Video News Clips: In Their Own Words

Trump Says US Decapitated Iranian Leadership As They Ate Breakfast

Screenshot/Rumble/Fox News

President Donald Trump said Monday the initial strikes targeting Iran killed dozens of Iranian leaders during a breakfast meeting with Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Trump confirmed Khamenei’s death in a post on Truth Social Saturday, hours after he announced the commencement of Operation Epic Fury early that morning. “Special Report” host Bret Baier told “America’s Newsroom” co-hosts Bill Hemmer and Dana Perino that Trump was “pleased” with the progress of Operation Epic Fury.

“I said this is, it’s a tough succession plan in Iran. He said 49 L is deep, it’s very deep. When they met, they met for breakfast. They assumed it was good for a lot of reasons,” Baier said. “’Number one, they didn’t think we knew, but you never attack in the morning, having to do with winds and sun and a lot of things. It just, it was amazing that we knew everything we knew,’ he said there is a plan.”

On Monday, CENTCOM reported that a fourth American servicemember had died from wounds suffered in the initial Iranian attacks.

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“I asked, ‘so what you’re saying is that you know there is somebody on the ground in Iran that is going to rise up,’ Quote, ‘Yes, I feel there is, feel that, and some of them are no longer with us, to be honest, because it was 49 leaders that were taken out. That was going to take four weeks,’” Baier continued. “’We thought to get rid of the Iranian leadership, and it’s always, you know, if they hide, it’s a lot longer than four weeks, and they would have been hiding. We were shocked when we heard what was going on. We knew exactly what was happening and where 49 leaders, and you know they’re talking about using people now that nobody ever heard of, even though they don’t know. They’re using people, studying people to be the leader that even they don’t know who they are. Can they? Can you believe that?’”

“He points to Venezuela as a template, which means to me that going in they had some sense on the ground of what was coming next,” Baier added.

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said during a Monday Pentagon briefing that the Trump administration would not rule out putting U.S. troops on the ground in Iran.