President Donald Trump said he is ‘not happy’ with Iran’s choice of a new supreme leader but that early results from Operation Epic Fury have been ‘way beyond expectation.’

Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has been installed as the next supreme leader.

‘I don’t believe he can live in peace,’ Trump said in an interview with Fox News chief foreign correspondent Trey Yingst.

The president touted what he described as the success of the joint U.S.-Israeli military operation.

‘Way beyond expectation in terms of result this early,’ Trump said.

More than 5,000 targets have been hit by the U.S. military since the operation was launched on Feb. 28, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) announced Monday.

‘When we attacked them first, we knocked out 50% of their missiles and if we didn’t, it would have been a much harder fight,’ Trump said.

He framed the opening strike as decisive and necessary.

‘No other President had the guts to do it…I don’t want some president who hasn’t got the courage in five years or in ten years to go in. It’s like a gun slinger, where he draws his gun first.’

‘If we waited three days, I believe we would have been attacked.’

Trump described what he called a surprise element in the timing of the operation.

‘Breakfast attacks are unusual and they were misled because they thought we weren’t going at that time and all that… And they just met. It was very, very surprising. And they all met together and it was open.’

‘If they would’ve had a bomb, they’d have used it on Israel and other parts of the Middle East. I think, and probably us, if they could get it there, but it would have been tough.’

Trump said Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner told him Iran claimed it had enough enriched uranium to build 11 nuclear bombs.

‘I said, you know, they’re not playing this smart. Because they’re basically saying that I have to attack them. They should have just said, ‘We’re not going to build a nuclear missile.”

Asked whether he would be willing to speak with Iranian leaders, Trump said: ‘I’m hearing they want to talk badly.’

‘It’s possible, depends on what terms, possible, only possible… You know, we sort of don’t have to speak anymore, you know, if you really think about it, but it’s possible.’

Trump also said he was taken aback by Iran targeted Gulf countries in response to the American and Israeli attacks.

‘One of the things that surprised me most was when they attacked countries that were not attacking them,’ he said.

The president also weighed in on reports of a strike that hit a girls school. Iranian state media and UNICEF estimates put the death toll at roughly 165 to 180 people, most of them young schoolgirls, with dozens more injured. The figures have not been independently verified.

‘It’s only under investigation, but we are not the only ones with that particular rocket,’ Trump said.

Vietnam’s trade ministry is urging businesses to encourage employees to work from home to curb fuel consumption as the country grapples with supply disruptions and sharp price increases triggered by the U.S.-Israeli war involving Iran.

In a statement on Tuesday, the government said Vietnam has been among the nations hardest hit by the turmoil due to its heavy reliance on energy imports from the Middle East. Citing a report from the Ministry of Industry and Trade, it called on companies to ‘encourage work-from-home when possible to reduce the need for travel and transportation.’

Fuel prices have surged since the end of last month, with gasoline up 32%, diesel rising 56% and kerosene climbing 80%, according to data from Petrolimex, the country’s top fuel trader. Long lines of cars and motorbikes were seen at petrol stations in Hanoi on Tuesday.

The ministry also urged businesses and individuals not to hoard or speculate on fuel.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Minh on Monday held calls with leaders of Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates to secure additional fuel and crude oil supplies. The government has also removed import tariffs on fuels through the end of April in a bid to ease pressure on the market.

President Donald Trump’s strikes on Iran have made for volatile crude markets, with prices surging to $120 a barrel in the U.S. over the weekend before dipping back to just over $80 on Monday night as Trump spoke to a Republican retreat in Florida.

Prices have stabilized after Trump assured investors the Strait of Hormuz will be safe for oil tankers in the Middle East, a notorious chokepoint for the largely dismantled Iranian regime.

The situation in the region remains tenuous as Iran has announced Mojtaba Khamenei as the next supreme leader, a decision that Trump told Fox News that he ‘was not happy’ about.

‘I don’t believe he can live in peace,’ Trump said from Air Force One.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said Tuesday they would not let any oil out of the Middle East until U.S. and Israeli attacks cease, a threat that had prompted Trump to threaten to hit Iran ’20 times harder’ if it blocked exports.

Despite the defiant rhetoric from both sides, investors placed strong bets Tuesday that Trump would call off his war soon, before the unprecedented disruption it has caused to energy supplies causes a global economic meltdown.

