A day in history where the United States enters as a combatant in the war between Israel and Iran, and they didn t say it as a joyous thing, they said it as it was ironic. The party is on.
00:01:59.000And I think that is the appropriate way
00:02:02.000to contextualize the military operation you just witnessed.
00:02:07.000I don't think this was storming the beaches of Normandy.
00:02:10.000I think this was something in Trump's mind that he thinks he can sort of put in the same echelon
00:02:17.000of military operation as taking out Soleimani.
00:02:20.000He stressed in his statement that this is the time for peace.
00:02:23.000He was de-escalatory in his rhetoric as he stressed the safety of the brave Americans who executed this mission.
00:02:33.000So I think that Trump hopes that this can reset deterrence, reset the terms of discussion.
00:02:39.000But ultimately, what does this fundamentally change about the war?
00:02:45.000I don't think that it means there's going to be sustained U.S. air operations in Iran.
00:02:50.000President Trump's statement certainly doesn't suggest it will be.
00:02:54.000And so then you have to look at what the Iranian response will be.
00:02:57.000And I think if they have any wisdom at all, they will understand that any kinetic response
00:03:04.000against U.S. troops' assets in the region would be very escalatory
00:03:10.000and would result in extreme destruction in Iran and throughout the Middle East.
00:03:15.000And so you hope that they heed President Trump's call for peace.
00:03:21.000But Iran's fundamental capability has never been its intercontinental ballistic missile program.
00:03:27.000Iran's capability is that it could activate proxy forces,
00:03:31.000which have admittedly been degraded by their ongoing conflict with Israel and the United States,
00:03:37.000but also their mid-range ballistic missile program.
00:03:41.000And as that plays out in the skies of Tel Aviv, it still is tragic that there are apartment complexes that are being hit.
00:03:50.000There are civilians that are being killed.
00:03:53.000And I think that weighs on President Trump.
00:03:55.000And it's why the thrust of his statement about this is a call for peace.
00:04:00.000And if he's able to achieve it, he will deserve the Nobel Peace Prize.
00:04:04.000Do you think you can actually have a targeted and precise tactical hit here that has enough power in back of it that it actually gets done what you want to get done and just doesn't drag you into mind?
00:06:37.000If they succeed in taking out the means by which they were going to, you know, allegedly make a nuclear weapon, then the fact is that it would be viewed as a massive success.
00:06:46.000So I think the president, you know, and again, I think that the fact that he took the time.
00:06:51.000In the broader context, does this engage us in whether he, whether the president wants it or not, right?
00:06:58.000Forces have, does this engage us now as a combatant into a regional war between Israel and Iran that could expand?
00:07:06.000And is this, does this go back on his understanding that he said for years, decade, they can't have a nuclear weapon?
00:07:13.000Does this go back on, I'm not going to get engaged in any Middle Eastern forever wars?
00:07:18.000I don't think that it goes back on that at all.
00:07:21.000I think the president's been very clear about the threat that Iran represents to the West with the nuclear, a nuclear Iran would represent.
00:07:29.000And frankly, the Iranians have been engaged in attacks against Americans dating back decades.
00:07:35.000So I think that the president is always putting America first.
00:07:39.000I don't think the president's done anything wrong about that.
00:07:41.000And I think that the process that this debate that we're having here on this show tonight is the same process that was going on in the Oval Office tonight as the president made his decision in the situation room.
00:07:53.000I would imagine that he will probably went down there.
00:17:34.000No, but that's the thing is that it was a sign to me, the fact that they were so clear about this and so open.
00:17:40.000Like, there were a lot of head fakes that were going on.
00:17:43.000And the thing that made me start to think...
00:17:46.000Those things had started earlier in the day.
00:17:48.000But I do think that the communications staff and I think that the military and intelligence folks were deliberately trying to send these head fakes to the media because I don't think they liked the fact that the media was so laser focused on this question for the last 10 days.
00:18:05.000But I do think that it also showed the nation just how deliberative the president was.
00:18:10.000So I think that when the president speaks tonight, he's going to have to be very clear with the American public about that deliberative process and what he went through, who he listened to, why he made this decision and where things go from here.
