Iran Retaliates After U.S. Military Strikes. Now What?

Summary

Summary of "Iran Retaliates After U.S. Military Strikes. Now What?" – The NPR Politics Podcast

Release Date: June 23, 2025
Host: Tamara Keith
Guests: Greg Myhre (National Security Reporter), Domenico Montanaro (Senior Political Editor and Correspondent)

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Introduction and Context

In the episode titled "Iran Retaliates After U.S. Military Strikes. Now What?", NPR's political reporters Tamara Keith, Greg Myhre, and Domenico Montanaro delve into the escalating tensions between the United States and Iran following recent military actions. The discussion centers on Iran's missile strikes against U.S. military installations in Qatar, a direct response to prior U.S. airstrikes on Iran's nuclear facilities.

Details of the Iranian Missile Strikes

Tamara Keith opens the discussion with a briefing on the latest developments:

"[Tamara Keith, 01:16] Iran has launched missiles at a US Air Force base in Qatar. All were intercepted, and a US official tells NPR there are no reports of US casualties."

Greg Myhre provides an in-depth analysis of the strike's nature and its immediate impact:

"[Greg Myhre, 01:40] Iran announced that it launched these missile strikes. The US and Qatar have acknowledged that they've taken place. It seems like this was not a heavy response. Iran wanted to show that it was responding pretty quickly to the US attack on its nuclear sites... These missiles were shot down, no injuries."

Greg emphasizes the symbolic significance of the target:

"[Greg Myhre, 03:04] President Trump was just at that air base in Qatar on May 15th delivering a speech to US troops, and today it was fending off Iranian missiles. So is symbolism part of this?"

He further explains the strategic choice of the Al Udid Air Force Base:

"[Greg Myhre, 03:19] It's a huge US military installation outside the capital, in the desert outside Doha. The US was already on high alert. These missiles were shot down, no injuries."

US and Iran Responses

The conversation shifts to the implications of Iran's retaliatory actions. Tamara highlights the administration's stance:

"[Tamara Keith, 05:00] Domenico, administration officials have been emphasizing that Saturday's action was a targeted mission, that there were not plans for further attacks unless Iran retaliated. They warned of grave consequences if Iran did that."

Domenico Montanaro assesses the administration's perspective:

"[Domenico Montanaro, 05:28] The White House would likely be pretty happy as long as this is the full extent of the Iranian retaliation, especially considering no American has been killed or hurt in these missile strikes."

He further discusses the political risks for President Trump:

"[Domenico Montanaro, 05:28] Trump is getting so involved with Iran that you wind up having not just his base, but Americans who are concerned about having more intervention... that would be more political risk."

Comparisons to Past Incidents

Tamara draws parallels to a previous incident to contextualize the current situation:

"[Tamara Keith, 06:22] ... taken back to the US strike in January of 2020 that took out General Qasem Soleimani... Iran retaliated, targeting two US bases in Iraq... No Americans were killed. President Trump quickly moved on. He tweeted, 'all is well!'"

Greg Myhre agrees on the relevance of this precedent:

"[Greg Myhre, 06:57] It very well could be. The Iranians wanted to show that they could respond. Trump has talked about hitting Iran very hard... the Israel-Iran shooting match... is still going ahead full speed."

Political Implications and Public Opinion

Domenico explores recent polling data to understand American public sentiment:

"[Domenico Montanaro, 12:16] Before the attacks, most people thought Iran posed a greater threat than in previous years. After the missile strikes, approval among Republicans for the attacks soared from 25% to 69%."

He attributes this shift to effective messaging:

"[Domenico Montanaro, 13:24] Republicans approve of President Trump. They heard the narrative... Iran was on the cusp of having a nuclear weapon... a large degree of people who voted for President Trump want to believe that."

Tamara highlights internal Republican concerns despite the general approval:

"[Tamara Keith, 13:52] Many MAGA Republicans have reacted with caution and even concern about Trump's decision to get involved... worried that it could grow into a protracted conflict."

Domenico addresses these concerns:

"[Domenico Montanaro, 14:25] The risk of a protracted conflict is significant. Trump hopes Iran's retaliation remains limited to maintain his political stature, but increased involvement could elevate his political risks."

Future Developments and Observations

Looking ahead, Greg Myhre outlines the potential trajectories of the conflict:

"[Greg Myhre, 15:09] The war has a pattern now with Israel controlling the skies over Iran and continuing its attacks. Iran is still firing back, and the US is assisting Israel. I'll be watching US and Israel's alignment on ending the fight and Iran's willingness to cease hostilities."

Domenico adds insights into President Trump's strategic positioning:

"[Domenico Montanaro, 16:26] Trump has hinted at regime change against Iran, presenting it as making Iran "great again." This is his leverage after the successful strikes on nuclear facilities."

