As I Slept In Jerusalem’s Bomb Shelters, I Realized Trump’s Attack On Iran Was Putting America First
We were awakened by sirens at 3:00 a.m. This was a warning from the Israeli government to get ready for retaliation. And Iran did retaliate.We were awakened by sirens at 3:00 a.m. This was a warning from the Israeli government to get ready for retaliation. And Iran did retaliate.The Islamic Republic followed the old playbook. Trump didn’t.
History offers a grim pattern: A tyrant rises, slaughters the innocent, and the world watches — then regrets. From the ruins of cities and graves of millions comes the same old lesson, relearned too late: Free nations must stand together or perish apart.
In the fifth century, Attila the Hun terrorized Europe. Theodosius II, the Eastern Roman emperor, bought peace by paying Attila 2,100 pounds of gold annually. The Western emperor, Valentinian III, stayed silent — happy to remain out of range. But Attila didn’t stop. He turned west, burned cities, demanded Valentinian’s sister in marriage, and claimed half the empire. Rome tried appeasement again. Gold flowed. But the hunger of predators cannot be satisfied with treasure.
History has handed us one last chance to learn its lesson. Let’s not waste it.
Modern history offers another warning. Adolf Hitler spelled out his genocidal vision in "Mein Kampf." He made no secret of his plan to build a racially pure Volksgemeinschaft by eliminating “inferior” peoples. Yet, the world did nothing.
When Hitler marched troops into the Rhineland, Europe’s powers stood by. When he absorbed Austria in the Anschluss of 1938, they did nothing. When he threatened Czechoslovakia, the world convened — not to confront him but to appease him. The result was the Munich Agreement, signed in the name of peace, but it delivered only conquest. Six million Jews died. Tens of millions more followed. Once again, the world failed to act until it was far too late.
The refrain “never again” echoed across continents. But history’s warning now blares once more — from Tehran.
On February 11, 1979, the Islamic Republic of Iran was born. That August, it declared Al-Quds Day, with crowds chanting “Death to America” and “Death to Israel.” The regime announced its goal: global domination under a single theocratic rule. Nonbelievers would be crushed. Sound familiar?
The alarms have only grown louder. In 1979, Iran seized 66 Americans at the U.S. embassy and held 52 of them hostage for over a year. In 1981, Iran’s Islamic Revolution inspired the assassination of Egypt’s President Anwar Sadat. In 1982, it supported the Syrian uprising that spawned Hamas. In 1983, Iran’s proxy Hezbollah bombed the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, killing 241 Americans. By the 1990s, Iran backed Ansar Allah — the group now called the Houthis.
Iran built a terrorist Hydra of proxies, encircling Israel with armed fanatics. And the world did what it always does: It looked away.
Even the United States bent the knee. The Reagan administration traded arms for hostages. Obama gave Iran billions in sanctions relief under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action — an appeasement deal in all but name, dressed up as diplomacy. In return, Iran advanced its nuclear program while promising not to use it. A familiar bargain: Leave us alone, won’t you? Please?
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Then came October 7, 2023. Hamas terrorists — financed by unfrozen Iranian assets — slaughtered more than 1,200 Israelis. They raped. They kidnapped. They filmed their atrocities. And still, Iran marched forward, building nuclear capacity for a “final solution.”
Enough.
President Donald Trump saw the danger. Intelligence revealed that Iran was weeks away from building a bomb. He acted.
Eight U.S. B-2 bombers carrying bunker-buster warheads struck Iran’s nuclear sites — Natanz, Isfahan, Fordow, and others. Trump announced to the American people that the regime’s key nuclear enrichment facilities had been “completely and totally obliterated.”
Trump did what history demands. He refused to sacrifice nine million Israelis while the world held meetings. He didn’t wait for Tehran to strike first. He acted to stop a second holocaust before it could begin.
This is the difference between a predator’s barbarism and a statesman’s vision. Trump offers peace through strength — as opposed to allowing predators to plunder, rape, and murder their way to barbaric “prosperity.” Trump’s prosperity emerges from shared interest. He champions a commonwealth built on commerce, not conquest.