00:18:25.000He's going to lay out some very clear objectives and clear parameters and what to expect and what not to expect.
00:18:34.000And I think that people don't like uncertainty.
00:18:37.000So this happening on a Saturday night, the markets aren't open again until next week.
00:18:42.000So you won't really see market reaction until Monday, which is a good thing.
00:18:48.000But I do think that the public wants certainty.
00:18:51.000And I think that the MAGA movement wants certainty.
00:18:54.000The America First movement wants certainty.
00:18:57.000So I think the president, who is an excellent communicator, we've seen him do this how many times now, right, is incredible at giving addresses.
00:19:05.000So when we see the president come out tonight at 10 o'clock, we're all going to be looking for, you know, those things.
00:19:11.000What is he going to be able to do in terms of providing certainty, clarity, and also walking through his decision making process?
00:19:20.000I think telling the public about how deliberative and thoughtful he was, that he isn't just flippant with a military decision or a grave decision like this.
00:19:28.000This is a huge decision, right, deciding to commit American military resources.
00:19:33.000This is a life and death decision that President Trump just made.
00:19:36.000These are matters of war and peace, right?
00:19:38.000And I think that as the president addresses the public, he needs to communicate just how serious he takes it.
00:19:47.000And I know that, you know, anybody that knows him well, I know you know him well, Steve.
00:19:52.000A lot of the other folks here in the War Room Posse know him very well.
00:19:56.000Like, the fact is, I know he is very deliberative on this.
00:19:59.000And I think that capturing that in those remarks and explaining to people, you know, because he knows how heated this debate got in this movement, right?
00:20:09.000You had, you know, people on one side like a Mark Levin really aggressively advocating for things.
00:20:14.000And you had people on the other side like a Tucker really aggressively advocating against it.
00:20:19.000He's got to win this movement over and bring them with him and take proactive steps to do that.
00:20:26.000Now, I think he can easily do that because he is clearly the leader of this movement and he commands a lot of respect.
00:20:31.000I think that President Trump has earned a lot of that respect, too, after everything he's been through.
00:20:36.000But because of the fact that the president, you know, because of the fact it's not even his fault.
00:20:44.000It's the fault of people like Bush and Obama and Clinton, you know, and Biden, you know, even though or whoever was controlling the auto pen at the time in the Biden presidency.
00:20:54.000The lack of trust that these globalists losers of both political parties have sown across the United States with average Americans.
00:21:06.000I think President Trump, it's sad that he has to do this because he shouldn't have to because he hasn't he hasn't committed these offenses that these globalists have.
00:21:15.000But he's got to win that trust back from people.
00:21:18.000I think in beginning tonight with the explanation, I think the one of the most important explanations, I think one of the most important things he has to or he should.
00:21:27.000I shouldn't say he has to. He should is why did we not give time for Israel to take a crack here?
00:21:34.000Bibi Netanyahu told the New York Post, we will do it.
00:21:38.000There was word out that that, you know, they were they were not going to wait the two weeks that, you know, this was it like they're dictating to us again.
00:21:46.000The Wall Street Journal is reporting. Marco Rubio is telling guys in Europe that President Trump's preferred path is negotiation.
00:21:53.000Now, the way President Trump is talking, it looks like he's using this as coercive diplomacy.
00:21:58.000He's telling the Iranians, let's get back to the table. Right. Let's get it.
00:22:01.000I think he just said, let's get a deal done. Is that what it is?
00:22:04.000He says he wants peace. Right. Like, and then he put that in all caps.
00:22:07.000That in all caps. That in bombs were in all caps. True social. Right.
00:22:11.000Like, so, but the fact is what I love about these things is that new phrase he's got, which I think is genius.
00:22:16.000Thank you for the attention to this matter. Oh, it's a running. I love that. It's my favorite.
00:22:22.000My most favorite. It's like you're getting a letter from DMV. Thank you for your attention to this matter.
00:22:28.000It's so genius. It's the best phrase. It's a heck. It's a heck. But in all seriousness, though, he wants peace.
