Latest / The President's Daily Brief / September 2nd, 2026: U.S. and Iran Exchange a New Round of Strikes & Russia Accused on German Soil

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September 2nd, 2026: U.S. and Iran Exchange a New Round of Strikes & Russia Accused on German Soil · The President's Daily Brief

0:14
It's Wednesday,
0:15
the 2nd of September.
0:16
Welcome to the President's Daily Brief.
0:18
I'm Mike Baker,
0:19
your eyes and ears on the world stage.
0:22
All right,
0:23
let's get briefed.
0:24
First up,
0:25
the conflict with Iran
0:26
flares up yet again
0:28
as the US and Iran exchange a new round of strikes,
0:31
and President Trump warns that something much larger could follow.
0:35
Later in the show,
0:36
Germany formally accuses Russia of targeting a Ukrainian cargo plane
0:41
with explosive-laden drones on German soil,
0:45
and Berlin
0:46
is already retaliating.
0:48
Plus,
0:48
Mexican cartels are increasingly deploying car bombs,
0:51
explosive drones,
0:53
and landmines as their war against the country's security forces
0:57
grows more militarized.
0:59
Now is it just me?
1:00
Or does it seem like 2026 is turning into a fairly sizable goat rope?
1:06
And in today's back of the brief,
1:07
another senior Pentagon official
1:09
makes for the exit
1:10
as Army Secretary Dan Driscoll resigns after clashing with Secretary of War
1:16
Pete Hegseth.
1:17
But first,
1:17
in today's PDB spotlight.
1:20
The rinse wash repeat cycle of strikes between the US and Iran continues.
1:25
The latest round began Tuesday afternoon following
1:28
limited exchanges of missiles and drones on Sunday
1:31
when American forces launched a broader attack against Iran.
1:35
Tehran answered several hours later with missiles and drones of its own.
1:39
The exchange marks the decisive end of a month-long pause in direct fighting
1:45
and returns the conflict to the dangerous pattern that
1:47
has defined much of the past six months.
1:50
Let's begin with what we know about the American operation.
1:54
US Central Command says the strikes began at noon
1:56
Eastern on Tuesday
1:58
and targeted forces belonging to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
2:01
That of course would be the IRGC because,
2:04
you know,
2:04
the regime does love acronyms as much as anyone.
2:07
CENTCOM says the operation was launched in response to attempted
2:11
Iranian attacks against commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz
2:14
and American service members deployed across the region.
2:17
Iranian media reported explosions near Kashem Island,
2:20
which sits inside the Strait of Hormuz,
2:23
and has become central to the regime's
2:25
campaign to control traffic through the waterway.
2:28
Explosions were also reported around Bandar Abbas,
2:31
the headquarters of Iran's conventional navy,
2:33
such as it is,
2:34
and a major hub for the Revolutionary Guard's maritime forces.
2:38
President Trump says American forces
2:40
specifically targeted Iranian radar systems.
2:43
He told Fox News that the regime
2:45
had been attempting to restore radar capabilities previously destroyed by the US
2:50
Trump said,
2:51
quote,
2:51
We waited until it was almost built,
2:53
and then we hit it.
2:56
That detail provides the clearest indication of
2:58
what Washington was trying to accomplish.
3:01
Iran relies,
3:02
of course,
3:02
on radars and coastal surveillance systems to monitor ships entering the Strait.
3:07
Coordinate its missile and drone forces and
3:09
track American military activity in the region.
3:12
By destroying those systems.
3:14
Washington is attempting to keep Iran,
3:16
uh,
3:16
partially blind
3:18
and make it more difficult for the regime
3:20
to threaten commercial vessels using the waterway.
3:23
As we reported yesterday on the PDB,
3:26
American forces struck Iranian rocket launchers on Larik Island on Sunday
3:30
after CENTCOM said the Revolutionary Guard were preparing to
3:34
fire rockets carrying additional naval mines into the Strait.
