The plot thickens. Last week President Trump assumed veto power over the choice of Iran’s next leader. And Iran responded yesterday by installing the exact guy Trump vetoed.

This regime is holding firm its determination to fight to the end.

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Mojtaba Khamenei is even more hard-line than his late father. He is close with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and intensifies the radical regime.

Will the U.S. and Israel kill him too? Will they keep killing successors until Iran installs a Persian Thomas Jefferson?

That might be the plan. Israel’s defense minister said last Wednesday that any successor continuing Ali Khamenei’s policies “will be an unequivocal target for elimination.” Yesterday, just hours before the Assembly of Experts voted, Trump said if the U.S. didn’t approve of their choice, “He’s not going to last long.”

But assassinations and bombings only get you so far. They don’t win wars.

What would win this war? President Trump’s war aim seems to have shifted from simply preventing an Iranian nuke and letting Iranians shape their own future to wanting a “fair and just” leader who will “treat the United States and Israel well.”

That would require nothing less than subjugating, if not reforming the hearts of, the millions of hard-liners who control the entrenched military and clerical infrastructure of the Iranian state, specifically built to survive even the loss of senior leaders.

The Washington Post reported on a classified report by the National Intelligence Council (which synthesizes the analytical work of all 18 U.S. intelligence agencies) saying that even a large-scale assault on Iran wouldn’t do the job.

President Trump has shown himself more than willing to ignore such assessments from experts who have often discredited themselves. It just so happens in this case that this intelligence assessment agrees with Bible prophecy.

After nine days of war, Trump has yet to signal backing down. Iran just upped the ante. America’s will is being tested. Its weakness will be exposed. Pressure from the public, and from world opinion, mounts daily—especially now with oil over $100 a barrel and bitter effects spreading. Watch for President Trump to find a way to sell defeat as victory.

Read our feature story this morning, “You Can’t Kill an Idea With a Missile.”

Russia Enters the Fight Against America

Russia is giving Iranian forces intelligence to help them strike American assets in the Middle East, the Washington Post reported Friday, citing United States officials.

The development marks the first sign of another major U.S. adversary entering the Iran war and could complicate U.S. and Israeli plans to bring down the Iranian regime.

Iran’s surprising effectiveness: Since the United States and Israel began striking targets in Iran on February 28, the Iranians have hit several U.S. military and intelligence assets—including missile-defense systems, radar and early-warning infrastructure, a naval-base structure, a cia facility and a temporary command center—in the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

• Iranian forces are “making very precise hits on early-warning radars or over-the-horizon radars,” analyst Dara Massicot told the Post. “They’re doing this in a very targeted way. They’re going after command and control.”

The strikes have surprised some analysts for their precision and effectiveness, particularly since Iran’s handful of military-grade satellites falls far short of the constellation needed for advanced imaging and targeting.

Russia, however, has more than 100 active military satellites. Its decision to share reconnaissance and targeting intelligence with Iran is likely the factor that enabled these precision strikes on high-value U.S. assets. And analysts say Russian targeting will also make American warships far more vulnerable to Iran.

You scratch my back … Since Russia took its war against Ukraine full-scale four years ago, Iran has provided it with tens of thousands of suicide drones, technical support and large quantities of munitions. The Iranians have also helped Russia evade sanctions. Against this backdrop, Russia’s decision to lend support to Iran is hardly unexpected.

Russia’s intelligence sharing could portend still greater involvement from Russia and other Iranian partners, and it shows the potential for Iran to withstand the attacks and punch above its weight for longer than the U.S. and Israel may expect.

Whether due to Russian assistance or another set of factors, the Trumpet maintains that the current war will not neutralize the Iranian threat. As senior editor Joel Hilliker wrote at the war’s outset:

It is unclear exactly how this situation will play out. Often events take turns very different from what we expect. But biblical prophecy is clear about the outcome. [A]s much as one may wish to see the demise of this violent, oppressive regime, somehow Iran is going to preserve its considerable power—as well as its extremist temperament and aspirations.

German Data Official Warns About German Spies

Germany can no longer protect citizens from its own spy agency, the federal commissioner for data protection and freedom of information stated on Thursday. “Citizens have virtually no means of defending themselves against intelligence measures that can deeply intrude on their privacy,” Louisa Specht-Riemenschneider said.

• Her comment came after a court rejected her request to inspect the espionage activities of Germany’s foreign intelligence agency, the bnd. She said that this ruling allows areas without supervision to arise within the bnd, which is already “secretive” about its data processing.

This is the latest win for the rapidly expanding powers of the bnd:

• In January, a draft law was leaked that would enable the bnd to monitor all Internet traffic going through Germany, effectively allowing it to spy on German citizens and their contacts. The law would also give the bnd the legal authority to hack foreign networks.
• On February 4, Federal Chancellery leader Thorsten Frei called for a paradigm shift enabling the bnd to match the abilities of other European spy agencies. This would include allowing it to access private phones and store data for up to a year.
• On February 17, German officials called restrictions on the BND unwise “in light of the rising threat of Russian sabotage.”

