President Donald Trump thanked former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush after he praised the president’s decision to order strikes against the Islamic Republic of Iran.

‘Thank you to Jeb Bush — Very much appreciated!’ Trump declared in a Tuesday Truth Social post.

Bush, the chairman of the organization United Against Nuclear Iran, issued a statement with several others from the group hailing the president’s move.

‘We applaud President Trump and the United States for this decision—one of the most important of the 21st century,’ the statement declared, calling it ‘an act of courage, clarity, and historical necessity.’

‘President Trump’s decision to neutralize Iran’s regime’s nuclear program is a watershed moment—one that reasserts American strength, restores deterrence, and sends an unmistakable message to rogue regimes: the era of impunity is over. Where others delayed and wavered, President Trump acted,’ the statement asserted, in part.

Bush is the son of the late President George H.W. Bush, and the brother of former President George W. Bush.

The former Sunshine State governor was one of the Republicans who pursued the GOP presidential nomination during the 2016 election cycle, but he dropped out after failing to perform well in early GOP nominating contests.

Former U.S. Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley and former Vice President Mike Pence are also among those who have expressed support for Trump’s move.

Fresh satellite imagery released by Maxar Technologies shows significant damage at three of Iran’s key nuclear sites, Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan, just days after U.S. B-2 stealth bombers conducted strikes ordered by President Donald Trump.

The new photos, released on June 24, provide the clearest post-strike visuals to date, showing the precision and depth of the U.S. assault on Iran’s nuclear infrastructure.

At the heavily fortified Fordow Fuel Enrichment Facility, located deep beneath a mountain near Qom, satellite views reveal multiple craters along the primary access roads and directly at the entrances to tunnel complexes. 

Several perimeter buildings were destroyed outright, and one crater can be seen blasted into the access road leading to the facility.

The Isfahan Nuclear Technology Center also shows signs of recent damage. An overview image highlights new destruction at the surface, while detailed shots capture tunnel entrances that appear to have been struck directly, echoing earlier reporting that the operation aimed to neutralize buried infrastructure previously unreachable by conventional air power.

Meanwhile, at Natanz, a site known for its history with the Stuxnet cyberattack and long a target of Israeli and American scrutiny, two craters believed to have been caused by U.S. ordnance now appear filled and covered with dirt. 

These strikes had reportedly targeted the underground centrifuge halls that are central to Iran’s uranium enrichment operations.

IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi confirmed that key buildings and underground systems at all three sites were hit. 

American officials say Iran’s nuclear program has been severely set back.

Trump has claimed a ‘very successful’ mission.

In addition to the nuclear sites hit by the U.S., Maxar’s images also documented separate airstrike damage in the capital city of Tehran. 

The images show widespread destruction believed to be linked to suspected nuclear program buildings near Tehran’s Shahid Rajaee University.

Fox News’ Greg Norman contributed to this report.

It’s a measure of President Trump’s success in bombing Iran’s key nuclear sites that even some of his harshest detractors are praising the risky endeavor.

The calculated deception – ‘I may do it, I may not do it’ – and dispatching of a decoy fleet of B-2 bombers were crucial to achieving the mission. 

Yes, the situation may look very different in six months, depending in part on the response of Russia and other allies of Iran, the world’s largest terror state. Just yesterday, Tehran launched ballistic missiles at the U.S. military base in Qatar, with no reported casualties. 

Still, Trump should avoid landing on any aircraft carriers with a ‘Mission Accomplished’ banner, a reminder of how George W. Bush’s premature celebration turned into the Iraq quagmire that cost more than 4,000 American lives.

Yes, a sizable chunk of the MAGA coalition was opposed to U.S. intervention after the original Israeli airstrikes on grounds that Trump had always vowed to keep this country out of faraway wars. Some of them are falling into line, as there’s a rally-round-the-president effect after military action – especially when it’s successful. 

Sure, Trump followed up by posting about the possibility of ‘regime change’ – this after JD Vance told ‘Meet the Press:’ ‘We’re not at war with Iran. We’re at war with Iran’s nuclear program.’

Maybe the Truth Social message was simply designed to boost pressure on Ayatollah Ali Khamenei – who could have been taken out – or maybe Trump is tempted by the W-era mentality of ‘we will be greeted as liberators.’ 

