Trump Pivots Back to America First with New Israel-Iran War Cease-Fire Deal

President Donald Trump attacks Israel for flagrantly violating the cease-fire as White House bristles from leak of top secret DIA Battle Damage Assessment showing no Iran nuke sites were destroyed.

President Donald Trump addressing reports earlier this morning where he delivered a blistering critique of the State of Israel for its decision to violate his impressive cease-fire agreement which was meant to end the war between the US, Israel and Iran yesterday.

On Saturday night, President Trump ordered a large scale US bombing and missile strikes on three Iranian nuclear facilities which caused significant damage, but was not successful in destroying any of the three nuclear sites. While I strongly opposed President Trump’s decision to bomb Iran as unnecessary given the fact that there was no immediate threat posed by Iran to US national security, I am happy to concede that he did it in a way that carried the least risk to the US. With President Donald Trump’s outstanding cease-fire agreement yesterday, both the US and Israel agreed to Iran's main demands for a long-term cease-fire which are that Israel immediately cease all further attacks on Iran and that the US and Israel drop their demands for regime change and for Iran's unconditional surrender. Some have erroneously claimed that this was an unprecedented US victory and that Iran agreed to halt its nuclear weapons program in exchange for the cease-fire, however, that is not the case as it was not a written cease-fire agreement. Rather, the cease-fire was unconditional.

Asked whether he still supported regime change in Iran as he suggested he might with his Sunday Truth Social post, Politico reports that he wisely replied that he opposed regime change stating, “No, I don’t want it. I’d like to see everything calm down as quickly as possible. Regime change takes chaos and ideally we don’t want to see so much chaos.” Trump also told reporters that Russian leader Vladimir Putin had called to ask if he could help with Iran, adding that he told Putin: “I need help with you.”

During an interview on Brannon Howse Live four days before Trump bombed Iran, I stated that while I believed that a protracted US bombing campaign against Iran lasting longer than two weeks would carry a major risk of escalation to World War Three, “a more limited strike against just one target—maybe we pre-announce it—this is like one and done. Maybe we could get away with that” without any significant Iranian military retaliation. As it turns out, that is exactly what happened except Trump didn’t warn Iran in advance we were attacking just one target, he warned them we were going to attack three.

In my last article written the day after the US bombing strikes, I wanted to paint a comprehensive picture of all the possible worst case scenarios that could occur if Trump decided to continued his bombing strikes on Iran beyond the initial strikes on Saturday night. At the same time, it was becoming increasingly apparent to me that Iran likely would not retaliate in a major way if he opted not to do so and I stated the reason why I thought Iran might respond in a much more restrained way to Trump’s “one-off” attacks:

“An Iranian source has stated that President Trump gave Iran advance warning of sites he would attack and allowed Iran to fully evacuate them before bombing them telling them it would be a one-off attack in the event Iran did not retaliate militarily. This gave them two days to withdraw all the enriched uranium from those sites along with all Iranian nuclear scientists while not disclosing to them the planned timing of the attack. That may help explain why we haven’t seen Iran retaliate yet outside of closing the Strait of Hormuz. Given the above facts, it’s possible Iranian retaliation may end up being more restrained than I anticipated.”

Satellite images showed sixteen Iranian trucks lining up at the Fardow site twenty-four hours before the US airstrike to withdraw all of their weapons grade enriched uranium located there.

Yesterday morning, Iran responded with a largely symbolic attack clearly intended to de-escalate the conflict. Iran attacked the housing structures at largest US military base in Qatar, Al Udeid Air Base, which had been evacuated days earlier declaring that the number of missiles used in the attack matched the number of US bombs used in President Trump's bombing of Iran Saturday evening. There were no reported US military casualties. In his first comments in the aftermath, President Donald Trump thanked Iran "for giving us early notice, which made it possible for no lives to be lost, and nobody to be injured". He branded the attack "very weak" - no Americans were harmed and very little damage was done, he said. "They've gotten it all out of their system," he added and said there was now a chance for "peace".