‘I’m hearing they want to talk badly,’ Trump said, as the Department of War has claimed 50 Iranian naval vessels have been sunk and Trump is suggesting the war objections are weeks ahead of schedule, if not nearly ‘complete.’

‘It’s possible,’ Trump added of engaging the new Iranian leadership, descendants of the deceased leaders, but said it ‘depends on what terms, possible, only possible.’

‘You know, we sort of don’t have to speak anymore, you know, if you really think about it, but it’s possible,’ he said.

Fox News’ Trey Yingst and Reuters contributed to this report.

Some House Republicans are getting worried over the prospect of colleagues quiet-quitting after losing their primary races as election season heats up, threatening to whittle down the GOP’s already perilously slim majority.

House Republicans will likely only be able to lose two votes on any party-line measure after a special election in a deep-red Georgia district this week. 

Some told Fox News Digital they’re worried, however, that their colleagues could begin missing key votes before the end of their terms if their ambitions for higher office do not go as planned.

‘It’s a real problem,’ one House Republican who was granted anonymity to speak candidly told Fox News Digital. ‘Is one of them going to be gone for his runoff? Will another not come back at all because he’s mad? Is another one not going to come back because he lost?’

Asked if such absences could translate to Republicans losing a functional majority in the House, that GOP lawmaker said, ‘We could, that’s why everybody’s nervous about it.’

In the Lone Star State alone, two House Republicans are guaranteed not to be returning next year after last week’s primaries. Rep. Wesley Hunt, R-Texas, lost his bid to unseat Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, who is headed for a runoff with state Attorney General Ken Paxton. And Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, faced an upset against a primary challenger running to his right, conservative state lawmaker Steve Toth.

Neither has indicated they will be skipping House votes for the remainder of the term due to those losses, but Hunt’s attendance record has already generated frustration among his colleagues.

Aside from them, there are 18 other House Republicans currently vying for different positions in upcoming primaries and general elections.

Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fla., a high-ranking member of the House Appropriations Committee, told Fox News Digital that he too was worried about GOP attendance as election season heats up.

‘Our margins are as razor-thin as they can possibly be, so we need everybody to show up,’ he said. ‘So yeah, that could potentially be an issue. I hope it isn’t.’

Rep. Russell Fry, R-S.C., told Fox News Digital, ‘I think it’s a concern.’

‘I hope that they recognize the moment. There’s still a lot of lane left in this Congress, and people have put their faith in their elected representatives to get the job done. So they need to be here,’ Fry said.

But the election season starting up is not the first time this Congress — or even this year — that worries about the GOP’s margins have flared up.

For example, a small group of Republicans was able to join with Democrats to successfully force a vote on extending expired Obamacare subsidies that the GOP largely opposed. And just last month, President Donald Trump’s tariff strategy faced a public setback when a similarly small number of GOP lawmakers voted with Democrats to rebuke it.

Neither of those measures will likely be taken up in the Republican-held Senate, but it’s a testament to the slim margins Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is presiding over.

And aside from the legislative setbacks seen earlier this year, the sudden, tragic death of one House Republican and abrupt resignation of another have served to further whittle down the conference’s numbers.

Car accidents and other health problems have also at times forced the House to amend its schedule. It’s prompted House GOP leaders to warn their lawmakers to be as cautious as possible when outside of Washington.

‘The margins are really, really close. A few of us were in a car the other day, driving … if that became an accident, that would have tipped the scale,’ Rep. Ryan Zinke, R-Mont., told Fox News Digital back in January. ‘It’s a big deal to change power outside of a normal election cycle.’

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., told reporters last week that attendance is ‘always a concern’ but was optimistic about navigating through it.

‘We’ve had elections along the way, and yet we’re still able to move our agenda,’ Scalise said. ‘We track people that have surgeries, tell us in advance, and we work around that. But at the end of the day, we’ve been able to move President Trump’s agenda and our agenda, and get the things done for the American people that we ran on.’

President Donald Trump said he wants to keep the Strait of Hormuz open, saying it would be an ‘honor’ to do so in an effort to help other nations that rely on the vital Middle East waterway.

Trump was speaking with reporters in Florida on Monday, when he was asked about the global energy choke point, which has been disrupted amid back-and-forth attacks between Iran and Israel and the United States. 

At about 21 miles wide at its narrowest point, the Strait of Hormuz is between Iran and Oman and carries roughly 20 million barrels a day and about one-fifth of global liquefied natural gas, making it a top-value target when conflict in the region erupts.