No one is quibbling with the deceptions, any more than Dwight Eisenhower was criticized for deploying dummy tanks and vehicles on D-Day to convince the Nazis that the 1944 attack would come at a different location rather than Normandy.

Bret Stephens, an anti-Trump conservative columnist at the New York Times, called the bombings ‘a courageous and correct decision that deserves respect, no matter how one feels about this president and the rest of his policies…Trump could have continued to outsource the dirty work of hitting Iran’s nuclear capabilities to Israel, hoping that it could at least buy the West some diplomatic leverage and breathing room.’

David Ignatius, not a fan of the president’s foreign policy, wrote in his Washington Post column that ‘Trump and his top advisers acted boldly to hit the prize targets in Iran’s nuclear program — at Fordow, Isfahan and Natanz — that remained after nine days of Israeli bombing. The operation was bigger and more comprehensive than even some Israelis had expected, and it showed that the U.S. military, even during the chaotic Trump presidency, still performs with unmatched power, precision and reach.’

But these are among the relatively few exceptions. By and large, liberals and Democrats denounced the president’s action, and conservatives and Republicans hailed it. 

And you know the reaction would have been reversed if Joe Biden was in office and had ordered the airstrikes. 

There’s a legitimate question about whether Trump should have sought approval from the Hill, but this Congress has largely ceded its role on foreign affairs (and on tariffs, for that matter). Besides, a floor debate would have been like sending up neon lights about the coming attack.

Sometimes a commander-in-chief has to attack unilaterally. When Barack Obama and Bill Clinton ordered military strikes without consulting Congress, almost nobody made a big issue of it.

The Times reports that Iran warned Qatar of the retaliatory attack, which was an obvious attempt to minimize casualties and render the half-dozen missiles largely symbolic (though not to the military personnel having to seek shelter). That amounted to a muted initial response by the Iranians, since any American deaths would clearly trigger a further escalation by the Trump military.

The United States is the only country with bunker-busting bombs, which enabled it to damage or destroy the underground uranium enrichment site buried under the Fordow site. The truth is that our experts don’t know how much damage was done far below the surface and may not for weeks.

But given that the U.S. completely controls Iranian airspace, thanks to the earlier Israeli strikes, Trump could order devastating new attacks at any time with virtually no fear of our planes being shot down. And the Iranians are acutely aware of that.

It was deception and misdirection that enabled the Pentagon to pull this off. When Trump said he would decide what to do in the next ‘two weeks’ – a stance echoed by Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt – he had already approved the military plan, subject to last-minute reservations. The attack began 30 hours later.  

When Trump dined with Steve Bannon, the most prominent opponent of the U.S. attacks, along with Tucker Carlson, some surmised he was changing his mind. The same was true when he went to a fundraising dinner at his Bedminster, N.J. golf club, and nothing seemed imminent.

When Fox’s Brian Kilmeade asked Leavitt yesterday about her boss’s regime change posting, she did not minimize it:

‘If the Iranian regime refuses to come to a peaceful diplomatic solution, which the president is still interested and engaging in, by the way, why shouldn’t the Iranian people take away the power of this incredibly violent regime that has been suppressing them for decades?’

Multiple media reports say Trump was angry with his director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, for testifying in March that the intelligence community believes that Iran is nowhere near building a nuclear weapon, and a video she made after visiting Hiroshima. She has tried to walk it back, but there is little question she has been partially sidelined.

The Washington Post yesterday reported having obtained the audio file of an Israeli intelligence operative’s June 13 call to a senior Iranian commander:

‘I can advise you now, you have 12 hours to escape with your wife and child. Otherwise, you’re on our list right now,’ the translation said. The operative suggested Israel could target the general and his family at any moment: ‘We’re closer to you than your own neck vein.’

There is no independent verification that the call was actually made.

I don’t use this word lightly, but Iran is an evil country. Anyone of a certain age recalls how the Iranians, in 1979 after the ouster of the Shah, held our embassy staffers hostage for 444 agonizing days.

The ruling theocracy also finances the terror groups Hezbollah and Hamas. In fact, if it had not been for Hamas’ spectacular miscalculation in mounting the barbaric massacre in Israel on Oct. 7 – which again included the seizing of civilian hostages – Gaza would not now be the wasteland it has become. Israel bears some responsibility for this, yet also knows that it would be the prime target if Iran succeeds in enriching weapons-grade uranium.

