Trump Feuds With NATO & The Media’s Epic Fury | 3.18.26

Summary

Morning Wire – "Trump Feuds With NATO & The Media’s Epic Fury"

Date: March 18, 2026
Hosts: John Bickley & Georgia Howe
Key Guests: Cabot Phillips, Tim Rice, Ben Domenech

Episode Overview

This episode examines three interwoven crises:

• President Trump’s deepening rift with NATO allies over the ongoing Iran war and allied reluctance to assist.
• Internal dissent within Trump's administration, punctuated by a high-profile resignation.
• The media’s highly critical tone toward both the conflict and Trump himself, set against a backdrop of record-low trust in journalism.
  The hosts also provide updates on the DHS partial shutdown and the charged battle over the SAVE Act in Congress.

---

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Tensions Between Trump and NATO (00:29, 06:41)

• The US-led “Operation Epic Fury” in Iran has entered its 19th day, with mounting pressure on NATO allies to provide direct assistance, which so far has not materialized.
• Trump publicly critiques allies for their inertia, stating:

  “We will protect them, but they will do nothing for us. ... We do not need the help of anyone.”
  (Donald Trump, 06:41)

• Trump maintains he can take major military decisions without congressional approval, fueling further controversy.

  “When they don't help us, I mean, it's certainly something that we should think about. I don't need Congress for that decision.”
  (Donald Trump, 00:35)

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2. Trump Administration Division & Joe Kent’s Resignation (03:00–05:52, 15:56)

• Joe Kent, Trump’s top counterterrorism official, abruptly resigns, citing the Iran war as unjustified and triggered by "pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby."
• Kent’s resignation letter accuses the administration of pursuing war where “no imminent threat” exists and claims past actions, like the killing of Soleimani, were more prudent.
• Trump responds bluntly:

  "It's a good thing that he's out because he said that Iran was not a threat. Iran was a threat. Every country realized ... When somebody is working with us that says they didn't think Iran was a threat, we don't want those people."
  (Donald Trump, 04:10)

• Cabot Phillips notes the irony of counterterrorism dissent over action against "the world's #1 state sponsor of terrorism," as well as inconsistencies in Kent's prior stances.
• Apparent crack in the administration’s united front, but Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard publicly sides with Trump’s right to determine imminent threats.
• Ben Domenech on internal dissent:

  "If you disagree with something that fundamentally, you should quit. ... That could be an isolated incident or it could ... lead to further falling apart of the president's team."
  (Ben Domenech, 15:56)

---

3. On-the-Ground Updates in Iran (05:52–06:41)

• Two high-profile regime assassinations:
  • Brig. General Ghulam Reza Suleimani (militia head)
  • Ali Larani (Supreme National Security Council chief, considered de facto leader)
• Trump frames these as dismantling Iran’s capacity for brutal repression:

  “He was in charge of the killing of protesters. It’s an evil group.”
  (Donald Trump, 06:33)

---

4. DHS Partial Shutdown & Congressional Stalemate (08:14–11:46)

• Tim Rice details the lingering partial government shutdown, stemming from Democrats’ push to defund CBP and ICE following deaths in Minnesota.
• The shutdown acutely impacts the DHS Office of Intelligence and Analysis—80% working without pay, despite rising Iran-linked attacks at home.

  "These are people who we need working right now. We need them fully funded."
  (Tim Rice, 09:46)

• Trump blames Democrats; the White House is attempting to negotiate (offering bodycam expansion, restrictions on enforcement at schools/hospitals).
• The SAVE Act, with voter ID measures, meets Congressional gridlock despite Trump’s intense advocacy and threats to withhold endorsements from uncooperative Senate Republicans.

---

5. Media Coverage – "Operation Epic Fury" (12:11–16:55)

• Ben Domenech critiques "hostile" media coverage, noting the rapid shift from prior sympathy for Iranian protesters to opposition against Trump’s military intervention.