‘We’re really helping China here and other countries because they get a lot of their energy from the Straits,’ Trump said. ‘We have a good relationship with China. It’s my honor to do it.’

Trump is slated to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping later this month. While touting the United States’ new energy partnership with Venezuela, Trump noted that China gets its oil through the strait. 

‘I mean, we’re doing this for the other parts of the world, including countries like China,’ he said. ‘They get a lot of their oil through the straits.’

‘We have a very good relationship with President XI (Jinping) and China,’ he added. ‘I’m going there in a short period of time, and we’re protecting the world from what these lunatics are trying to do, and very successfully I might add.’

The U.S. will also waive all oil-related sanctions on some countries in an effort to reduce energy prices amid the conflict in the Middle East, Trump said.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps took to Iranian State TV vowing it would ‘not allow [the] export of a single liter of oil.’

Later, Trump reaffirmed his position on the strait in a fiery Truth Social post.

‘If Iran does anything that stops the flow of Oil within the Strait of Hormuz, they will be hit by the United States of America TWENTY TIMES HARDER than they have been hit thus far. Additionally, we will take out easily destroyable targets that will make it virtually impossible for Iran to ever be built back, as a Nation, again — Death, Fire, and Fury will reign upon them — But I hope, and pray, that it does not happen!,’ he wrote.

‘This is a gift from the United States of America to China, and all of those Nations that heavily use the Hormuz Strait. Hopefully, it is a gesture that will be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your attention to this matter!’

President Donald Trump’s declaration that he won’t sign any new bills until the Senate passes voter ID legislation threatens to derail his own legislative priorities and sideline confirmation of the newest addition to his Cabinet. 

Trump wants Senate Republicans to ram the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act through the upper chamber with the talking filibuster, even at the cost of the Senate’s most valuable commodity: floor time.

‘It must be done immediately. It supersedes everything else. MUST GO TO THE FRONT OF THE LINE. I, as President, will not sign other Bills until this is passed,’ Trump said on Truth Social. 

But that comes as the Senate is wrestling with reopening the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which entered its fourth week of being shut down. A White House official told Fox News Digital that Trump was ‘referring to other bills, not DHS funding.’

‘If the Democrats do the right thing and pass funding for DHS, the president will, of course, fund the agency,’ the official said. 

Trump’s edict and push for the Senate to turn to the talking filibuster has intensified the pressure on Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., who has vowed to have a vote on the bill, but could not guarantee it would pass. 

When asked about the growing campaign from both Trump and social media to use the talking filibuster, Thune said, ‘A lot of that is, it’s in that kind of, you know, paid influencer ecosystem.’ 

‘But there’s a lot of support for it,’ Thune said. ‘Like I said, we’re, I think, for the most part, not everybody, but there’s a lot of really strong support among Republican senators for the policy. But the process and how do you ultimately try and get a result is still unclear to me.’ 

Republicans are also working to advance a massive affordable housing package that Trump backs, to consider a likely supplemental spending package to resupply munitions for the conflict with Iran, and go through the confirmation process for Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., the president’s latest pick to lead DHS.

Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, R-Wyo., noted that the top priority for the GOP right now is funding DHS.

‘The Democrats have blocked that right now,’ Barrasso told Maria Bartiromo on ‘Sunday Morning Futures.’ ‘And the greatest threat to the American people today is terrorism.’

And while the SAVE America Act is supported by most Senate Republicans, it’s not an easy bill to pass in the upper chamber, given the hardline stance Senate Democrats have taken against it. 

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., reiterated that the bill is ‘Jim Crow 2.0. It would disenfranchise tens of millions of people.’

‘If Trump is saying he won’t sign any bills until the SAVE Act is passed, then so be it: there will be total gridlock in the Senate,’ Schumer said on X. ‘Senate Democrats will not help pass the SAVE Act under any circumstances.’

Turning to the talking filibuster is unlikely, too, because of a major fear among Republicans it would dominate floor time for hundreds of hours of debate. But another factor is that there may not be unity among Republicans to kill amendments put forth by Senate Democrats. 

Further complicating matters is which version of the SAVE America Act Trump wants. 

House Republicans advanced the SAVE America Act last month, which would require voter ID to vote, proof of citizenship to register to vote in federal elections, mandate states to actively verify and remove noncitizens from voter rolls, expand information sharing with federal agencies, including DHS, to verify citizenship and create new criminal penalties for registering noncitizens to vote.