Finally, even if things go south, what happened on Sunday has in my view changed the way people look at Donald Trump. He rolled the dice in a high-stakes gamble. He’s not just a garden-variety isolationist. He doesn’t have to run again, but he managed to keep everything secret and pulled it off with the aid of our superb military. And that took guts.

The FBI has initiated criminal investigations of three children’s hospitals after commitments from Attorney General Pam Bondi that the Trump administration would enforce federal statutes outlawing female genital mutilation to protect children from often irreversible sex-change surgeries.

The investigations target providers who work at Boston Children’s Hospital, Children’s Hospital Colorado and Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, according to a source familiar with the investigation who spoke to Fox News Digital on the condition of anonymity. These hospitals have been among some of the foremost providers of sex change procedures for minors in America over the last several years, according to the source.

Just days after taking office, President Donald Trump issued an executive order directing all federal agencies to work toward terminating the ability for children under 18 to receive ‘irreversible medical interventions’ as a treatment for gender dysphoria. Part of that effort included Attorney General Bondi issuing a memorandum several weeks later, directing Justice Department personnel to enforce 18 U.S.C. § 116, which is a federal statute that makes female genital mutilation against the law. 

‘I am putting medical practitioners, hospitals and clinics on notice: In the United States, it is a felony to perform, attempt to perform or conspire to perform female genital mutilation (‘FGM’) on any person under the age of 18,’ Bondi’s memo said. ‘That crime carries a maximum prison sentence of 10 years per count. I am directing all U.S. Attorneys to investigate all suspected cases of FGM — under the banner of so-called ‘gender-affirming care’ or otherwise — and to prosecute all FGM offenses to the fullest extent possible.’

Bondi also said in the memo that the Justice Department would be launching a new Coalition Against Child Mutilation, which will partner with state attorneys general to build cases against hospitals and practitioners violating federal or state laws banning female genital mutilation. The memo added that the Justice Department’s Office of Legislative Affairs is drafting legislation establishing a private right of action for children and parents of children ‘whose healthy body parts have been damaged by medical professionals through chemical and surgical mutilation’ so they can hold hospitals and providers retroactively liable.

Amid the Trump administration’s focus on banning irreversible transgender medical treatments for minors, numerous hospitals have amended their policies for who can obtain gender transition treatments and surgeries.

Earlier this month, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles announced it would permanently close its Center for Transyouth Health and Development, effective July 22, 2025. The decision was attributed to ‘significant operational, legal and financial risks stemming from the shifting policy landscape at both the state and federal levels,’ according to CBS News.

Children’s Hospital Los Angeles did not respond to Fox News Digital’s repeated requests for comment. 

Children’s Hospital Colorado initially suspended its transgender medical treatments for patients under 19 in response to the president’s executive order directing hospitals to halt irreversible transgender treatments for minors. But after a judge’s ruling blocking Trump’s order, the hospital announced it would resume providing puberty blockers and hormone-based treatments to minors.

In a statement to Fox News Digital, a spokesperson for Children’s Hospital Colorado noted that it has ‘never’ provided transgender surgeries for those under 18, adding that, two years ago, the hospital stopped providing these surgeries for patients over 18. Instead, starting in 2023, the hospital decided to begin referring patients to outside providers for such services, according to Colorado Newsline. 

Boston Children’s Hospital continues to operate its Gender Multispecialty Service (GeMS) program, according to publicly available information. While the hospital only provides gender-change surgeries for patients over 18, its GeMS program does offer transgender hormone therapy, puberty blockers and social transitioning for patients under 18. It also provides referrals for gender-transition surgeries to minors as well.

In a statement to Fox News Digital, Boston Children’s said it had not yet received any notice from the FBI regarding alleged violations of federal law. The FBI said that, as a matter of policy, it ‘declines to confirm or comment on investigations.’

The House’s conservative fiscal hawks are warning that President Donald Trump’s ‘one big, beautiful bill’ could run into serious problems after the Senate made key changes to the legislation.

‘There’s real problems with it,’ Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., told Fox News Digital on Tuesday. ‘We’re on board with the president… but we’re concerned about the changes.’

He and other members of the right-wing House Freedom Caucus are particularly incensed by the Senate’s decision to defer the expiration of certain green energy tax credits from the former Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) — which those conservatives have dubbed ‘the Green New Scam.’

