Latest / The President's Daily Brief / PDB Afternoon Bulletin | September 18th, 2026: Trump Nears "Big Decision" on Major Strikes Against Iran & Pakistan Rocked by Deadly Terror Attack

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PDB Afternoon Bulletin | September 18th, 2026: Trump Nears "Big Decision" on Major Strikes Against Iran & Pakistan Rocked by Deadly Terror Attack · The President's Daily Brief

0:12
It's Friday,
0:13
the 18th of September.
0:14
Welcome to the PDB
0:16
afternoon bulletin.
0:17
I'm Mike Baker,
0:18
your eyes and ears on the world stage.
0:20
All right,
0:21
let's get briefed.
0:22
First up,
0:23
President Trump says he must soon decide whether to pursue diplomacy with Iran
0:28
or potentially
0:30
annihilate the regime.
0:31
Well,
0:32
those are two choices.
0:33
The warning comes as the regime stages a massive show of defiance
0:37
and new attacks underscore the continuing instability in the Strait of Hormuz.
0:42
Later in the show,
0:43
a deadly suicide bombing in Pakistan,
0:46
raising fears of
0:47
renewed fighting with neighboring Afghanistan.
0:50
But first,
0:51
today's afternoon spotlight.
0:54
President Trump says he's approaching what could be one of
0:56
the most consequential decisions of the war with Iran,
1:00
whether to make another push for diplomacy
1:02
or dramatically escalate the conflict,
1:05
and he isn't exactly being subtle about what that second option could look like.
1:10
Speaking with Axios on Thursday,
1:12
Trump said,
1:13
quote,
1:13
I have a big decision coming up.
1:15
Do I want to go in and annihilate them,
1:18
or do I not?
1:19
It's a big decision.
1:20
Anything could happen with me,
1:22
end quote.
1:24
Now,
1:24
despite those comments,
1:25
the president also offered
1:27
at the same time a very different assessment of where this war may be heading.
1:31
Trump has repeatedly suggested this week that
1:34
the war could soon be coming to an end and told Axios Thursday that
1:38
Iran remains in direct contact with Washington
1:40
and is.
1:41
Still eager to reach a deal.
1:43
Of course we've heard the president say that Iran
1:45
wants a deal on numerous occasions in the past,
1:48
desperate for a deal,
1:49
very badly want a deal.
1:51
Likewise,
1:52
he's threatened to hit the regime harder than ever before on numerous occasions.
1:56
The rhetoric
1:57
is nothing new.
1:59
And possibly because of that,
2:01
Tehran isn't showing any signs that they intend to capitulate.
2:05
On Friday,
2:05
hundreds of thousands of Iranians poured into the
2:08
streets of Tehran for the largest government organized demonstration
2:12
since the war began in February.
2:15
Iranian state television claimed that more than
2:17
300,000 people participated in the rally.
2:20
Well,
2:20
if the Iranian state television says it,
2:22
it's got to be true,
2:23
where volunteers dressed in combat uniforms marched through the capital while
2:28
some demonstrators chanted Death to America and Death to Israel.
2:32
Not exactly original slogans,
2:35
but at least they're consistent.
2:36
The event was part of a government campaign encouraging ordinary Iranians
2:40
to receive basic military training and prepare to defend the country.
2:45
The head of Tehran's Revolutionary Guard Corps,
2:47
the IRGC,
2:48
claims that more than 600,000 people have already registered,
2:52
with officials expecting that number to eventually surpass 1 million.
2:56
Now those are Iranian government figures,
2:59
of course,
2:59
and
2:59
they have not been independently verified.
3:02
And because this was a government organized
3:04
demonstration heavily promoted by state media.
3:07
And we shouldn't confuse a massive rally in Tehran
3:10
with a reliable measure of how the broader Iranian population feels about the war.
3:16
Look,
3:16
after slaughtering thousands of their citizens earlier
3:19
in the year and continuing to detain,
3:22
imprison,
3:22
and execute anyone that they deem a threat,
3:25
well,
3:25
the average citizen may feel somewhat compelled to turn up for a rally
3:29
when instructed by the regime.