  "What's stunning ... is that many ... entities ... have actually covered the Iranian people with great sympathy... Now... the media has completely shifted their tone and they've basically said they're going to declare this a defeat before we even have the time to assess it."
  (Ben Domenech, 12:55)

• Speed and success of US/Israeli strikes contrast with media’s eagerness to frame the conflict as “Trump’s defeat.”
• Public opinion splits sharply:
  • Trump supporters: overwhelmingly behind the war (9/10 support)
  • Independents: skeptical, focusing on economic impact
  • Democrats: generally opposed
• Domenech dispels the media’s narrative of “coalition fracture,” seeing little evidence of MAGA base splintering:

  "The thing that I do think is a false narrative ... is that somehow this is going to break up the president’s coalition... I just don't see that happening or any evidence of that happening."
  (Ben Domenech, 14:38)

---

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Trump on autonomy in NATO decisions:

  “I don't need Congress for that decision.” (00:35)

• Joe Kent's resignation and its impact:

  “He cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran, which ... posed no imminent threat to our nation.” (Reported by Cabot Phillips, 03:14)

• Ben Domenech on media bias:

  “They've basically said that they're going to declare this a defeat before we even have the time to assess it.” (12:55)

• Polling insights:

  “If you're looking at the president's supporters, they're enormously supportive of this... Independents ... are worried about the price of gas.” (Ben Domenech, 14:38)

• Domenech on dissent:

  “If you disagree with something ... you should quit.” (15:56)

---

Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:29: Iran war update and Trump–NATO tensions
• 03:00–05:52: Joe Kent resignation and intra-administration unrest
• 05:52–06:41: Iran regime decapitation strikes
• 08:14–11:46: DHS shutdown effects, SAVE Act standoff
• 12:11–16:55: Media narrative, polling, public opinion, and unity in Trump’s base

---

Tone & Style

The hosts maintain a brisk, fact-focused and sometimes skeptical tone with pointed questions, while expert guests provide brisk, analytical commentary. Trump’s quotes provide a combative element, while coverage of administration drama and media criticism reflects The Daily Wire’s anti-mainstream-media, pro-Trump editorial line.

---

In short: The episode keenly dissects Trump’s widening international and domestic challenges in the Iran conflict, underscores partisan divides in media coverage and public sentiment, and spotlights the political gridlock stalling both the administration and key institutions at home.

Transcript

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[John Bickley]

The risk between Trump and NATO allies grows as the war enters its 19th day.

[Donald Trump]

When they don't help us, I mean, it's certainly something that we should think about. I don't need Congress for that decision.

[Georgia Howe]

How will the elimination of yet another Iranian leader affect the regime? And is Trump facing dissent within his administration?

[John Bickley]

I'm Daily Wire Executive editor John Bickley with Georgia Howe. It's Wednesday, March 18th. This is Morning Wire.

[Georgia Howe]

The Department of Homeland Security is still without funding as the agency's primary counterterrorism unit soldiers on without pay.

[Donald Trump]

We're fighting big battles with a very tough enemy and winning nicely and we're not allowed to have security in our country.

[John Bickley]

And we look at another major front in Operation Epic Fury, the battle over the narrative here at home.

[Georgia Howe]

As the war with Iran gets messier, so does President Trump's messaging about it. Pentagon officials telling senators that so far this operation has cost at least $11 billion just in the first week. And of course, that cost is certain to grow. Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.

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[Georgia Howe]

The Iran conflict has now entered its 19th day and President Trump finds himself in a tug of war with NATO and fending off claims of division inside his administration.

[John Bickley]

Wired In Live host Cabot Phillips joins us now with more on the Iran operation, including a high profile resignation. In fact, let's start there. There's a lot of buzz about this yesterday. We're expecting more today. What happened with this resignation?