3:38
Iran responded by launching 8 missiles toward American positions in Jordan,
3:43
and all 8 were reportedly intercepted.
3:46
The UAE also says that it intercepted an Iranian drone over its territorial waters.
3:52
And then late Monday
3:53
two super tankers carrying Saudi oil were struck by unidentified projectiles
3:58
minutes apart while leaving the Strait of Hormuz.
4:01
Each tanker was carrying approximately
4:03
2 million barrels of crude.
4:05
Their crews were reported safe,
4:07
and
4:08
neither vessel suffered significant damage.
4:11
Now no one has claimed responsibility,
4:12
and neither Washington nor Riyadh
4:14
has publicly identified the attacker.
4:17
Well,
4:17
how about that?
4:18
If only
4:19
We had a clue as to who might have fired missiles
4:22
or drones at ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz.
4:24
Who could it be?
4:26
Trump made it clear on Monday that another American response was coming,
4:30
and Tuesday's barrage was that response.
4:33
Several hours later,
4:34
Iran
4:35
fired back again.
4:36
The Associated Press reports that Tehran launched missiles
4:38
and drones in retaliation for the American strikes.
4:42
Air raid sirens were activated in several areas of Jordan,
4:45
but at the time of this recording
4:47
there were no verifiable details on the scope and scale of Iran's response,
4:52
nor specifically what facilities were targeted.
4:55
The Revolutionary Guard also claims it shot
4:57
down another American MQ-9 Reaper drone,
5:00
and the US has not confirmed that claim.
5:03
Before Iran retaliated,
5:05
Trump warned that any response would result in the country being hit again
5:09
at what he called a much harder and higher level.
5:13
He added that
5:14
an even larger attack was waiting in the wings and warned that when it was over,
5:19
very little would remain of the Islamic Republic.
5:21
Iran,
5:23
well,
5:23
responded anyway.
5:24
The renewed fighting is also closing the
5:26
door on what little diplomatic effort remained.
5:29
Was there any remaining?
5:30
Only hours before Tuesday's American strikes,
5:33
Iranian President Massoud Pazashkian,
5:35
for his own reasons,
5:36
offered to return to the memorandum of understanding or
5:39
misunderstanding that Tehran and Washington reached back in June.
5:43
That agreement
5:44
called for an immediate ceasefire and 60 days of negotiations.
5:47
That of course didn't happen.
5:49
Iran had agreed to clear mines from Hormuz and permit ships to pass,
5:53
while Washington agreed to end its blockade,
5:55
ease sanctions,
5:56
and allow Iranian oil exports to resume.
5:59
Iran,
6:00
as you may recall,
6:01
failed to reopen the strait,
6:03
failed to clear any mines,
6:04
and simply used the pause
6:06
to rebuild damaged facilities and move their own oil tankers through the strait.
6:12
Pokian said that if the US returned to its commitments,
6:15
Iran would immediately do the same,
6:17
but Trump dismissed that possibility.
6:20
He told Fox News that an agreement with the Iranian regime is not worth
6:24
the paper it's written on,
6:26
adding that Washington had already given the Iranian regime
6:29
plenty of chances.
6:31
Now while the Iranian president,
6:32
who may or may not have any authority within the regime,
6:35
pays lip service to diplomacy,
6:37
Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps,
6:39
which appears to be the primary decision maker within the regime,
6:43
continues attacking American forces and threatening commercial shipping.
6:47
And at the center of it all remains the Strait of Hormuz.
6:51
Now it doesn't seem that long ago when this whole conflict
6:53
was supposedly about preventing Iran from having a nuclear weapon,
6:57
but really since the start and up until today,
7:01
it's been all about the Strait of Hormuz.
7:03
Iran says that if it can't export oil from the Persian Gulf,
7:07
no one else will be allowed to export oil either.
7:10
Commercial traffic through the strait has fallen to a fraction of its normal level,
7:14
and the latest tanker attacks have made an already
7:16
dangerous route even harder to insure and navigate.
7:20
Oil prices are climbing again as markets consider the possibility
7:23
of a sustained military campaign.