But Trump asked Republicans to ‘GO FOR THE GOLD’ with a bill to show voter ID and proof of citizenship, nix mail-in ballots except for military service members or people with illnesses, disabilities or travel issues, no men in women’s sports and ‘NO TRANSGENDER [MUTILATION] FOR CHILDREN!’

That version of the bill would again have to go through the House before making its way to the Senate. Whether it could survive either chamber is an open question. Thune acknowledged that Trump wanted a modified iteration of the bill, but still remained firm that the talking filibuster, or nuking the current filibuster, likely weren’t going to happen. 

‘The one thing I’ve said all along is, and I’ve told him and others that I can’t guarantee an outcome. I can’t guarantee a result,’ Thune said. ‘If the result is only achieved by nuking the legislative filibuster, we don’t have the votes to do that. And so that’s just not a realistic option. And I’ve made that clear to anybody who’s asked.’

Senate Republicans are accusing their Democratic counterparts of playing ‘political games’ as the caucus appears ready to escalate the standoff over funding the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

There’s been little movement to reopen DHS during the weekslong partial shutdown, leading to outcry from Republicans over long wait times and missed flights at airports across the country. Some Democrats are threatening to continue their blockade of DHS funding unless serious action is taken to rein in President Donald Trump’s war powers in the Middle East. 

‘We shouldn’t let Republicans debate other legislation until they bring a war authorization to the United States Senate,’ Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., told NOTUS on Monday.

Murphy, the top Democrat on the appropriations panel overseeing DHS funding, has helped lead his party’s push to withhold funding for the department absent sweeping reforms to immigration enforcement.

His new threat to freeze Senate business over Trump’s Iran strikes underscores that some Democrats are prepared to extend the funding fight despite mounting impacts on air travel. 

The Senate rejected a bipartisan resolution last week that would have narrowed Trump’s ability to launch future strikes on Iran. However, Murphy is signaling that Democrats’ attempts to limit the president’s power to wage war against Iran are just getting started. 

Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., the chair of the Senate Homeland Security funding panel, scoffed at Murphy’s edict.

‘The delay tactics we’re seeing from Democrats don’t change the fact that, because of their political games, lines at airports are growing, and the people tasked with keeping our homeland safe are being forced to do so without a paycheck,’ Britt said in a statement to Fox News Digital.

Britt, who Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., tapped to lead DHS negotiations with Senate Democrats, accused her counterparts of refusing to sit down with Republicans as the partial shutdown enters its fourth week. 

‘I urge my Democratic colleagues to stop putting politics above people and do what’s right for the security of our nation,’ she said. ‘That starts with having a conversation so that we can find a pathway forward.’

Airports nationwide reported a spike in absences among Transportation Security Administration (TSA) employees on Monday. Roughly 50,000 TSA personnel — who are employed by DHS — are reporting to work without pay after receiving just a fraction of their salaries last week. 

The agents will not receive another paycheck until the partial shutdown ends. 

The New Orleans airport on Monday advised passengers to arrive at least three hours before their flight, citing a shortage of TSA employees. Passengers traveling through the Houston airport system have also been urged to arrive four to five hours before their departure.

‘The shutdown is having very real consequences, and hardworking federal aviation workers, the airline industry and our passengers are being used as a political football once again,’ Chris Sununu, CEO of Airlines for America and former New Hampshire governor, said in a statement. ‘This is simply unacceptable and un-American.’

TSA employees were also forced to forgo pay during the record-breaking government shutdown in late 2025.

A majority of Democratic lawmakers in both chambers voted to continue the DHS shutdown last week despite new security concerns over Trump’s military operation in Iran. The bipartisan measure that Democrats overwhelmingly opposed would fund DHS through the remainder of the fiscal year.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has demanded that federal immigration officers stop wearing masks and obtain judicial warrants before entering homes and businesses, among other reforms, in order to unlock funding for the agency.

Senate Democrats and the White House have been negotiating, but a deal has yet to materialize. The last counteroffer from the administration came nearly two weeks ago but has so far not been accepted by congressional Democrats. 

Some Republicans hoped that Trump’s decision to tap Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., to lead DHS could soften Democrats’ opposition, but the party has continued to take a hard line against funding the agency. Democrats had advocated for outgoing DHS Secretary Kristi Noem’s ouster as part of their numerous demands.

A Democratic blockade of Senate business would jeopardize the passage of a bipartisan housing bill aimed at growing the supply of affordable homes, which is currently under consideration in the upper chamber. Trump-endorsed voter ID legislation would also be impacted, but Democrats were already expected to widely oppose the measure, known as the SAVE America Act.