00:22:32.000I know that he wants peace. He doesn't want to go into war.
00:22:35.000And I think that he needs to make sure that that is really clearly communicated when he speaks to the public tonight.
00:22:41.000So, because I know that's where his heart of hearts is, right? Like, he really questioned.
00:22:46.000In fact, I always tell people that he won the 2016 election.
00:22:51.000The moment he won the election, not just the primary, but the general election, too, was there was a debate in South Carolina in the Republican primary.
00:22:58.000And there was Jeb Bush was still in the race.
00:23:01.000Oh, I mean, the first Republican. By the way, John Solomon's looking for a Zoom hookup.
00:23:06.000If you guys can take care of that. Go ahead.
00:23:08.000And in this this debate in South Carolina, it was in the primary. Jeb Bush was on the stage.
00:23:12.000But he brought his brother, George, the former president, with him.
00:23:15.000And Trump addressed he dressed down the Bushes and what they did in Iraq and in the South Carolina debate.
00:23:22.000There was a gasp in the audience because George Bush was there.
00:23:24.000George Bush was there. And it was shocking to see this from a Republican debate stage.
00:23:28.000And I think that moment won him not just the Republican nomination for president in 2016, but the presidency as well, the general election.
00:23:39.000OK, so hang on. So some of his most loyal followers tonight, we can tell in the chat.
00:23:44.000I'm going to agree or saying, hang on, I want. Where's that guy?
00:23:48.000Because that guy basically he rode the power with calling the Bushes out.
00:23:56.000In getting involved in combat operations, even in a surgical strike, can you back off and tell the Persians, hey, with just one time we're out.
00:24:04.000Deal with the Israelis. It's no regime change.
00:24:07.000Well, this is the challenge of what he's going to face in his remarks this evening.
00:24:11.000It's a challenge in what happens next over the course of the next several days and weeks ahead of us.
00:24:17.000Does this spiral out of control or does it, you know, does it continue to escalate or not?
00:24:22.000I will say President Trump, I have long said, is the luckiest man alive for a number of reasons.
00:24:29.000I've been saying I don't know. You make your luck though, right?
00:24:32.000That is very true. And by the way, he's a perfect case of this where he makes his luck.
00:24:37.000I've been saying this for four years before he was even shot and survived it, shot in the head and survived it, by the way.
00:24:43.000So if people that know me, I've been talking about President Trump like this.
00:24:54.000And I think that President Trump can can mold these circumstances moving forward to keep the United States out of a long, drawn out, prolonged conflict here.
00:25:02.000If he can do that and he can force the Iranians to the table, which, by the way, he'd be the only person that it would just be an absolutely incredible coup of a diplomatic and leadership victory if he's able to do that.
00:25:15.000But the fact is, is that, you know, he has a major challenge ahead of him and we're going to see the first bits of it tonight with this address.
00:25:22.000This is why this speech tonight at 10, I think, is so important for him. He has a huge task ahead of him.
00:25:28.000He has not been he's not been he's not a fan of doing addresses from the Oval Office.
00:25:34.000That is something he has not. He's always said he doesn't like it now.
00:25:39.000He's been a master. And I'm not saying the one he's done. I think they've all been great.
00:25:43.000But I know he's not a fan of it. He is a master of the press avail.
00:25:46.000We just invite the president. Of course, the first team is is not except for Ben and Boyle, Solomon and Brad are the first team are not working tonight.
00:25:54.000We're gonna take a short commercial break here on Real America's Voice.
00:25:57.000The president of United States at 10 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time on Saturday, the 21st of June in the year of our Lord 2025 will address the nation as we have now become a combatant in this war between Israel and the Persians.
00:26:13.000Guess you say it's now a broader war, although those like the president trying to keep this to a very tactical strike.
00:26:19.000John Solomon's gonna join us next. Dave Brad is here. Short commercial break. Back in a moment.
00:27:03.000Welcome back. We're going to go to Real America's Voice, John Solomon.
00:27:09.000John joins us. John, in 30 minutes, we're going to have a we're going to have a address to the nation by the president of the United States about the military activity tonight.