3:32
Military hardware was displayed in the streets during the rally.
3:35
Volunteers pledged to take up arms,
3:37
and
3:38
Iran's new Basij commander warned that the trainees would become a
3:42
nightmare for the country's enemies.
3:44
And that display of defiance comes
3:46
despite the significant pressure that Washington has managed to put on Tehran,
3:50
as we've been tracking here on the PDB.
3:52
The US naval blockade has largely choked off Iran's maritime trade,
3:57
while sanctions and the disruption of.
3:59
Shipping routes are creating serious problems for the Iranian economy.
4:04
Just yesterday we talked about thousands of trucks backed up
4:07
along Iran's borders as Tehran struggles to replace maritime commerce
4:11
with much more expensive overland trade.
4:15
The US has also made progress getting more oil
4:17
and gas tankers through the Strait of Hormuz,
4:20
but some progress
4:22
and a return to normalcy are two very different things.
4:26
Traffic through the strait remains well below pre-war levels,
4:29
and Friday brought another reminder
4:31
of just how dangerous the waterway remains.
4:34
Two separate attacks on ships were reported in
4:37
the strait within hours of one another.
4:39
In one case,
4:40
British maritime authorities
4:41
said a tanker was struck by a projectile.
4:44
The IRGC separately claimed responsibility
4:47
for striking a vessel that it accused
4:49
of making an illegal crossing through the waterway.
4:53
So while Washington has succeeded in increasing a portion of normal tanker traffic
4:59
and preventing ships from reaching Iranian ports,
5:01
Iran continues to disrupt commercial shipping,
5:04
leaving owners and insurers wary about using that critical trade corridor.
5:09
And that leaves Trump with a decision that
5:11
US officials increasingly say cannot be postponed indefinitely.
5:16
According to Axios,
5:17
the president and Defense Secretary Pete Axe
5:19
have ordered American forces in the region
5:22
to maintain their current posture through the end of the year,
5:25
keeping the military prepared for another major round of combat
5:29
if President Trump chooses that option.
5:32
But maintaining that posture,
5:34
of course,
5:34
comes with its own costs,
5:36
and some US officials now describe the conflict
5:39
as an increasingly unsustainable holding pattern
5:42
without a clear endgame.
5:44
Which brings us to next week.
5:47
Trump travels to New York for the United Nations General Assembly,
5:50
where Iran and the broader war are expected to heavily loom over this visit
5:55
on Tuesday.
5:56
The president is scheduled to meet with the leaders of the Gulf states,
5:59
saying that he wants to hear directly from those countries
6:02
about where they stand
6:04
before determining what comes next.
6:06
Those governments have already demonstrated
6:08
just how much influence they can have over Washington's calculations.
6:12
As you may recall,
6:14
Trump considered resuming major combat operations against Iran back in August.
6:19
But he held off after Saudi Arabia and Qatar
6:21
reportedly warned that Iran could retaliate
6:24
against their oil and gas infrastructure.
6:26
Well,
6:27
as it turns out,
6:28
even without a return to major combat,
6:30
the Iranian regime still targeted Saudi Arabia,
6:34
instructing their Iranian proxy group,
6:36
the Houthis in Yemen,
6:37
to escalate their conflict with the Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces
6:41
and to directly attack Saudi energy infrastructure
6:44
inside the kingdom.
6:46
Now Trump will arrive at the UN facing broader skepticism as well.
6:51
Reuters reports that many European and Asian allies continue to
6:55
resist American requests to become involved in the conflict,
6:58
while Gulf governments are increasingly
7:00
concerned about regional instability and
7:03
the threat to two of the world's most important shipping corridors,
7:06
with the Iran-backed Houthis now expanding their ability
7:10
to disrupt the Bab al Mandeb Strait
7:12
in the Red Sea.
7:14
So when Trump meets America's Gulf partners next week at the UN General Assembly,
7:19
the choice confronting him may be considerably more
7:21
complicated than simply whether to annihilate the Iranian regime
7:25
or to pursue diplomacy,
7:27
and by that I mean
7:28
it will definitely
7:29
be more complicated than some binary choice.