[Cabot Phillips]

Yeah, there will certainly be plenty more conversation in D.C. about this, but here's what transpired. So on Tuesday morning, Joe Kent, President Trump's top counterterrorism official, abruptly resigned. Now, many folks have probably never heard of Joe Kent, but it is fairly rare for such a high ranking official to resign and much more rare for them to do so while publicly slamming their former boss on the way out. In a letter posted online, the former Special Forces operative and CIA officer said, quote, that he cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran, which he claimed, quote, posed no imminent threat to our nation. Now, since this war started, there have been rumors of dissent within the Trump administration, which makes sense given the number of anti interventionist appointees, including Kent, Tulsi Gabbard, and even JD Vance to some extent. But to this point, the administration has publicly offered a remarkably unified front on this war, supporting it. For his part, President Trump weighed in on the resignation within hours of the news.

[Donald Trump]

It's a good thing that he's out because he said that Iran was not a threat. Iran was a threat. Every country realized what a threat Iran was. When somebody is working with us that says they didn't think Iran was a threat, we don't want those people.

[Cabot Phillips]

Now, supporters of Kent, including those on the left and also those on the non intervention wing of the gop, called the move heroic. They lauded his willingness to not only step down, but to go public with his concerns over the conflict. But Trump allies say that it's ironic that the head of counterterrorism was resigning over Trump's efforts to disarm the world's number one sponsor of terrorism. They also noted some inconsistencies in his resignation letter. For example, at one point, he praised Trump's previous strike taking out Iranian General Suleiman Soleimani, saying it was an example of using military power, quote, without getting us drawn in to never ending wars. But at the time of that strike on Soleimani, Kent was a vocal opponent saying that it would lead to an endless war, which we know it did not. Kent also ruffled feathers in D.C. with this claim about Israel. Quote, it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby. President Trump has been adamant that he entered this conflict independently and was not pressured by the Israelis. We've heard that repeatedly from the White House. They called that accusation, quote, insulted and laughable and that Trump was acting, quote, in the best interest of the United States, period. And it's worth noting Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who's generally viewed as the Trump appointee who is most against this war, issued a statement saying that President Trump is solely responsible for deciding what constitutes an imminent threat and that he, quote, carefully reviewed all the information before him before launching this war.

[John Bickley]

Now, as for the war itself in Iran, what is the latest on the ground?

[Cabot Phillips]

Well, the regime is certainly reeling today after two of their highest remaining surviving officials have been killed by Israel. On Tuesday, the Jewish state announced that they had successfully taken out the head of the country's powerful militia group, Brigadier General Ghulam Reza Suleimani, and even more importantly, Ali Larani, that is, the chief of Iran's Supreme National Security Council. Larani was viewed as the country's de facto leader right after the previous ayatollah was killed, and according to President Trump, was responsible for attacks on American service members over the years and also more recently, that he directed the killing of tens of thousands of protesters in the country.

[Donald Trump]

Their actual top was killed yesterday. He was in charge of the killing of protesters. It's an evil group.

[Cabot Phillips]

And one more note. We talked yesterday about President Trump calling for other nations to support America's efforts in opening up the Strait of Hormuz. It appears increasingly likely that no one is answering that call. President Trump slammed those allies yesterday, particularly NATO members, for agreeing with what we are doing, but offering no help. He added, quote, we will protect them, but they will do nothing for us. But in true Trump fashion, he added at the end, quote, we do not need the help of anyone.

[John Bickley]

All right, so Trump saying support would be nice, but the US in the end, doesn't need so much for reporting.

[Cabot Phillips]

Absolutely.

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[John Bickley]

the partial shutdown of DHS is starting to impact some key divisions within the agency, including its primary Counter Terrorism unit, which remains without pay. Meanwhile, the SAVE act showdown continues in

[Georgia Howe]

D.C. joining us now is Daily Wire D.C. bureau Chief Tim Rice. Tim, great to have you in studio.

[Tim Rice]

So good to be here, Georgia.

[Georgia Howe]

So, Tim, we just reached the one month mark with this government shutdown. Where do things stand now?

