Fox News Host Urged Trump to Seize Kharg Island Ahead of US Strikes
Just 24 hours before Donald Trump ordered the bombing of Iran’s Kharg Island, a vital oil hub home to 10,000 people, one of the president’s favored cable news commentators suggested that seizing the island could end the conflict and allow safe shipping through the Strait of Hormuz to resume.
Iran exports approximately 90% of its crude oil through facilities on Kharg Island, located about 20 miles off the mainland in the Persian Gulf.
“We might not get what we got in Venezuela, but as long as Iran’s completely disarmed, and can’t threaten America and the strait with missiles, drone and nukes, the president will take the win,” Jesse Watters told his Fox News viewers Thursday night.
“We also have Kharg island, 15 miles off Iran’s coast, their main export terminal, essentially the country’s cash register,” Watters added. “Kharg’s Iran’s oil lifeline; if we seize it, it’s over. That option remains on the table.”
In 1980, nine months after 52 Americans were taken hostage at the US embassy in Tehran, columnist Jack Anderson reported that Kharg Island was the primary target of a US invasion plan presented to then-president Jimmy Carter. Anderson wrote, “Kharg Island is the site of the oil terminal through which 90 percent of Iran’s crude is pumped into tankers for export. Not long after the U.S. hostages were seized in Iran, contingency plans were developed for an assault on Kharg Island.”
After Carter was defeated, a 1981 account of the hostage crisis revealed Pentagon plans for military action against Iran, including a naval blockade, mining its harbors, and seizing the large oil depot on Kharg Island. “The closest Mr. Carter came to ordering such action,” the Times reported, “was on Nov. 20, 1979, 14 days after the seizure, when the Ayatollah was publicly threatening to put the hostages on trial for espionage.”
Carter’s successor, Ronald Reagan, whose campaign was suspected by some Carter aides of having cut a secret deal with Iran’s leaders to prolong the hostage crisis and prevent their release in a pre-election “October surprise” that could have swayed the 1980 election, also left Kharg untouched during the 1980s Iran-Iraq war.
“Although Iraqi forces struck some terminals and tankers during the eight-year war, Kharg remained largely operational and damage was typically repaired quickly, demonstrating that disabling it would require sustained, large-scale attacks,” JP Morgan noted in a report cited by on Monday.
Trump Told in 1988: 'I’d Do a Number on Kharg Island. I’d Go In and Take It.'
Thirty-six years before Donald Trump ordered military strikes on Iran’s vital oil hub, Kharg Island, he stated that he would attack the island if he ever became president and Iran fired even one bullet at an American.
In a 1988 interview with , which Trump was reminded of on Friday morning, Polly Toynbee, now a columnist, asked the businessman what his platform would be if he ever ran for president.
“We’re a second rate economic power, a debtor nation. We’re getting kicked around,” he added.
When Toynbee asked what he would do about Iran, Trump replied:
“I’d be harsh on Iran. They’ve been beating us psychologically, making us look a bunch of fools. One bullet shot at one of our men or ships and I’d do a number on Kharg Island. I’d go in and take it. Iran can’t even beat Iraq, yet they push the United States around. It’d be good for the world to take them on.”
Seven years before that interview, Pentagon invasion plans for Iran drawn up during the 1979 hostage crisis started with an attack on Kharg Island, as reported by multiple sources.
Trump's Air Force One Traveling Companions Include His Wife, Father-in-Law, and Aide Indicted in Classified Documents Case
The White House released a list of family members and close aides traveling to Florida with Donald Trump on Air Force One this evening.
In addition to his wife, Melania Trump, the president is accompanied by his father-in-law, Viktor Knavs, who is just two years older than his son-in-law.
Others on the flight include Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who previously attempted to conceal from the public that he once visited Jeffrey Epstein’s private island.
One of the aides on the flight is Walt Nauta, a former US Navy valet to Trump during his first term, who was indicted by special counsel Jack Smith in 2023 for allegedly helping Trump retain and hide boxes of classified documents at his beach club, Mar-a-Lago, when he was not president.
The traveling party also includes Dan Scavino and Natalie Harp, the only two aides reported to have permission to post in Trump’s name on his Truth Social account.
Scavino, a deputy chief of staff, started as Trump’s golf caddy and is widely credited with orchestrating his social media presence.
Harp left her job as a host on the far-right One America News channel in 2022 to become what some colleagues called Trump’s “human printer,” carrying a portable printer to provide her boss with hard copies of social media posts, articles, and conspiracy theories flattering him and demeaning his rivals.
In 2023, several people around Trump reported that Harp had written a series of letters to Trump that unnerved those around him.
“You are all that matters to me,” she wrote in one of the letters, which were seen by The New York Times. The letters’ authenticity was confirmed by two people with direct knowledge of them.
“I don’t ever want to let you down,” Ms. Harp wrote, thanking Mr. Trump for being her “ and Protector in this Life.”
In another letter, she told Mr. Trump that she wanted to get back to “that synergy” she used to have with him, where “we’d talk about everything and nothing.”