So President Trump warned Iran a day or two in advance of US strikes which nuclear sites he planned to attack to allow them to evacuate all of their nuclear scientists and enriched weapons-grade uranium to make it seem as if the US had succeeded in obliterating Iran’s nuclear production capabilities. Vice President JD Vance even boasted the US strikes had set back their nuclear program “by years.” Then, Iran warned the US hours in advance of their planned attack on our deserted military base in Qatar in a dramatic night attack employing fourteen ballistic missiles to make it appear to the Iranian people that they were striking back hard. The fact that both sides gave each other advance warning of their attacks so as to avoid any casualties almost makes one wonder if both the US and Iranian attacks were mainly for show.

The largely symbolic Iranian retaliatory strike on the US military base in Qatar represented a best case scenario in terms of the potential Iranian retaliatory responses which range all the way up to a comprehensive nationwide super-EMP attack that could kill up to 250 million Americans within a year. Immediately following the Iranian missile strikes, I called on President Trump to negotiate an immediate cease-fire with Iran rather than make good on his pledge to order massive new military strikes on Iran in response to any retaliatory strike warning that if he did the war could potentially spiral out of control with many US military and even civilian casualties.

On Saturday night following Trump's attacks on Iran, I wrote:

"History will not remember him kindly and unless he pressures Israel into an immediate cease-fire, he will be remembered a failed president who started an illegal war of aggression likely to prove far more costly for us than any other we have fought since the Second World War. "

Well, that's exactly what he did yesterday so President Trump still has a chance to be remembered by history as a peacemaker and a great president. Now, he just needs to pressure Israel to end its war on Gaza and return to adhering to the Gaza cease-fire agreement and pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to accept peace with Russia.

It turns out that the main reason Iran didn't strike back hard against the US in response to our bombing strikes was because Trump ordered immediate cease-fire negotiations with Tehran led by Vice President JD Vance the night of the US bombing strikes on Iran. Then, he got on the phone and pressured Netanyahu to accept a cease-fire he didn’t want in exchange for no further missile strikes on Israel after Trump refused to support Netanyahu's call for regime change following Iran's de-escalatory strike on a US military base in Qatar, which caused no US casualties.

America Last neocon warmonger and Fox News talk show host Mark Levin was very angry about Trump's surprising decision to accept all of Iran’s demands in exchange for a cease-fire.

That's how we know it's the right decision for America and for world peace averting the outbreak of World War Three! That said, one has to ask what was the point of the US-Israeli war against Iran and what exactly was it supposed to have accomplished?

Trump Turns Against Israel

On the morning of June 24th, President Donald Trump harshly attacked Israel in response to it violating the cease-fire negotiated between Trump and Netanyahu right after he announced it and demanded Israel immediately stop attacking Iran.

Rather than heeding Trump’s demand for him to turn Israeli jets around, Netanyahu adamantly rejected it and instead bombed Iran a second time this morning in flagrant violation of the cease-fire he agreed to yesterday. For this reason, Trump’s fragile cease-fire, which he touted to the end of Israel and Iran’s “Twelve Day War” may be on the brink of collapse. As a result, both President Trump and Vice President JD Vance are finally realizing that it is Israel that is the rogue state and the main obstacle to peace in the Middle East right now, not Iran. It's very gratifying to see President Trump start putting America First again and he has my full support in so doing.

"Trump was furious when speaking to reporters Tuesday morning, just hours after he’d announced an impending ceasefire that would end what he’d termed the “12 Day War.” “Israel, as soon as we made the deal, they came out and dropped a load of bombs the likes of which I’d never seen before. The biggest load that we’ve seen. I’m not happy with Israel. When I say, ‘OK, now you have 12 hours,’ you don’t go out in the first hour and just drop everything you have on ‘em,” Trump said. “So I’m not happy with them, I’m not happy with Iran either. But I’m really unhappy Israel is going out this morning, because the one rocket that didn’t land that was shot—perhaps by mistake—that didn’t land, I’m not happy about that.” “ISRAEL. DO NOT DROP THOSE BOMBS. IF YOU DO IT IS A MAJOR VIOLATION. BRING YOUR PILOTS HOME, NOW! DONALD J. TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Trump suggested it was Israel not Iran that broke the excellent cease-fire agreement that he negotiated and he is absolutely right since Iran’s attack was in response to Israel’s massive violation of the cease-fire when it attacked Iran late yesterday as he correctly noted using an expletive in his harsh criticism of Israeli actions.

