Politics
Contributor: Trump's strike against Iran was 'America First' in action
My young family and I were in Israel when the military and the Mossad began their offensive operations against Iran on Friday, June 13, commencing what President Trump has since called the “12-Day War.” Although the Mossad’s intelligence and the Israel Defense Forces’ rapid establishment of air superiority inside Iran proved to be nothing less than extraordinary, my wife and I lived on pins and needles for those first few days of the war. We had to be ready day or night, at a moment’s notice, to drop everything, grab our 6-month-old baby and race to the house’s “safe room” (that is, bomb shelter).
Trust me: This is not a fun way to live — especially not with an infant. Meanwhile, too many of Iran’s ballistic missiles — considerably more lethal than the rockets typically fired into Israel from Gaza and Lebanon — were evading Israeli air defense. They were finding their targets. Too many homes were being destroyed, and too many people, tragically, were being killed. Though a proud Jew and Zionist, and even the author of a recent book on Israel’s fate, I decided to do what any American parent of an infant would do in such a situation: get us home.
I am a Floridian, and I heard about a program the state of Florida had launched to evacuate American citizens from the war zone. We first took a bus to the Jordanian border. We next got to Amman, where we spent the night. We then flew to Cyprus, a hub for those fleeing (and returning to) Israel, where we also spent a night. And finally, we flew from Cyprus to Tampa, where Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis surprised our group by meeting us at the airport.
The day after my family got home to Florida, the world changed in an instant: Trump ordered Operation Midnight Hammer, delivering a devastating — perhaps fatal — blow to the Iranian regime’s three most prized nuclear facilities, Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan. In his brief remarks at the White House following the strikes, Trump repeatedly linked the national interests and fates of the United States and Israel. Despite months of tendentious leaks, palace intrigue and the often-parroted media reports of a rift between Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, that bilateral relationship is clearly stronger than ever.
Looking back at both the pre-strike debate and the post-strike fallout, the more interesting question — especially given the hostility toward Trump’s move from certain high-profile talking heads within the broader MAGA fold — is perhaps this: Is Midnight Hammer an aberration from Trump’s “America First” foreign policy doctrine, or is it entirely consistent with it?
As the definitive essay on the topic, a 2019 Foreign Policy magazine article — appropriately titled “The Trump Doctrine” — from former Trump administration national security official and current State Department Director of Policy Planning Michael Anton put it, Trump’s conception of “America First” means that he has “no inborn inclination to isolationism or interventionism, and he is not simply a dove or a hawk.” By contrast, Trump’s foreign policy instinct is “Jacksonian”: It is a strand of pragmatic conservative realism that is intuitively skeptical. The mindset echoes George Washington’s famous farewell address, which warned against getting overly involved overseas, but it also remains able, willing and eager to lash out and strike if necessary to defend core American national interests.
In short, Trump has no interest in reprising the Bush-era moralistic nation-building enterprise, but he also has no interest in burying America’s head in the sand and pretending that we simply have no interest in events abroad. It was Trump himself, after all, who both withdrew from President Obama’s flawed nuclear deal with the Iranian terror regime and eliminated Islamic State founder Abu Bakr Baghdadi and Qasem Soleimani, the Iranian general who commanded the Quds Force.
There are indeed some fools, ignoramuses and scoundrels on the right who keep trying to mislead their MAGA-friendly audiences by imputing to “America First” views that do not put America first and are not held by the president himself. But they are losing that battle: According to a recent CBS News poll, an astounding 94% of self-identified MAGA Republicans support Operation Midnight Hammer. It certainly seems that in voting for Trump, these Americans favored stopping the world’s No. 1 state sponsor of terrorism — a regime whose raison d’être is eliminating the “little Satan” of Israel and the “big Satan” of the United States — from acquiring the world’s most dangerous weapons.
After decades of debate about the Iranian nuclear program and months of pearl-clutching about the alleged imminence of World War III, the United States has devastated the illicit nuclear weapons program of a terrorist regime that chants “death to America” on a daily basis — without a single American casualty, without any extended American troop presence on the ground and with a quick post-strike ceasefire to boot. To achieve a decades-long-sought foreign policy objective in this fashion is nothing less than astonishing. Operation Midnight Hammer is one of the greatest acts of presidential statesmanship and leadership in modern American history.
It’s also “America First” in action. And looking back at the entire ordeal years from now, I strongly suspect it will also make everything my family went through in evacuating the Middle East more than worth it.
Josh Hammer’s latest book is “Israel and Civilization: The Fate of the Jewish Nation and the Destiny of the West.” This article was produced in collaboration with Creators Syndicate. @josh_hammer
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“Two down and two to go” blared the new wanted poster targeting the two remaining fugitive sons of infamous Mexican cartel kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman-Loera, who is serving life-plus-30-years in Colorado’s federal supermax prison.
