The United States and Israel have launched missiles at Iran’s capital city of Tehran in a joint operation dubbed by the U.S. Department of War as “Operation Epic Fury.”

The Trump administration and Israel have jointly struck Iran, a move which the president believes will allow citizens to "take over" its government, which has reportedly killed tens of thousands of protesters in recent months.

Democrat lawmakers are demanding a vote to limit President Donald Trump’s war powers following the United States’ strikes against Iran. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) promised to compel a vote on the War Powers Resolution introduced by Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) and Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY). “The framers of the United States Constitution gave Congress the sole power to declare war as the branch of government closest to the American people,” Jeffries said in a statement. He added that Iran is a “bad actor” that must be “aggressively confronted for its human rights violations,” but said the Trump administration should have sought congressional approval. The War Powers Resolution would prohibit U.S. hostilities in Iran without the approval of Congress. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said in a statement on X that “Iran must never be allowed to attain a nuclear weapon but the American people do not want another endless and costly war in the Middle East when there are so many problems at home.” The minority leader added that the administration must answer many questions about the scope of this operation, and said President Trump’s “fitful cycles of lashing out and risking wider conflict are not a viable strategy.” “The Senate should quickly return to session and reassert its constitutional duty by passing our resolution to enforce the War Powers Act,” Schumer concluded. Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) said the administration is at risk of repeating “mistakes of the past.” “Iran’s leadership has long supported terrorism across the region, undermined regional stability, continued to advance its nuclear ambitions, and brutally repressed its own people,” Warner said in a statement. “But acknowledging those realities does not relieve any president of the responsibility to act within the law, with a clear strategy, and with Congress.” Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) called the attack “illegal and unconstitutional” and pushed for a vote on a War Powers Resolution in the Senate. “A diplomatic solution remains the best way to permanently and verifiably prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon,” Markey said. “No more war with Iran.” Follow The Daily Wire’s live-blog coverage of the U.S. strikes on Iran. Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA), who co-sponsored the Iran War Powers Resolution in the Senate, called the strikes “a colossal mistake.” “The Senate should immediately return to session and vote on my War Powers Resolution to block the use of U.S. special forces in hostilities against Iran,” Kaine said in a statement. Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) agreed with Kaine. “Strikes are underway and Congress hasn’t voted,” Gallego said. “No President gets to drag working-class Americans into another war without authorization. Bring the Senate back. Take the vote.” Like the resolution in the House, Kaine’s Iran War Powers Resolution would prohibit any U.S. participation in hostilities against Iran unless authorized by Congress. A similar resolution was introduced and defeated last June after the Trump administration obliterated Iran’s nuclear facilities. In addition to various politicians coming out against the strikes, Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin released a statement condemning Trump’s actions. “Overnight and without congressional approval, Donald Trump initiated major combat operations against Iran,” the statement begins. “Trump sold voters on a ‘pro-peace’ vision of himself as an America First candidate, yet in under 13 months, he has ordered strikes on seven foreign nations and plunged our country into more open-ended conflict using taxpayer dollars.” Martin added that while Iran sanctions terrorism and undermines human rights, “our nation deserves better than a government that shoots first and asks questions later.” Some Democrats, like Sen. Jon Fetterman (D-PA), have broken with their party to praise the strikes. “President Trump has been willing to do what’s right and necessary to produce real peace in the region,” Fetterman said in a post on X. “God bless the United States, our great military, and Israel.”