"I'm not happy with Israel." "I'm not sure Iran broke the ceasefire." "Israel violated the ceasefire. As soon as I made the deal they grabbed the biggest load of bombs you've ever seen. I'm not happy with them. I'm really unhappy that Israel, is attacking for one rocket that was a mistake that didn't land. Israel has been fighting so long and so hard that they don't know what the fuck they are doing."

President Trump has been doing an outstanding job since yesterday in pushing back against Netanyahu and putting America First again. This is the president I proudly voted for in November—a peacemaker, not a warmaker. It remains to be seen whether Israel will continue violating the cease-fire and if they do how Trump will respond to their cease-fire violations. However, I believe the time is long past for the US to cut off all aid to Israel in response to their flagrant violations of the outstanding cease-fire deal which President Trump negotiated yesterday until they abide by all of their cease-fire agreements including the outstanding one he negotiated to end the Gaza war the day before he became President.

Under its worst-ever Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel long ago stopped behaving like an ally and is now a strategic liability to the United States at best. I am calling on President Trump to demand that rogue Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu resign so new elections can be held so he can be replaced by a pro-American leader so Israel can be a US ally again. Then, we can end all the wars and restore peace and stability to the Middle East.

US Claims that it Obliterated Iran’s Nuclear Program Dubious

Earlier this morning, Iran's Atomic Energy Organization released a statement that Iran's nuclear program will resume without interruption adding "we are ready to begin enrichment. Our program will not stop." As I mentioned, US and Israeli strikes on Iranian nuclear sites will most likely have the exact opposite effect that was intended in that they are maximizing the incentive for Iran to accelerate its nuclear weapons program to increase the size of its nuclear arsenal. Their purpose in doing so would not be to use them to attack us but rather to employ them for defensive reasons to restore deterrence with the US and Israel to prevent any future attacks against it. Already, the Iranian parliament is considering a bill to end all cooperation with and inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency to verify Iran is not building nuclear weapons.

As I have been saying there is no possible way for the US or Israel to eliminate Iran’s nuclear weapons program by conventional bombing strikes alone. It would take a comprehensive US nuclear first strike or a full-scale US military occupation to do so. A US invasion of the Islamic Republic of Iran would seem impractical given the fact that Iran is three times larger and has nearly 3.7 times more people than Iraq did when we invaded it and is surrounded by mountain ranges with the US having no ground troops located on its borders.

It is notable that US strikes only attempted to degrade Iran’s nuclear enrichment infrastructure and did not actually target Iran’s Highly Enriched Uranium stockpile, which experts believe is reportedly already large enough for Iran to produce between nine and fifteen additional nuclear warheads. This is likely due to the fact that the US does not know exactly where it is located. Iran’s Highly Enriched Uranium is most likely dispersed over an estimated thirty-four underground sites, only six of which were attacked by the US and Israel, some of which are located up to a half-mile deep, impervious to conventional military strikes and most likely even tactical nuclear strikes.

Furthermore, an early Battle Damage Assessment performed by US Central Command and the Defense Intelligence Agency suggests US strikes on Iran did not destroy any of the three nuclear sites the White House claims were destroyed. It assessed that the strikes did not destroy the core components of the country’s nuclear program and likely only set it back by months not years. It also concluded that Iran’s stockpile of approximately 900 pounds of Highly Enriched Uranium was not destroyed and that Iran’s nuclear centrifuges remain largely “intact.” The White House is furious at the leak of this top secret report given the fact that it seriously undermines their assertions that all three sites had been obliterated. However, Vice President JD Vance conceded that Iran still controls its Highly Enriched Uranium stockpile during an interview on ABC’s “This Week” news program on Sunday. Vance also stated during his interview that the Trump administration was committed to dismantling Iran’s nuclear weapons program over the coming years after Trump claimed US strikes had totally obliterated Iran’s nuclear program, seeming to concede they hadn’t.