History has handed us one last chance to learn its lesson. Let’s not waste it.
Democrats' campaign to limit Trump's war powers is dead in the water
Democratic lawmakers pushed legislation in both chambers of Congress last week with the aim of limiting President Donald Trump's war powers — something they sought in his first term and began gunning for again ahead of his second inauguration.
This campaign, spearheaded in the House by Republican Thomas Massie (Ky.) and in the Senate by Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine (Va.), picked up steam in the wake of Israel's June 12 military strikes on Iran's nuclear infrastructure and amid suggestions by the likes of Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) that America's direct involvement in the conflict was a foregone conclusion.
Although greatly strained by a continued exchange of explosives, the ceasefire between Iran and Israel that Trump announced on Monday and repaired Tuesday morning appears to have sapped much of the energy from lawmakers' war power delimitation campaign.
After all, it appears that Trump's controversial bombings — the kind that Democratic Reps. Ro Khanna (Calif.), Rashida Tlaib (Mich.), Chuy Garcia (Ill.), and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.) don't think the president should be able to order — did not pave America's way into another protracted Middle Eastern entanglement but rather paved the way to an exit for all parties involved.
In other words, campaigners must now convince their peers that Trump must be deprived of the powers he just used for a back-burn that spared Israel and its neighbors from a greater conflagration.
Massie noted several hours before Trump announced the ceasefire that his war powers resolution to prohibit America's involvement in Iran had 57 co-sponsors.
RELATED: Trump’s strike wasn’t an escalation — it was an exit
"Whether you like it or not Congress will be voting on U.S. hostilities in Iran," tweeted Massie. "Under the War Powers Act, the President is required to withdraw from hostilities in Iran within 60 days (+30 days ext.) unless he gets a vote of Congress."
The congressman changed his tune Monday evening, telling reporters, "I talked to the speaker on the floor just now and told him we wouldn't push [the measure] if the ceasefire holds, so it's really in their court," reported Politico.
'I still think we need to do it.'
Regardless of whether the ceasefire holds, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) made clear that the measure had no chance of survival, adding that Massie should "do right by the country and do right by the Republican team here" by dropping the measure.
Democrats, meanwhile, indicated that they still want to hold the doomed vote on the basis of hypotheticals and with the aim of virtue-signaling.
"We may ... have a conflict in the future, and we need to be on record saying no offensive war in Iran without prior authorization," Khanna told Axios.
Democratic Rep. Jim McGovern (Mass.) said, "I still think we need to do it."
"This is a serious matter. Congress ought to debate this," McGovern told Axios. "I complained about when Obama took action without congressional authorization; I complained when Biden did as well."
With Massie's initiative now virtually dead, New York Rep. Greg Meeks (D) is reportedly preparing to introduce his own war powers resolution, which looks to be an exercise in futility, given the "hostilities against the Islamic Republic of Iran" he seeks to end are apparently already finished.
'I acted pursuant to my constitutional authority as Commander in Chief and Chief Executive.'
Over in the Senate, the delimitation campaign similarly shows signs of stalling.
Kaine has delayed scheduling a vote on his resolution until he and his colleagues receive a classified briefing Tuesday afternoon on the conflict. Even if the vote proceeds, it's unlikely to go anywhere.
Blaze News senior politics editor Christopher Bedford noted that "most senators hate hard votes, war is a hard vote, and most of them like a belligerent foreign policy. So there's not really any serious, broad will in the Senate to retake war powers. It would take a whole lot more than this to change that."
Contrary to his critics' framing, Trump insists that he had the right to order the the strikes on the Iranian nuclear sites.
"I directed this military action consistent with my responsibility to protect United States citizens both at home and abroad as well as in furtherance of United States national security and foreign policy interests," he noted in a Monday letter to House Speaker Johnson. "I acted pursuant to my constitutional authority as Commander in Chief and Chief Executive and pursuant to my constitutional authority to conduct United States foreign relations."