Greg emphasizes the uncertainty surrounding the mission's success:

"[Greg Myhre, 10:38] Determining the full extent of the damage from the bombings takes time. The military is still assessing the situation, especially since the targeted facility is deeply underground."

Conclusion

The episode concludes with an acknowledgment of the fluid and evolving nature of U.S.-Iran relations amidst military tensions. The hosts emphasize the importance of monitoring governmental narratives, public opinion, and international responses as the situation develops.

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Notable Quotes:

• Greg Myhre [01:40]: "These could do real damage, but it's a pretty easy catch for a major US Military base there to shoot them down."

• Domenico Montanaro [05:28]: "Trump is getting so involved with Iran that you wind up having not just his base, but Americans who are concerned about having more... that would be more political risk."

• Domenico Montanaro [12:16]: "Before the bombings... only a quarter of Republicans thought that the US should [get involved]. After the attacks, 69% approved."

• Greg Myhre [15:09]: "The war has taken on a bit of a pattern now that Israel really controls the skies over Iran and seems to be able to bomb at will."

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This episode of The NPR Politics Podcast provides a comprehensive analysis of the latest developments in U.S.-Iran relations, offering listeners a nuanced understanding of the geopolitical stakes, political implications, and potential future scenarios stemming from recent military actions.

Transcript

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[Emily]

Hi, this is Emily from Tehachapi, California. And I'm about to perform an end of the year dance recital alongside my daughter and the rest of the talented dancers at Dance Philosophy.

[Tamara Keith]

This podcast was recorded at 2:44pm on Monday, June 23.

[Emily]

Things may have changed by the time you hear it, but myself and the rest of the dancers will have already taken our final bows for the season. Okay, here's the show.

[Domenico Montanaro]

I get the sense that this is something she likes doing and her kids are also kind of following in her.

[Tamara Keith]

Footsteps, or maybe she's an instructor.

[Domenico Montanaro]

But I've been in those other situations where the kid wants to do something and I'm not good at it and I have to do it, and that's never any fun.

[Tamara Keith]

Nobody wants that. Hey there. It's the NPR Politics podcast. I'm Tamara Keith. I cover the White House.

[Greg Myhre]

I'm Greg Myhre. I cover national security.

[Domenico Montanaro]

And I'm Domenico Montanaro, senior political editor and correspondent.

[Tamara Keith]

Iran has launched missiles at a US Air Force base in Qatar. All were intercepted, and a US Official tells NPR there are no reports of US Casualties. This comes in response to the US Airstrikes on three of Iran's nuclear facilities over the weekend. We're going to break down what all of this means. But, Greg Craig, let's start with what we know about today's missile strikes from Iran.

[Greg Myhre]

Yeah. So Iran announced that it launched these missile strikes. The US And Qatar have acknowledged that they've taken place. It seems like this was not a heavy response. Iran wanted to show that it was responding pretty quickly to the US Attack on its nuclear sites, and it's done so. But it was done at Al Udid Air Force Base. It's a huge US Military installation outside the capital, in the desert outside the capital of Qatar, Doha. And so the US Was already on high alert. It was well prepared. These missiles were shot down, no injuries. And again, there seems to be a bit of an orchestration going on here. There have been reports by others, NPR hasn't confirmed this independently, that the Iranians notified the Qataris and those two countries have pretty good relations and then was passed on to the U.S. so, yes, it's a retaliation. And I don't Want to make light of missiles. These could do real damage, but it's a pretty easy catch for a major US Military base there to shoot them down. So it seems like maybe we have the Iranian retaliation. Iran can say to its own people that it's responded and perhaps Iran wants to leave it there. We'll have to see how this plays out. But that's the initial read we're getting right now.

[Tamara Keith]

And certainly there is some symbolism there. President Trump was just at that air base in Qatar on May 15th delivering a speech to US troops, and today it was fending off Iranian missiles. So is symbolism part of this?

[Greg Myhre]

Oh, absolutely. I think that might be the main part of this. Again, the US has multiple bases in the region that could have come under Iranian fire. This one, a very large base. The US really ran its air campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan to a fairly large extent out of this base. The U.S. has U.S. central Command. It's sort of the forward operating base for the US There. So it was a big, obvious target also, one very well prepared to guard against an attack. It wasn't near an urban area. It's very isolated, very well equipped. So it's not hard to imagine that this is the kind of orchestrated event that we've been discussing here. Now we'll have to see is symbolism enough. Has Iran made its point that it could respond, even if it's in a pretty weak way, and is that the end of it, at least for this round?

[Tamara Keith]

Well, what are they saying?