The Daily Mail reported this morning that Iran may be hiding thousands of centrifuges in secret nuclear production facilities that the US does not know about. “But even if Fordow's operations are offline, Iran may have other facilities that are concealed and remain a secret. The prospect is not far-fetched - both Pakistan and North Korea covertly developed a nuclear bomb while apparently under tight US surveillance…Since 2022, Tehran has also been building another site close to Natanz under the so-called 'Pickaxe Mountain' that is said to be buried even deeper than Fordow. The Islamic Republic claims the facility is for building centrifuges, but Iranian authorities have refused to admit IAEA inspectors to the site, claiming it is not yet in operation. Nuclear proliferation experts have warned that this site could be used as another enrichment facility.”

Indeed, the London Telegraph reported today that Iran has hidden sites housing “hundreds if not thousands” of advanced centrifuges capable of producing weapons-grade uranium, according to Sima Shine, an expert on Iran’s nuclear program who has worked within the Israeli military establishment for more than 30 years. She noted that the regime also moved much of its highly enriched uranium to a secret location before the US was able to bomb the Islamic republic’s three known nuclear facilities. It means Tehran could have all the capabilities to build a nuclear bomb,

Former Trump National Security Advisor John Bolton has expressed fears that Iran may be hiding nuclear bomb components underneath a mountain in North Korea. 'My biggest concern is that parts of Iran's nuclear program are located under a mountain in North Korea,' he told German outlet Der Spiegel in a shocking interview earlier this week. Iran and North Korea are close military allies and have extensive contacts in terms of ballistic missile technology sharing and reportedly nuclear scientific exchanges as well dating as far back to 2006 when North Korea conducted its first public nuclear test. I have long speculated that one of the six underground nuclear tests by North Korea from 2006 to 2017 was likely a test of an Iranian nuclear weapon.

An Iranian nuclear-capable Medium Range Ballistic Missile in one of dozens if not hundreds of Iranian missile silos or “missile cities.”

Nor did the US or Israel target any of Iran’s underground missile silos also known as “missile cities” located in every city and province in Iran which house hundreds, if not thousands, of mobile nuclear-capable ballistic and hypersonic missiles, some of which are believed to have intermediate range of striking US military bases anywhere in Europe or the Middle East. I assess that there is a significant possibility that Iran not only already has a dozen or more nuclear weapons, as I noted in my last article, but that North Korea has likely shared nuclear warhead miniaturization technology with Iran. This would enabling Iran to mount many of their nuclear warheads atop their ballistic missiles to use to strike US and Israeli targets should we attempt to overthrow their regime or assassinate the Ayatollah Khamenei. Despite the existence of a top secret space-based ASAT weapon system, US strikes also did not target Iran’s Noor 2 and Noor 3 satellites orbiting an optimal super-EMP first strike altitude of 285 miles in low earth orbit. Accordingly, the White House assertions that the US was successful in obliterating Iran’s nuclear weapons program are dubious at best.

World War Three Averted For Now

Netanyahu and his America Last neocon allies in the Trump administration and Congress have argued that Iran would immediately give nuclear bombs to terrorists to destroy Tel Aviv and New York City if Iran built nuclear weapons but there is no evidence to support that deceptive claim and Iran would have every reason to horde its modest number of nuclear weapons to restore deterrence against future US and Israeli attacks on their country. The truth is that Iran has been effectively deterred from using a nuclear weapon against the US and Israel by the superior strength of our combined nuclear arsenals which total nearly 2,700 operational nuclear weapons.