[Tim Rice]

Yeah. So just a quick reminder, this is a partial government shutdown and the reason it's happening is because Democrats wanted to defund Customs and Border Protection and ICE after multiple people were killed by ICE and CBP agents in Minnesota at the beginning of the year. So this is not a full government shutdown like we had at the end of last year. They managed to negotiate mostly a funding agreement agreement. This is just sort of Democrats are really holding out on this one narrow slice of things. And it's really particularly starting to impact the Department of Homeland Security, which is, you know, we've in recent months we've started thinking of Homeland Security as an immigration agency. But you know, remember, it was originally started to protect the homeland, to defend people against things like terror attacks. The White House yesterday responded to Democrats latest list of demands offering to expand the use of body cams and stop immigration enforcement at places like schools and hospitals. It's not clear how Democrats will respond, but this is definitely the furthest negotiations have gotten thus far.

[Georgia Howe]

Now, our colleague Mary Margaret Olahan actually got a question with the White House press secretary yesterday specifically about the impact on Homeland Security. What did we learn there?

[Tim Rice]

Yeah. So one of the main things that's happening because of this partial shutdown is that the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Intelligence and analysis, about 80% of the people on that team are currently working without pay. So this is a big deal, right? You have obviously with dhs, you hear about TSA agents missing paychecks, things of that nature. But this is the agent, the office within DHS that investigates things like sleeper cells active in the United States and potential domestic terrorist threats. Right. So exactly the sort of things that we're seeing increased warnings of. We've already had four attacks, sort of Iran related in the United States in the past couple of weeks since we started war with Iran. So this is a huge deal. These are people who we need working right now. We need them fully funded. So definitely something that Washington is concerned about. President Trump has been very clear discuss these the shutdown of this division. He's placed the blame entirely on Democrats, although the White House told Mary Margaret and has been very clear to us that they are still open to negotiating with Democrats. So clearly, you know, some sense in Pennsylvania Avenue that they want to end this shutdown now.

[Georgia Howe]

The revamped SAVE act passed a major procedural hurdle yesterday in the Senate and then it went on to have a marathon debate last night, although most people correctly assumed it would not go anywhere. This has been very controversial in D.C. despite some strong popular support for voter ID.

[Tim Rice]

Yeah, surprisingly controversial, right? This really has Washington in a chokehold. Senate Majority Leader John Thune has repeatedly said that he does not think it's worth holding up the chamber's entire agenda just to pass this. A lot of his colleagues disagree, a lot of his critics disagree. One of the main people who disagrees is President Trump who has not only been pushing this really aggressively, but just this week he said actually that he will pull endorsements from or refuse to endorse any Senate Republican who does not support the Save America Act. So not not sure exactly how where we go from here, but this is definitely not the last we'll be hearing about this.

[Georgia Howe]

Well, and from the looks of it, it doesn't look like Trump is going to let this one go. Tim. Tim, thanks for reporting.

[Tim Rice]

Thanks for having me.

[Cabot Phillips]

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[Georgia Howe]

3 month plan equivalent to $15 per month required intro rate first 3 months only, then full price plan options available, taxes and fees extra. See full [e-mail] the Legacy Media has continued to pit itself against President Trump in its coverage of Operation Epic Fury.

[John Bickley]

Joining us now to discuss the media front in the Iran war is Daily Wire opinion editor Ben Domenech, who's also host of the Big Ben show. Ben, great to have you in the studio with us.

[Ben Domenech]

Great to be with you. It's good to be on here. As a longtime fan of Morning Wire,

[John Bickley]

we love hearing that. So, you know, we're not surprised to see media bias in their coverage of the operation. Epic Fury, for sure. But is it fair to say that the media's level of bias is surprising? And is it fair to say that this is actually hostile coverage?

