Trump’s Iran Strategy & The Fight Over America First
Trump reshuffles his cabinet, replacing Homeland Security Secretary Christy Noam with Senator Mark Wayne Mullen while promoting her to Latin America envoy, framing it as a media-misrepresented "America First" move. Economic data shows Trump’s policies driving a 2.8% Q4 2025 productivity surge and 4.5% wage growth, but the focus shifts to Operation Epic Fury, where the U.S. allegedly eliminated Iran’s Supreme Leader, Quds Force chief, and assassin plot mastermind Arahman Makadam while crippling its nuclear and missile programs—claiming Iran will pay, despite Tehran’s denials. The host dismisses accusations of pro-Israel bias, arguing Trump’s strikes (ISIS defeat, Soleimani killing) prove a preemptive "America First" doctrine, now facing Senate war powers challenges led by Tim Kaine. With Iranian opposition like Kurds potentially armed post-regime collapse, the episode blends policy triumphs with media jabs—mocking globalist institutions and dismissing critics like Heath Oberman’s Holtz slurs—as Trump pivots to reshaping the Middle East on his terms. [Automatically generated summary]
If you want to be a part of the program, it's 800-941.
Sean, if you would like to join us, breaking news on the cabinet front.
Although it's not exactly the way the media is reporting it, Trump fires Christy Noam and first cabinet shakeup of second term taps senator for replacement.
That's not what happened.
And the Homeland Security Secretary, Christy Noam, is stepping down at the end of the month, and Mark Wayne Mullen, the senator from Oklahoma, will replace her.
This is what the president said, so you have the full context and total truth.
I am pleased to announce that the highly respected U.S. Senator from the great state of Oklahoma, Mark Wayne Mullen, will become the U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security effective March 31st, 2026.
He put this post on Truth Social.
He added that Christy Noam, who he said has served us well, will take over a new role, quote, envoy for the Shield of the Americas.
The president described that position as one that will lead our new security initiative in the Western Hemisphere.
Obviously, the president has a lot of plans between Venezuela, Cuba, Colombia, you know, all of Latin America, for example.
The president spoke to Noam, according to this report from NBC News, about the job switch.
According to two people familiar with the conversation, the secretary was traveling.
She even did a press conference immediately thereafter, asked by NBC News about the president's announcement.
Mark Wayne Mullen said, I found out just before you guys did, adding that he and Trump would talk more later today.
I Am Not a Serious Martial Artist00:02:32
Mullen, by the way, Mullins is a real serious mixed martial artist.
I am not a serious mixed martial artist.
I am trained in situational self-defense and in working out in mixed martial arts and a variety and eclectic blend of arts and boxing and, of course, doing fitness and training every day.
But that's very different than those people that are real artists.
I mean, you notice, Linda, whenever I mention that, oh, there's Hannity talking about his being a great martial artist.
I've never said I was a great martial artist.
Have I ever, in the 15 years I've been doing it, ever said I was great?
No, but I can defend myself.
Not once.
Not one time.
Like these keyboard warriors naked in their mommy and daddy's basement.
You never know what they're going to say.
You have, however, said it's an eclectic blend of martial arts.
You have said that.
I say that all the time because it is an eclectic blend.
Rob McGaw, Kempo, Japanese Jiu-Jitsu.
We work with sticks, blades, firearms, and Situational street fighting and boxing and a lot of it.
I mean, we do all of it, but the situational self-defense is the real focus.
Worker productivity posts the strongest quarterly gain in five years.
Bureau of Labor Statistics reporting that non-farm business sector labor productivity increased at an annualized rate of 2.8% for the fourth quarter, well above the 1.9% analysts had forecast.
The report also revised the third quarter reading upward to a 5.2% annualized rate.
Early year estimate was 4.9%, the strongest quarterly gain in five years.
And together, the two quarters dispel any notion that the third quarter's exceptional performance was a one-time anomaly.
It was not.
ADP is reporting better than expected job growth in February.
Companies in the private sector added 63,000 jobs in February.
Remember, under Biden, a lot of jobs were growing in terms of the government.
Now, that figure is well above economists' estimates of a $50,000 job gain.
People staying in their jobs saw their pay climb a whopping 4.5% from the prior year.
Well, you can thank the one big beautiful bill, and people are going to get much bigger income tax refunds because of that bill as well, which is good news.
Biden's Job Growth Surge00:14:51
And, you know, a lot of people are worried about the oil situation.
I am not as worried as everybody.
And I know Vladimir Putin is looking at maybe somehow stopping selling oil and putting oil on the world market.
Let me tell you what's going to happen.
You don't have to be that, you don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure out Donald Trump and how he's thinking.