Fox News Digital reached out to Murphy’s office for additional comment.

Iranian Kurdish opposition groups say they are prepared to challenge Tehran but are holding back for now as the war between the United States, Israel and the Islamic Republic continues to unfold.

Khalid Azizi, spokesperson for the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (KDPI), told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview that Kurdish forces are closely watching developments but have no plans to launch a ground offensive at this stage.

Reports in recent days have suggested that President Donald Trump spoke with Mustafa Hijri, the leader of KDPI, as Washington explores possible Kurdish involvement in pressure on Iran. 

Azizi declined to confirm or deny whether such a conversation took place.

Azizi himself has firsthand experience with Iran’s military retaliation. 

In 2018, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps launched ballistic missiles at the KDPI headquarters in Koy Sanjaq in Iraq’s Kurdistan region during a leadership meeting, killing at least 18 people and injuring dozens.

‘We have been targeted by the Islamic Republic,’ Azizi said. ‘The first Iranian missile was sent to my headquarters and I was personally injured in that attack.’

Despite the risks, Azizi said Kurdish resistance remains strong after decades of confrontation with Iran. 

‘The Iranian Kurdish resistance movement is actually very strong because we have been on the ground since the Iranian revolution,’ he said.

Azizi spoke from Washington, D.C., where he said Kurdish representatives were meeting with policymakers and institutions to discuss the situation in Iran and the role Kurdish groups could play if the conflict evolves.

But for now, Kurdish groups say they are waiting to see how the broader war develops.

‘We are ready and our party is well organized,’ Azizi said. ‘But right now we do not have any intention to enter Iranian Kurdistan because the ground forces in this war have not been a topic.’

‘It’s very easy to start a war,’ he added. ‘But it will be more complicated how to end this war.’

The KDPI is one of the oldest Kurdish opposition movements fighting Iran’s Islamic Republic. The group is a member of the Socialist International and operates primarily from bases in the Kurdistan region of Iraq and has been in armed and political opposition to Tehran since the 1979 Iranian Revolution.

Azizi said Kurdish political movements have recently taken a significant step by forming a joint alliance aimed at coordinating their political strategy.

‘We have managed to create a unity among the Kurdish political parties,’ he said. ‘This has been welcomed by the Iranian Kurdish people and by different Iranian political parties.’

The alliance, known as the Coalition of Political Forces of Iranian Kurdistan, brings together several historically divided Kurdish factions that oppose the Islamic Republic.

Azizi said the future of Iran will ultimately depend on whether Iranians themselves rise up against the regime.

‘If you look at the goal of the United States and Israel in this war, they have been targeting the Iranian military, security and political institutions. In this aspect Iran has been weakened,’ he said.

‘But the regime still remains in power because people are not on the streets and there is no alternative right now to replace this regime.’

Azizi urged Western governments to focus not only on the military campaign but also on helping Iranian opposition movements coordinate politically.

Iran, he said, is a multi-ethnic country whose future stability will depend on building a democratic system that includes all of its communities.

‘The path and the roadmap for rebuilding Iran must be based on the participation of all ethnic groups,’ Azizi said. ‘Iran is a multi-ethnic society.’

For now, he said, Kurdish fighters remain in a holding pattern.

‘We have the ability and we have the capacity,’ Azizi said. ‘But it is not easy right now for us to make any decision regarding entering Iranian Kurdistan.’

In a little over a year, the United States has carried out dozens of airstrikes on vessels in the Caribbean tied to alleged narco-trafficking networks, launched sustained operations against Houthi forces in the Red Sea, captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, struck Iranian nuclear facilities and now embarked on an extended military campaign aimed at degrading Tehran’s missile, drone and command infrastructure.

The tempo marks one of the most assertive stretches of American force projection in recent years, spanning Latin America, the Middle East and critical maritime corridors.

For War Secretary Pete Hegseth, it also represents a striking turn. 

Just before the 2024 presidential election, he described himself as a ‘recovering neocon,’ expressing regret over his support for Iraq-era interventionism and warning against open-ended wars. 

Several analysts say the defining feature of the administration’s approach may be less about ideological evolution and more about alignment and execution.

