Latest / The President's Daily Brief / PDB Afternoon Bulletin | October 15th, 2026: Trump May Unleash the "Mother of All Bombs" on Iran & Hundreds of U.S. Troops Sent to Panama

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PDB Afternoon Bulletin | October 15th, 2026: Trump May Unleash the "Mother of All Bombs" on Iran & Hundreds of U.S. Troops Sent to Panama · The President's Daily Brief

• 0:11
  It's Thursday,
• 0:12
  the 15th of October.
• 0:14
  Welcome to the PDB afternoon bulletin.
• 0:17
  I'm Mike Baker,
• 0:18
  your eyes and ears on the world stage.
• 0:20
  Alright,
• 0:21
  let's get briefed.
• 0:22
  First up,
• 0:23
  the Pentagon is reportedly considering the use of the
• 0:27
  so-called mother of all bombs against Iran
• 0:30
  as Washington prepares options for another round of devastating strikes.
• 0:35
  Later in the show,
• 0:36
  the Pentagon is sending hundreds of US troops to Panama
• 0:39
  as it expands its campaign against Latin American drug cartels.
• 0:43
  But first,
• 0:44
  today's afternoon spotlight.
• 0:46
  The Pentagon is reportedly considering unleashing one of the
• 0:49
  most powerful conventional weapons in the American arsenal against Iran
• 0:54
  as military planners prepare options for another
• 0:56
  round of strikes against the Islamic Republic.
• 0:59
  According to an exclusive report from CNN,
• 1:02
  those options include the possible use
• 1:04
  of the GBU 43B massive ordnance Air blast bomb,
• 1:09
  better known as the Mother of All Bombs or MOAB,
• 1:13
  because of course the
• 1:14
  mother of all bombs is going to have the mother of all acronyms.
• 1:19
  It's a weapon weighing more than 21,000 pounds,
• 1:22
  capable of producing an enormous explosion across a wide area,
• 1:26
  and according to multiple American officials familiar with the planning.
• 1:29
  It could be used as part of a new
• 1:31
  military operation targeting Iran's nuclear and energy infrastructure.
• 1:37
  Now,
• 1:37
  President Trump has
• 1:38
  said that he will not resume strikes against Iran
• 1:41
  before the November 3rd midterm elections in the US.
• 1:45
  And there's no indication that he's actually authorized the
• 1:48
  use of this particular weapon.
• 1:50
  But the military is preparing its options,
• 1:52
  and some of them would represent a significant escalation in a war that
• 1:56
  has already stretched on for more than 7 months.
• 2:00
  The MOAB was developed ahead of the American invasion of Iraq in 2003.
• 2:05
  But it was not used in combat
• 2:08
  until April 2017,
• 2:10
  when the Trump administration dropped one on
• 2:12
  an ISIS tunnel complex in eastern Afghanistan.
• 2:16
  The explosion was extraordinary,
• 2:18
  but there's an important distinction here.
• 2:20
  Despite its enormous size,
• 2:22
  the MOAB isn't,
• 2:23
  uh,
• 2:23
  what's known as a bunker buster.
• 2:25
  It's designed to produce a massive blast above the ground,
• 2:28
  devastating personnel and structures across a wide area.
• 2:32
  That's different from the specialized penetrator bombs that the US has used
• 2:37
  against Iran's deeply buried nuclear facilities.
• 2:40
  According to CNN,
• 2:41
  one of the potential targets
• 2:43
  being discussed is Pickaxe Mountain.
• 2:45
  That's a heavily fortified underground complex
• 2:48
  that American and Israeli intelligence officials
• 2:51
  believe is connected to Iran's nuclear program.
• 2:54
  The problem is that nobody seems particularly confident that a MOA
• 2:59
  could actually destroy what's buried beneath that mountain.
• 3:03
  Some officials reportedly believe the weapon
• 3:05
  could still have value,
• 3:06
  even if it can't penetrate the facility itself.
• 3:09
  The sheer scale of the explosion
• 3:11
  could send a message to Tehran
• 3:13
  about what the US is prepared to do.
• 3:16
  In other words,
• 3:17
  the psychological impact
• 3:18
  may be part of the calculation,
• 3:20
  but the planning reportedly extends beyond
• 3:23
  this particular ordinance.
• 3:24
  CNN reports that President Trump has requested additional strike
• 3:28
  packages targeting substantial portions of Iran's energy infrastructure.
• 3:33
  In one scenario
• 3:34
  under discussion reportedly
• 3:36
  involves launching a major round of attacks before
• 3:39
  beginning to withdraw American forces from the region.
• 3:42
  That would be a very different approach
• 3:44
  from maintaining the current military pressure indefinitely.