7:33
There are no simple binary issues
7:35
in the Middle East.
7:37
All right.
7:38
Coming up next,
7:38
a deadly bombing in Pakistan is threatening to further inflame tensions
7:43
with neighboring Afghanistan.
7:45
I'll be right back.
7:46
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7:47
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7:47
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Welcome back to the PDB
10:05
afternoon bulletin.
10:06
We're gathering details on a major terrorist attack in Pakistan today and
10:11
looking at
10:11
what could come next.
10:13
At least 16 people were killed and more than 50 wounded
10:16
in an attack on a police compound in the northwestern city of Kohat.
10:20
5 police officers are among the dead,
10:23
according to Pakistani police.
10:24
The attack began when a suicide bomber in a vehicle
10:27
struck the entrance to the compound.
10:29
Additional militants
10:30
then tried to push deeper inside the compound,
10:33
moving toward buildings used by Pakistan's
10:35
counterterrorism department and Special Branch.
10:38
Police say 6 attackers were ultimately killed during the operation.
10:42
The group claiming responsibility is the Hafiz Gul Bahadur Group.
10:47
Now this group is part of the broader militant landscape along
10:50
Pakistan's border with Afghanistan.
10:53
It's separate from the Pakistani Taliban known as the TTP,
10:56
although the groups operate in the same general
10:59
jihadist ecosystem and have overlapping enemies and relationships,
11:04
and today's attack comes amid a broader surge in violence.
11:07
Just yesterday,
11:08
6 Pakistani soldiers were killed when a
11:10
roadside bomb hit their convoy in nearby Hangu.
11:14
Pakistani forces also carried out operations in Hangu and North Waziristan
11:18
that killed 10 suspected TTP militants.
11:22
So Pakistan's security forces are dealing with
11:24
attacks on multiple fronts across the Northwest.
11:27
And this is where today's bombing becomes something
11:30
we need to watch beyond Pakistan itself.
11:33
For years now,
11:34
Islamabad has accused the Taliban government in neighboring Afghanistan
11:38
of allowing Pakistani militant groups to operate from Afghan territory.
11:43
Kabul denies it,
11:44
but the dispute has become increasingly dangerous
11:47
because Pakistan has already demonstrated that
11:49
it's willing to strike inside Afghanistan
11:52
when it believes militants operating there are
11:54
responsible for attacks on Pakistani territory.
11:57
And that has led to direct exchanges between the two countries,
12:01
with Afghanistan
12:02
accusing Pakistan of violating its sovereignty
12:05
and Pakistan arguing that Kabul has failed to prevent
12:08
militant groups from using Afghan territory as a sanctuary.
12:12
Now,
12:12
to be clear,
12:13
there's no evidence
12:14
at this point anyway that the Afghan government directed
12:17
or participated in today's attack,
12:19
but that may not be the question
12:21
that determines what happens next.
12:24
The question for Islamabad will be whether Pakistani authorities conclude
12:27
that the people behind this bombing were trained or
12:30
sheltered or directed from across the Afghan border.
12:33
If they do,
12:34
Pakistan again has shown before that it's prepared to respond militarily,
12:38
and that of course creates a dangerous escalation ladder.
12:42
A terrorist attack inside Pakistan
12:44
leads Islamabad to blame militants operating from Afghanistan.
12:48
Pakistan strikes across the border.
12:50
The Afghan Taliban responds,
12:52
and suddenly what began as an internal security crisis
12:55
risks becoming another round of direct
12:57
fighting between two neighboring countries,
13:00
one of them
13:00
a nuclear armed nation.
13:03
And that my friends,
13:04
is the PDB afternoon bulletin for Friday,
13:07
the 18th of September.
13:08
Now,
13:08
if you have any questions or comments,
13:10
and I hope you do,
13:10
just reach out to me at PDB@thefirstv.com.
13:14
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13:15
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And finally,
13:23
you may have noticed that today is Friday,
13:26
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13:28
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13:29
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Anyhow,
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You can also catch it and past episodes of The Situation Report
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I'm Mike Baker and I'll be back tomorrow with the PDB situation report.
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Until then,
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