'This is something completely new'

51 students died

Editor’s note: This is a lightly edited transcript of a segment from today’s edition of “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words” with Daily Signal Senior Contributor Victor Davis Hanson. Subscribe to Hanson’s own YouTube channel to watch past episodes. This show was filmed prior to the start of Operation Epic Fury. Sami Winc: So, Victor, let’s then turn to another topic before we go to a break again. I was wondering your thoughts on Iran. I know that Trump has moved assets into the region, that the regime has now killed, from my source, 32,000 demonstrators, and Trump has said he’s going to do something. And not so much what will Trump do—because, obviously, you couldn’t know that—but what’s in the realm of possibilities of what Trump might do and what is the grand strategy of Trump right now? Victor Davis Hanson: Well, he’s looking at—he always looks at these situations of intervention or bombing on a cost-to-benefit analysis, whether it was killing al-Baghdadi, or Soleimani, or the Wagner Group, or bombing ISIS in his first term, or hitting the nuclear facilities in his second in Iran, or the Maduro kidnapping capture, etc. And so that’s a good way to look at it. What are the downsides? The downside is: If he starts bombing, who does he bomb and can he hit them? He has to have the Revolutionary Guards. He has to get the theocracy. They all know he’s going to be after ’em. They’re in bunkers. Will he be able to do it? He’s gonna have to get the missile depots. He’s gonna have to get all of the means that that regime exercises to create deterrence: missiles, nuclear facilities … tanks. Get rid of ’em all. And he should expect, as we saw with Hamas in the tunnel, that they’ll all be parked, stored—like they are in Beirut—in apartment buildings, in hospitals, in mosques. And so they want a lot of collateral damage. And then he has to understand that he needs a popular uprising at the same time. We’ve already had one and that prompted him to send the assets to the region. But he said, and you said, 32,000 people were killed and they’re probably executing thousands that we don’t even know about. So, if you’re afraid to go out on the street and you see American planes, maybe even Israeli planes, and they’re hitting targets, is your reaction, “Good, good. I’m glad they’re killing my government,” or “I don’t really care anymore. They’ve killed us. Why are they hurting Iran? I’m an Iranian”? And will that create a counter-patriotic fervor? Then he has to think: Look what happened in Libya when we bombed. We got rid of Gaddafi, the Obama—that triad of Susan Rice, Hillary Clinton, and Samantha Power. And what did they give us? They gave us ultimate chaos. And we went in and took out Saddam, we had chaos. We went in and got rid of the Taliban, we got chaos, and we had to stay there. So do we want ground troops in there to overthrow—no, we don’t. So, who is going to take the place—the shah? And if we could get the shah’s son, we could have him say, “I will not be in power for more than three years. I’m a transitional… to get a new constitution and bring in outside observers for fair elections. And we’re gonna outlaw that theocratic Khamenei party, sort of like the Germans outlaw the Nazi party.” So that’s a lot of—and then he has the weather and then he has other considerations. Israel has a whole list of targets and they may not be the same number of targets as we are. They have killers that have killed Jews, they have terrorists. They know where they are. Once people see Israeli planes, does that confirm the propaganda of the regime that it’s Israelis, et cetera. Then he’s got the MAGA base to worry about. Tucker Carlson said just the 30-minute incursion into Iran was gonna start World War III. Steve Bannon, that group. So he has the assets. You can’t take a 100,000-ton displacement, huge carrier, $14 billion, 5,000 people, and just stick it out there forever. You know what I mean? It has a shelf life, maybe three, four months at most. So, he’s assembling these assets and they’re almost in place. They’re in the Mediterranean, they’re in the Strait of Hormuz, they’re in the Persian Gulf, they’re in the Red Sea. They can come at a 360-degree angle. But they’re reaching their climactic point of their extreme readiness. That means if you’re a young sailor, you’re not sleeping well, you’re gonna be called at any moment. You’re having drills. You’re at a state of readiness. It’s not sustainable for more than three or four weeks. So, at some point the commanders are going to come to Trump and say, “You’ve gotta pull the trigger, or we gotta go back.” And that is gonna be a decision, I think, that has political ramifications. So then his other advisors are gonna say, “We’re nine months from the midterm. If you’re gonna do it, you gotta do it now. And this is what can happen if we have a bloodbath and we hit a hospital and the Europeans—don’t expect the Europeans to be there. Don’t expect the British to let us use Diego