President put on Truth Social today, Del Codriguez, who was the president of Venezuela after the deposed Maduro was taken into the U.S., is doing a great job working with U.S. representatives well, and the oil is beginning to flow.
I think we have, what, 100 million barrels of oil now that the U.S. has taken from Venezuela.
And let me predict what's going to happen with Iran.
Iran is going to now be, first of all, they will pay for the entire operation of Epic Fury when all is said and done.
There's my prediction.
Take that one to the bank, and that there will be much closer cooperation in the end with the USA.
That's it.
Just saying, you know, take it for what it's worth.
You know, I hate that I even have to go down this road and explain this again.
But Linda, there are so many dumb people, I mean, that have microphones in front of them, and they think that they're so friggin' smart, and they're really dumb.
And they just say things that are ridiculous, like, this is really Israel's war that Donald Trump is fighting for B.B. Netanyahu.
No, he's not.
You obviously don't know Donald Trump.
And I know Donald Trump.
Donald Trump's foreign policy has been, I mean, predictably, it is so predictable that you can set a clock to it as he leads up to a conflict.
I mean, it's not isolationism the way, you know, people now are trying to define American first or America first.
It is not.
As evidenced by the ISIS Caliphate wiped out, Soleimani wiped out, Baghdadi and associates wiped out, mother of all bombs on Afghanistan wiped out them.
You know, the 14 bunker buster bombs obliterating Iran's nuclear facility.
This is not isolationism.
And this current operation, Operation Epic Fury, which, you know, when the president was asked how successful it is on a scale of one to 10, he goes, about a 15.
And the president and people are asking questions like, why are we even involved in this?
What's the purpose?
Well, maybe they should spend a few minutes and actually open up their ears and forget about their own big, fat, disgusting, you know, putrid egos for a second and listen to what the president is actually saying because the president has laid it out again and again and again that he will never allow Iran ever to obtain a nuclear weapon.
And by the way, he has followed through on this.
They were given every opportunity the first time before Midnight Hammer to come to some type of peace deal.
They would not do it.
They wouldn't agree to it.
The president gave them 50 days in the lead up to that conflict.
After the Iranian people were taken to the streets, the president in solidarity with the people of Iran said help is on the way.
And tens of thousands of innocent people were slaughtered by the supreme leader and his henchmen.
And then the president also went on to explain as the number one state sponsor of terror that he also would destroy the regime's deadly ballistic missiles programs.
I mean, they went from 2,000-pound ballistic missiles.
They were increasing the range of these missiles.
If you look at the entire region, a map of the region, every single country has been fired at by Iran almost indiscriminately, with the exception, the only exception that I've seen is Lebanon, where they have one of their proxies, Hezbollah.
And I think they even hit Gaza, and I think they've hit other areas as well.
But every country, Arab country, Israel, et cetera, every country in the region has been hit by these people.
They have no friends there.
They didn't have it the first time.
And I've told this story before.
Nobody ever listens, but I'll tell it again.
I knew of things that were happening in the first Trump administration that Donald Trump never got credit for.
Donald Trump had created an alliance of intelligence sharing and really to stand against Iranian hegemony and the possibility of a nuclear-armed Iran that very few people knew about, but it was an alliance between the U.S. and Israel and the Jordanians and the Egyptians and the Saudis and the Emirates and other countries more on the periphery.
So, you know, the president said, okay, they can't have nuclear weapons.
They can't have these ballistic missiles that they were going to move from 2,000 pounds to 4,000 pounds.
You see how difficult it is for Israel to keep all of them from striking targets within Israel.
Also to annihilate the Iranian regime's navy.
And so far they have destroyed pretty much their entire navy, 20 Iranian ships, including their top submarine last night using a torpedo.
By the way, the first time that was used since World War II, there's not a single Iranian ship now underway in the Arabian Gulf, the Straits of Hormuz or the Gulf of Omam.
So the president's been successful there.
Number three, Operation Epic Fury, ensuring the regime's terrorist proxies in the region can no longer destabilize the region or the free world and attack our armed forces.
You know, Linda, these idiots, you know, these keyboard warriors, you know, trying to make the proclamation that, you know, it's people like me and Levin and Ben Shapiro and Lindsey Graham.
And I mean, like that we're forcing and B.B. Netanyahu forcing Donald Trump to do something.
And you know what?
I have spoken to the president about this in the lead up to this.
And people would probably be surprised at the advice that I gave him.
But I'm not going to share that with anybody.
He asked me questions and I gave him answers and I gave him honest answers.
And it was not an accident that the president has the biggest military presence in the region since the Gulf War.
That didn't happen by accident.
