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The President's Daily Brief
February 23rd, 2026: Iran’s Supreme Leader Prepares For 'Assassination Scenario’ & Supreme Court Delivers Tariff Blow
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FOX News is now streaming live on Fox 1. When news breaks, we don't just report it. We go beyond the headlines to get the full story. Get live coverage in depth, analysis and perspectives from the voices you trust all in one place. Whether you're at home or on the go. Stay connected to the stories shaping our world stream. Fox News on Fox 1. Download today, It's Monday, the 23rd of February. Welcome to the President's Daily Brief. I'm Mike Baker, your eyes and ears on the world stage. All right, let's get briefed. First up, Iran's supreme leader is quietly preparing for what insiders are calling a, quote, assassination scenari, naming layers of successors and bracing for potential US Strikes. Now the question is, do you really need layers of successors? I mean, typically, right, one would do. Layers seems very top heavy. Anyway, later in the show, the Supreme Court delivers a major ruling against President Trump's tariff strategy, limiting executive authority and potentially handing Xi Jinping quite the belated Chinese New Year's gift. Plus, as the fourth anniversary of Putin's invasion approaches, Russia unleashes one of its heaviest aerial barrages of the year, while European unity over sanctions begins to fracture, thanks to a couple of Putin sycophants. And in today's back of the brief, Pakistan launches cross border strikes into Afghanistan, targeting militant hideouts. We'll have the latest on rising tensions between the two neighbors. But first, today's pdb. As the US Builds up military assets across the Middle East, Iran's supreme leader is preparing for something extraordinary, not just war, but the possibility of assassination. According to a detailed report from the New York Times, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has instructed his closest political and military associates to prepare contingency plans to ensure that the Islamic Republic survives potential American or Israeli strikes, including scenarios in which he himself is killed. At the center of these preparations is a man by the name of Ali Larajani. Larajani is a veteran insider. He's a former Revolutionary Guard commander, former speaker of parliament, and now secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council. That's quite a title. But according to six senior Iranian officials cited in the Times report, his authority has expanded dramatically in recent months. In practical terms, he's become the regime's crisis manager. His power now stretches across nearly every pressure point facing Tehran. He's overseen the violent suppression of nationwide protests demanding the end of clerical rule. So he's at the top of the heap as far as those responsible for the thousands killed and the tens of thousands detained. He's coordinating closely with Russia and consulting regional intermediaries such as Qatar and Oman. He's directly involved in nuclear negotiations with Washington. And he's leading planning for how the state would function during war. That planning now goes beyond military positioning. According to the officials interviewed, Khamenei has ordered four layers of succession for key military and government posts that fall under his authority. Senior leaders have been instructed to designate multiple replacements. Decision making power has been delegated to a small trusted circle in case communications are disrupted or the supreme leader is killed in a target targeted strike. This level of redundancy reflects lessons learned, perhaps, from last year's 12 Day War, when senior Iranian military commanders were reportedly eliminated within the opening hours of strikes. During that period, Khamenei himself went into hiding. Now the regime appears determined not to be caught flat footed again. Iran is operating under the assumption that US Military action is inevitable. Armed forces have been placed on high alert. Ballistic missile launchers have been repositioned along Iran's western border, within reach of Israel, and along its southern coastline, placing American bases in the Persian Gulf within range. Airspace closures for missile testing have become routine. Naval exercises have temporarily closed portions of the Strait of Hormuz. And public rhetoric from Tehran has grown sharper, with Khamenei threatening direct retaliation against US Naval assets. But their military preparations tell only part of the story here. Inside the country, special police units, intelligence agents, and Basij military forces are reportedly preparing to secure major cities in the event of war. Checkpoints, internal sweeps and counterintelligence operations are part of contingency planning designed to prevent unrest or, as they say, foreign infiltration during a conflict. The leadership appears concerned not only about external strikes, but about maintaining control at home. Well, that's what happens when you slaughter thousands of your own citizens and detain tens of thousands of others. They tend to get unrestful. There's also an openly discussed political survival question. Who governs if the top leadership is removed? Officials told the New York Times that internal deliberations have considered which figures could temporarily manage the country if Khamenei and other senior leaders were killed. One official reportedly referred to finding the delsey of Iran, a reference to Venezuela's Delsey Rodriguez, who helped preserve regime continuity during crisis. Larajani sits at the top of that internal list now. Notably, Larajani is not a senior Shiite cleric and therefore would not qualify to succeed Khamenei as supreme leader. But he is trusted, reportedly deeply connected within the security establishment and now positioned at the operational center of crisis planning. By contrast, Iran's President Masood Bezoskian appears increasingly sidelined in one example cited in the report, when Iran's foreign minister sought authorization to engage a US envoy during a 10 moment earlier this year, the president reportedly told him to call Larajani for approval. That anecdote shows possibly where real authority currently resides now. On one track, Iran is preparing for institutional survival in the face of decapitation strikes. On