As Professor Stephen Wertheim stated in a recent article:

"Even if Iran were speeding toward a nuclear weapon, even if diplomacy had been exhausted, the threat of a nuclear Iran should not be inflated. Suppose for a moment that Iran went nuclear, which it may well do now that the absence of such a deterrent left it vulnerable to attack. If Iran got the bomb, the United States, a nuclear-armed country, would remain fundamentally secure. Israel, a nuclear-armed country, would remain fundamentally secure. Iran would go nuclear to ensure the survival of its regime. Firing nuclear weapons at Israel would assure Iran’s destruction. Iran is unlikely to do that."

Iranian leaders know that if they were to launch a nuclear strike against us, we could obliterate them, so that is something they would never dare attempt except perhaps if the US were to try to assassinate the Ayatollah Khamenei and effect regime change in Iran. Accordingly, there never was any urgency to attack Iran and there was a huge level of risk by the US doing so given the fact that Iran likely does have nuclear weapons and that regime change is likely their nuclear trigger to use them.

Thankfully, President Trump pulled us back from the brink of nuclear war with Iran yesterday and restored sanity to US national security policy. But the lesson learned should be don't believe the lies and propaganda that Israel, Ukraine and their agents within are telling us to try to provoke our enemies to start World War Three and destroy the United States of America. Trump should immediately fire all the Israel First/America Last warmongers like Secretary of State and Interim National Security Advisor Marco Rubio, UN Ambassador-designate Mike Waltz and CIA Director John Ratcliffe that manipulated him into starting a new war with Iran and resolve to put America First from now on.

© David T. Pyne 2025

David T. Pyne, Esq. is a former U.S. Army combat arms and Headquarters staff officer, who was in charge of armaments cooperation with the former Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Africa and the Americas from 2000-2003, with an M.A. in National Security Studies from Georgetown University. He is the former President and current Deputy Executive Director of the Task Force on National and Homeland Security. He recently served as Defense and Foreign Policy Advisor to former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy. He has also co-authored the best-selling new book, “Catastrophe Now--America’s Last Chance to Avoid an EMP Disaster” and his new book “Restoring Strategic Deterrence” will be published in December 2025. He serves as the Editor of “The Real War” newsletter at dpyne.substack.com and previously served as a contributor to “The National Interest”. Here is a link to his interview archive. He also posts multiple times a day on X at @AmericaFirstCon. He may be reached at emptaskforce.ut@gmail.com.

Recent Interviews

May 27th—Interview with Brannon Howse on Brannon Howse Live to discuss all the latest national security and foreign policy developments with the war in Ukraine and the Middle East.

May 28th—Interview with Brannon Howse on Brannon Howse Live to discuss Trump’s statements that Putin has gone crazy and is killing a lot of people and is absolutely considering greater sanctions on Russia. We will also discuss how Trump could end the war in a week and the likely reasons why he isn’t.

June 2nd—Interview with Brannon Howse on Brannon Howse Radio to discuss Ukraine’s “Pearl Harbor attack which Ukraine claims damaged or destroyed 34% of Russia’s nuclear bomber fleet and how close we are getting to the outbreak of World War Three as Trump repeats the mistakes of history in continuing to back Zelensky.

June 2nd—Interview with Brannon Howse on Brannon Howse Live to discuss Ukraine’s “Pearl Harbor attack which Ukraine claims damaged or destroyed 34% of Russia’s nuclear bomber fleet and how close we are getting to the outbreak of World War Three as Trump repeats the mistakes of history in continuing to back Zelensky.

June 2nd—Interview with Dr. Maria on Lindell TV to discuss the latest developments with regards to Russia, Ukraine peace talks, war with Iran and a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan.

June 5th—Interview with Brannon Howse on Brannon Howse Live to discuss Dr Peter Pry’s predictions for future national security threats and Russian superweapons along with the latest status of Russia-Ukraine war peace talks.

June 10th—Interview with Brannon Howse on Brannon Howse Live to discuss the LA riots and the domestic terrorist, cartel and other forces behind them that are trying to create anarchy as well as plan mass protests against Trump on June 14th. We will also discuss the latest develoments with regard to the war in Ukraine and the Iran nuke deal and threats to the US electrical power grid.