The role of the federal commissioner for data protection and freedom of information was established in 1978 partly to prevent the bnd from spying on German citizens. Germany and Europe have long emphasized data protection, largely as a way to counter the power of U.S. tech firms; yet that priority has been decisively overruled by a German court, which has a higher priority in unleashing German spies.

This is especially troubling when you consider the agency’s past.

The creator of Germany’s postwar spy network and founding president of the bnd was Gen. Reinhard Gehlen, a former Nazi. Many early agents were formerly members of the Gestapo. Now that the bnd is officially authorized to spy on German citizens, what will it be able to do to German society, let alone foreign allies and adversaries? Bible prophecy reveals that the Nazis went underground and will arise in the end time, controlling Germany and Europe and targeting America and Britain.

IN OTHER NEWS

Oil over $100 a barrel: The price of Brent crude climbed to over $100 a barrel over the weekend, in its biggest one-day jump since 2020, and up roughly 40 percent from before the war. Prices stabilized a little this morning after reports that the G-7 and the International Energy Agency would discuss the joint release of emergency reserves. Even if the Strait of Hormuz opened tomorrow, which is unlikely, it would take weeks for markets to return to normal. “10 days of Strait of Hormuz disruption = at least 60 days of pain to the energy flow in Asia,” wrote June Goh, a senior oil market analyst at Sparta Commodities. “And I am being optimistic here.” Increasing the cost of energy production and transport affects the cost of producing many other things, which can quickly increase general inflation. The price of oil rising faster than expected will add powerful pressure to wind down the war without truly removing Iran’s radical Islamist regime.

Europe is now the world’s biggest arms importer: According to data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute published today, European countries more than tripled their arms imports from 2021 to 2025 compared to 2016 to 2020. Europe now accounts for 33 percent of global arms imports. “The sharp increase in arms flows to European states pushed global arms transfers up almost 10 percent,” said Mathew George, director of the sipri Arms Transfers Program. While European countries are investing heavily in their own arms industries, the data shows that they remain dependent on purchasing U.S. weapons platforms, such as combat aircraft and long-range air defense systems. Germany is leading Europe’s arming spree, which, as prophecy reveals, is a precursor to war.

Turkish-heritage candidate wins German state election: The Greens came from behind to narrowly win the Baden-Württemberg election on Sunday, catapulting Cem Özdemir to the premiership and sending shock waves through German politics. It was supposed to be an easy win for Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s Christian Democrats, but their 29.7 percent of the vote was eclipsed by the Greens’ 30.2 percent. The Alternative für Deutschland won 18.8 percent, and the Social Democrats won 5.5 percent. Özdemir will become Germany’s first state premier with a migrant background: His parents migrated to Germany from Turkey as guest workers in the 1960s. As mainstream parties lose ground in Germany, the political landscape becomes increasingly fragmented. Watch for Germans to react by supporting a strong, centralized leader.

Macron visits Cyprus: French President Emmanuel Macron arrived in Cyprus today, as a growing armada of EU ships arrives to protect the islands from Hezbollah’s missiles. “This trip is intended to demonstrate France’s solidarity with Cyprus, a member state of the European Union, with which we have a strategic partnership,” the president’s office said ahead of the trip. The EU is using the Iran war to take greater control over this strategic island.

Synagogue attacks: Amid Israel and America’s bombardment of Iran, several major Western cities have seen anti-Semitic attacks. Four men were arrested in Britain on Friday over suspicion of spying for Iran on Jewish targets in the London area. That night, unidentified gunmen targeted two synagogues in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. On Monday, an explosion occurred at a synagogue in Liège, Belgium. No injuries have been reported, but the spike in Jew hatred, including in countries not directly involved in the war, is part of a worrying global trend.

Iran war has little support: Donald Trump is the first recent president to wage war without first obtaining public support, the New York Times said on Friday, citing polls in which 27 to 41 percent of Americans supported aggressive strikes against Iran. Approval numbers historically tend to decrease as wars continue. President Trump has stated he will not be dissuaded due to poll numbers, an indication that he is wielding kingly powers.

President Trump creates new anti-cartel coalition: On Saturday, U.S. President Donald Trump welcomed the heads of a dozen Latin American states to his Trump National Doral Miami golf resort in Florida for the inaugural summit of “Shield of the Americas,” announcing a new Americas Counter Cartel Coalition for combating drug cartels in the Western Hemisphere. This comes after the State Department began designating cartels as foreign terrorist organizations a year ago, and with U.S. Southern Command announcing recently that it will train and mobilize the militaries of partner nations to help dismantle them.

EU backs Orbán: On Friday the European Commission condemned Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for calling on Hungarian President Viktor Orbán to talk with him in “their own language,” which Orbán viewed as threatening. Olaf Gill, a European Commission spokesman, said the remark was unacceptable, saying “there must not be threats against EU member states.”