On Monday, ICE posted a new wanted poster for two members of “Los Chapitos” — Ivan Archivaldo Guzman Salazar and Jesus Alfredo Guzman Salazar, two of El Chapo’s sons with his first wife, Alejandrina Maria Salazar-Hernandez.
After El Chapo’s final capture in 2016, control of the powerful Sinaloa Cartel shifted to Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada. Following Zambada’s arrest during the Biden administration, leadership passed to Guzman’s four sons.
MEXICAN SENATOR ACCUSES SHEINBAUM OF SHIELDING ‘NARCO-POLITICIANS’ AFTER US CARTEL INDICTMENT
Both the Trump administration in the U.S. and the Sheinbaum administration in Mexico have said they are focused on cracking down on cartel’s new leadership.
“Two down and two to go with $10 million reward,” the wanted poster read, with Xs over the faces of the already captured Joaquin Guzman Lopez and Ovidio Guzman Lopez.
The two captured Chapitos are reportedly cooperating with authorities and have not yet been sentenced, but Ivan and Jesus remain “armed and dangerous,” according to ICE.
ICE NABS ACCUSED MS-13 KILLER HIDING IN NORTHERN VIRGINIA SUBURB
El Chapo Guzman arrives in the United States after his capture in Mexico. (AP File)
The two fugitives are charged with conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance and operating a continuing criminal enterprise.
Two of Guzman’s four sons have already been captured through Operation Take Back America, an initiative seeking the “total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations” in order to protect U.S. communities from violent crime.
U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois Andrew Boutros said in a recent statement that efforts to capture El Chapo’s sons are the latest steps “in our efforts to bring to justice drug lords and other dangerous criminals who poison the American public with illegal and harmful drugs and who otherwise engage in violence and corruption to carry out their and their enterprises’ wide-reaching criminal activities.”
US MILITARY KILLS TWO ALLEGED NARCO-TERRORISTS IN LATEST EASTERN PACIFIC STRIKE ON DRUG-TRAFFICKING VESSEL
Joaquin “Shorty” Guzman, center, is escorted by soldiers during a presentation at the Navy’s airstrip in Mexico City. (Reuters/Edgard Garrido)
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In his plea agreement, Guzman Lopez admitted that he and his cartel associates committed violence against law enforcement officials, rival drug traffickers and members of their own organization to protect the Sinaloa Cartel’s trafficking operations.
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Fox News Digital reached out to ICE and DHS for additional comment and information on the mission to capture the two at-large Chapitos.
WASHINGTON — President Trump said Monday that he called the president of FIFA to dispute a red card that would have barred the American striker Folarin Balogun from playing in Monday’s elimination game with Belgium, acknowledging an extraordinary intervention by a head of state in the sport’s disciplinary process.
“I asked for a review because I didn’t think it was a foul,” Trump told reporters during an event in the Oval Office. “I am good at this stuff. I didn’t think it was a foul. I thought it was two great athletes that crashed into each other and got entangled.”
FIFA subsequently rescinded Balogun’s suspension, the first time the governing body has reversed a red-card penalty during a World Cup in 64 years. Belgium has protested the decision, and a hearing is scheduled for Monday to determine whether Balogun’s reinstatement will stand.
Trump said it would be a “stain” on the World Cup to let the penalty stand, and even called the referee who issued the card “suspect” with a questionable past, though he did not provide evidence to support the accusation.
While many in the United States joined the president in celebrating the reversal, others blasted its adverse impact on the integrity of the sport.
The Belgium team has protested the penalty reversal, with the country’s soccer federation saying it was “astonished” by the ruling.
“We are not defending the national team or federation. We are defending football,” Belgian coach Rudi Garcia said.
The episode has drawn attention to Trump’s close relationship with Gianni Infantino, the president of FIFA. In December, Infantino presented Trump with the inaugural FIFA Peace Prize, an award the governing body created after Trump was passed over for the Nobel Peace Prize. That decision is now the subject of an ethics complaint, backed by members of the European Parliament, who argue it compromised FIFA’s political neutrality.
Trump appeared to downplay the significance of his call to Infantino.
“I can’t tell him what to do, and I don’t believe he made the decision,” Trump said. “I think it was a committee that made the decision, and they made the right decision, because number one, it wasn’t a foul, and you want to see a game with your best players.”
But he said it would be “very unfair” and “terrible” to not let Balogun play. He said it would be the equivalent of barring Argentina’s Lionel Messi or Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo — both global superstars — because they “ran” or “bumped” into someone on the field.
“We have to have our best players, and they have to have their best players. And if we win or we lose, it’s fair,” Trump said. “Let’s say we lost [Balogun] and we lose the game — it would be a terrible thing.”