7:26
The Iranian regime,
7:27
whomever is in charge,
7:29
seems content to maintain an aggressive posture with no sign of compromise or
7:33
caving in to Washington's demands.
7:36
They appear to believe that they can wait out President Trump,
7:39
likely believing
7:40
that the domestic US political pressure,
7:43
gas prices,
7:44
and the general mood of the American people
7:46
will force the White House to give in and make concessions.
7:50
The White House at the same time
7:52
believes that they can maintain the economic pressure
7:54
and carry out targeted military strikes,
7:57
stopping just short of a return to full-on war,
8:00
for long enough
8:01
that the regime will either collapse or the
8:03
leadership will compromise out of a combination of self-interest
8:07
and survival instincts.
8:08
It is the classic definition
8:11
of a staring contest.
8:13
All right.
8:13
Coming up next,
8:14
Germany retaliates after blaming Russia for targeting
8:18
a Ukrainian cargo plane with explosive drones.
8:21
And Mexican cartels escalate their violence
8:24
with car bombs and landmines.
8:27
I'll be right back.
8:29
Hey,
8:29
Mike Baker here.
8:31
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Welcome back to the PDB.
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I've been talking quite a bit lately about
9:41
Russia's shadow war against the European Union.
9:44
Well,
9:44
Germany
9:45
has now taken that confrontation another step forward.
9:48
Berlin is putting the blame on the Kremlin for
9:50
a drone incursion last month on German territory,
9:53
as suspected sabotage hits Germany's power grid,
9:56
as well as a Polish drone factory supplying Ukraine.
9:59
Now some of you PDB listeners may remember the drone
10:02
incident at Leipzig Halle Airport on the 4th of August.
10:05
3 drones were spotted around the airport,
10:08
2 carrying explosives,
10:10
with 1 found near a Ukrainian Antonov cargo plane used to transport munitions.
10:16
That last detail is important considering how much of Russia's hybrid campaign is
10:20
focused on disrupting the infrastructure,
10:22
helping keep Ukraine in the fight.
10:25
But Berlin isn't blaming Moscow simply because a
10:27
Ukrainian military transport happened to be nearby.
10:31
Germany's Interior Minister.
10:33
Says investigators examined the drone's configuration components,
10:37
explosives,
10:37
and cyber
10:38
technology involved.
10:39
Taken together,
10:40
he says Berlin recognized the same engineering
10:43
that it's seen in other Russian hybrid
10:46
operations and Moscow's war against Ukraine.
10:49
His conclusion was unusually direct,
10:51
quote,
10:52
The government has therefore concluded
10:54
that Russia is responsible for the hybrid attack in Leipzig.
10:58
The Kremlin,
10:59
predictably,
10:59
this is no shock,
11:00
has
11:01
dismissed the accusation as a fabricated provocation.
11:05
Nothing to see here.
11:06
We're all about peace.
11:08
But Berlin isn't just pointing the finger,
11:10
issuing a hardly worded memo and moving on.
11:12
In this case,
11:13
Germany is retaliating.
11:15
The country's foreign minister says Berlin will close Russia's consulate in Bonn
11:19
on September 18th,
11:21
tighten entry restrictions for Russian nationals,
11:23
and
11:23
terminate the agreement governing the Russia House in Berlin.
11:26
That's a Russian cultural center.
11:28
Suspected of serving as an espionage hub,
11:31
Berlin also wants the EU to
11:32
sanction additional Russians connected to hybrid attacks
11:36
and increase pressure on Moscow's shadow fleet.
11:39
EU foreign ministers are meeting in Ireland today,
11:42
with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen,
11:45
saying the bloc's foreign ministers will take up additional sanctions.
11:48
What's unusual here is how definitively Germany is assigning responsibility
11:53
and immediately imposing consequences.
11:56
And under Chancellor Friedrich Merz,
11:58
who has described Germany as neither at war nor at peace with Russia,
12:01
that represents another hardening of Berlin's approach toward Moscow.