• 3:47
  According to this scenario,
• 3:49
  the US would deliver
• 3:50
  another powerful blow,
• 3:52
  potentially targeting some of Iran's most important economic and military assets
• 3:56
  before then reducing its presence.
• 3:59
  Now,
• 3:59
  whether that would bring Tehran back to the negotiating
• 4:01
  table or convince Iranian leaders to retaliate even more aggressively
• 4:06
  is another question entirely.
• 4:08
  For now,
• 4:09
  there have been no signs that the current military buildup or the talk of
• 4:13
  renewed US military operations is pushing the
• 4:16
  Iranian regime to the negotiating table.
• 4:19
  Speaking Wednesday night,
• 4:20
  Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagahaliba
• 4:23
  said Tehran intends to continue using its military capabilities,
• 4:27
  diplomatic negotiations,
• 4:29
  and regional leverage to pressure Washington.
• 4:32
  Iran wants the American naval blockade lifted,
• 4:35
  sanctions eased,
• 4:36
  and US military forces withdrawn from the region.
• 4:39
  And while Iranian leaders insist they
• 4:41
  don't want an endless war,
• 4:43
  they're also making clear they have no intention of accepting Washington's terms
• 4:48
  simply because the US possesses overwhelming military firepower.
• 4:52
  Meanwhile,
• 4:53
  Iran continues its campaign of targeting commercial
• 4:55
  shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.
• 4:58
  Two cargo vessels have now sunk following separate Iranian attacks.
• 5:02
  It's another indication
• 5:03
  that the regime remains capable of
• 5:05
  inflicting serious damage on international commerce
• 5:08
  despite months of American military operations.
• 5:11
  According to Reuters,
• 5:12
  the Singapore flagged container ship GFS Pride
• 5:15
  was attacked on Tuesday,
• 5:17
  the 13th of October.
• 5:18
  The vessel caught fire and subsequently sank,
• 5:21
  although all 21 crew members managed to escape safely.
• 5:25
  The second vessel,
• 5:26
  the Cape Doo,
• 5:27
  that was attacked back on the 23rd of September
• 5:30
  and finally sank this week after sustaining extensive damage.
• 5:34
  One crew member died following that attack.
• 5:37
  These represent the 2nd and 3rd commercial vessels
• 5:40
  reportedly sunk since the war began in February.
• 5:44
  But the largest story is really about how Iran's tactics are changing.
• 5:49
  Reuters reports that the regime has
• 5:50
  deliberately intensified its attacks on commercial shipping
• 5:54
  ahead of the US midterm elections,
• 5:56
  hoping to keep energy prices elevated
• 5:59
  and increase the economic pressure on Washington.
• 6:02
  And the Iranians aren't limiting themselves to oil tankers.
• 6:05
  They're increasingly targeting other commercial vessels,
• 6:08
  threatening to disrupt a much broader range of maritime trade.
• 6:12
  According to one American official,
• 6:13
  the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps,
• 6:15
  the IRGC,
• 6:17
  has also adapted to the destruction of much of its radar infrastructure
• 6:21
  by deploying small unarmed boats to identify potential targets.
• 6:26
  Those boats can observe passing vessels and then
• 6:28
  relay information to Iranian forces operating elsewhere.
• 6:31
  It's a relatively simple,
• 6:33
  low-tech tactic.
• 6:34
  But one that illustrates the difficulty
• 6:36
  of eliminating Iran's ability to threaten shipping
• 6:39
  even after destroying large portions
• 6:41
  of its conventional military infrastructure,
• 6:44
  and Tehran has reportedly been expanding its
• 6:47
  operations beyond the Strait of Hormuz,
• 6:49
  raising the possibility
• 6:50
  that additional shipping lanes in the Gulf of Oman
• 6:53
  and surrounding waters could come under attack.
• 6:57
  So,
• 6:57
  the US is considering another devastating round of strikes,
• 7:01
  potentially involving one of the largest conventional bombs ever used in combat.
• 7:05
  Iran,
• 7:05
  meanwhile,
• 7:07
  is responding with a campaign
• 7:08
  designed to make the war increasingly expensive for Washington
• 7:12
  and its regional partners.
• 7:14
  Coming up next,
• 7:15
  hundreds of US soldiers are heading to Panama
• 7:18
  as Washington ramps up military operations against drug traffickers.
• 7:22
  I'll be right back.
• 7:24
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• 7:24
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• 10:22
  The US is sending hundreds of soldiers to Latin America
• 10:25
  as President Trump expands his campaign against drug cartels.
• 10:29
  It's a deployment on a scale rarely seen in
• 10:32
  the region outside of an invasion or disaster response.
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  The first elements of a roughly 600 soldier
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  battalion from the Army's 10th Mountain Division.