The president took all of this seriously to prevent as much as possible.
I know we lost six Americans, but to minimize the potential for loss of life or injury.
And then the Iranians, you know, they learned nothing from Operation Midnight Hammer.
If they had learned anything, they wouldn't have continued to reconstitute their ballistic missile program and their nuclear program.
But once Steve Witkoff was on our show this week on Monday and he said, Sean, we offered them, you know, low-grade enriched uranium for free in perpetuity if they wanted it for civilian use.
We offered that to them.
They said no.
The only reason they said no is because they didn't want the ability to enrich uranium so that they can quickly turn it over into weapons-grade uranium, you know, bomb-making ability.
That's what they wanted.
That's what they were pursuing.
And they never gave it up, even after Operation Midnight Hammer.
Iran's foreign minister says his country will not negotiate with President Trump.
Oh, the fact is, we don't have any positive experience of negotiating with the U.S., you know, especially with this administration.
We negotiated twice last year and this year, and then in the middle of negotiations, they attacked us.
I didn't know there were any leaders left, Linda.
It took out in the first 30 seconds of Operation Epic Fury, you know, 49, ends up being 49 people, including the Supreme Leader, and all the top mullahs in Iran wiped out.
And then when the Security Council met to pick the next Supreme Leader, they wiped out everybody while they were voting for the next leader.
Now we're on to the third generation of potential leaders.
Hopefully, the next generation will be the people of Iran that will take their country back.
You know, remember the Biden administration, Obama administration, you know, cargo planes of cash and other currency.
Please, pretty pleased with sugar on top, don't, you know, don't please don't, whatever you do, you know, build nuclear weapons, okay?
And we'll give you all this money.
And then, you know, we'll release hostages.
Trump first comes into office.
They asked for a billion dollars of hostage.
They said, well, that's what we got paid under Obama.
Why shouldn't we get paid the same under you?
Now, citizens of China, Iran, Russia made close to 30,000 trips to sensitive American research facilities during the Biden administration.
This just broke today.
New York Post exclusive later this afternoon.
Between September 1st, 2021, August 31st, 2024, 28,028 Chinese nationals, 304 Iranians, 1,608 Russians visited laboratories run by the Department of Energy, according to the office of Senator Joni Ernst.
While Iran's regime was chanting death to America, the Biden administration rolled out the red carpet for all of these lunatics to come into our country and gather intelligence.
They gave entry to thousands of Chinese nationals.
We've talked at length about allowing Chinese nationals to buy up land, farmland, land military installations, ranch land.
I mean, how stupid were these people on top of leaving wide open borders that allowed in 12 plus million unvetted illegals from over 200 countries, including known terrorists, murderers, rapists, child molesters, other violent criminals, cartel members, gang members, drug dealers?
People are out of their mind.
God help us if they ever get back in power.
Linda, should I break my record and go?
Donald Trump has agreed to go to the White House correspondence dinner.
Oh, you got to go.
You got to go.
30 years.
Can I finish?
I know.
Sorry.
30 years on Fox, longer on radio, and I've never been to a White House correspondence dinner.
Why would I want to ruin that spotless record?
Because you know and I know that I don't want to hang out with those people.
Number one, they don't like me and I don't like them.
I'm not going to pretend that I like them.
So, question, and I don't know if this is a possibility.
Could you have a table of people?
Could have a table and watch it on TV at home.
Yeah, I didn't say your coffee table.
If you had a table at the event, if he's breaking his pattern and he's going and you go, it would be really cool.
And I think you bring a table of like average Americans, like maybe some of the people from the State of the Union or people that were at, you know, the RNC speeches.
I don't get to get my own table because I'm Sean Hannah.
I'm asking.
I'm just asking.
I don't know.
I mean, do I think I could probably, you know, give it a penagle it, but I don't like to ask for favors.
That's not a favor.
You could give it back to the people of honor, the Congressional Medal of Honor recipients, or you could give it to, you know, I don't know, any of the people from the State of the Union.
You could bring, you know, some senators or congressional members that actually are, you know, worth their salt, you know, Jim Jordan and the like.
It would be nice.
I think I'm going to stay home and pass.
I'm not even sure I'll watch it.
I'll watch the president speaking.
And they're not doing a comedian this year.
Jimmy Kimmel is big.
Oh, think of the ratings.
First of all, the guy's never got ratings in his life.
So, you know, he would probably lower the ratings.
But I guess he's so obsessed with Trump.
He wants to be in the same room with him.
He wants to be able to, you know, make jokes and make a name for himself at Donald Trump's expense.
That's not going to happen.
Apparently, they're using a mentalist this year.
I think one of those.
