect, President Trump established the ‘Donroe Doctrine’ to restore American preeminence in the Western Hemisphere. His efforts have been a tremendous success – our southern border is secure, Latin American countries are working with us to defeat the cartels, and illegitimate dictator Nicolas Maduro is facing justice for his crimes in the Southern District of New York – ushering in historic economic cooperation with Venezuela,’ said White House spokesperson Anna Kelly ahead of the summit. 

‘The President has successfully strengthened our relationships in our own backyard to make the entire region safer and more stable, and this weekend’s ‘Shield of the Americas’ Summit will encapsulate all of his work to Make America, and our partners, Strong Again,’ she continued.

Members of Trump’s Cabinet, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick and United States Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, will also be at the Saturday summit. 

The leaders from other nations who will be present are Argentina’s Javier Milei, El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele Ortez, Bolivia’s Rodrigo Paz Pereira, Costa Rica’s Rodrigo Chaves Robles, Panama’s José Raúl Mulino Quintero, and Trinidad and Tobago’s Kamla Persad-Bissessar, Chile’s Jose Antonio Kast, the Dominican Republic’s Luis Rodolfo Abinader Corona, Ecuador’s Daniel Roy Gilchrist Noboa Azín, Guyana’s Mohamed Irfaan Ali, Honduras’ Nasry ‘Tito’ Asfura, and Paraguay’s Santiago Peña.

Noem confirmed Friday, speaking from Nashville, that she will be at the summit, according to the Associated Press. Noem reportedly added that the president will announce ‘a big agreement’ detailing ‘how we’re going to go after cartels and drug trafficking in the entire Western Hemisphere.’ 

On Friday, Hegseth led a strategic conference in Doral with representatives of 17 different Caribbean, Central American and South American countries throughout the Western Hemisphere. During the conference, they signed a joint security declaration, reaffirming their commitment to peace and sovereignty in the region. According to a source familiar with the plans for the summit, the president plans to celebrate this achievement with attendees.

‘Secretary Noem helped usher in the most secure border in history, deported hundreds of thousands of criminal illegal aliens, and executed record-setting counter-drug operations against cartels. All of this great experience positions Noem well to ensure American preeminence in the entire Western Hemisphere in her new role as Special Envoy to the Shield of the Americas,’ White House spokesperson Olivia Wales said. ‘This historic new security initiative, led by Secretary Noem, will advance cutting-edge strategies to defeat narco-terrorist cartels and stop illegal mass migration to make America and the entire Western Hemisphere safer.’

On Thursday, Rubio said he looked forward to working with Noem as Special Envoy for The Shield of the Americas, and echoed the comments from the White House about her experience.

‘Kristi has achieved incredible results as Secretary of Homeland Security and will be a tremendous asset in our effort to promote security and prosperity in the Western Hemisphere,’ Rubio said on X after Trump named Noem to her new post. 

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When Benny Sabti was a child growing up in Iran, he remembers receiving an unusual prize at school. ‘For being an excellent student, I received a Persian translation of Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler,’ Sabti told Fox News Digital. ‘They translated Hitler’s book into Persian and distributed it to students.’

The experience stayed with him. Looking back, Sabti, now an Iran expert at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) in Israel, says it reflected a broader effort by Iran’s ruling clerical establishment to shape how young Iranians viewed politics, religion and the world around them.

Schools, mosques, workplaces and media all became part of an ideological ecosystem designed to reinforce loyalty to the regime. But critics of Iran’s leadership say religion itself was often not the ultimate goal.

‘Faith for them is their tool,’ Banafsheh Zand, an Iranian-American journalist and editor of the Iran So Far Away Substack, told Fox News Digital. ‘It’s not the end all to be all. It’s a tool that they can hide behind so that they can carry out all their criminalities.’

Religion and power

The Islamic Republic was founded on the doctrine of velayat-e faqih, or ‘guardianship of the Islamic jurist,’ which places ultimate political and religious authority in the hands of the country’s supreme leader.

But Zand argues that in practice the system functions less as a purely religious project and more as a mechanism of political control. ‘It’s more like a mafia,’ she said. ‘They use faith in order to keep people down.’

According to Zand, ideology is reinforced through a mix of financial incentives and intimidation. ‘They tried by incentive and money and buying people,’ she said.

Programs tied to the Basij, a militia affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), have often provided benefits such as jobs, housing and education to families aligned with the regime.

‘If you are poor and you join the Basij, they give you benefits,’ Zand said. ‘But you have to go along with whatever it is that they offer you.’

Ideology embedded in daily life

Sabti says the Islamic Republic built a vast network designed to reinforce ideology in everyday life. ‘In banks, offices, public spaces and even in the bazaars, regime representatives walk between shops telling people it is time to pray and checking who is not attending,’ Sabti said.

Mosques themselves are closely integrated into the political system. Friday prayer leaders often deliver sermons aligned with government messaging.

‘There are 16 propaganda bodies in Iran,’ Sabti said, describing a network of state institutions responsible for spreading the regime’s interpretation of Islam and the ideals of the Islamic Revolution.

Some institutions also focus on exporting that ideology abroad. ‘There is a university dedicated to converting Sunnis to Shiism,’ he said. ‘They bring people from Africa and South America to Iran, convert them to Shiism and send them back to export the Shiite Islamic revolution.’

Indoctrination in schools

Schools play a central role in the regime’s ideological system.

‘Schools are heavily indoctrinated,’ Sabti said. ‘In civil studies books, Islam was promoted as superior to all other ideologies.’

Religious messaging appears across the curriculum. ‘You cannot separate any school subject from Islam,’ Sabti said. ‘Not history, not geography. Everything is mixed with ideology. The only thing missing was adding it to mathematics.’

For Sabti, the Mein Kampf episode symbolized the ideological environment students were exposed to. The message, he said, reinforced hostility toward perceived enemies and embedded a political worldview from an early age.

Ideology and hypocrisy

Sabti says the credibility of the system is also undermined by the behavior of Iran’s own elites. ‘You can see it in the second generation,’ he said. ‘Their children live abroad while the elites live in palaces in Iran and in other countries. It is hypocrisy.’

Zand says ideology has always been reinforced by intimidation. ‘They make examples out of people in the most vicious possible way,’ she said. ‘It’s fear and manipulation.’

According to Zand, that atmosphere of fear shapes daily life for many Iranians. ‘Everybody is afraid of the police,’ she said. ‘Everybody is afraid of their neighbors.’

An ideology losing its grip

Despite the regime’s extensive ideological machinery, Sabti believes many Iranians never fully accepted the worldview the government tried to impose.

‘Over the years, the indoctrination has stopped working,’ he said. ‘Most of the public does not truly believe it.’

Still, the Islamic Republic remains in power. ‘The regime maintains control through money, weapons and propaganda,’ Sabti said.

Zand agrees the system never fully reshaped Iranian society. Many people, she said, complied outwardly simply to avoid punishment.

‘They won’t have a problem to transfer as long as they realize that the new Iran has no room for the violence and the horrifying characteristics of the Islamist regime,’ Zand told Fox News Digital.

She said that beneath the surface, Iran’s cultural identity remained intact even after decades of pressure from the state.

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