Garcia. Don’t expect anybody—and expect the Chinese and the Russians to be very angry because they’re gonna lose their asset and they will cause us problems somewhere else. Maybe they’ll start threatening, at a higher degree, Taiwan, or maybe Putin will escalate in Ukraine while we’re doing this.” So, there’s all these things that he has to filter out as important, somewhat important, irrelevant. And then he has to say, “What is the timing on the world stage?” Well, the Olympics is over. Well, you can’t bomb somebody during the Olympics. I mean, there’s this pretense— Sami Winc: All these things come in. That’s true. Victor Davis Hanson: And you can’t bomb somebody before the State of the Union. So, my anticipation is the Olympics are over, the State of the Union is over. The weather and the seasons are getting better. And if he is going to do it, he would probably do it in the next 10 days. And then he will not have ground troops because, you know, he said George W. Bush should have been impeached for going into Iraq. So, it’s a very difficult thing. Very quickly, then, there’s a grand strategy. I just wanna say, you know, H.R. McMaster and Nadia Schadlow created the first national security strategic assessment in the first term. That was updated. I think Michael Anton and others updated it. It was a little bit different, but it had the same theme. The theme was that Trump is not an interventionist. He doesn’t want to go into ground—but he is not an isolationist. He is a Jacksonian. He is a preemptive deterrent. That’s what he wants. And his main fear in the world is China. And if you think about that—and it’s been pretty brilliant what he is done the last 13 months, because if you take, say all these isolated incidents that everybody said, “Oh, he is herky-jerky. We don’t know what he is gonna do on any given day. Oh, there’s no point to it.” There is. If you just go down the list of say, nine or 10 things. Take the Panama. He goes in and he starts, “We might take the canal back. We might do this, we might…” but what was the whole point of that? The whole point was to get the Chinese out of the entry and exit and tell the Panamanians you violated the spirit and the letter of the Panama Canal Treaty and we have a right to revoke it. So you’ve got one choice, you get ’em outta here now, and you restore the Panama Canal to a partnership between us and you, or else. That worked. Take another one. He got rid of Maduro. Maduro had a communist enclave that was a drugs -exporting conduit to Mexico, or the United States via Mexico. And partnership with the left-wing government, Colombia, anti-American, and embargoed and stealthily sending oil to China. And he said, “Nope.” And we’re going to do what? We’re going to starve Venezuela out of its oil. We’re gonna blockade it, and we’re gonna take him out and we’re gonna restore the Monroe Doctrine. And China, we should have warned you in Panama. Now get out. And they did. The post Victor Davis Hanson: Trump’s Cost-Benefit Analysis for Striking Iran appeared first on The Daily Signal.

President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address sent shockwaves across Capitol Hill this week as he outlined an aggressive legislative agenda for Republicans in Congress. In Ohio—a state that encapsulates the MAGA shift in the Republican Party—the president’s call to action and his patriotic rallying cry did not fall on deaf ears. The Daily Signal spoke to Ohioans about their views on Trump’s speech and the moment that grabbed their attention. Trump Calls Out Democrats on Illegal Immigration Deborah Oberlin, a local realtor in the Canton area, told The Daily Signal that she was “very disappointed” in Democrats for refusing to stand when Trump asked members to stand up if they agreed with the following statement: “The first duty of the American government is to protect American citizens, not illegal aliens.” The president shamed Democrats for not standing. Oberlin noted that Democrats might not like Trump, but focused more so on how their constituents or those guests might feel. “How would you feel if it was one one of your kids?” Oberlin wondered, seeking a nonpartisan appreciation for such guests who lost children. “That hit me really hard,” she added. Oberlin said her disappointment in Democrats went beyond immigration to their refusal to stand for the military and family members who were injured or killed by criminals. Matt Dole, chairman of the Licking County Republican Party, said Democrats sitting in disagreement with the president on illegal immigrants was “the moment of the speech.” Drew Carchedi, Mahoning County Republican Party Central Committee chairman and general manager for his family’s retail mattress business, Sleepy Hollow Sleep Shops, told The Daily Signal, “All I continue to hear from friends, family, and members of our party is, ‘Look at what Democrats did not stand for.’” Trump’s speech defended the administration’s deportation efforts and presented an aggressive immigration agenda, including ending sanctuary cities. Hilary