Oh, are they using Oz Perlman?
I don't know which one they're using.
I'm not sure.
That guy's.
I didn't pay that much attention because I didn't think I'd even consider going.
I can't even believe you're recommending I go.
If I go, I'm forcing you to go.
Listen.
Oh, you could definitely.
I'll come.
Listen.
I'm a member of the media.
I'd be a lot of fun at that event.
Oh, I bet you would be a lot of fun.
There'd be a lot of yelling and screaming at the event.
Do a lot of screaming for our president.
Let's go.
Let's do it.
We'll take the whole team.
We'll take the whole.
I'm sorry.
Fox gets a lot of tables.
And the way it works at these events, at correspondence dinners, then they invite like some famous people to sit at the table.
And it's a very highly sought-after ticket.
I've never been.
I'm proud of my record.
I think I'm the only one in the media that's never gone.
And I don't think I want to ruin my record.
I think my record's more important.
I mean, it's not a problem.
Do you want me to go?
And you could call me.
I could keep you on the line.
And then when you want me to stand up and like, you know, be rambunctious or cheer or shout somebody down, I could do that for you, you know?
You're only going to make things worse.
Let's be honest.
You would only make things dramatically worse.
You know, the great Lou Holtz, who was a friend of this program and a friend of mine and a friend of the TV show, he passed away.
Now, it was announced by his family a short time ago that Lou Holtz was, you know, was ill and this was predictable.
They anticipated this.
He was in hospice.
Heath Oberman goes out there.
What the hell's wrong with this guy?
He's like so unhinged.
And there was a huge backlash on social media.
He called one of the greatest college football coaches of all time a legendary scumbag.
I mean, what is wrong with these people?
And then you got these people with these bizarre conspiracy theories.
B.B. Netanyahu controls Donald Trump.
He does.
He does.
Like the conspiracy theorists.
Why These People Believe00:08:17
You know, Israel was behind 9-11.
Where do these people come from?
Where do they come up with this Adam Schiff?
And they must either believe it or click.
They do it for clicks and algorithms so that they can make money.
I have no idea what their motivation is, but it's bizarre to me.
The whole thing is bizarre.
Anyway, we went over what the president's goals are for Operation Epic Fury.
Why are we there?
What is the purpose of this?
I'm like, do you people not read anything?
Do you not listen to what the president has been saying that the purpose of this mission is to prevent them from having a nuclear weapon and expanding their ballistic missiles program?
And what part of the world be in a safer place are some people not understanding?
You know, you can't turn on anything without, oh my gosh, you can't go to the internet without seeing their stupidity.
I guess it's good copy, you know, or, you know, in the case of, you know, crazy people that are perceived to be, usually not, conservative, the perceived to be conservative people, perceived to be Trump supporters, what usually, you know, usually comes from them saying the most bizarre or anti-Semitic, whatever it happens to be.
These are incredible times we're living in.
The president made the world a safer place.
Iran will never have a nuclear weapon.
The Iranian people have a shot at freedom.
And I'm not sure why this is even controversial for some people.
President Trump said he wants to be involved in the selection of Iran's next leader, telling Axios that he was opposed to the appointment of the second son of the assassinated leader, Ayatollah Ayatollah Ali Hamani, as the next leader.
I mean, would you expect anything different?
I wouldn't.
He said that Khamani's son is unacceptable to me.
He continued, they're wasting their time.
Khamani's son is a lightweight.
I have to be involved in the appointment.
Like Del C. Rodriguez in Venezuela, he refuses to accept a new world leader without him putting a seal of approval on it.
How much do you want to bet when all is said and done, the Iranians will end up paying for their own liberation?
U.S. forces take out the mastermind of Iran's Trump assassination plots on top of taking out the leader of the Quds forces.
U.S. and Israeli forces took out the Iranian official behind the plot to assassinate President Trump in the final days of the 2024 election campaign, said Pete Hegseth.
He didn't identify the individual, but Israeli media named the individual as Arahman Makadam, head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
I mean, they're taking out everybody.
The level and sophistication of intelligence, the precision and sophistication of our military is so beyond impressive.
Forget about what the next generation of warfare is going to look like.
This generation is pretty damn impressive.
Trump says the mission in Iran is ahead of schedule, vowing to easily prevail.
We are easily prevailing.
It was an interesting article by our friend Jonathan Turley, how Trump boxed Congress into fight or flight, the choice on Iran.
And, you know, Tim Kaine, the senator from Virginia, promised to force a vote on this war powers resolution to bar further prosecution of the war against Iran.
Now, never mind that Obama was, you know, involved in a conflict with Libya for seven months.