00:27:19.480Give us your thoughts. Well, we entered the war now.
00:27:23.440And though it's a limited strike, it opens Iran up to wanting to attack us back, either through cyber terrorism or through traditional means.
00:27:32.880So we'll have to see what the answer is. But I was struck by three things.
00:27:37.000One, it was pretty obvious it was going to happen today when the president avoided the cameras going into a sit room meeting a little bit ago, a few hours ago.
00:27:45.760He almost never avoids the camera. So you knew something big was up.
00:27:49.300Obviously, the B2s had been deployed earlier in the day.
00:27:53.400And tonight, I think you will hear him say this was a limited strike and it's time for peace.
00:27:58.320I think even in the last sentence of his social post, he said it's time for peace, time to make a deal.
00:28:07.000I think President Trump's goal all along was to have a limited participation in this, make sure that all three of those nuclear sites are inoperable and anything in them is blown to smithereens, and then go back to the table and try to get a deal.
00:28:20.640And if Iran doesn't, I think the president will let Israel carry out the rest of these bombings until there's regime change in Iran.
00:28:28.020Walk us through your understanding of the strike and the strike package.
00:28:35.560I mean, it seems expansive in the fact that he went to other nuclear facilities, which I'm kind of surprised at because I thought the Israelis had those.
00:28:43.820And then it didn't seem, I mean, it gave very limited information, but it didn't seem the intensity of what some people, John, you and I had actually talked about.
00:28:52.720You might need multiple runs over Fedor to actually take it, or Fedor to take it down.
00:28:57.880Your thoughts on the strike package, at least what President Trump's told us.
00:29:01.000I think at least three B-2 bombers dropped on Fordo.
00:29:24.860I think the surprise one is the third one.
00:29:26.680It's called, and I don't want to mess up the name here, but it's called Ishafan.
00:29:31.540And it was the place where the very sensitive work of putting the, taking uranium from the state that Iran had enriched it and turning it into a metallic sort of capability that could be put on top of a warhead, striking that one may have been a little bit of a surprise to people.
00:29:48.980We must have had intel that some of the nuclear materials were still there.
00:29:53.760And rather than take a risk or allow Iran to move them, we hit that one.
00:29:58.300So I think the third one was the trickiest, also the least expected.
00:30:02.900I think the TANS and Fordo were expected to be struck.
00:30:06.600And I'm told the three planes that struck Fordo left quite a crater, turned a monitor into a crater.
00:30:14.680Why were you surprised that Israel didn't take a crack at this first?
00:30:19.060I mean, I think one of the reasons that, and there are, I would tell you, a lot, if you go in the chats, there's a lot of upset people, right?
00:30:25.680There's some people that say, hey, President Trump did what he had to do, but there's a lot of people that are quite upset in the MAGA movement.
00:30:31.640Why do you think Israel did not lead this raid?
00:30:33.800Probably because their planes couldn't drop the sort of bunker buster that would make a difference.
00:30:40.560And the last thing you want to do is strike Iran and not be able to take out the facility.
00:30:45.160So, you know, the truth of the matter is Israel has known from the beginning, even when it started this war, that its planes would never be able to get, at least take out Fordo.
00:30:53.880It's just too fortified and too deep in the ground with a big mountain sitting on top of it.
00:30:59.080America was the only option to do that.
00:31:01.060We're the only one with the capability of this bomb.
00:31:03.460And rather than take a half-hearted attempt and give the Iranians propaganda or give them time to move packages or people, I think the president decided he would do this.
00:31:36.320I think that was the president's thinking.
00:31:39.040You know, we knew Witkoff had a tough time, even told the Europeans that they couldn't even find out who was in charge to have a meeting.
00:31:45.400Of course, the rhetoric only heated up.
00:31:47.460A couple things, John, before we let you go.
00:31:50.200The assessment of, you know, the strike back of the Persians around the region, both in Iraq where we have troops, the naval assets we have, Persian Gulf, even hitting back maybe at several allies.
00:32:44.560I think the second thing that we will be watching for, according to my U.S. intelligence sources, is some sort of cyber attack aiming for the grid or satellites.