[Greg Myhre]

So what we're hearing is from the state media in Iran. They're saying they launched this missile attack on US Bases in Qatar and Iraq, but we're not getting any word that US Bases in Iraq came under attack. The Iranians also say that they caused a lot of damage there. Again, no indication that that's tr. The US And Qatar say all these missiles were shot down. No injuries were reported. So it looks like Iran is trying to present this to its own people, that it carried out a large response fairly quickly. Although the US Military will see this as a relatively limited response that was pretty easily handled.

[Tamara Keith]

Domenico administration officials have been emphasizing that Saturday's action was a targeted mission, that there were not plans for further attacks unless Iran retaliated. They warned of grave consequences if Iran did that. So how does this now seemingly limited. And we're still in the middle of this story happening, but how does this seemingly limited retaliation affect the narrative?

[Domenico Montanaro]

Yeah, I don't think it changes the narrative very much. I mean, the White House, I think, would likely be pretty happy as long as this is the full extent of the Iranian retaliation, especially considering no American Americans apparently been killed or hurt in these missile strikes. So I think that at this point, if this is the limited nature of what Iran's attack is, I think that Trump would be pretty happy with that, move on from it and not feel like they need to do a whole lot more. Because I think that's where the potential political problem comes for. Trump is getting so involved with Iran that you wind up, you know, having not just his base, but Americans who are concerned about having more, you know, intervention in a place that they don't think the US should be intervening for a very long period of time, that that would be more political risk.

[Tamara Keith]

You know, Greg, I was looking for some sort of precedent for this moment. And while it is still early, I was taken back to the US strike in January of 2020 that took out General Qasem Soleimani, who was a key Iranian general. And afterward, Iran did retaliate, targeting two US Bases in Iraq, including one Trump had visited earlier in his term. But no Americans were killed. President Trump quickly moved on. He tweeted, all is well, exclamation point. So is that instructive for the moment we're in now?

[Greg Myhre]

It very well could be. Again, we'll have to wait a little longer. But, yeah, I think the Iranians wanted to show that they could respond. Trump has talked about hitting Iran very hard, which he says took place over the weekend. And that part of it, U.S. offensive operations in Iran, may well be over in Trump's mind. I would just add, of course, that the US Is helping Israel play defense. US Ships and planes and forces on the ground manning air defense batteries, are helping Israel shoot down the ongoing Iranian missiles coming into Israel. More came in today. Israel also carried out attacks inside Iran. So that part of it, the Israel Iran shooting match, which has been going on about 11 days now, is still going ahead full speed. But the US Involvement in direct attacks on Iran and Iranian responses, it may just be this brief little thing we've seen. It may be over. Don't want to say for sure, but that's certainly a possibility.

[Tamara Keith]

All right, we're going to take a quick break, and we'll be back with more when we return.

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[Tamara Keith]

As of this taping, President Trump hasn't yet weighed in on the Iranian response. But while American televisions were filled with images of missiles streaking through the skies, he put out a message on Truth Social about Saturday's mission, insisting it was a success. Domenico, what's going on there?

[Domenico Montanaro]

Yeah, I mean, it was kind of defensive about the narrative of whether or not the American mission in the first place was successful. You know, he said in part, the sites that we hit in Iran were totally destroyed and everyone knows it. He then went on to really blast, of course, what he calls the fake news of those of us in the media, said that certain members of the media are working hard on this falsehood, that it wasn't a great success. He said it never ends and that's why their ratings are at an all time low, zero credibility. Clearly he's watching tv, he's seeing how things are being reported out and he wants everyone on the same page to say that that was a resounding success. And when you did watch some right wing media outlets, that is exactly how it's being framed. Very red, white and blue. And of course, our own reporting has shown that we don't quite know the extent of it just yet and that there has to be more examination of that.

[Greg Myhre]

And I'll just add a bit here that this is standard procedure when the US or anybody carries out a bombing operation in a foreclos foreign country and you're trying to determine from long distance, from satellite photos or other means when you're not physically there, it always takes a couple days or more to figure out the full extent of damage. And in this case, the US was bombing a facility that's about 300ft underground. So it's impossible. And the military has said that. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs came out at the Pentagon news briefing and said, we're still assessing. So realistically, this is something that takes a.

[Tamara Keith]

But President Trump wants the narrative to be totally obliterated. Mission accomplished.

[Domenico Montanaro]

Moving on.

[Tamara Keith]

Moving on.

[Greg Myhre]

Right.