They’re also wary of additional dollars being spent on raising the debt limit, which Trump has directed GOP lawmakers to do before the U.S. runs out of cash to pay its obligations sometime this summer. 

The Senate’s version of the bill increases the U.S. debt limit by $5 trillion, whereas the earlier House version hiked it by $4 trillion.

Congressional Republicans are working to pass Trump’s agenda on tax, immigration, defense, and energy in one massive bill via the budget reconciliation process.

By lowering the Senate’s threshold for passage from 60 votes to 51, reconciliation allows the party in power to pass sweeping legislation while sidelining the minority – in this case, Democrats – provided the measures included fall within a strict set of budgetary rules.

The House passed its own version of the bill late last month by just one vote. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has pleaded with his Senate counterparts to change as little as possible, citing his razor-thin majority.

But Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., is also grappling with a small majority of Republicans – and his chamber’s product has made several key updates to please the GOP conference there.

‘The changes that we’re hearing about are not good. And Mike Johnson told the Senate, ‘Don’t send us back a revised bill, a significantly revised bill, because we passed it with a one-vote margin in the House,’’ Rep. Keith Self, R-Texas, told Fox News Digital. 

House Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Harris, R-Md., told Fox News Digital he would vote against the bill if the Senate’s product was returned in its current form – though he did not discuss the parliamentarian’s further changes.

Harris voted ‘present’ on the bill when it passed the House in May, telling reporters he had some lingering concerns but would not vote ‘no,’ in order to keep Trump’s agenda moving.

‘The currently proposed Senate version of the One Big Beautiful Bill weakens key House priorities – it doesn’t do enough to eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse in Medicaid, it backtracks on the Green New Scam elimination included in the House bill, and it greatly increases the deficit – taking us even further from a balanced budget,’ Harris said in a statement.

‘If the Senate tries to jam the House with this version, I won’t vote ‘present.’ I’ll vote NO.’

Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Mo., similarly said in a statement that he would oppose the bill if it came back to the House in its current form. The Missouri Republican voted to advance the bill in May.

Freshman House Freedom Caucus member Rep. Mark Harris, R-N.C., who also voted for the House version of the bill, said in a public statement, ‘In the many moving pieces and rumors of how the Senate’s One Big Beautiful Bill is shaping up, I get more concerned each day!’

And Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, the Freedom Caucus policy chair, wrote on X, ‘Rumor is Senate plans to jam the House with its weaker, unacceptable OBBB before 7/4.  This is not a surprise, but it would be a mistake…I would not vote for it as is.’

Republican leaders have set a goal of getting a bill to Trump’s desk by Fourth of July. 

The president ordered congressional Republicans to remain in Washington until the legislation is passed in a lengthy Truth Social post on Tuesday.

‘To my friends in the Senate, lock yourself in a room if you must, don’t go home, and GET THE DEAL DONE THIS WEEK,’ Trump wrote. ‘Work with the House so they can pick it up, and pass it, IMMEDIATELY. NO ONE GOES ON VACATION UNTIL IT’S DONE.’

While right-wing conservatives rail against the bill, other moderate Republican factions within the House GOP have demanded changes to the Senate’s revisions to the state and local tax (SALT) deduction and Medicaid, specifically tweaks to the provider tax rate, among others.

Compounding issues for House Republicans are a slew of cost-saving provisions that have been ruled out by the Senate Parliamentarian during a process called the ‘Byrd bath,’ which tests whether an item in the bill comports with reconciliation rules that stipulate policy has to deal directly with budgetary and spending effects. 

Senate Budget Committee Chair Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., scoffed at the House GOP’s threats. 

‘‘We’ll do better than what you did,’ is what I would tell them,’ he said. 

Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., told Fox News Digital that a bill of the magnitude that Republicans were trying to pass would be hard to build a complete consensus around. He noted in particular complications around tax negotiations, as Republicans work to extend Trump’s 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA).

‘Follow your heart. Take your brain with you,’ Kennedy said. ‘Don’t impose the largest tax increase in history on the American people. Look, it’s undeniable that everybody’s not going to be completely happy. I’m not completely happy with where we are, and we’re not there yet. We’re making progress.’ 

When asked his thoughts on conservatives bashing the bill, Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., said, ‘Everybody’s got to thump their chest a little bit, gotta stake their ground.’ 