‘Unlike in Trump one, everyone in Trump’s cabinet now — Hegseth, Rubio, etc. — understands that the president is the boss,’ said Matthew Kroenig, a defense strategist at the Atlantic Council. ‘In Trump 1.0 you had some Cabinet officials who thought their job was to save the Republic from Trump, the so-called adults in the room. And so I think it’s pretty clear the president wanted to go in this direction, and I think Hegseth sees himself as supporting the president’s vision.’

‘Validation of … leadership’ 

That cohesion has coincided with a pattern of risk-taking. 

Several of the administration’s most consequential military moves, from Venezuela to the Houthis to the current Iran campaign, carried the potential for escalation.

Some strategists say the relative absence of early blowback from those interventions may have reinforced the administration’s willingness to escalate into the Iranian theater. 

‘I’m not sure I would have advised this,’ Kroenig said of the Iran operation. ‘It is pretty risky, but it’s going well so far.’ 

Iranian missile launches have declined in volume. Regional allies have not broken ranks. 

Whether that constitutes strategic success, however, depends on the metric.

Justin Fulcher, a former Pentagon adviser to Hegseth, argued the early phases of the campaign reflect what he described as a ‘return to strategic clarity.’

‘Deterrence is only credible when our allies actually believe that if President Trump says something, we will back it up,’ Fulcher said. ‘This is a validation of Secretary Hegseth and President Trump’s leadership.’

Hegseth, a former Army officer who served in both Iraq and Afghanistan, has argued that the current campaign bears little resemblance to those conflicts.

‘This is not Iraq. This is not endless. I was there for both,’ Hegseth said at a press conference in early March. ‘Our generation knows better and so does this president.’

In a separate interview, he added, ‘This is not a remaking of Iranian society from an American perspective. We tried that. The American people have rejected that.’

Danielle Pletka, a senior fellow at the right-leaning American Enterprise Institute think tank, said the campaign has unfolded largely as expected.

‘I think things have gone reasonably well,’ Pletka said, pointing to degraded air defenses and what she described as repeated miscalculations by Iran. ‘All they’ve really done is made everybody quite mad, and that was a really bad calculation on their part.’

At the same time, she cautioned against interpreting the administration’s actions as part of a fixed doctrine.

‘I don’t think that it is doctrinal,’ Pletka said. ‘I think this is ad hoc.’

Some longtime Trump supporters have said the current conflict is not what they expected from Trump, who campaigned on ending wars and ‘America First.’

‘It feels like the worst betrayal this time because it comes from the very man and the admin who we all believed was different and said no more,’ Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., wrote on X. ‘Instead, we get a war with Iran on behalf of Israel that will succeed in regime in Iran. Another foreign war for foreign people for foreign regime change. For what?’ 

In Pletka’s view, the president has shown a pattern of attempting diplomacy first and shifting to force only when he concludes negotiations are unserious. She argues that posture distinguishes the current moment from past interventions.

She also emphasized that much of the operational credit belongs to the professional military.

‘The planning behind this is credit to the U.S. military and to the CENTCOM commander and to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs,’ she said.

‘Success and precision’ 

That distinction complicates efforts to attribute the current posture solely to Hegseth’s personal worldview. While the defense secretary has become a public face of the administration’s deterrence messaging, the execution of high-tempo campaigns rests heavily with career military leadership. 

Some critics argue the administration has yet to clearly articulate an end state for the Iran campaign.

‘Pete Hegseth needs to check with his boss on what the objective is,’ former national security advisor John Bolton recently said on CNN. ‘How does Hegseth explain that we’ve already changed the regime, which wasn’t our objective? I think the Pentagon top leadership, civilian top leadership, needs some attitude adjustment. I think the military’s doing fine, but I wonder about the civilian leadership.’

The White House pushed back forcefully on criticism of the campaign. 

Anna Kelly, a White House spokesperson, said Monday that Hegseth ‘is doing an incredible job leading the Department of War,’ pointing to what she described as the ‘ongoing success of Operation Epic Fury’ and other missions. 

Kelly said Iranian retaliatory attacks ‘have declined by 90 percent because the Department of War is destroying Iran’s ballistic missile capabilities,’ and added that Hegseth works ‘in lockstep with President Trump every day’ to ensure the U.S. military ‘continues to be the greatest, most powerful fighting force in the world.’

The Pentagon echoed that assessment. 

‘Operation Epic Fury continues to advance with overwhelming success and precision,’ Chief Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell said, describing a ‘resolute, full-spectrum campaign’ aimed at the ‘total dismantlement of Iran’s terrorist network or its unconditional surrender.’