“I want to bring you joy,” she wrote, “to feel like we can get through a day without ever having to talk ‘work.’”
Trump Says US 'Totally Obliterated' Military Targets on Iranian Island Used for 90% of Its Oil Exports
From his seat on Air Force One, which is ferrying him to his Florida beach club, Donald Trump announced that the US military has “executed one of the most powerful bombing raids in the History of the Middle East, and totally obliterated every MILITARY target in Iran’s crown jewel, Kharg Island.”
The five-mile-long coral island, located about 15 miles off the coast of mainland Iran in the northern Persian Gulf, had been previously untouched in US bombing due to its importance to Iran’s oil exports, 90% of which originate there.
Trump claimed that only military targets were struck, stating,
“for reasons of decency, I have chosen NOT to wipe out the Oil Infrastructure on the Island.”
He added,
“However, should Iran, or anyone else, do anything to interfere with the Free and Safe Passage of Ships through the Strait of Hormuz, I will immediately reconsider this decision.”
Iran has effectively closed the strait, a vital channel out of the Persian Gulf for up to 20% of the world’s oil supply, by attacking commercial ships and laying mines.
Vance Cites Secrecy to Dodge Questions on His Reported Reservations About Iran War
Twice on Friday, Vice-President JD Vance cited secrecy to avoid answering questions about claims by unnamed administration officials that he is “skeptical” about or even opposed to the war on Iran launched by Donald Trump two weeks ago from an improvised situation room at his Florida beach club.
Trump himself said on Monday at his Florida golf club that Vance “was, I’d say, philosophically a little different from me. I think he was maybe less enthusiastic about going, but he was still quite enthusiastic.”
After reports early Friday that one official texted a reporter that Vance is “skeptical,” “worried about success,” and “just opposes” the war on Iran, the vice-president laughed at a question about what he advised the president before the attack and whether he still holds concerns about extended wars.
“Imagine the situation: we’re in the Situation Room, where you can’t even take your iPod in there, or your AirPods I guess what they’re called, you can’t take your iPhone in there, you can’t take anything in there, because it is the most classified space anywhere in the world. And I sit there with Pete Hegseth and General Caine and Marco Rubio and the entire White House team, and the president and I, and the entire senior team, are talking about the options.”
“I hate to disappoint you, but I’m not gonna show up here and in front of God and everybody else tell you exactly what I said in that classified room,” the vice-president said, to laughter from the audience.
“Partially because I don’t wanna go to prison,” he continued, “and partially because I think it’s important for the president of the United States to be able to talk to his advisors without those advisors running their mouth to the American media.”
Speaking to reporters after the event, Vance was pressed to explain Trump’s remarks about their philosophical differences and his enthusiasm for the war.
“When you’re thinking about a major decision like this, the way the president makes these decisions is he talks to a lot of people,” Vance replied.
“Obviously we’re thinking about various ins and outs, various options, what this looks like, how to accomplish our goals, what our goals should be, and I think it’s important for the president of the United States to be able to have that conversation with his team, without his team then running their mouth to the American media,” the vice-president continued. “So part of what makes our national security team so cohesive is that we all trust each other, and we all have a very free exchange of ideas. I’d like to keep that going.”
Vance then ended the exchange and walked away.
The vice-president’s assertion that the decision to start a war with Iran was made in “the most classified space anywhere in the world,” the White House Situation Room, was somewhat undercut by photographs from the first day of the war, which showed Vance in the Situation Room while Trump conferred with Rubio, Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, John Ratcliffe, the CIA director, the White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, and Dan Scavino, Trump’s former caddie turned social media guru, in a makeshift situation room at his Mar-a-Lago beach club, secured mainly by black drapes.
Elizabeth Warren Joins Thom Tillis to Demand Justice Department Drop Investigation of Fed Chair Powell
Senator Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican on the Senate Banking Committee, called on the Justice Department to drop what he called the “weak and frivolous” criminal investigation of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell after a federal judge blocked subpoenas of Powell on Friday.
Tillis, who has threatened to block confirmation of any nominee for the Federal Reserve Board, including Donald Trump’s pick to replace Powell at the end of his term this year, reiterated that threat.
The ruling, Tillis wrote in a statement, confirms that the investigation of Powell, who has refused to lower interest rates as Trump demands, “is nothing more than a failed attack on Fed independence.”
“We all know how this is going to end and the D.C. U.S. Attorney’s Office should save itself further embarrassment and move on,” Tillis added. “Appealing the ruling will only delay the confirmation of Kevin Warsh as the next Fed Chair.”
Jeanine Pirro, the Trump-appointed US attorney for Washington DC, rejected Tillis’s plea in a news conference, stating that the decision by “an activist judge” would be appealed and scolded journalists for questioning why grand juries are refusing to charge people her office seeks to prosecute for what appear to be partisan, political reasons.
When asked about Tillis’s threat to block Trump’s nominees, Pirro said,
“Honestly, I don’t know and I don’t care. You know why? I am in a legal lane. All of the rest is white noise. I don’t care what they say.”