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Only Trump had the guts to do what every president has promised
The United States has taken direct military action against Iran’s nuclear program. Whatever you think of the strike, it’s over. It’s happened. And now, we have to predict what happens next. I want to help you understand the gravity of this situation: what happened, what it means, and what might come next. To that end, we need to begin with a little history.
Since 1979, Iran has been at war with us — even if we refused to call it that.
We are either on the verge of a remarkable strategic victory or a devastating global escalation. Time will tell.
It began with the hostage crisis, when 66 Americans were seized and 52 were held for over a year by the radical Islamic regime. Four years later, 17 more Americans were murdered in the U.S. Embassy bombing in Beirut, followed by 241 Marines in the Beirut barracks bombing.
Then came the Khobar Towers bombing in 1996, which killed 19 more U.S. airmen. Iran had its fingerprints all over it.
In Iraq and Afghanistan, Iranian-backed proxies killed hundreds of American soldiers. From 2001 to 2020 in Afghanistan and 2003 to 2011 in Iraq, Iran supplied IEDs and tactical support.
The Iranians have plotted assassinations and kidnappings on U.S. soil — in 2011, 2021, and again in 2024 — and yet we’ve never really responded.
The precedent for U.S. retaliation has always been present, but no president has chosen to pull the trigger until this past weekend. President Donald Trump struck decisively. And what our military pulled off this weekend was nothing short of extraordinary.
Operation Midnight Hammer
The strike was reportedly called Operation Midnight Hammer. It involved as many as 175 U.S. aircraft, including 12 B-2 stealth bombers — out of just 19 in our entire arsenal. Those bombers are among the most complex machines in the world, and they were kept mission-ready by some of the finest mechanics on the planet.
RELATED: Iran fires missiles at US troops on bases in Qatar and Iraq
To throw off Iranian radar and intelligence, some bombers flew west toward Guam — classic misdirection. The rest flew east, toward the real targets.
As the B-2s approached Iranian airspace, U.S. submarines launched dozens of Tomahawk missiles at Iran’s fortified nuclear facilities. Minutes later, the bombers dropped 14 MOPs — massive ordnance penetrators — each designed to drill deep into the earth and destroy underground bunkers. These bombs are the size of an F-16 and cost millions of dollars apiece. They are so accurate, I’ve been told they can hit the top of a soda can from 15,000 feet.
They were built for this mission — and we’ve been rehearsing this run for 15 years.
If the satellite imagery is accurate — and if what my sources tell me is true — the targeted nuclear sites were utterly destroyed. We’ll likely rely on the Israelis to confirm that on the ground.
This was a master class in strategy, execution, and deterrence. And it proved that only the United States could carry out a strike like this. I am very proud of our military, what we are capable of doing, and what we can accomplish.
What comes next
We don’t yet know how Iran will respond, but many of the possibilities are troubling. The Iranians could target U.S. forces across the Middle East. On Monday, Tehran launched 20 missiles at U.S. bases in Qatar, Syria, and Kuwait, to no effect. God forbid, they could also unleash Hezbollah or other terrorist proxies to strike here at home — and they just might.
Iran has also threatened to shut down the Strait of Hormuz — the artery through which nearly a fifth of the world’s oil flows. On Sunday, Iran’s parliament voted to begin the process. If the Supreme Council and the ayatollah give the go-ahead, we could see oil prices spike to $150 or even $200 a barrel.
That would be catastrophic.
The 2008 financial collapse was pushed over the edge when oil hit $130. Western economies — including ours — simply cannot sustain oil above $120 for long. If this conflict escalates and the Strait is closed, the global economy could unravel.
The strike also raises questions about regime stability. Will it spark an uprising, or will the Islamic regime respond with a brutal crackdown on dissidents?
Early signs aren’t hopeful. Reports suggest hundreds of arrests over the weekend and at least one dissident executed on charges of spying for Israel. The regime’s infamous morality police, the Gasht-e Ershad, are back on the streets. Every phone, every vehicle — monitored. The U.S. embassy in Qatar issued a shelter-in-place warning for Americans.