Jackson, the legislative chair of Moms for Liberty Ohio, referred to “the push to ban sanctuary cities” as “deeply significant.” Trump’s Economic Message Hits Home Oberlin told The Daily Signal that she was enthusiastic about Trump’s vision for the American economy, especially when it comes to housing because of her occupation. During his address, Trump noted that “lower interest rates will solve the Biden-created housing problem, while at the same time protecting the values of those people who already own a house that really feel rich for the first time in their lives.” The president is “dead on,” Oberlin said, regarding home buying. “Real estate is booming, OK, it’s starting to get there,” Oberlin added. In her profession, she noted that she’s seen interest rates going down and people are increasingly able to afford to buy a house. Carchedi said the economic and immigration message resonated with the grassroots. “From a grassroots perspective here in Ohio, the State of the Union wasn’t about applause lines. It was about whether working families and small businesses feel relief and renewed opportunities. In communities like ours, economic policy isn’t abstract. It shows up in freight costs, insurance premiums, utilities, payroll, and whether families can afford groceries and fuel,” he told The Daily Signal. “The State of the Union exuded strength, not managed decline,” he added, noting that “that message matters. People don’t want drama. They want direction and opportunity.” A Call to Patriotism Miriam Navarro, a Franklin County resident who described herself as a legal immigrant from Colombia, was similarly inspired by what she referred to as “an excellent speech.” “It’s wonderful to hear our country is improving regarding the economy, security, and laws in general,” Navarro added, noting she “saw strong leadership with good results.” Carchedi stressed that it was “one of the most impactful State of the Union addresses in [his] lifetime.” He specifically praised how Trump’s “address signaled a belief that America’s best days are ahead and not behind us.” That sentiment was shared by Mahoning County Young Republican President James Mullarkey, who echoed that the address was “an unapologetic celebration of America in its 250th year,” with “optimism and strong justification for why America’s best days are still ahead of us.” According to a graphic presented during “The Tony Kinnett Cast,” the president spent 30 minutes on patriotic material, more than any other topic. Vance to Attack Fraud Vice President JD Vance received special mention during the speech, as he was named by Trump as the leader on “the war on fraud,” which Dole said is “great for [Vance],” as it will help “his resume heading into 2028.” NEW?: @VP just announced he is withholding Medicaid reimbursement from MN during the fraud investigation. I asked him if this should be viewed as a playbook for fighting fraud in other states. "I think you can, certainly. There are certain things that we're doing in… pic.twitter.com/4ehGLCbl2O— Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell (@TheElizMitchell) February 25, 2026 This was Jackson’s “biggest takeaway” and what she’s “most encouraged by.” “That’s especially important to Ohioans. After the massive Somali fraud scheme in Minneapolis was brought to light, it’s clear that oversight and accountability matter. Columbus has the second-largest Somali migrant population in the country, and there have already been allegations of fraud locally. Ensuring investigations are thorough and transparent protects taxpayers and strengthens public trust,” Jackson shared about Vance, referring to him as “Ohio’s own.” Midterm Ramifications Mullarkey praised “the optics” of the speech. He believes Trump “drew a stark line,” with Democrats and thinks their performative opposition “will not bode well for the Democrats in the months ahead of midterms.” Dole said the speech laid out a midterm message for Trump and Republicans. “‘Hey, I’m out there being attacked, and I better defend my achievements over the last year,’” Dole said to summarize the president’s speech. This especially applies to the economy, as Dole shared that Trump “went into his speech defending his economic record” before the midterms. Some Didn’t Bother Watching Others were not as enthused with Trump and avoided watching the speech altogether. “I just don’t like him, I don’t like how he treats people,” a woman named Krista said of the president. “I don’t like how he talks bad about other people … I think he’s racist and I don’t agree with [Immigration and Customs Enforcement],” she added. Some also took issue with the length of the speech. Dole told The Daily Signal he would have preferred if Trump had shown “a little restraint in terms of the timing.” Yet, Dole acknowledged that Trump is “a showman” and praised his command of the 80%-20% issues, like men playing women’s sports, that helped him win in 2024. The post How the Heartland Is Reacting to Trump’s State of the Union appeared first on The Daily Signal.