[Domenico Montanaro]

And look, I think that there are a lot of Americans who rightfully are a little bit more skeptical of the information coming from their government after the Iraq war. It's not certainly the Trump administration, and Trump was critical of the Iraq war himself, but after hearing that there were weapons of mass destruction and all things could end in a mushroom cloud and didn't want to do that, I think there are a lot of Americans who are skeptical of that and certainly in the media, less likely to just take the word of the government and want to wait for some results, to have some measured understanding of what happened. But that's not really the pace of our modern information culture.

[Tamara Keith]

Yeah. And leaning into that very rapid pace. Domenico, you have been going through some very interesting polling data about how Americans feel about the US Getting directly involved in the Israel, Iran conflict. So what did you find?

[Domenico Montanaro]

Yeah, it's super interesting because before the attacks, there were some polls on this, and what it had shown is that. But most people thought that Iran posed a degree of a threat, and it was actually higher than it had been in previous years. They also then, when you asked them, do you think that it would be okay for Iran to have a nuclear weapon? Most people said, absolutely not. Right. So what the White House then is able to do is, after these attacks, take those two things and create a narrative that says that Iran is a serious threat to the United States, that they were on the cusp of having a nuclear weapon, despite what the administration had said previously, not necessarily ringing the fire alarms on Iran being close to having a nuclear weapon at this time, but being able to use that has certainly turned the numbers with Republicans. Just to give you an example, before the bombings, The Economist and YouGov did this poll, and they asked people about whether they thought that the US should get involved in the conflict between Israel and Iran, only a quarter of Republicans thought that the US Should. When they did a snap poll right after the attacks, 69% of Republicans said that they approved of the attacks.

[Tamara Keith]

Because Republicans approve of President Trump.

[Domenico Montanaro]

They do. And they Heard the narrative. Right. And depending on who they're watching, and if they're watching those right wing media outlets that are saying Iran was a major threat, the United States put out these very precise attacks to stop them from having a nuclear weapon that could have been used against the United States. And they were on the cusp of having one. Whether that's true or not, there's a large degree of people who voted for President Trump who want to believe that that's the case and have clearly shown that they're rallying around this president.

[Tamara Keith]

Yeah, we've talked about this before on the podcast, but President Trump campaigned on ending forever wars and getting the US out of prolonged military engagements. And many MAGA Republicans have reacted with caution and even concern about Trump's decision to get involved. I'm thinking of Marjorie Taylor Green, the congresswoman from Georgia, among others, you know, worried that. But even though President Trump said he wanted this to be a one off, please don't retaliate. Worried that it could grow into a protracted conflict. So where are they left now?

[Domenico Montanaro]

I think that that's the real issue is the risk of it growing into a protracted conflict is when the president then has to sort of look over his right shoulder to see those people who are saying, we didn't vote for that. You know, we voted for someone who was gonna keep us out of wars in the Middle East. Of course, the United States is, as Greg noted, the US Is still helping Israel defend themselves against attacks from Iran. But if this were to go further and the US Got more involved, I think that's when Trump has the most political risk right now. He's certainly hoping that these responses by Iran will be it and that he can say it was a resounding success, be able to move on and maintain his political stature with his base.

[Tamara Keith]

Greg, what are you watching for in the days ahead?

[Greg Myhre]

So, on the one hand, the war has taken on a bit of a pattern now that Israel really controls the skies over Iran and seems to be able to bomb at will. Iran is still firing back, so there's no end in sight to that. The US Is still going to be involved in helping defend Israel, Talking to Israel about how they may want this to end at some point. Trump has talked about Iran surrendering or trying to make peace. Israel may want to keep pushing its advantage and military momentum that it has right now. I'll be looking to see if the US And Israel stay in sync about how they might want to end the fighting here. Both sides will have a strong vote in that. And Iran, too. Iran may not be willing to quit, even if it's being pounded pretty hard. And then the question becomes, would the US get involved or put more pressure on Israel to stop the war, try to do something to Iran to speed this up. But the longer it drags on, the more unexpected consequences you can have. So I'll be looking to see, I think, primarily at US And Israel alignment and if they're stating the same goals and what would be an acceptable end to the conflict.

[Domenico Montanaro]

And Trump has even held out this threat of regime change against Iran, you know, posing it as a question on his social media platform, you know, and I don't necessarily think that that's what he's saying. That's the end goal, that that's what he wants. Of course, he's calling it miga make Iran great again, you know, but he's saying this because it's the one bit of leverage that the United States has left because the leverage he had previously was whether or not he would bomb these nuclear facilities. And he's already done that.

[Tamara Keith]

Yeah. Well, we're going to leave it there for today. I'm Tamara Keith. I cover the White House.

[Greg Myhre]

I'm Greg Myhre. I cover national security.

[Domenico Montanaro]

And I'm Domenico Montanaro, senior political editor and correspondent.

[Tamara Keith]

And thank you for listening to the NPR Politics podcast.

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