‘But at the end of the day, if [Roy] votes against making the Trump tax cuts permanent, and against economic growth and against significant and serious reforms to IRA credits, reforms to Medicaid, I just don’t know how he lives with his own sort of conscience and votes ‘no,’’ he said.

But it’s not clear if Senate Republicans are unified on the bill themselves. Thune acknowledged there could be defections when he puts the bill on the floor. He can only afford to lose three votes. 

‘We’ve got a lot of very independent-thinking senators who have reasons and things that they’d like to have in this bill that would make it stronger,’ he said. 

Speaker Johnson downplayed the differences between the two chambers in his regular press conference on Tuesday.

‘I don’t think we can say it’s a vastly different product and prejudge it yet. We’re still awaiting the final details. We’ve given space for the Senate to work their separate chamber,’ Johnson said. ‘I’ve been emphasizing from the very beginning this is a one-team approach. The House and Senate Republicans working together in tandem with the White House. There’s no daylight between any of us and the ultimate goal and objective.’

Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., plans to move full steam ahead with his war powers resolution, despite a fragile ceasefire reached Tuesday between Israel and Iran.

The fresh ceasefire deal between the warring countries faced early hiccups, with President Donald Trump accusing both sides of breaking the truce, but it has so far held, despite widespread skepticism over its longevity on Capitol Hill.

And Kaine argued that the halt in fighting actually gave his resolution more credence.

‘I think the ceasefire actually gives us the ability to have the conversation without the pressure of like, ‘Oh, you know, [Trump’s] got to do a bombing run tomorrow night,’’ he said.

‘The combination of the ceasefire and the Israelis saying that the nuclear program has been sent back at least two or three years opens up — you can really have the deliberate discussion that this merits,’ Kaine continued.

Kaine’s war powers resolution is designed to both put a check on Trump’s power and reaffirm Congress’ constitutional authority to declare war. However, whether a strike like the one over the weekend constituted an act of war that required congressional approval was a hot topic of debate among lawmakers last week.

The Constitution divides war powers between Congress and the White House, giving lawmakers the sole power to declare war, while the president acts as the commander-in-chief directing the military.

A similar bipartisan resolution cropped up in the House, too, but one of its co-sponsors, Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., told Fox News Digital that he is ready to stand down if the ceasefire lasts.

‘If the ceasefire becomes a truce and holds, we won’t press for the vote,’ he said. ‘We need to hear from Iran and Israel, and also whether our own president is satisfied that the predicate for his first attack, nuclear weapons, no longer exists.’

Kaine’s bill could hit the floor by Friday in the Senate, but whether it survives is another question.

‘Bring it up. Let’s vote it down,’ Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., told Fox News Digital.

The resolution does have the backing of Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., who told Fox News Digital that before the strikes there were up to eight Republicans that supported it.

‘I support Tim,’ Durbin said. ‘His approach to this is entirely consistent with the Constitution, and I wish the Senate would stand up as a body for its own rights and authority under the Constitution.’

Former Biden official Neera Tanden, who testified before Congress Tuesday as part of an investigation into his mental acuity, has a long history as a Democratic operative and fell short of being appointed to Biden’s Cabinet due to her past controversial social media posts.

‘I had no experience in the White House that would provide any reason to question his command as president,’ Tanden told the House Oversight Committee in her opening statement Tuesday behind closed doors. ‘He was in charge.’

She added that her ‘cooperation’ with the House committee’s investigation ‘should not be taken to mean’ that she believes it is a ‘worthy subject of oversight’ before pivoting to the Trump administration and making multiple allegations.

Tanden was initially nominated by Biden to head the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) before the nomination was withdrawn over a lack of congressional support for her and after criticism over some of her past posts on Twitter, now known as X. 

Leaders from both sides of the political spectrum called out Tanden for personal attacks and statements she has made on social media.

Those statements included calling Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, ‘the worst’ and Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., a ‘fraud,’ saying that ‘vampires have more heart than Ted Cruz’ and referring to then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., as ‘Moscow Mitch’ and ‘Voldemort,’ referring to the Harry Potter villain.

Tanden deleted more than 1,000 of her past tweets ahead of her confirmation hearing. 

Additionally, committee Chairman Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., said at the time he was worried about the millions of dollars the Center for American Progress (CAP) has received from large corporations and special interest groups. Tanden returned to CAP in February to take over her previous role as the left-wing think tank’s president and CEO.