Secretary Burgum condemns vandalism targeting National Mall amid new threats
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum reacts to a disturbing pattern of vandalism targeting the National Mall, including the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, which suffered significant damage. Burgum details the restoration efforts, the deployment of security and the arrest of seven individuals involved. He stresses that such acts are an attack on the country and will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
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President Donald Trump and his Interior Department are declaring an America 250 victory over algae in the Lincoln Reflecting Pool.
Trump shared photos on Truth Social on Sunday showing the pool and the reflection of the Washington Monument appearing clear and blue, and made a call out with a “Wanted” poster for vandals.
“The U.S. Park Police is seeking the public’s assistance in identifying the individual in the notice below in connection with a Destruction of Government Property investigation related to the Reflecting Pool,” Trump wrote Sunday on Truth Social.
Trump also shared an Interior Department statement crediting “advanced nanobubbler technology” and National Park Service cleanup work.
FORMER US OLYMPIAN DAVID HEARN INDICTED IN ALLEGED REFLECTING POOL VANDALISM
President Donald Trump is touting the algae cleanup and the prosecution of vandals from the Lincoln Reflecting Pool, with the water proving clear and refective in this July 3 photo. (Finn Gomez/Getty Images)
“The advanced nanobubbler technology very effectively killed the algae that has plagued every Lincoln Reflecting Pool reopening — most infamously Obama’s reopening — since 1922,” Dei Gratia Minerals founder Greg Wischer, Interior’s deputy assistant secretary for land and minerals management, wrote in a letter shared with Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Trump.
“The Reflecting Pool water is crystal clear, and our National Park Service team is now vacuuming up the dead algae resting on the bottom of some parts of the Reflecting Pool — just like the destroyed Iranian Navy resting on the bottom of the Persian Gulf.”
The photos shared by Trump show the Reflecting Pool stretching toward the Washington Monument under blue skies. One image appears to show the pool from the Lincoln Memorial end, while a second closer view shows the Washington Monument reflected in the water.
Trump also shared a U.S. Interior Press social media post hailing the technological success, quoting that Wischer memo.
YOSEMITE, GRAND CANYON LEAD NOTABLE LIST OF NATIONAL PARK CAMPGROUNDS FOR AMERICA’S 250TH
Pete Folch carries an American flag during a morning run past the Reflecting Pool as the city prepares for July 4th festivities on July 3, 2026, in Washington, D.C. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
“The vacuuming is the final maintenance step after refilling the pool, and it will be complete in a few days,” his memo continued. “Already, the section of the Reflecting Pool closest to the Lincoln Memorial has been vacuumed up, and the beautiful American Flag Blue coating on the bottom of the pool can be seen clearly.”
Trump’s Interior Department has praised the technology for overcoming past challenges in keeping the pool clear, including dunking on former President Barack Obama.
“Previous administrations — most notably under Obama — failed to maintain the Reflecting Pool, and after refilling the pool, the water would quickly become murky and thick with massive clumps of algae floating on the surface,” the memo concluded.
INTERNAL EMAILS EXPOSE HOW JULY 4TH BASH IS BEING DERAILED BY DEM-RUN COUNTY: ‘OFFENSIVE’
Police said the incident happened on Friday at around 3:36 p.m. at the Reflecting Pool on the grounds of the Lincoln Memorial in the nation’s capital. (U.S. Park Police)
“The photos below show how the nanobubbler technology and vacuuming have been incredibly effective, making the water crystal clear with the American Flag Blue coating shining brightly on the bottom of the pool.
“As our National Park Service team noted, the Reflecting Pool is now so ‘blue’ that the Fake News Media, which has been staked out at the Reflecting Pool for weeks, has fled!”
The 6.75 million-gallon pool has been targeted by Trump critics and leftist anti-Trump activists for attacks both verbally and physical, Burgum discussed with ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday.
“The Reflecting Pool has been a big success,” he said. “And we’ve got 340 million people in this country that are celebrating 250. We did have a few vandals, but all that’s going to be repairable, and that’ll all be fixed in the coming weeks as we go forward.”
People look out at the Reflecting Pool and Washington Monument from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial ahead of July 4 festivities on July 03, 2026, in Washington, D.C. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
Burgum now believes that the pool might not require a full draining after its “multiple gashes that add up to 350 feet,” he added.
“We don’t know if we need to drain the whole thing or not because, you know, the cutting happened on the edge, and, of course, it slopes from the edge,” according to Burgum.
“We may be able to partially drain it and do the repair. To be able to fix it, we may not have to drain the whole thing, but it could go very quickly.”
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While the media and Trump critics are pointing to added costs of the reflecting pool refurbishment, Burgum pointed to the vandalism causing that.
“We weren’t expecting that we were going to have a small group of people that wanted to try to destroy effectively what is part of the Lincoln Memorial,” Burgum told ABC. “There’s plenty of cameras around the Lincoln statue and around the memorial, but the Reflecting Pool had gone for, you know, decades without vandalism.”
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