BRIDGE TO NOWHERE: While ostensibly giving Iran until Monday before beginning what he called “the period of Energy Plant destruction,” President Donald Trump has expanded the targets in Iran to include civilian infrastructure, which, in theory, could be used by the military to move troops, arms, and supplies.
“The biggest bridge in Iran comes tumbling down, never to be used again — Much more to follow!” Trump said in a post on Truth Social, which included a short video of the B1 bridge connecting Tehran to the Caspian Sea, which is north of Iran and far from the Persian Gulf.
A U.S. military official told the New York Times that they hit the bridge, which had not yet opened, to eliminate “a planned military supply route for Iran’s missile and drone forces.”
Iran said the bridge attack killed eight people and wounded 95, all civilians, and that a second strike an hour after the first came as local medical teams were attending to the injured.
“IT IS TIME FOR IRAN TO MAKE A DEAL BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE, AND THERE IS NOTHING LEFT OF WHAT STILL COULD BECOME A GREAT COUNTRY!.” Trump wrote in all caps yesterday afternoon, and then in an early morning Truth Social Post today, he vowed more destruction was coming.
“Our Military, the greatest and most powerful (by far!) anywhere in the World, hasn’t even started destroying what’s left in Iran. Bridges next, then Electric Power Plants!,” he wrote. “New Regime leadership knows what has to be done, and has to be done, FAST!”
TRUMP TEASES STRIKES AGAINST IRANIAN BRIDGES AND ‘ELECTRIC POWER PLANTS’
DIMINISHING RETURNS: Three weeks ago President Trump, in a brief phone call with Axios’s Barak Ravid, mused that the war was going so well there was “practically nothing left to target.”
Clearly, that was not the case, but according to a report this morning from Politico, most of the low-hanging fruit is gone. “The Pentagon is running out of strategically important targets,” Politico says, citing “two current defense officials and a former Trump administration official.”
“We can just keep working through a list of targets of ever-decreasing significance and continue to piss them off to the point that the [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] has a solid lock on the government and they feel justified in waging a holy war against the U.S. in perpetuity,” one of the defense officials was quoted as saying.
The former Trump official claimed that Iran’s remaining ballistic missile stockpiles “are getting harder and harder to hit, because the ones that remain are likely in hardened bunkers,” and that “otherwise they would’ve been taken out already.”
At the same time CNN is reporting that, according to a recent U.S. intelligence assessment, “roughly half of Iran’s missile launchers are still intact and thousands of one-way attack drones remain in Iran’s arsenal.”
Three different sources were cited, but not named in the report, which also said Iran still has thousands of Iranian drones — roughly 50% of what it had before the war, and that a “large percentage” of “Iran’s coastal defense cruise missiles remain intact.”
“They are still very much poised to wreak absolute havoc throughout the entire region,” one of the sources said.
Hours after the U.S. bridge attack, Iran’s Fars News Agency, the IRGC’s official media outlet, published a list of eight bridges located in U.S. allied nations as “possible retaliation targets.”
PENTAGON: ‘COMPLETELY WRONG’: The White House and the Pentagon pushed back against the reports. White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly told CNN that “anonymous sources desperately want to attack President Trump and demean the incredible work of our United States Military in achieving the goals of Operation Epic Fury.”
“The terrorist regime is being decimated militarily, and their dismal situation grows bleaker by the day – their only hope is to make a deal with President Trump’s administration and leave behind their nuclear ambitions for good,” Kelly told CNN. “Otherwise, they will be hit harder than they’ve ever been hit before.”
“Completely wrong,” is how Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell characterized the CNN report. “The United States military has delivered a crippling series of blows to the Iranian regime,” Parnell said. “We are far ahead of schedule on accomplishing our military objectives: destroy Iran’s missile arsenal, annihilate their Navy, destroy their terrorist proxies, and ensure Iran can never obtain a nuclear weapon.”
The denials come as Iran continues to demonstrate that even with its severely degraded military capacity, it still has the ability to terrorize its neighbors by hitting critical infrastructure.
Kuwait said this morning that an Iranian attack hit an oil refinery and damaged a desalination plant, and that some of the plant’s components suffered “material damage.” The attacks on desalination plants are of particular concern because for most Gulf States, there are no sources of water other than the salty waters of the Persian Gulf.