00:32:54.160And then the third strike would be striking something in the Middle East region, in the Persian region.
00:33:02.160I think Iran is going to be hard-pressed.
00:33:05.720They are trying to reserve all of their missiles for Israel.
00:33:08.120So striking troops there probably won't be in the top options for them.
00:33:14.080I think they want to create some shock, awe, and terror in Americans' minds to turn the American public against the president on this.
00:33:21.720So I would be watching for non-conventional, non-traditional warfare in the next 72 hours.
00:33:26.800About Bibi, since they weren't involved in actually the pass tonight to shut down the nuclear weaponization in Richmond, their goal has obviously been regime change.
00:33:43.340Do you think President Trump has backed him off that?
00:33:45.400And that may be a sine qua non of his getting involved at this level?
00:33:49.160I mean, do you have any thoughts on that?
00:33:50.460I get the sense, and again, that's from talking to both Israelis and Americans, that the president has given wide latitude to let Netanyahu wage the sort of war that he wants to for what he thinks is best in Israel's interest.
00:34:06.220Israel stands much closer to the danger of a nuclear missile and other armaments than we do.
00:34:14.040And I think the president gave some deference there.
00:34:16.460I would not be surprised if this strike tonight is followed up by a decapitation strike by Israel aimed at trying to take out the political leadership.
00:34:27.140The military leadership is extraordinarily decimated.
00:34:32.200Some of their plans for Iranian missiles based on our intercepts, they didn't go according to plan because they literally don't have senior officials able to make the call.
00:34:40.720And so some of their missile launches, what they thought they were doing in Iran and what actually got launched were a little off, which tells our American intelligence that Iran is disorganized, that those decapitation strikes of the military leadership have had some operational effect.
00:34:56.900I would not be surprised if Israel decides to take a decapitation strike against the leadership, whether it's the Ayatollah.
00:35:03.720My sense of it is that the president is giving Bibi Netanyahu whatever latitude he needs to finish the job.
00:35:10.820At this point, nobody expects Iran to make a deal, although the president will keep pursuing that.
00:35:16.980And I think the alternative now is for Israel to finish the job is, I think, what a lot of people are thinking.
00:35:24.600It's why a large part of MAGA has the concerns that it does about war and picking a fight with Iran specifically because of their asymmetrical warfare, their terror warfare.
00:35:36.340So we're going to have to be on high alert for a while and see what comes next in this process.
00:35:41.180But my understanding, at least, is what the president set out to do today, limited strike to blow up three significant nuclear facilities, the military assessment, at least from satellites, is it achieved the mission.
00:35:58.020This is a statement from the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Senator Jim Risch.
00:36:03.480This guy is not the biggest, like, MAGA, America, first guy in the world.
00:36:07.060But there's a couple of things that are in it that are actually particularly revealing to me.
00:36:11.700He says, quote, among other things, by the way, he talks, praises Trump, et cetera.
00:36:15.640But then later in the statement, he says, quote, this war is Israel's war, not our war.
00:36:21.240But Israel is one of our strongest allies and is disarming Iran for the good of the world.
00:36:26.880I've also always said that Israel would not allow Iran to have nuclear weapons.
00:36:31.300And he goes on and on about Israel there for another couple of sentences.
00:36:35.640But then he goes to, quote, this is after another paragraph praising President Trump, says, quote, this is not the start of a forever war.
00:36:45.260Again, this is Senator Jim Risch, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
00:36:49.400He says, quote, there will not be American boots on the ground in Iran.
00:36:53.860This was a precise, limited strike, which was necessary and by all accounts was very successful.
00:37:00.380As President Trump has stated, now is the time for peace.
00:37:04.380So if you're hearing that kind of a thing from Senator Jim Risch, who's like not the most MAGA America first guy in the world, he's a decent Republican guy from Idaho.
00:37:13.640But that's a good sign, I think, that this may work for President Trump.
00:37:17.820Well, he knows that the Idaho MAGA group out there doesn't.
00:37:21.360John Solomon, how do you interpret that?