June 12th—Interview with Brannon Howse on Brannon Howse Live to discuss the LA riots and the domestic terrorist, cartel and other forces behind them that are trying to create anarchy as well as plan mass protests against Trump on June 14th. We will also discuss increasing rumors of a a planned massive Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear arsenal and any connection such an attack might have with the riots being planned to take place on June 14h.

June 13th—Interview with Dr. Maria on Lindell TV to discuss the ramifications of a full-scale regional proxy war between the US and Iran that could escalate into World War Three as well as the latest developments with regards to Russia- Ukraine peace talks.

June 13th—Interview with Brannon Howse on Brannon Howse Live to discuss Israel’s massive bombing campaign against Iran, Trump’s complicity in the attacks and the chances this regional war could escalate to World War Three.

June 16th-Interview on the Mormon Renegade show to discuss Netanyahu’s strikes on Iran and attempt to drag the US into World War Three and the recent transformation of President Donald Trump from an America First conservative into a neocon warmonger.

June 17th—Interview on Main Street Radio with Jon Twitchell to discuss the latest developments with regards to Zelensky’s massive drone strikes which allegedly damaged or destroyed up to 40 Russian nuclear bombers in Siberia in his latest attempt to provoke a Russian nuclear escalation and start World War Three as well as Netanyahu’s strikes on Iran and attempt to drag the US into World War Three.

June 17th—Interview with Brannon Howse on Brannon Howse Live to discuss the Israeli-Iran War, Trumps statements that the US might enter the war and bomb Iran and the chances it could escalate into World War Three.

June 18th—Interview with Nima Alkhorshid on his Dialogue Works podcast to discuss Trump’s plan to start World War Three with a nuclear-armed Iran that may cause Russia and China to join the fight as well as Trump’s decision to continue fighting Biden’s war against Russia in Ukraine indefinitely.

June 19th—Interview with Brannon Howse on Brannon Howse Live to discuss reports that Trump has approved attack plans against Iran which could escalate to World War Three and bring in Russia, China and maybe even North Korea.

June 21st—Interview with Brannon Howse on Brannon Howse Live to discuss Trump’s air and missile strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites that could escalate to World War Three.

June 23rd—Interview with COL Rob Maness (USAF Ret) on the Rob Maness Show to discuss Trump’s decision to approve plans to attack Iranian nuclear missile sites and start World War Three and Iranian threats to nuke NYC and inflict “irreparable damage on the US if we bomb them.

June 23rd—Interview with Pascal Lottaz on the Neutrality Studies podcast to discuss Trump’s apparent plan to bomb Iran and start World War Three and what he should be doing to avert it. We will also discuss the hostile neocon takeover of the Trump presidency.

Upcoming Interviews

June 24th—Interview with Brannon Howse on Brannon Howse Live to discuss Trump’s angry reaction to Israel’s violations of his cease-fire agreement with Iran and the leak of a top secret DIA battle damage assessment that none of the three Iran nuclear sites we bombed were destroyed.

June 27th—Interview with Nazar Kotovych on the “Prove to Me You’re Alive” podcast to discuss Trump’s bombing strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites which a new DIA report says failed to destroy any of them and his new cease-fire ending the war between the US, Israel and Iran as well as the latest news regarding the NATO proxy war against Russia in Ukraine.

June 27th—Interview with Harrison Smith on the American Journal to discuss the massive influence Israel wields over US politicians and US foreign policy and the need to end the US alliance with Israel to ensure we don’t end up fighting any more of their wars as we have been doing for the past two plus decades.

July 15th—Interview on Main Street Radio with Jon Twitchell to discuss the latest developments with regards to Netanyahu’s strikes on Iran and his failed attempt to drag the US into World War Three and Trump’s pivot back to putting America First with his excellent cease-fire agreement ending the US-Israeli-Iran War.