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Trump considering an Iran attack 'bigger than ever before' · INSIGHT TODAY

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Pay up.
• 0:01
  Speaker 2: That's what Trump is demanding of Iran as it launches
• 0:03
  Speaker 2: new strikes.
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Tonight.
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: In oppost, Trump just put out he said, quote, please
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: let this statement serve to represent until further notice that
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  Speaker 2: from this point forth, any and all damages done to
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: ship's cargo or anything related there too, will be paid
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  Speaker 2: for by Iranian money that the United States has in
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  Speaker 2: its possession and controls. These damages may be very substantial,
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  Speaker 2: but nevertheless, this is the fair and equitable.
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  Speaker 1: Thing to do.
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  Speaker 2: Now, It's worth noting that this is the same man
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  Speaker 2: who said he was going to give Iran its money
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  Speaker 2: back as part of the MoU right, that was the
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  Speaker 2: whole thing.
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  Speaker 1: He was giving them this money back. He actually said.
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  Speaker 2: This is that our money. It's their money, and we
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  Speaker 2: froze it at a certain point in time.
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: It's not our money, it's their money. Those are his words. Now.
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  Speaker 2: Trump's claim about where the money is going to come
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  Speaker 2: comes after he has just leveled another massive threat, telling
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  Speaker 2: Axios quote, I am considering a massive attack, bigger than
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  Speaker 2: ever before. I am close to making a decision. We're
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  Speaker 2: all set for it. What are you hearing about? Where
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  Speaker 2: his head is tonight, and frankly, how quickly he keeps
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  Speaker 2: changing his mind.
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  Speaker 3: Well, Eric, I mean, as you said, it's five months
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  Speaker 3: and counting, and their end is not anywhere in sight.
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  Speaker 3: First of all, you have Secretary of State Mark or
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  Speaker 3: Rubio saying things like Iran is begging to get to
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  Speaker 3: the table, something we've heard from President Trump too. But
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  Speaker 3: then President Trump today saying he doesn't think Iran is
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  Speaker 3: ready for a deal, even going further than that, saying
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  Speaker 3: they need more of the same. Well, more of the
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  Speaker 3: same likely is referring to the fact that we've had
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  Speaker 3: twelve consecutive nights of bombings in Iran. But our reporting
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  Speaker 3: today that the CIA and the DEIA, the Defense Intelligence Agency,
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  Speaker 3: have recently assessed that this kind of bombing that the
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  Speaker 3: US is doing every single night is unlikely to move
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  Speaker 3: Iran's negotiating position. So what exactly is it that President
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  Speaker 3: Trump is trying to do? And we've heard this kind
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  Speaker 3: of rhetoric from him before. Now when we've talked to
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  Speaker 3: US officials, they have said that Trump has yet to
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  Speaker 3: sign off on the most aggressive military action. So is
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  Speaker 3: what he's trying to do get Iranians back to the
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  Speaker 3: negotiating table. It's really unclear at this point. But as
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  Speaker 3: you noted, he is making all of the moves setting
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  Speaker 3: up for a potential escalation in military operation. But what
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  Speaker 3: does that do for this war in Iran? What does
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  Speaker 3: that do for the American people? I can tell you
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  Speaker 3: from every conversation that I have from the with the
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  Speaker 3: White House, with White House officials, US officials, anyone close
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  Speaker 3: to President Trump, they do not want to be talking
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  Speaker 3: about this war. They do not want to be engaging
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  Speaker 3: in this war.
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  Speaker 1: They would take a ceasefire now.
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  Speaker 3: If they could just get a ceasefire, hope for the
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  Speaker 3: prices to kind of level and or at least go
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  Speaker 3: down a little bit, and then they could move on
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  Speaker 3: to talking about things like the economy. That's obviously not
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  Speaker 3: going to happen if President Trump escalates this.
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  Speaker 1: So is he willing to.
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  Speaker 3: Escalate this and potentially even put boots on the ground.
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  Speaker 1: We just aren't clear right.