‘Tanden, Biden’s nominee to lead the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), disclosed earning $731,528 from the Center for American Progress (CAP) for the last two years, along with thousands in investments and speaking fees, according to the documents,’ Fox News Digital previously reported. ‘That amounts to about $365,000 a year.’

Tanden previously described CAP’s mission as becoming the ‘central hub of the Trump resistance.’

A longtime Democratic operative, Tanden worked on former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s two presidential campaigns. Under former President Obama, she also helped draft the Affordable Care Act legislation as an advisor to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.

Tanden also repeatedly pushed the Russia collusion narrative about Donald Trump and repeatedly hyped the discredited Steele dossier as credible evidence. At one point, Tanden referred to Steele on social media as ‘the next James Bond.’

After her nomination was withdrawn, the president vowed to find a place for Tanden in his administration, one without the requirement of Senate approval, which ended up being senior advisor to the president and later White House staff secretary. 

Tanden met with the House Oversight Committee behind closed doors Tuesday as it probes whether those closest to Biden in his White House knowingly colluded to hide the former president’s declining mental acuity and used methods to circumvent the former president when it came to the issuance of important orders.

A House Oversight Committee aide told Fox News ‘Neera Tanden told investigators during her transcribed interview today that from 2021 to 2023 she was authorized to direct autopen signatures. It was a system inherited from previous administrations. She also said Biden was in charge,’ according to an X post from Fox News’ Chad Pergram.

President Donald Trump also ordered the Department of Justice to open an investigation into the matter. The president directed Attorney General Pam Bondi and White House counsel David Warrington to handle the investigation.

In response to the Trump administration’s call for an investigation, Biden declared he was the only one who ‘made the decisions’ during his presidency and called Trump’s efforts a ‘distraction.’

Fox News Digital’s David Montanaro, Elizabeth Elkind, and Chris Pandolfo contributed to this report.

The U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities Saturday have rendered ideal results for addressing the crisis between Iran and Israel, according to former President Joe Biden’s National Security Council coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa. 

‘Bottom line, this is about the best place we can be,’ Brett McGurk said in a CNN interview late Monday. ‘I give extremely high marks to this national security team and President Trump for managing this crisis and getting where we are.’

Additionally, McGurk said that the Trump administration has an opportunity to pursue a ceasefire between Israel and Gaza amid ongoing attempts for months to secure one. 

‘There’s a chance for diplomacy here,’ McGurk said. ‘Not only on the Iran side, but also in Gaza. Those talks are also going on back channel in Cairo; there’s a Hamas delegation there. Try to get that ceasefire in place. And you can come out of this in a place that is far better than we would have anticipated 10 nights ago.’

While McGurk most recently served in the Biden administration, he’s been part of both Republican and Democrat administrations. He previously served on former Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama’s National Security Councils. 

He also served as the special presidential envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) during both the Obama administration and President Donald Trump’s first term. However, he resigned from that post in 2018 following Trump’s decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria, along with then-Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis for the same reason. 

In addition to McGurk, other officials who served in Democratic administrations also weighed in to support Trump’s handling of the Iran conflict, including Jamie Metzl, who previously served as former President Bill Clinton’s director for multilateral affairs on the National Security Council. 

Metzl said that while he’s been critical of Trump and voted for former Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 election, he doesn’t believe Harris could have pulled off the strikes against Iranian targets like Trump did. 

‘Iran has been at war with the United States for 46 years,’ Metzl said in a post on X Sunday. ‘Its regime has murdered thousands of American citizens. Its slogan ‘death to America’ was not window dressing but core ideology. It was racing toward a nuclear weapon with every intention of using it to threaten America, our allies, and the Middle East region as a whole.’

‘Although I believe electing Kamala Harris would have been better for our democracy, society, and economy, as well as for helping the most vulnerable people in the United States and around the world, I also believe VP Harris would not have had the courage or fortitude to take such an essential step as the president took last night,’ Metzl said. 

The U.S. launched strikes late Saturday targeting key Iranian nuclear facilities: Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan. The mission involved more than 125 U.S. aircraft, including B-2 stealth bombers, according to Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine.

While Trump said early Tuesday that a ceasefire had gone into effect between Israel and Iran, Trump issued tough words for both countries later Tuesday morning amid accusations from both sides that the other had violated the agreement. 