You know, why would you apply the same standard to Donald Trump as Biden and Obama?
You know, the members are certainly within their rights to call for these resolutions.
The framers wanted such debates.
Well, why didn't you do it back then?
Trump says the U.S. is in a very strong position.
He's not wrong.
Operation Epic Fury survives Senate challenges.
President Trump is going to attend the dignified transfer of U.S. service members killed in Kuwait.
Caroline Levitt made the announcement yesterday that the president will, in fact, attend the dignified transfer of six U.S. service members.
I doubt he'll be looking at his watch the whole time.
He intends to attend the dignified transfer of these American heroes to stand in grief alongside their families.
I understand the Department of War is working on scheduling the transfer.
We will provide updates at the appropriate time.
They laid down their lives in defense of our country.
The president was very clear.
This is about the future and not leaving this mess for future generations to have to deal with.
You know, these murderous terrorist leaders, you know, paid for their crimes against our country and the world.
And the only thing that I think that scares anybody, but it's not part of the Trump doctrine.
Our boots on the ground.
Now, they had to leave the door open.
You can never, ever close that door.
Condoleezza Rice, who I always thought was very smart, former Secretary of State, described the Operation Epic Fury as an attempt to neuter Iran's military power inside and beyond their borders, including their apparent ties to Hezbollah.
And she's not wrong.
We should be careful with his words.
Walz is warning the Iranian envoy after a UN clash, a heated clash between the U.S. and Iran unfolding at the UN Security Council.
Mike Walls talked about the escalating situation, the tense exchange with Iran's U.N. ambassador.
Who cares?
This is why I can't stand the UN.
I can't stand any of these globalist organizations.
I think they're worthless, pretty much on every level imaginable.
They really are.
It's kind of pathetic.
The front cover of today's New York Post, Don gets last laughed.
U.S. strike kills Trump assassination plot mastermind.
Navy submarine blows up Nemesis.
Soleimani again.
I mean, that was named after Solomani, the world's worst terrorist that Donald Trump, just like he did with the Supreme Leader Ali Khamani, was able to track for weeks and weeks on end, and then at the right moment took out Soleimani on a tarmac.
Now, he could have taken him out of the sky when he was on a commercial aircraft.
Probably did that to hide who he was and didn't want to take a private aircraft because it would have drawn suspicion.
And anyway, he lands, and we didn't take it out of the air.
Why did not?
Because we believe in the preservation of innocent human life.
Anyway, the assassination plotter is now dead on top of everyone else that they've killed.
Epic Fury used twice the air power of the Iraq Blitz.
That was shock and awe.
I said this from day one.
This is shock and awe on steroids and human growth hormone.
2,500-plus targets have been hit in Iran.
Iran drone attacks are down 73%.
Ballistic missile launches from Iran have dropped 86%.
The number of Navy vessels destroyed are 20.
You know, one of the interesting things about this is a lot of their air defense systems, ballistic missile systems that we've taken out so quickly, including the ships they have.
A lot of this is technology that the Iranians got from China and Russia.
90% of U.S. troops in the region were moved out of range of any Iranian attack, which has been a good thing.
But if you look at every country, everything from Iraq to Jordan to Bahrain, Kuwait, the UAE, Oman, Saudi Arabia, you know, all these countries have been hit.
I mean, they don't have a single friend in the region.
No Friends in the Region00:01:27
Period.
End of sentence.
It's over.
Here's the interesting thing I am watching on the side.
The Kurds now, according to the New York Post today, have joined the fight.
Now, if the Iranian people that were taking to the streets by the hundreds of thousands and tens of thousands of those were wiped out and annihilated by this terrorist regime, if they are ever going to get arms, I would argue it's probably going to flow through the Kurds.
No friends of the Ayatollah's, no friends of the leadership within Iran.
That's my prediction.
We'll see if I'm right.
Linda, you want to bet on me or bet against me?
Oh, no, no.
I'm betting on you.
I'm going to bet you go to the correspondence dinner and we crush you wrong.
No, we're not going to the correspondence.
I already made up my mind.
The answer is no.
It's a hard time.
No, you didn't make up your mind.
I think we're doing that.
No, it's a hard note.
I made it up.
Let's do a poll.
No, I'm not doing a poll.
I don't need to be told to go to a dinner I don't want to go to.
I go to enough dinners I don't want to go.
I'm telling you to go to the dinner.
I think it would be a good thing.
I'm not going to that correspondence dinner.
Maybe one of the funniest moments, Don Imis, Bill Clinton is in the room and he goes, hey, babe.
Oh, baby.
Hey, baby.
Hey, baby.
I'm sure Bill Clinton, it's not the first time he's heard those words.