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  Speaker 3: Now what the strategy is, and we're getting nothing from
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  Speaker 3: President Trump's orbit as to what he's going to do
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  Speaker 3: to break this impasse between Aran and the United States.
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  Speaker 3: At this point seems like it's just going to continue.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, all right, Kristin, thank you very much, and of course,
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  Speaker 2: just so much confusion on strategy and also what the
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  Speaker 2: end goal even is, what they actually want. Christof Kettle
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  Speaker 2: is here with the New York Times. Seth Jones is
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  Speaker 2: also here with me, and I know both of you
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  Speaker 2: have so much new information. So Seth, can I just
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  Speaker 2: start with you. I know you've been with You've been
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  Speaker 2: speaking to senior US officials. Are we about to see
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  Speaker 2: a massive escalation here, the bigger strikes, bigger action than
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  Speaker 2: since the war began.
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  Speaker 4: Well, Aaron, only one person knows the answer to that,
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  Speaker 4: and that is President Trump. Right now, I will tell
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  Speaker 4: you what the military has given him his options. They've
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  Speaker 4: given him options if he wants to open up the straight,
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  Speaker 4: this will be risky. They've given him air options. They've
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  Speaker 4: given him air plus naval options, so to put in
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  Speaker 4: naval vessels including potentially destroyers through the Strait, to bring
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  Speaker 4: in tankers and others, and then air plus naval plus
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  Speaker 4: ground options. So the president does have options if he
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  Speaker 4: wants to forcibly open up the Straight, it does have risks.
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  Speaker 4: That's where we're at right now.
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  Speaker 2: Which is an incredible moment. Christoph, let me ask you.
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  Speaker 2: You did this incredible visual investigation of what has actually happened,
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  Speaker 2: destruction at US military bases in the region, and what's happening,
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  Speaker 2: and with US troops dying in recent days, perhaps in
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  Speaker 2: part because of defenses on those bases being so severely compromised.
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  Speaker 2: Your reporting is so central, so you got images that
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  Speaker 2: are on had put out for propaganda purposes that you
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  Speaker 2: then went and verified what exactly is so damage to
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  Speaker 2: structures at the US Air base in Jordan, which we're
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  Speaker 2: looking at right here, that as well as damage at
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  Speaker 2: Tower twenty two, which is a US military out outpost
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  Speaker 2: on the northern Jordanian border up by Syria, and damage
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  Speaker 2: to US military attend in Erbial, Iraq, in Iraqi, Kurdistan.
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  Speaker 1: So what were you able to you learn from this?
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  Speaker 5: What we were able to learn from this is that
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  Speaker 5: Iran has a lot of firepower left, so they're able
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  Speaker 5: to conduct precision strikes. So if you look at the
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  Speaker 5: satellite images, you see that the targeting specific rad sides,
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  Speaker 5: drone shelters, airplane hangars, and so on, so they can
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  Speaker 5: conduct precision strikes and then inflicting very heavy damage. And
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  Speaker 5: of course, their most severe damage happened last week on Friday,
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  Speaker 5: when several of US service members were killed.
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  Speaker 1: Were killed in a terrible tragedy.
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  Speaker 2: By the way, I will note the Secretary of State
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  Speaker 2: Marco Rubio did not answer the question directly when he
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  Speaker 2: was asked yesterday if China was providing that targeting information.
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  Speaker 1: Obviously, we have.
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  Speaker 2: Reported that both China and Russia were helping provide much
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  Speaker 2: of that information early in the war. So, Seth, when
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  Speaker 2: you look at satellite images that you've been focused on
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  Speaker 2: on the Iranian side of things, right, you look at
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  Speaker 2: the ground there, you're seeing something pretty significant in Iran.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, this is the sort of dovetails with what we've
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  Speaker 4: just seen of damaged on the US side, which is
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  Speaker 4: we're seeing the Irani is actively rebuilding like busy bees.