USS Lincoln Doin' Some Iranian Sinkin', Israel Cracks Prayer App to Send Msgs

MS NOW host Jonathan Capehart works for a network that openly presents itself as an outlet for progressives, but when he joined Friday’s PBS News Hour to discuss Paramount’s acquisition of Warner Bros.—which would include CNN—Capehart hilariously claimed “that the media isn't necessarily liberal.” Host Geoff Bennett actually kicked things off with The Atlantic writer and podcaster David Brooks, “And if the deal closes, it means that one family, in this case, the family that has been so far deferential to President Trump, would control CBS, CNN, HBO, and TikTok. How do you see it?”   In non-Iran news, after David Brooks gave a sort of centrist take on Paramount aquiring Warner Bros., Jonathan Capehart hilariously claims "Well, I would argue that the media isn't necessarily liberal, when you look at the fact that the number one cable channel and the number one… pic.twitter.com/EJUIP3FdYm — Alex Christy (@alexchristy17) February 28, 2026   Brooks gave a rather uninspiring centrist answer. On one hand, he acknowledged, “I have found media business incredibly boring and pointless. And I have been able to do that because I worked at Dow Jones, News Corp, New York Times, PBS. I have worked at all these agencies. And the business structure of the business had no effect on me. There's never been a moment in my career where I had the sense that somebody on the business side of things was going to try to influence anything I ever did.” However, he also lamented, “But that seems to be changing. And the malefactor here is Donald Trump. Once Trump starts playing political favorites among—whether it's Anthropic versus OpenAI or whether it's Netflix versus Paramount, then, of course, the companies have to be mindful of that.” Reverting to his first instinct, Brooks conceded that new CBS News chief Bari Weiss’s intention to shake things up is not unreasonable, “And I'm a guy who—I don't know Bari Weiss particularly, but I support what they're trying to do. I think it's time to mix up the media. That we got a little too progressive, a little too elite, and if Bari Weiss can change the mind-set, all power to her.” Flip-flopping again, Brooks lamented, “But if this is being done for lobbying and business, which it sure looks like it is, then that's the real deterioration in the business we're in.” Even that centrist position was too much for Capehart, “Well, I would argue that the media isn't necessarily liberal, when you look at the fact that the number one cable channel and the number one viewing channel is Fox News Channel.” Proving that he hasn’t watched CBS since the Weiss takeover, Capehart continued, “This idea that there are liberals out there running around through the media indoctrinating people and changing—you know, setting the narrative, I just think is wrong. I think bringing a Fox-like mentality and demeanor to CBS News and potentially to CNN, I think in the end makes the American people worse off.” He also added, “Our job as journalists, and I'm speaking specifically of CNN in this case in this deal. Folks turn to CNN for news. They turn to them for just what is happening in the country. And if what's happening at CBS is bound—could happen at CNN, then our country and our profession will be in worse shape.” Brooks would respond, “One reason Fox exists is because all the other mainstream networks don't have Trump supporters.” That is correct, but it includes PBS. It is also ironic that Brooks, the supposedly conservative half of Brooks and Capehart, spends most of his time agreeing with Capehart. Here is a transcript for the February 27 show: PBS News Hour 2/28/2026 7:46 PM ET GEOFF BENNETT: And if the deal closes, it means that one family, in this case, the family that has been so far deferential to President Trump, would control CBS, CNN, HBO, and TikTok. How do you see it? DAVID BROOKS: Yeah, I have found media business incredibly boring and pointless. And I have been able to do that because I worked at Dow Jones, News Corp, New York Times, PBS. I have worked at all these agencies. And the business structure of the business had no effect on me. There's never been a moment in my career where I had the sense that somebody on the business side of things was going to try to influence anything I ever did. But that seems to be changing. And the malefactor here is Donald Trump. Once Trump starts playing political favorites among—whether it's Anthropic versus OpenAI or whether it's Netflix versus Paramount, then, of course, the companies have to be mindful of that. And I'm a guy who — I don't know Bari Weiss particularly, but I support what they're trying to do. I think it's time to mix up the media. That we got a little too progressive, a little too elite, and if Bari Weiss can change the mind-set, all power to her. But if this is being done for lobbying and business, which it sure looks like it is, then that's the real deterioration in the business we're in. BENNETT: How do you see it, Jonathan? JONATHAN CAPEHART: Well, I would argue that the media isn't necessarily liberal, when you look at the fact that the number one cable channel and the number one viewing channel is Fox News Channel. This idea that there are liberals out there running around through the media indoctrinating people and changing—you know, setting the narrative, I just think is wrong. I think bringing a Fox-like mentality and demeanor to CBS News and potentially to CNN, I think in the end makes the American people worse off. Our job as journalists, and I'm speaking specifically of CNN in this case in this deal. Folks turn to CNN for news. They turn to them for just what is happening in the country. And if what's happening at CBS is bound—could happen at CNN, then our country and our profession will be in worse shape.