Others see the moment in broader historical terms.

Peter Doran, a foreign policy analyst, described the campaign as a potential attempt to ‘end a 47-year war’ waged by the Islamic Republic against the United States, but on Washington’s terms.

‘This is a clear effort to end a 47-year war that Iran has been waging against the United States,’ Doran said.

He argued that visible American military performance could reverberate beyond the Middle East, particularly in Beijing.

‘They look good,’ Doran said of U.S. forces. ‘That will serve, I hope, as a disincentive for adventurism.’

If the operation ultimately succeeds in significantly degrading Iran’s military infrastructure, Doran argued, it could reshape the Middle East and expand diplomatic opportunities such as broader Arab-Israeli normalization.

‘It changes everything in the Middle East,’ he said.

Yet even supporters acknowledge that long-term effects remain uncertain. In Venezuela, Maduro’s removal marked a dramatic shift in U.S. policy, but the governing apparatus he built remains largely intact. 

Degrading missile stockpiles and drone infrastructure in Iran may buy time, but whether it produces durable deterrence or simply postpones reconstitution remains to be seen.

For now, the administration’s willingness to take calculated risks and its ability to avoid immediate escalation have reinforced the perception of restored American assertiveness. Whether that assertiveness translates into lasting strategic gains will likely define Hegseth’s tenure far more than the rhetoric that preceded it.

Hegseth and the Pentagon did not respond to requests for comment. 

‘Think of Mojtaba Khamenei as his father on steroids.’

That is how Kasra Aarabi, director of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps research at the advocacy group United Against Nuclear Iran, described Iran’s new supreme leader in comments to Fox News Digital following reports that the son of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has been selected to lead the Islamic Republic.

‘Mojtaba was already operating as a ‘mini supreme leader’ in the Bayt-e Rahbari — his father’s office and the core nucleus of power in the regime,’ Aarabi said.

‘His father had created the Bayt’s extensive apparatus as a hidden power structure to ensure continuity should he be eliminated — and through Mojtaba’s appointment, this is exactly what we will get,’ Aarabi said.

President Donald Trump also reacted to Mojtaba Khamenei’s rise. In an interview with the New York Post, Trump said he was ‘not happy with’ the younger Khamenei replacing his father as leader of Iran’s theocratic system but declined to elaborate on how the United States might respond. ‘Not going to tell you,’ Trump said when asked about his plans regarding the new supreme leader. ‘Not going to tell you. I’m not happy with him.’

An Iranian source with knowledge of the leadership transition told Fox News Digital that earlier speculation Mojtaba might pursue reforms now appears unlikely given the circumstances surrounding his appointment.

‘Previously there were whispers suggesting that if Mojtaba were to become the leader, he might introduce reforms that would both open up the domestic political space and bring a more interactive approach to foreign policy,’ the source said.

‘However, now this possibility seems very weak.’

Mojtaba was chosen ‘amid disputes, controversies, and pressure from the IRGC,’ according to the source, meaning he ‘owes his appointment to their support and therefore cannot act against their wishes.’

Built inside Iran’s security state

Mojtaba Khamenei, 56, has spent decades building influence inside the power structures surrounding Iran’s supreme leader.

Born in 1969 in Mashhad, he pursued clerical studies in Tehran, Iran, after the 1979 Islamic Revolution that brought his father to prominence. Over time, however, analysts say his influence developed less through traditional clerical authority and more through Iran’s security institutions.

In 2019, the United States sanctioned Mojtaba under Executive Order 13867. The U.S. Treasury Department said he had been ‘representing the supreme leader in an official capacity despite never being elected or appointed to a government position aside from work in the office of his father.’

Behnam Ben Taleblu, senior director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Iran Program, said Mojtaba’s background reflects a broader shift inside the Islamic Republic.

‘Despite donning a turban, Mojtaba is the product of the regime’s national security deep state,’ Ben Taleblu told Fox News Digital. ‘Expect him to work with and through the IRGC to keep his hold on power.’

Aarabi said Mojtaba has spent years consolidating influence behind the scenes.

‘His past tells us he enjoys micromanaging every aspect of authority to satisfy his thirst for power,’ Aarabi said, describing how Mojtaba allegedly relocated IRGC command centers to his office during protests, engineered election outcomes and installed loyalists across state institutions.

Since 2019, Aarabi added, Mojtaba has also been implementing what he described as his father’s effort to ‘purify’ the regime by promoting ideological loyalists across the political system.