Trump told reporters both Israel and Iran failed to follow the terms of the agreement, which he said is still in effect. 

‘I’m not happy with them,’ Trump said at the White House Tuesday morning. ‘I’m not happy with Iran either, but I’m really unhappy with Israel going out this morning.’ 

‘We basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don’t know what the f— they’re doing,’ he said. 

Progressive New York Democrat, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, fired back at President Donald Trump’s Truth Social rampage on Tuesday after the two traded barbs following Saturday night’s U.S. strikes on Iran. 

‘Mr. President, don’t take your anger out on me – I’m just a silly girl,’ Ocasio-Cortez responded Tuesday after the president dubbed her ‘Stupid AOC.’ 

‘Take it out on whoever convinced you to betray the American people and our Constitution by illegally bombing Iran and dragging us into war,’ she said.

Ocasio-Cortez emerged as one of Trump’s fiercest congressional critics after the U.S. attacked three nuclear facilities in Iran on Saturday night. While Democrats raged against Trump, calling his actions unconstitutional, Ocasio-Cortez went as far as to call for his impeachment. 

‘It only took you 5 months to break almost every promise you made,’ the 35-year-old Democratic socialist, who is considered a potential 2028 presidential candidate, said Tuesday, before adding, ‘Also, I’m a Bronx girl. You should know that we can eat Queens boys for breakfast. Respectfully.’

She was responding to a lengthy post from the president in which he referred to her as ‘Stupid AOC’ and ‘one of the ‘dumbest’ people in Congress.’

Trump criticized Ocasio-Cortez for ‘now calling for my Impeachment, despite the fact that the Crooked and Corrupt Democrats have already done that twice before.’

During Trump’s first term, he was impeached twice. First, in 2019, Trump was impeached for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress over allegations that he asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to interfere in U.S. elections. Following the riots at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, Trump was impeached for inciting an insurrection.

The Senate acquitted Trump in both instances. 

Rep. Al Green, D-Texas., who advocated for Trump’s impeachment during his first term and was censured for disrupting Trump’s joint address to Congress earlier this year, introduced articles of impeachment against Trump last month for ‘devolving democracy within the United States into authoritarianism.’

Green once again introduced articles of impeachment against Trump after the U.S. strikes against Iran, which he said violates Article I of the U.S. Constitution, saying only Congress has the authority to declare war. 

The House voted to dismiss Green’s resolution Tuesday afternoon in a 344–79 vote, including support from 128 Democrats.

‘It is absolutely and clearly grounds for impeachment,’ Ocasio-Cortez said Saturday night, responding to Trump’s announcement that the U.S. had successfully struck Iran’s nuclear facilities. Several Democrats joined Ocasio-Cortez’s call for impeachment, but Trump focused his criticism on fellow progressive ‘Squad’ members in his lengthy Tuesday post. 

After insulting Ocasio-Cortez’s intelligence, Trump said she is ‘far more qualified than Crockett, who is a seriously Low IQ individual, or Ilhan Omar, who does nothing but complain about our Country.’

He also said, ‘AOC should be forced to take the Cognitive Test that I just completed at Walter Reed Medical Center, as part of my Physical.’

And Trump dared Ocasio-Cortez, ‘Go ahead and try Impeaching me, again, MAKE MY DAY!’ after telling her to go back home to her district in Queens, where Trump was raised, and ‘straighten out her filthy, disgusting, crime-ridden streets, in the District she ‘represents,’ and which she never goes to anymore. She better start worrying about her own Primary.’

In her social media rebuttal, the New York Democrat also fired back at Vice President JD Vance, who said on X, ‘I wonder if other VPs had as much excitement as I do.’

‘Maybe that’s because you advised the president to illegally bomb Iran,’ Ocasio-Cortez replied. 

Fox News Digital’s Elizabeth Elkind contributed to this report.

While President Donald Trump has asserted that the military’s weekend strike against Iran ‘completely and totally obliterated’ its nuclear weapon-making capabilities, there are still questions about whether the ground-penetrating ‘bunker buster’ bombs used to attack Iran’s key enrichment sites were enough to stop the rogue country from developing a nuclear bomb.