12:06
But what was happening elsewhere in Germany makes this even more concerning.
12:10
Authorities were dealing with another apparent act of sabotage,
12:13
this time targeting Germany's power grid.
12:16
Officials in the eastern state of Brandenburg
12:18
say specially designed rockets carrying conductive material
12:22
were fired into extra high voltage power lines,
12:24
causing two short circuits.
12:26
Investigators found the debris of numerous explosive devices,
12:29
and officials say
12:30
setting up an attack like this would have required significant work.
12:34
There was a brief outage as a result of the incident,
12:37
but the broader electricity supply
12:39
was never disrupted.
12:41
Investigators are considering both foreign
12:43
involvement and possible domestic extremists,
12:46
including left-wing activists who've
12:47
previously targeted power infrastructure.
12:50
And then,
12:51
well,
12:51
there's Poland.
12:53
Early Monday,
12:53
a fire broke out at a drone production facility owned by a Polish manufacturer.
12:58
Those drones are used by the Ukrainian military,
13:01
and Polish officials believe the fire was deliberately set.
13:04
Yeah,
13:04
you might not have to be Clouseau to come up with that possibility.
13:08
Poland's interior minister says,
13:09
quote,
13:09
Everything indicates that we were dealing with an act of sabotage.
13:13
The fire caused an estimated $4 million in damage,
13:16
and prosecutors are investigating whether
13:18
foreign intelligence services were involved.
13:21
Poland for now has not publicly blamed Russia,
13:24
but the incidents are unfolding against a much larger campaign of
13:28
hybrid warfare
13:29
that European governments say Russia has been waging across the continent,
13:34
and there's a reason this kind of warfare is so useful to the Kremlin.
13:38
Directly attacking the NATO countries,
13:40
of course supplying Ukraine would
13:41
risk a confrontation with an alliance that is far more powerful than Moscow.
13:46
Hybrid warfare gives the Kremlin
13:48
another option
13:49
disrupt Ukraine's supply lines,
13:51
damage the industries supporting its war effort,
13:54
and force NATO governments to spend more resources defending themselves,
13:57
all while preserving the,
13:59
well,
14:00
somewhat ridiculous facade of who's responsible,
14:03
plausible deniability for morons.
14:06
OK,
14:06
I want to shift now to Mexico,
14:08
as
14:08
some of the country's drug cartels are increasingly
14:11
using the kinds of weapons and tactics that you'd
14:13
expect from an insurgency.
14:16
What happened Sunday in the central state of Zacatecas provides a clear example.
14:20
A suspected car bomb detonated outside
14:22
police headquarters in the town of Ojocaliente
14:24
after authorities say the vehicle had been abandoned there.
14:28
The blast injured at least 11 people,
14:30
including 2 police officers,
14:31
and damaged roughly 40 buildings.
14:34
Initial reports suggest a cartel planted the bomb in
14:36
retaliation for the arrest of one of its members
14:39
just a day earlier,
14:41
and state officials say this wasn't an isolated bombing.
14:44
It's the latest example
14:45
of Mexican cartels increasingly turning to explosives
14:49
as part of the way they operate their methodology.
14:52
Governor of Zacatecas David Monreal says
14:55
Sunday's explosion
14:56
follows nearly a dozen similar incidents,
14:59
including
15:00
attacks involving small drones loaded with explosives and landmines.
15:04
Zacatecas recorded only one such attack in 2024,
15:08
but that number jumped to 6 last year,
15:10
and so far this year
15:11
authorities have already counted 10.
15:14
Other violence plagued states,
15:16
including neighboring Mitchell Cotton,
15:17
have seen cartels and criminal groups use explosives against communities.
15:21
Law enforcement and security facilities,
15:25
as Monreal put it,
15:26
quote,
15:26
organized crime is evolving.
15:28
I don't understand why people aren't grasping the full extent
15:31
of what's happening in the country,
15:32
end quote.