Russia and China both condemned the strike. On Monday, a senior Iranian official flew to Moscow to meet with Vladimir Putin. That meeting should alarm anyone paying attention. Their alliance continues to deepen — and that’s a serious concern.
Now we pray
We are either on the verge of a remarkable strategic victory or a devastating global escalation. Time will tell. But either way, President Trump didn’t start this. He inherited it — and he took decisive action.
The difference is, he did what they all said they would do. He didn’t send pallets of cash in the dead of night. He didn’t sign another failed treaty.
He acted. Now, we pray. For peace, for wisdom, and for the strength to meet whatever comes next.
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L.A. Sheriff’s Dept. Apologizes For Post Saying ‘Hearts Go Out To Victims’ Of U.S. Strike On Iran’s Nuclear Sites
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department on Sunday removed and apologized for its social media post sympathizing with the “victims and families impacted” by the U.S.’s strike on Iran’s nuclear sites, which were bombed Saturday night. The original post stated, “Our hearts go out to the victims and families impacted by the recent bombings in Iran,” […]'They don't know what the f**k they are doing': Trump cusses out Israel, Iran for nearly blowing up his ceasefire
President Donald Trump announced Monday evening that Iran and Israel had agreed to a ceasefire, bringing an end to what was fast becoming another bloody Middle Eastern quagmire. Trump indicated that Iran would begin the ceasefire and that 12 hours later, Israel would follow suit.
Unfortunately, there have been multiple violations by both parties in the hours since, resulting in many casualties. The continued exchange of bombs and missiles prompted a full-throated rebuke from Trump Tuesday morning.
'ISRAEL. DO NOT DROP THOSE BOMBS.'
When asked whether the ceasefire was breaking down, Trump — who just hours earlier had written, "This is a War that could have gone on for years, and destroyed the entire Middle East, but it didn't, and never will" — told reporters that Iran apparently fired a rocket "after the time limit and it missed its target, and now Israel is going out. These guys gotta calm down. It's ridiculous."
Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi indicated on X that Iran's military operations against Israel "continued until the very last minute, at 4am."
Earlier Tuesday morning, the chief of the general staff of the Israel Defense Forces promised to "respond with force" to a "severe violation of the ceasefire carried out by the Iranian regime."
Trump leaned into his critique, noting, "I didn't like the fact that Israel unloaded right after we made the deal. They didn't have to unload. And I didn't like the fact that the retaliation was very strong — but in all fairness, Israel unloaded a lot."
RELATED: Trump’s strike wasn’t an escalation — it was an exit
Just prior to the ceasefire taking effect, Israeli strikes allegedly killed nine people in Northern Iran and at least five people were killed by Iranian strikes in the Israeli city of Beersheba, reported NBC News.
While critical of Iran, Trump appeared especially frustrated with Israel, noting, "When I say, 'OK, now you have 12 hours,' you don't go out in the first hour and just drop everything you have on them. So I'm not happy with them. I'm not happy with Iran, either. But I'm really unhappy if Israel is going out this morning."
Trump appeared unable to contain his anger over the breakdown of the possible peace he ordered, stating, "We basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don't know what the f**k they're doing."
The president subsequently issued Israel a directive on Truth Social, writing, "ISRAEL. DO NOT DROP THOSE BOMBS. IF YOU DO IT IS A MAJOR VIOLATION. BRING YOUR PILOTS HOME, NOW!"
Twenty minutes later — around the time he reportedly had a no-nonsense phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — Trump indicated that Israel was not going to attack Iran and that all planes would be turning around "while doing a friendly 'Plane Wave' to Iran."
"The Ceasefire is in effect!" added Trump.
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Praise, prayers, and impeachment: Reactions pour in following US attack on Iran
On Saturday, President Donald Trump announced that the United States had conducted attacks on Iran’s nuclear facilities. As the news reverberates around the world, political leaders and pundits are weighing in, both in support of and in opposition to the president’s escalation.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was one of the first to commend the president.