A report released last week by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) explains that the special ‘bunker buster’ bombs the U.S. used in Iran over the weekend that everyone is talking about, known as GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrators, or MOPs, might not be able to fully destroy the Iranian nuclear facility at Fordow. Fordow, which Trump said was ‘gone’ now following the strike, is considered central to Iran’s nuclear weapon-making capabilities. 

Meanwhile, a satellite imagery expert relayed to Reuters that confirmation of below-ground destruction could not be determined via pictures alone, because the facility’s hundreds of centrifuges are too deeply buried in order to make an accurate determination. 

‘I actually have a little bit of a rosier view on things,’ Andrea Stricker, Deputy Director at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Nonproliferation and Biodefense Program, told Fox News Digital. ‘I think that because of the massive damage and the shock wave that would have been sent by 12 Massive Ordnance Penetrators at the Fordow site, that it likely would render its centrifuges damaged or inoperable.’

Stricker noted that centrifuges are ‘very delicate’ and the kind of shock wave coming from the MOPs would at least put them ‘out of commission.’ She also said if any centrifuges did survive the blasts, it would be likely that they would be inaccessible by Iranian authorities for several months.   

‘Underground facilities present a difficult target, not only for destruction, but also in terms of follow-on battle damage assessment,’ added Wes Rumbaugh, a fellow in the Missile Defense Project at CSIS. ‘The United States and Israel will likely need to invest additional intelligence resources to determine the true extent of the damage from the U.S. strikes and their long-term effect on Iranian nuclear infrastructure.’

In addition to Fordow, the U.S. used its MOPs at an Iranian enrichment facility called Natanz, where, according to Stricker, at least 1,000 centrifuges are located, as well as an above-ground enrichment plant and other labs capable of making uranium metal. 

According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) the above-ground labs had previously been damaged by Israeli airstrikes, destroying the plant’s electrical infrastructure. Meanwhile, satellite imagery following the U.S.’s decision to drop two MOPs on Natanz show two craters located where the site’s underground enrichment facilities are reportedly located. However, it is still not clear if the U.S. attacks completely destroyed the underground nuclear infrastructure.  

Either way, Striker noted, the significant damage to Iran’s Natanz facility will create a ‘bottleneck’ in the country’s supply chain for weapons-grade uranium, which will significantly impact Iran’s nuclear weapon-making capabilities. 

The third site targeted by the U.S.’s airstrikes was Iran’s Isfahan nuclear enrichment facility, but MOPs were not used at that site. Instead, the U.S. used Tomahawk cruise missiles, which the IAEA confirmed caused significant damage. Satellite imagery reportedly shows Isfahan’s above-ground facilities were taken out, but it remains unclear the extent of the damage to the site’s underground sections.

One of the biggest outstanding questions regarding the success of the United States’ weekend strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities, is whether authorities in the country were able to move their nuclear materials from the targeted sites before the U.S. launched its missiles at them. But, according to CSIS’s Bumbaugh, even if that is the case and Iran moved their nuclear materials, the chaos would still make it hard for Iran to ‘sprint to a nuclear weapon.’  

‘Having to move these assets to new facilities likely degrades Iran’s immediate ability to sprint to a nuclear weapon but makes it likely that Iran will go to great lengths to conceal their new location,’ Bumbaugh said. ‘This movement of nuclear infrastructure or material would make follow-on strikes difficult if intelligence is unable to find all of the new hidden facilities.’

‘There’s a lot of alarmism right now about whether Iran could sprint to a bomb,’ Stricker added. ‘Israel has done so much damage to their ability to make nuclear weapons [and] the weaponization supply chain. So the facilities, the components that [Iran] would need, the equipment, and then up to 14 nuclear scientists, I think, if they did want to build a bomb quickly, they’re really stymieing – they don’t have access to all of all that, all of those assets they would need. And so, I think in the short to medium term, we don’t need to be overly concerned that they could get there.’

Fox News Digital reached out to both the Pentagon and the Air Force to glean more details about the success of the weekend strike on Iran, but no new information was gleaned.

An Air Force spokesperson did confirm to Fox News Digital that, in total, U.S. forces deployed 75 ‘precision guided weapons’ targeting Iran over the weekend, including 14 30,000 pound GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrators.

On Monday, Rafael Grossi, head of the IAEA, appealed for immediate access to the targeted Iranian nuclear sites in order to assess the damage that is likely ‘significant,’ according to the United Nations.