15:34
And while local officials now openly warning about that evolution,
15:38
Mexico's central government
15:40
has not commented on this latest rise in violence
15:43
and the evolving attack methodologies
15:45
being used by the cartels.
15:48
All right.
15:48
Coming up in the back of the brief,
15:50
Army Secretary Dan Driscoll resigns following
15:53
months of reported friction and tension
15:55
with the US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth,
15:57
primarily over
15:59
military readiness and modernization.
16:02
More on that
16:03
when we come back.
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In today's back of the brief,
18:10
the US Army is losing its top civilian leader in the middle of
18:13
a war and amid an increasingly public power struggle inside the Pentagon.
18:18
Army Secretary Dan Driscoll has submitted his resignation
18:21
after just 18 months on the job.
18:24
President Trump accepted it Monday evening.
18:27
Now the White House didn't provide an official reason for Driscoll's departure,
18:30
instead praising his leadership during military operations,
18:33
his focus on readiness,
18:34
and his unusual role
18:36
in negotiations between Russia and Ukraine.
18:39
But according to multiple reports,
18:41
Driscoll's resignation follows months of tension
18:44
with Secretary of War Pete Hegseth
18:46
over the Army's leadership and the direction of its modernization efforts.
18:50
Driscoll came into the Pentagon promising to make the army faster,
18:54
cheaper,
18:54
and better prepared
18:55
for a battlefield increasingly dominated by drones.
18:59
An Iraq War veteran and former technology investor,
19:02
he pushed the Army to purchase inexpensive weapons more quickly,
19:06
expand its drone and counter drone capabilities,
19:09
and reduce its dependence on major defense contractors.
19:13
He once accused America's largest military suppliers of having
19:16
conned the American people and the Pentagon
19:18
and the Army.
19:20
In April,
19:21
Hegseth abruptly fired Army Chief of Staff General Randy George,
19:24
who
19:25
had worked closely with Driscoll
19:27
on the Army's transformation.
19:29
Driscoll later told Congress that he had not been told why George was removed
19:33
and that his family drove to the general's home afterwards to
19:36
give him a hug.
19:37
Well,
19:37
that's nice.
19:38
Hegseth also removed the commander of army forces in Europe and Africa
19:42
and reportedly blocked the promotions of several senior army officers.
19:46
More recently,
19:47
the Army's acting chief of staff ordered a unit in Europe
19:50
to abandon an experimental program that allowed soldiers to build
19:54
their own drones and return to its traditional infantry role.
19:58
Driscoll reportedly raised concerns with the administration that
20:01
those decisions were interfering with army modernization and readiness.
20:06
Reuters reports that
20:07
Hegseth had viewed Driscoll as a threat
20:10
inside the Pentagon
20:11
and had wanted him removed for some time.
20:14
Driscoll's friendship with Vice President JD Vance
20:16
reportedly made that more difficult.
20:19
Well,
20:19
now he's leaving anyway,
20:21
and another senior Army official focused on innovation
20:24
is reportedly expected to follow him.
20:27
Now the army already lacks a Senate confirmed chief of staff.
20:30
It will now also lose its Senate confirmed secretary,
20:33
while American soldiers remain deployed across the Middle East
20:37
and the service races to adapt to the lessons
20:40
emerging from Ukraine.
20:42
And that,
20:43
my friends,
20:44
is the president's daily brief for Wednesday,
20:46
the 2nd of September.
20:47
If you have any questions or comments,
20:48
and I hope you do,
20:49
just reach out to me at PDB@thefirstv.com,
20:52
and I hope you'll take a moment to stop by our YouTube channel.
20:56
Oddly enough,
20:56
you can find that on YouTube.
20:58
Just search up at President's Daily Brief,
21:01
and if you like what you see,
21:02
well,
21:02
consider hitting that subscribe button.
21:05
I'm Mike Baker,
21:05
and I'll be back later today with the PDB
21:08
afternoon bulletin.
21:09
Until then,
21:10
stay informed,
21:11
stay safe.
21:12
Stay cool.