'Who gives a flip what AOC says?'
“President Trump and I often say: ‘Peace through strength.’ First comes strength, then comes peace,” Netanyahu said in a post on X. “And tonight, President Donald Trump and the United States acted with a lot of strength.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) also came out in support of the president, arguing that the attack will prevent the “world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism” from obtaining nuclear weapons.
“The military operations in Iran should serve as a clear reminder to our adversaries and allies that President Trump means what he says,” Johnson said in a post on X. “The President gave Iran’s leader every opportunity to make a deal, but Iran refused to commit to a nuclear disarmament agreement.”
“President Trump has been consistent and clear that a nuclear-armed Iran will not be tolerated,” Johnson added. “That posture has now been enforced with strength, precision, and clarity.”
Johnson’s counterpart in the Senate, Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.), echoed the speaker’s support for the president.
“The regime in Iran, which has committed itself to bringing ‘death to America’ and wiping Israel off the map, has rejected all diplomatic pathways to peace,” Thune said in a post on X.
“I stand with President Trump and pray for the American troops and personnel in harm’s way.”
Although the president has secured support from top congressional Republicans, other lawmakers have been more critical. Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, a longtime critic of continued American involvement in foreign wars, said the president’s attack was “not Constitutional” in a post on X. Notably, Massie is leading a bipartisan effort in the House to prohibit America’s involvement in Iran.
Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia expressed a similar sentiment in an X post, saying, “The American public is overwhelmingly opposed to the U.S. waging war on Iran.”
“And the Israeli Foreign Minister admitted yesterday that Israeli bombing had set the Iranian nuclear program back ‘at least 2 or 3 years.’ So what made Trump recklessly decide to rush and bomb today? Horrible judgment,” Kaine said. “I will push for all Senators to vote on whether they are for this third idiotic Middle East war.”
Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.) took it a step farther and called for Trump to be impeached altogether.
“The President’s disastrous decision to bomb Iran without authorization is a grave violation of the Constitution and Congressional War Powers,” Ocasio-Cortez said in a post on X.
“He has impulsively risked launching a war that may ensnare us for generations,” she added. “It is absolutely and clearly grounds for impeachment.”
Blaze Media co-founder Mark Levin has a starkly different take. He told Sean Hannity that despite those who believe a strike would irreversibly escalate the conflict, “Donald Trump just prevented World War 3.”
Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck encouraged onlookers to pray for all those involved, including Americans, Iranians, Israelis, and the president.
“I have been saying for almost two weeks now, pray for peace but prepare for fire” Beck said in a post on X. “I would imagine that Iran will take this as an act of war, as we would. But more importantly, I agree with Sean Davis. PRAY for peace, wisdom, the people of Iran, Israel, and OUR people. Our soldiers, sailors, and airmen and most of all our Commander in Chief. May he be led to The Lords will.”
Jason Buttrill, Beck’s head writer and a former intelligence analyst for the Department of Defense, cautioned against a rush to judgement about the results of the attack.
"It’s happened. We now wait to see where this goes,” Buttrill wrote in a post on X. “Will there be attacks on U.S. forces in the ME? Will we get more involved in the main assault? Will Iran activate cells in the U.S.? Do they still have the command and control to do so? Lots of questions."
Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma had a blunter takeaway on Fox News.
“Who gives a flip what AOC says?”
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AMERICA AT WAR: Trump Announces U.S. Airstrikes On Iranian Nuclear Facilities
The United States has bombed three nuclear sites in Iran, President Donald Trump announced just before 8 p.m. Eastern time on Saturday in a social media post. The announcement came after U.S. airplanes completed the mission and were outside Iranian airspace. “A full payload of BOMBS was dropped on the primary site, Fordow. All planes […]Trump announces 'successful attack' by the U.S. on three sites in Iran
On Saturday evening, after Blaze News' Rebeka Zeljko reported a press lid was called for the day at the White House, President Donald Trump announced via Truth Social that the United States had carried out a "successful attack on three nuclear sites in Iran." The president's post was shared by Secretary of State Marco Rubio via a post on X."