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  Have begun deploying from Fort Drum,
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  New York,
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  and that's according to US military officials
• 10:46
  who told The New York Times
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  their immediate assignment is to train regional allies,
• 10:51
  but some of these soldiers could also support American military advisers
• 10:55
  helping local forces take the fight to drug trafficking organizations.
• 10:59
  Reportedly this effort will start in Panama at a new jungle training facility.
• 11:04
  Where the soldiers will take part in
• 11:06
  exercises before moving farther into the region,
• 11:09
  from there troops will head to Colombia for southern vanguard.
• 11:13
  That's an exercise scheduled to begin later this month,
• 11:16
  while other rotations will move into Honduras
• 11:18
  to train alongside local forces there.
• 11:21
  But the potential mission extends beyond those exercises.
• 11:25
  US special operations troops are advising local militaries
• 11:28
  conducting raids against suspected drug traffickers.
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  Officials say soldiers from the 10th Mountain Division
• 11:34
  could provide additional security
• 11:36
  for the US helicopters supporting those forces.
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  If the advisers get into trouble,
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  then those troops could also be called upon to respond.
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  The officials who spoke anonymously to discuss operational matters
• 11:48
  say these are temporary rotations.
• 11:51
  Still,
• 11:51
  they could become a more permanent feature
• 11:54
  of America's military presence in the region as the
• 11:57
  White House expands its pressure on the cartels.
• 12:00
  That effort also requires people coordinating the mission,
• 12:03
  which is why the buildup extends beyond the soldiers
• 12:06
  heading into Latin America.
• 12:08
  Several 100 additional troops from the 10th Mountain Division
• 12:12
  are expected to help staff a new Western Hemisphere Command in Miami.
• 12:17
  The Pentagon has also established
• 12:18
  an office overseeing counter-cartel activities.
• 12:22
  Southern Command meanwhile
• 12:23
  announced a joint task Force Western Hemisphere in August
• 12:27
  under Marine Major General Kevin Gerrard
• 12:29
  to coordinate the expanding campaign with regional allies.
• 12:33
  The Pentagon has also moved
• 12:35
  several MQ-9 Reaper drones from Africa
• 12:38
  into Colombia and Ecuador.
• 12:40
  Those moves show how Washington
• 12:42
  is building on the existing campaign at sea,
• 12:45
  putting more personnel,
• 12:46
  equipment,
• 12:47
  and coordination
• 12:48
  behind the effort to confront the trafficking networks.
• 12:51
  PDB listeners will be familiar with that maritime campaign.
• 12:55
  For roughly a year,
• 12:56
  the US military has been striking vessels in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific
• 13:00
  that it says were transporting drugs.
• 13:03
  So far
• 13:04
  that has included 71 boat strikes,
• 13:07
  killing at least 239 people.
• 13:10
  General Francis Donovan,
• 13:11
  the top US military commander for most of Latin America,
• 13:14
  has said the US plans to expand land strikes,
• 13:18
  and that raises a practical question
• 13:20
  which governments will let American forces operate inside their countries?
• 13:25
  The Trump administration has spent months pressing regional leaders
• 13:29
  to step up their military offensives against trafficking groups
• 13:32
  and to permit joint operations with the US.
• 13:36
  Washington has assembled an eighteen-country coalition
• 13:39
  committed to helping dismantle cartels,
• 13:42
  but signing on to that effort is different from authorizing American operations
• 13:47
  on their own territory.
• 13:49
  So far only a handful of governments have formally agreed
• 13:53
  to those joint operations.
• 13:55
  Colombia and Honduras are among them.
• 13:57
  Both have pivoted from left wing governments
• 14:00
  and elected conservative presidents endorsed by President Trump.
• 14:04
  That reflects a broader political shift across Latin America
• 14:08
  where voters have elected leaders promising to confront criminal organizations
• 14:12
  and restore public safety.
• 14:15
  Those changes give Washington an opening to work
• 14:18
  more closely with governments willing to confront the cartels
• 14:22
  for the soldiers now deploying
• 14:24
  those assignments remain training and support,
• 14:27
  but their arrival does put more American military muscle
• 14:31
  behind US efforts
• 14:32
  to help the regional partners take on the cartels.
• 14:36
  And that my friends is the PDB afternoon bulletin for Thursday,
• 14:40
  the 15th of October.
• 14:41
  If you have any questions or comments,
• 14:42
  and I hope you do,
• 14:43
  just reach out to me
• 14:44
  at PDB@hefirsttv.com
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  and to listen to the show ad-free,
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• 14:56
  I'm Mike Baker and I'll be back tomorrow.
• 14:59
  Until then,
• 15:00
  stay informed,
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  stay safe,
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