‘Mojtaba is a deeply antisemitic, anti-American, and anti-Western ideologue,’ Aarabi said. ‘He has personally been involved in repression in Iran and terror plots abroad.’

Analysts see harder line ahead

Analysts say Mojtaba’s rise may further strengthen the role of Iran’s security institutions.

‘The rise of the younger Khamenei expedites trendlines seen in Iranian politics and national security for years,’ Ben Taleblu said. ‘From one Khamenei to another, things in Iran can be expected to go from bad to worse if this regime survives.’

‘And like the elder Khamenei, corruption runs in the family,’ he added.

Ben Taleblu warned that the regime may also escalate tensions externally as a survival strategy.

‘The regime knows it is weak, but believes it can extract a price and widen a crisis in order to survive,’ he said.

For opposition groups inside Iran, the leadership transition signals continuity rather than reform.

‘He’s the son of Khamenei and they have same ideology and they same strategy and they try to continue the same policy,’ said Khalid Azizi, spokesperson for the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran.

‘So far it’s very difficult to say what he will be done and is he going to have a different policy? I don’t expect this.’

The Iranian source who spoke with Fox News Digital said that while engagement with the United States and the West is theoretically possible in the future, the chances remain slim.

‘As I mentioned,’ the source said, ‘this possibility is very weak.’

‘In short,’ Aarabi said, ‘Mojtaba is his father on steroids. He’s certainly no MBS.’

The top Senate Democrat wants President Donald Trump to tap the nation’s oil stockpile as fuel prices skyrocket, years after blocking his attempt to replenish the supply when prices were low.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called on Trump to unleash reserve barrels of oil from America’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) as oil prices spike amid the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.

Schumer argued in a statement that the reserve ‘exists for moments exactly like this.’

‘When wars and global crises disrupt energy markets, the United States has the ability to act, but President Trump and his administration are refusing to do so,’ Schumer said. ‘Trump should release oil from the SPR now to stabilize markets, bring prices down, and stop the price shock that American families are already feeling thanks to his reckless war.’

During his first term, Trump wanted to use about $3 billion from a colossal COVID-19 stimulus package making its way through Congress to fill the reserve, but the move was promptly rejected by Schumer and congressional Democrats, who panned it as a ‘bailout’ for the oil industry.

The price per barrel at the time was roughly $29, according to WTI Crude Oil. Now, oil has eclipsed $110 per barrel over the weekend for the first time since 2022.

Though the SPR has capacity for over 700 million barrels of crude oil, the reserve currently has far less.

That’s because under former President Joe Biden, it was tapped twice — once to relieve soaring fuel prices as the nation still grappled with the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, and another time to combat increased energy costs at the onset of the war between Russia and Ukraine.

At the end of Biden’s term, the reserve had about 415 million barrels of crude on hand, according to data from the Department of Energy. Schumer supported both instances when Biden opened the nation’s oil reserves but, years prior, blocked Trump from building up the stockpile toward the end of his first term.

‘Senator Schumer championed Joe Biden’s Green New Scam, which raised energy costs, threatened our national security, and stifled American energy independence,’ White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers told Fox News Digital in a statement. ‘President Trump has been unleashing American energy dominance since day one, and now, American oil and gas production is at record highs.’ 

Schumer lauded Biden’s first move to tap into the SPR in 2021, arguing that it provided ‘much-needed temporary relief at the pump.’

‘Of course, the only long-term solution to rising gas prices is to continue our march to eliminate our dependence on fossil fuels and create a robust green energy economy,’ he said at the time.

And toward the end of Biden’s presidency, his administration did buy back barrels of oil to refill the reserves, which Schumer did not object to. 

Fast-forward, and the price per barrel of oil has launched into the stratosphere since Trump’s Operation Epic Fury and Iran’s response to put the Strait of Hormuz — a key route ferrying barrels around the globe — into a chokehold.

For now, the administration has no public plans to tap into the reserve as Americans undergo sticker shock at the pump.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright argued that the best way to lower prices was to reopen the Strait of Hormuz by neutralizing Iran’s ability to target oil tankers.

Wright told Fox News over the weekend that the disruption would last for ‘weeks, certainly not months.’

‘We believe this is a small price to pay to get to a world where energy prices will return back to where they were,’ Wright said. ‘Iran will finally be defanged, and now you can see more investment, more free flow of trade, and less ability to threaten energy supplies.’