— (@)
Earlier in the day, there were multiple reports that B2 bombers had left their base in Missouri. The destination was not known. It was speculated to be Diego Garcia where the U.S. Air Force keeps bombers or Iran. With the president's post it appears that the destination was Iran.
Trump identified the nuclear sites hit as "Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan." He further declared that "all planes are now outised of Iran air space. A full payload of BOMBS was dropped on the primary site, Fordow."
This is a developing story and Blaze News will update throughout the night.
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The MAGA divide over Israel is a test of maturity
The recent clash between Tucker Carlson and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) over the Israel-Iran conflict isn’t just a Twitter skirmish. It’s a proxy battle highlighting a deeper divide within the MAGA movement. That divide cuts to the heart of competing worldviews, and I’ve spent much of this week on my show trying to make sense of it through a biblical lens.
This internal debate isn’t a problem. In fact, it’s a strength. You’ll see it across Blaze Media on a wide variety of questions. Glenn Beck champions critical thinking and challenging assumptions. We don’t all walk in lockstep — nor should we. On this issue alone, you’ll hear wildly different takes across the network. That diversity makes us better.
We live in a time that punishes discernment. Critical thinking doesn’t just get ignored — it gets attacked. And yet I’ve never seen so many people hungry for truth.
We’re also better off when we allow that debate to happen within ourselves.
When I first became a Christian, I devoured everything I could find about church history and theology. I loved Augustine. Then I read Calvin and agreed with him — even where he contradicted Augustine. Then I read Luther, who opposed both of them — and I agreed with him, too. What now?
That tension never goes away. Pick up a Tim Keller book, and the same thing happens. If he wrote it before 2005, it’s probably excellent. If he wrote it after, it probably isn’t. So is Keller good or bad? Right or wrong?
I care about truth more than just about anyone I know. But early in my journey, I learned a hard lesson — delivered, oddly enough, by one of my favorite childhood films “WarGames”: “The only winning move is not to play.”
So do I have to pick Tucker or Cruz? Do I have to vote someone off the island?
Nope. If someone’s right in the moment, I’m with them. If they’re wrong — even if they were right 10 times before — I’m not. It’s not personal. It’s principled. That’s the only way I’ve found to avoid losing my mind, becoming a tribalist, or slipping into flat-out idolatry.
We live in a time that punishes discernment. Critical thinking doesn’t just get ignored — it gets attacked. And yet, I’ve never seen so many people hungry for truth.
That hunger forces us to work with unlikely allies.
Take Naomi Wolf. For three decades, she belonged to a political world I deeply opposed. She worked for the Clintons and trafficked in feminist nonsense. But during COVID, when the lies were thickest, she told the truth. She fought the right fight, at the right time, on the right side. That mattered more than her résumé. That’s what discernment looks like. Personality cults don’t interest me.
RELATED: Which will it be, America? God, greed — or the grave?
Same with Donald Trump. In 2015, his campaign tried everything to hire me. I almost said yes. But then I did everything I could to stop him from winning. Yet the morning after his victory, I said something on my show that might be the most important thing I’ve ever said on-air: “The country has spoken. NeverTrump is dead and never coming back.”
I wanted what was best for the country. And at that moment, that meant helping Trump succeed. How could I help?
You won’t think that way if you’re obsessed with defending your narrative at all costs — especially if that narrative floats untethered from the Word of God.
You won’t love your neighbor. You’ll straw-man your opponents. You’ll never consider the possibility you’re wrong.
Look around. Just days ago, Israel versus Iran wasn’t on our radar. Now, people have already retreated to their corners and locked in their positions — on a conflict that could reshape the lives of millions.
Maybe we should stop. Breathe. Listen.
Maybe, before we harden into another round of generational mistakes, we should consult God — and one another.
Let’s reason together. It’s not weakness. It’s wisdom. And we need more of it.
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