WORLD LEADERS DISCUSS STRAIT OF HORMUZ AFTER TRUMP DEMANDS THEY ‘TAKE CARE OF IT’
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HAPPENING TODAY: MASSACRE OF THE GENERALS: War Secretary Pete Hegseth’s scorched-earth campaign to purge the Pentagon of senior military officials deemed insufficiently on board with President Trump’s priorities claimed three more victims yesterday, including the chief of staff of the Army, a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
“General Randy A. George will be retiring from his position as the 41st Chief of Staff of the Army effective immediately,” spokesman Sean Parnell posted on X. “The Department of War is grateful for General George’s decades of service to our nation. We wish him well in his retirement.”
No reason was given for the abrupt firing of George, who was said to be in a meeting at the Pentagon, when he got word Hegseth was demanding his immediate resignation. He is expected to be replaced by the Vice Chief Gen. Christopher LaNeve, who, before being nominated for the No. 2 job, was Hegseth’s military assistant.
The Washington Post reports two other Army generals were fired along with George: Gen. David Hodne, head of the Army’s Transformation Command in October, and Maj. Gen. William Green, chief of Army chaplains.
The New York Times reported Hegseth’s grievance against George appeared related to the general’s close relationship with his direct civilian boss, Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, who Hegseth views as a rival. “Hegseth has also clashed in recent months with General George and Mr. Driscoll over the defense secretary’s decision to block the promotion of four Army officers to be one-star generals.”
“Officials at the White House are also discussing the future of Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, a close friend of Vice President J. D. Vance,” the Atlantic reported, citing “people familiar with the matter.”
“One Pentagon official said Driscoll was expected to leave the department soon,” the Atlantic report said, noting “Hegseth and Driscoll, both Army veterans with political ambitions, have been locked in a rivalry over the past year,” according to current and former officials.
WHO IS GEN. RANDY GEORGE, THE ARMY CHIEF OF STAFF HEGSETH OUSTED?
‘DEEPLY DISTURBING’: The firing of the Army’s top general in the middle of war, for no apparent reason, sent shockwaves through the Pentagon and Capitol Hill. Rep. Rich McCormick (R-GA) was caught unaware when an anchor on Newsmax told him about the news as it was breaking around 5 p.m. “I’m very curious to hear why. I mean, Gen. George is a brilliant mind,” McCormick said, calling him one of the “brighter minds we have in the military.”
“I’ve never heard him say anything contrary to what the president is trying to achieve. I thought he’s done a really good job getting the Army ready for war, so I’d like to hear more because that’s concerning to me,” McCormick said.
In a rare move, the Joint Chiefs of Staff put out a statement on X, heaping praise on George and expressing gratitude “for his decades of steadfast service to our nation.”
“Since 1988, General George and his family have consistently answered the nation’s call with honor and dedication. We are profoundly thankful to General George and his wife, Patty, for their many years of sacrifice and devotion to those who serve. As they graduate from this distinguished chapter of service and look toward the future, we wish them both continued happiness and success in all that lies ahead.”
“I was in Afghanistan with him when he was a colonel,” Seth Jones, analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said last night on CNN. “I’ve always been deeply impressed by his strategic acumen, his grasp of the changing character of war. He was in Ukraine recently to learn lessons on how drones, for example, and electronic warfare are being used in combat.”
With George’s firing, the number of top generals and admirals since Hegseth took over the Pentagon has exceeded a dozen.
“It’s not entirely clear what the one or several reasons were,” said Jones. “But I would just say this finally, that the sheer number of general and flag officers that have been removed and not been told why is deeply disturbing, because what it starts to suggest is that individuals are being fired and replaced based on factors like political loyalty rather than combat effectiveness.”
HEGSETH ORDER ALLOWS TROOPS TO CARRY PERSONAL FIREARMS ON MILITARY BASES
THE RUNDOWN:
Washington Examiner: Hegseth removes Army chief of staff Gen. Randy George
Washington Examiner: Who is Gen. Randy George, the Army chief of staff Hegseth ousted?