[Ben Domenech]

I think that there's no question that it's hostile coverage. And what's stunning to me about it is that many of these same entities were ones that in the past have actually covered the Iranian people with great sympathy. In fact, many of them even criticized Donald Trump for not weighing in earlier to help the protesters when we saw tens of thousands being slaughtered in the streets just because of their protest against the horrific Iranian regime. Now, as soon as the president has actually pulled the trigger in a way that is certainly politically risky, but also very brave, if you think that it's something that needs to be done, the media has completely shifted their tone and they've basically said that they're going to declare this a defeat before we even have the time to assess it. The speed at which the American military, in tandem with the Israelis has been working here is astonishing. The number of people, the number of bad guys that they've taken off the map is really stunning. And the level to which they've been able to have these targeted strikes against them is clearly designed to cut the head off the snake, to eliminate the ability of the Iranians, Ukrainians to throw the ballistic missiles that they have been throwing around. To that degree, they've already done enormous damage to them. In a situation like this, it's responsible to give the military time to figure this out, to see what's going to happen. And you can assess this further down the road as to whether it's a success or not, just as the American people will.

[John Bickley]

Now, we're 19 days in, and that is a short period of time. And as you've said, I think objectively speaking, you could say this has been a very effective, efficient war so far. Now, if you it stretches on, the narrative does change. There's clearly an attempt to portray this as unpopular with the American people. Is that true? What does the polling actually show us?

[Ben Domenech]

So the polling actually shows us that if you're looking at the president's supporters, they're enormously supportive of this. In fact, the more MAGA you are in terms of the various ways that they determine that, pollsters have shown consistently that he has the highest levels of support. You're talking nine out of 10 in terms of the American people. Independents, of course, are more skeptical. They're worried about the price of gas. They're going to, I think, assess this based on that, mostly because of the pocketbook issues that affect them. And of course, Democrats, as always, are opposed to everything that Donald Trump does. But the thing that I do think is a false narrative that the media has leaned into to a great degree is that somehow this is going to break up the president's coalition, that it's going to render apart the different people who he brought in in really a remade Republican coalition in 20 for to win the White House back. I just don't see that happening or any evidence of that happening. And even though they like to point to various media personalities as indicative of it, I don't see any evidence that their arguments are taking hold right now.

[John Bickley]

Follow up to that. And final question. Is there a timeline? Do you feel like there's a limit? Is it two months? Is it one month? How long can this stretch on before it truly does turn into a true majority negative for Trump?

[Ben Domenech]

Well, I think we saw this week with the resignation of Joe Kent, someone who has been occupied a role within the DNI office, someone who had been a critic of past wars. He was a relatively new Republican. He had been previously a registered Democrat, quit over the fact that he's opposed to this war. This is the first person we've seen have that kind of ideological shift. Now, to be quite honest, I'm actually in favor of people doing that. I'm entirely opposed to what we saw in the first Trump administration where you would have people who disagree, disagreed fundamentally with the president, hang around for as long as possible, then exit and then get a huge book contract and go on a book tour promoting it about how principled they are. I think that if you disagree with something that fundamentally, you should quit. And the president himself said so today in the Oval Office. I think that one of the things we have to understand is that could be an isolated incident or it could be something that actually does lead to further falling apart of the president's team.

[John Bickley]

All fascinating stuff. And thank you so much for coming on. It's always fun to have people in studio. Good to have you here.

[Ben Domenech]

Great to be with you.

[Georgia Howe]

Thanks for waking up with us. And if you're listening to the show now, you can watch for free on Daily Wire. Plus, we'll be back later this evening with more news you need to know.

[Cabot Phillips]

I'm Brendan Steinhauser, CEO of the alliance for Secure AI. We're a coalition of patriotic Americans who want to stop AI from taking our freedom freedoms. Big Tech is propping up AI powered mass surveillance and exploiting our children online. This is not the future we want. The alliance is working hard to ensure that we put Americans first. Join [e-mail] to learn more.

[Cillian Murphy]

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