Pressed on whether she could assure the senator that the investigation would be dropped, Pirro responded,
“Did you hear what I just said? I just said that this decision will be appealed.”
Moments later, as Pirro insisted she did not know who Trump’s pick to lead the Fed after Powell was, she was forced to silence an incoming call on her phone.
Senator Elizabeth Warren, the senior Democrat on the Banking Committee, also said that the Senate should not confirm any new nominees to the Federal Reserve unless and until politically motivated criminal investigations into both Powell and board member Lisa Cook end.
In a statement, Warren said the ruling by federal district court judge James Boasberg, blocking a Justice Department subpoena of Powell, confirmed “what we all already know: the Trump Administration’s weaponization of DOJ against Jerome Powell amounts to nothing more than a witch hunt.”
“The Senate should not move forward with any Fed nomination until the probes against Powell and Lisa Cook are dropped,” Warren said.
A group of protesters in Portland was found guilty of providing support for terrorism and other charges on Friday in a closely watched case in which prosecutors alleged anti-ICE activists were part of an antifa cell.
The case was seen as a major test of the First Amendment and whether the government could use a broad anti-terrorism statute to prosecute left-wing protesters. It marked the first time the government alleged individuals were part of an antifa group in a criminal prosecution.
Nine defendants – Benjamin Song, Zachary Evetts, Autumn Hill, Meagan Morris, Maricela Rueda, Savanna Batten, Ines Soto, Elizabeth Soto, and Daniel Sanchez-Estrada – were tried together. They faced charges including providing material support to terrorists, rioting, attempted murder, and firearms and explosives charges.
Sanchez-Estrada was the only defendant not at the protest and was charged with corruptly concealing a document or record after prosecutors said he moved left-wing zines following the arrest of his wife, Maricela Rueda, on the Fourth of July. Song escaped after the incident, prompting an 11-day manhunt. Several others were charged with assisting Song during that period.
The nine defendants were convicted on all charges they faced, with limited exceptions. Of the five charged with attempted murder, Evetts, Hill, Morris, and Rueda were acquitted on three counts of attempted murder and firearms charges. Song was acquitted on two charges of attempted murder and convicted on one. He was also convicted of firearms charges.
Trump Removes Ric Grenell as Head of What He Calls 'The Trump Kennedy Center'
Amid armed hostilities with Iran in a war he initiated, Donald Trump focused on the leadership of the Kennedy Center, the living memorial to John F. Kennedy created by Congress, which Trump added his name to while it is closed for renovations.
Trump announced on social media that he has replaced Ric Grenell, the Republican activist currently running the arts center, with Matt Floca, the operations vice president, who was personally overseeing the addition of Trump’s name to the center’s facade, according to independent journalist Chris Geidner.
Earlier in the day, as US forces remain engaged in combat with Iran, Trump shared renderings for the renovation of what he called the “new, highly improved, TRUMP KENNEDY CENTER!”
Grenell, known for his aggressive confrontations with journalists and political rivals on Twitter and X, served as acting director of national intelligence during Trump’s first term. He was appointed despite no prior arts experience.
A source familiar with the White House view said Trump blames Grenell for poor management of publicity for the Kennedy Center during his tenure. The president apparently holds Grenell responsible for a number of artists canceling appearances after Trump appointed himself chairman of the center’s board and had his name added to the exterior wall of the center without congressional approval for renaming the memorial to his assassinated predecessor.
Grenell was rumored to be a contender for Trump’s second-term secretary of state after brokering a 2020 agreement between Serbia and Kosovo that Trump falsely portrayed as ending the war between the two former Yugoslav regions, which had concluded decades earlier.
As independent journalist Jacqueline Sweet reported a week after the 2024 election, Grenell deleted more than 6,371 of his old posts on Twitter, now X, including tweets dating back to 2012 when he joined Mitt Romney’s campaign as foreign policy spokesman, before being fired when his abrasive posts surfaced.
Here's a Recap of the Day So Far
A federal judge in Washington DC blocked two Justice Department subpoenas to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors – including one seeking testimony from Chair Jerome Powell – over his remarks to Congress on the central bank’s renovation project. In a ruling issued on Friday, Chief Judge James Boasberg said “a mountain of evidence suggests that the Government served these subpoenas on the Board to pressure its Chair into voting for lower interest rates or resigning.”
Speaking to Fox News, Donald Trump again sought to limit concerns about the economy following the war on Iran, particularly regarding rising fuel prices. “This will bounce right back when it’s over, and I don’t think it’s going to be long when it’s over,” he said. When asked when that might be, Trump replied, “When I feel it in my bones.”
The armed suspect who attacked a synagogue in Michigan had lost four family members in an Israeli airstrike in his native Lebanon last week, an unnamed official told the Associated Press on Friday. Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, 41, a naturalized US citizen born in Lebanon, was killed by security after ramming into Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Township outside Detroit on Thursday.
During a Pentagon press conference on Friday, Pete Hegseth downplayed disrupti...