Washington Examiner: Hegseth order allows troops to carry personal firearms on military bases
Washington Examiner: UK hosts summit on reopening Strait of Hormuz following Trump demand: ‘Take care of it’
Washington Examiner: World leaders discuss Strait of Hormuz after Trump demands they ‘take care of it’
Washington Examiner: Macron doubts US ability to open Strait of Hormuz by force
Washington Examiner: Iran war exposes strategic vulnerability in fragile US aluminum supply chain
Washington Examiner: Trump losing UK Right as Farage admits Starmer ‘may be right’ on Iran
Washington Examiner: US warns Iranian-backed militias could target Americans in Iraq
Washington Examiner: Vance to travel to Hungary for state visit with Viktor Orban
Washington Examiner: USS Gerald R. Ford leaves port in Croatia after fire damage repairs
Washington Examiner: Whitmer declares energy emergency in Michigan as Iran war spikes gas prices
Washington Examiner: 2027 budget request expected to boost Space Force’s push for expansion
Washington Examiner: Opinion: An Iran containment strategy: Managing the post-conflict threat
Washington Examiner: Opinion: Trump needs strikes and diplomatic realism, not ground troops, in Iran
Washington Examiner: Opinion: NATO is crumbling, and Europe has no one to blame but itself
Defense News: Bipartisan Group of Senators Vow to Keep US in NATO Despite Trump Threats
Washington Post: Hegseth forces out Army’s top general, two other senior officers
The Atlantic: An Army Shake-Up in the Middle of a War
Politico: Officials Warn US Is Running out of Targets to Strike in Iran
CNN: US Intelligence Assesses Iran Maintains Significant Missile Launching Capability, Sources Say
New York Times: Drone Hits Kuwaiti Oil Refinery in New Attack on Gulf Energy Sites
AP: Company backed by Trump sons looks to sell drone interceptors to Gulf states being attacked by Iran
The Economist: On the front lines, Russian soldiers pay officers to stay alive
Wall Street Journal: China Is Building Another Massive Base in the South China Sea
AP: White House set to release Trump’s budget with major increase in defense spending
Wall Street Journal: ‘I Think It’s Time’: The Inside Story of Pam Bondi’s Ouster
Air & Space Forces Magazine: B-52s Carrying JDAMs over Iran as US Bombers Play Growing Role in Air War
Air & Space Forces Magazine: What Options Does the Air Force Have for E-3 Taken Out by Iran?
DefenseOne: The US Has Declared ‘Space Superiority’ over Iran. What Does That Mean?
Breaking Defense: Trump to Propose $1.5 Trillion Defense Budget, Banking on $350 Billion from Reconciliation
Air & Space Forces Magazine: Pentagon Awards $6.6 Billion Contract for Next Two Lots of F-35 Engines
Breaking Defense: A Year After ‘Liberation Day,’ Impact of Trump Tariffs on Defense Industry Remains Muted
DefenseScoop: Defense Agencies Are Bullish on Commercial Tech, but Shortcomings Persist
Defense News: Money Starts Flowing for New GCAP Fighter, as Britain Sorts Out Finances
Air & Space Forces Magazine: Space Force to Create Futures-Like Group on HQ Staff
Air & Space Forces Magazine: Guard, Reserve Leaders Flag Concern over Recapitalizing Fighter Fleet
Wall Street Journal: The College Student—and His Cat Meme—Who Hunted the World’s Biggest Cyberweapon
THE CALENDAR:
FRIDAY | APRIL 3
10 a.m. — National Institute for Deterrence Studies virtual seminar: “The Challenges to Ensuring Nuclear Deterrence,” with Air Force Lt. Gen. Jason Armagost, deputy commander, Global Strike Command https://thinkdeterrence.com/events/the-challenges-to-ensuring-nuclear-deterrence
11 a.m. — Center for Strategic and International Studies virtual discussion: “Adapting Under Fire: Ukraine’s Race to Reinvent Modern Defense,” with active-duty air defense operators from the Ukrainian army and air force, and Kateryna Bondar, fellow, CSIS Wadhwani AI Center https://www.csis.org/events/adapting-under-fire-ukraines-race-reinvent-modern-defense