• 6:03
  Speaker 4: They're rebuilding missile silos, they're they're building infrastructure sites. And
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  Speaker 4: what's important, Aaron, is that the Iranians have so much
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  Speaker 4: underground too, that that much of what they're having to
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  Speaker 4: do in some areas is just reopen areas where earth
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  Speaker 4: is just like shut off the tunnel. So it's like
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  Speaker 4: redigging excavation. And what appears to be the case is
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  Speaker 4: a lot of the US strikes are just not destroying
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  Speaker 4: those missile launchers. They're being their underground. The Shaheeds underground
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  Speaker 4: missiles themselves, crews are ballistic underground. That seems to be
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  Speaker 4: a strategy that has been successful for the Iranians so far.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, and I'll note Seth from you know, from your
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  Speaker 2: reporting and and and what we understand from reporting the
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  Speaker 2: New York Times state about the CIA, what two thirds
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  Speaker 2: of the missile capacity was in place? Those numbers, though,
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  Speaker 2: are now six eight weeks old, so who knows what
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  Speaker 2: has you know, even been added back on top of that.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, it's obviously unclear. Christoff, you were able to
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  Speaker 2: verify some of the with video, some of what Aron
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  Speaker 2: was putting out, including a video that Around had.
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  Speaker 1: Put out showing a strike on that air base in.
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  Speaker 2: Jordan, And so you say, let's just what we'll show
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  Speaker 2: this what would looked like to you that the explosion
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  Speaker 2: appeared to be pre fabricated housing.
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  Speaker 1: So you were able to sort of match this up.
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  Speaker 2: So can you talk about that how you were able
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  Speaker 2: to match up what we're actually seeing confirm if it's real.
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  Speaker 5: It's a very unusual footage, right, and it's actually showed
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  Speaker 5: probably by a us A soldier because it's inside the airbase.
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  Speaker 5: But what we are doing. Is we use this sort
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  Speaker 5: of footage as well as sealed imagery to match this
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  Speaker 5: up with each other, to match up buildings to check
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  Speaker 5: the damage when it actually occurred. Sealed imagery allows you
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  Speaker 5: to go back in time to make sure, like a
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  Speaker 5: week ago, this building was still standing. And that's how
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  Speaker 5: we very fine. That's how we can assess boast the
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  Speaker 5: damage up close, but also on the whole bas in this.
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  Speaker 1: Case, Seth, How vulnerable are US troops?
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  Speaker 2: I mean when you think about in the early days
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  Speaker 2: of the war, when virtually every thod missile defense system
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  Speaker 2: of the US had in the region was taken out
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  Speaker 2: except for maybe one, and now here we are seeing
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  Speaker 2: strikes like Christoph is going through on that air base
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  Speaker 2: in Jordan where US soldiers were killed in just the
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  Speaker 2: past few days.
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  Speaker 1: How vulnerable are US sites?
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  Speaker 2: I mean, how much of that missile defense and radar
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  Speaker 2: and all of these things that they've been taking out.
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  Speaker 2: How much of it has even been repaired on the
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  Speaker 2: US side?
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  Speaker 4: Well, Aaron, there does appear to be some effort to
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  Speaker 4: repair some of what the US has done. But I
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  Speaker 4: will tell you I was in Europe last week looking
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  Speaker 4: at an update on the war in Ukraine. What is
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  Speaker 4: striking that war has been going on for four and
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  Speaker 4: a half years is the Ukrainians have been targeted by
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  Speaker 4: missiles and drones for four and a half years. They
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  Speaker 4: have their bases underground, They've got a range of both
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  Speaker 4: point and area defense, so counter drone capabilities. The US
• 9:01
  Speaker 4: should have been better prepared when this war started for
• 9:04
  Speaker 4: these kinds of missiles, cruise ballistic missiles and drones. This
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  Speaker 4: was entirely predictable from what we've seen for four and
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  Speaker 4: a half years in Ukraine and how to defend against it.
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  Speaker 4: So having structures that are hittable and not underground is
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  Speaker 4: a major lesson from the war in Ukraine that was
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  Speaker 4: not moved over to the Persian Gulf right now