00:37:22.880Listen, I think there is a messaging discipline among all of the Republicans.
00:37:38.660In that process, he also is giving Israel the latitude to conduct the war that they think they need to carry out.
00:37:46.040I think this dynamic changes if Iran is able to strike Americans somewhere in the West.
00:37:51.180If there's an asymmetrical attack or a cyber attack, that will be what all of our country will be watching for, our top intelligence, our top cyber warriors.
00:38:14.840And here the United States, where an overwhelming majority of the people don't want to get involved in any of this, now we're involved.
00:38:22.120I realize a limited strike to tell those guys, particularly since they jerked him around here in the last 72 hours, that their rhetoric has been the exact opposite, I would agree, of anybody you thought would get a deal done, John.
00:38:36.840But do you think that this puts more pressure, like Rish says, that this puts more pressure for us to tell Israel, hey, it's your war.
00:38:43.220If you're going to decapitate them, you own it?
00:38:46.600My reporting is that the president was in on this from the beginning.
00:38:49.960He let Israel decide when to do it, but he never told them he would veto it or stop it.
00:38:56.040And he became as concerned as Israel did when this new intelligence came that the ability or the completion of getting the nuclear materials to a state that then could be turned into a nuclear weapon in several weeks or months was a threshold that had always been in President Trump's back of his mind.
00:39:13.460And I have had the sense since Tuesday or Wednesday that the president was going to do this on Saturday from my reporting.
00:39:20.680But I don't think the president—listen, if the president wanted to stop this, he could have stopped it.
00:39:28.880I think the president gave explicit and implicit approval for Israel to do what it is.
00:39:34.660So it's not just Israel's war in the sense that the president knew it was going to happen, and then the president partook in the small part that he knew only America could accomplish, and that is to implode these nuclear sites.
00:39:45.840But I don't get the sense that Donald Trump got forced into this, and he's just cleaning up Israel's mess.
00:39:51.260This has been far more coordinated than most of the reporting and some of the head fakes.
00:39:56.260Listen, there's a lot of head faking going on.
00:39:57.820Donald Trump is a fantastic poker player.
00:40:01.020This two-week thing he was announcing on Friday, it was all to throw the Iranians off.
00:40:05.840And I think his plan was to—this one-two punch was probably where Donald Trump was three or four weeks ago from my reporting.
00:40:14.220John Solomon, where do people go on social media this weekend to get you before the show's back on?
00:40:18.820Yeah, Jay Solomon reports on social media, justinews.com.
00:40:22.120It's always great to be on with the great Matt Boyle.
00:41:31.300To work the phones and finally get some more detail back up about what's going on.
00:41:35.720But the—so, tremendous—look, the president of the United States tonight made probably the biggest and boldest move of his first or second term, right?
00:42:39.180Dave, Brad, you want to give some closing thoughts?
00:42:42.120Like I said, at 9, we're going to come back for the president's address, maybe even a little early here on Real America's Voice, as we get sorted on this.
00:44:29.440If Israel goes forward and decapitates Iran's leadership, and we bombed them, and it comes out through reporting that Trump was very highly coordinated,
00:45:12.760And then the threat to President Trump himself, the FBI and the CIA, when Matt Boyle's talking about the speech that Trump has to give,
00:45:24.720the MAGA base is very, very skeptical, beyond skeptical.
00:45:31.900We have receipts now, right, on the FBI and the CIA, their action behaviors over the past years.
00:45:38.820So they're giving intelligence at the last minute.
00:45:42.180We want to hear a story that really makes sense there.
00:45:45.360And then the FBI, for the sake of President Trump's own life, the FBI and the CIA ought to update the most serious threats to America is not traditional Catholics anymore, right?
00:46:52.040And by the way, Iranian TV is putting up the map of all the local—
00:46:55.300Yeah, and we're starting to see more and more congressional Republicans weighing in.
00:46:59.520And there's varying degrees of, you know, those statements from Thune and Johnson and the House and Senate Intel chairs and whatnot.
00:47:08.780And there's varying degrees of, you know, I still think the best statement, there's the one we read there from Jim Risch, the foreign relationship.