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| By The Editors |
Bari is taking a much-deserved day off today, so the rest of us put our heads together to highlight just a few of our must-read stories from what has been a very big news week.
On Saturday, President Donald Trump launched a surprise strike on Iran’s nuclear program. Now, with a ceasefire in place and the smoke beginning to clear after what Trump is calling the 12-day war, the world is trying to make sense of what just happened: Have Iran’s nuclear ambitions been shattered or merely delayed? And on the homefront, what does this episode reveal about America’s shifting political landscape?
Let’s dive in, shall we?
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The U.S. and Israel Set Back Iran’s Nuclear Program. But for How Long?
Agencies around the world are working to evaluate the impact of Israeli and American strikes on Iran’s nuclear program. Jay Solomon reported earlier this week that Tehran may have moved key materials from Fordow to secret locations ahead of the strikes.
On Tuesday, a leaked Pentagon report suggested that the attacks may have delayed Iran’s bomb-making timeline by only a few months—fueling critics of American intervention, both Democrat and Republican, who had previously insisted Tehran wasn’t close to a weapon at all.
Jay spoke to a range of nuclear experts and analysts, both inside and outside the U.S. government, who argued that the strikes reportedly devastated Iran’s enrichment capacity, targeting key facilities, killing senior scientists, and crippling supply chains. Israeli officials believe the damage will set Iran back years—militarily and scientifically. Whether that holds remains to be seen.
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MAGA “Restrainers” Got the War All Wrong
From the start of the Israeli operations against Iran, prominent right-wing “restrainers” like Tucker Carlson, Rand Paul, and Candace Owens warned of disaster and a MAGA revolt if the U.S. were to help Israel in targeting Iran’s nuclear program.
Instead, the 12-day war ended swiftly: Iran’s nuclear sites were bombed and no Americans died. Eli Lake argues that the “restrainers” not only misread the situation but also misunderstood Trump’s nationalist doctrine. Read his full column here.
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The Bystander Democrats
Trump’s strike on Iran’s nuclear program is one of the most consequential U.S. military actions of this century.
And as Matthew Continetti argues, Democrats responded not with a principled stance on the issue but with procedural protests, war powers resolutions, and performative outrage. Their leaders offered no coherent opinion on the Iranian nuclear bomb program—a problem that presidents of both parties have long vowed to prevent.
Their silence on the strikes’ success betrays a deeper unseriousness, Matt says: They are a party adrift, dominated by fringe voices, obsessed with Trump, and out of touch with the geopolitical stakes.
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This is just a small sample of the many stories we published about Iran this week. For more, including the views of Niall Ferguson, Victor Davis Hanson, Matti Friedman, and others, click here.
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New York City Democrats Pick a Socialist Mayoral Candidate
It was also a big news week here at home. Zohran Mamdani, a Democratic Socialist state assemblyman, is now on track to become the next mayor of New York City. His victory in the Democratic primary stunned New York’s political class.