the other, though, diplomacy, if it can be called that, continues. Reuters reports that Iran's foreign minister expects to have a draft nuclear counter proposal ready within days following indirect talks in Geneva with US Envoys. He has said that broad, quote, guiding principles have been agreed upon and that a deal could be reached in a very short period of time, really. At the same time, President Trump has given Tehran a deadline of roughly 10 to 15 days to resolve the dispute, even as US military planning reportedly advances to include options ranging from limited strikes to targeting individuals. What makes this moment so volatile is that both dynamics are unfolding simultaneously. Iran is preparing its leadership structures for assassination contingencies and wartime succession, while continuing, supposedly, negotiations over uranium enrichment and sanctions relief. It's worth noting that the regime has insisted on keeping any indirect discussions narrowly focused on only one aspect of their nuclear program, and they've refused to discuss or compromise in any way on their ballistic missile program and regional support for their terrorist proxy network. Meanwhile, the US Is positioning forces and refining strike options while keeping diplomatic channels open. Again, sort of. If talks produce a breakthrough, much of the military posturing may ultimately be remembered as leverage. If the talks fail to produce anything meaningful, however, the infrastructure for escalation is obviously in place. Alright, coming up next, the Supreme Court curbs President Trump's tariff authority in a ruling that could reshape trade policy and shift leverage to China. And Moscow fires nearly 300 drones and dozens of missiles across Ukraine, targeting the backbone of civilian life, even as tensions rise inside the European Union, thanks to the pro Putin leaders currently running Hungary and Slovakia. I'll be right back. Hey, Mike Baker here. Let me take a moment to ask you a question. Have you dabbled in investing? Here and there. But you haven't been happy with how things are going? Well, I got some good news for you, Stash. It's all about Stash. 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Look, if you like deep, insightful conversations with world class thinkers and who doesn't come on, check out the Jordan Harbinger Show. It's available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen. Jordan sits down with people who've been in the room at the highest levels, from national security leaders to thinkers reshaping how we understand the world. You'll hear ideas and stories that go way beyond the usual sound bites. Two episodes I'd recommend an interview with our friend Ryan Macbeth on Venezuela's collapse. That's a clear look at how a once wealthy oil state unraveled and what that means, of course, for regional stability. And also his conversation with Douglas Murray where they explore the pressures facing Western democracies and what those trends mean for long term stability. Download the Jordan Harbinger Show. That's H A R B I N G E R just like it sounds on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your shows. Or just go to jordanharbinger.com start to dive right in. It's one of those podcasts that makes you smarter, so give it a go. Welcome back to the pdb. For the past year, tariffs have been one of President Trump's most powerful economic weapons, reshaping global trade flows, driving increasing revenues and confronting what he argues are years of unfair global trade practices. Now the subject of tariffs reach the highest court in the land, and in a 6 to 3 ruling, the Supreme Court concluded that the emergency law cited to justify those sweeping duties does not authorize the President to impose tariffs. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the majority, rejecting the administration's reliance on the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. And you say to yourself, is there an acronym for that? And of course there is. It's iepa. Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Brett Kavanaugh dissented, siding with a broader view of executive power in Matters Guide to National and Economic Security So you ask yourself, how did we get Here the cases were brought by an educational toy manufacturer and a family owned wine importer challenging the legality of the, quote, Liberation Day tariffs that were announced back in April of this past year. Their argument was that the emergency powers are one thing, but rewriting trade rules without Congress is another. The question before the court wasn't about whether tariffs are good or bad policy. It was whether this statute gave the president the authority to impose them unilaterally. And on that narrow legal question, the court said no. Now, we're not going to spend the next 10 minutes parsing legal language, even though in some circles I am considered one of the country's sharpest legal minds. Whether you agree with the ruling or not, the bigger story is what this means strategically. And one person who's undoubtedly paying attention and enjoying the court's decision is China's President Xi Jinping. Because for nearly a year now, one of the Trump administration's most powerful tools wasn't just tariffs themselves. It was the speed that they could be declared. The ability to escalate duties rapidly under emergency authority gave Washington immediate leverage. At times, you may remember, the tariff threats climbed as high as 145%. That created real negotiating pressure, especially in talks with China on soybean purchases and aircraft sales, energy exports and rare earth mineral flows that are critical to U.S. manufacturing. The court's ruling removes that lever. Washington can still act, but not instantly or under the same emergency umbrella. That shift from immediacy to weeks or even months and possibly years, depending on how dysfunctional Congress is at any one time matters, especially as Trump's April summit in Beijing with Xi is fast approaching. Xi will now enter those upcoming talks without the looming threat of sweeping emergency tariffs hanging overhead. Trump's second term. Levies imposed under IPA are gone, leaving China subject to the same 15% global tariff applied to US allies under section 122. And that authority expires after 150 days. Unless extended from Beijing's vantage point, the ruling may look like breathing room. If Washington can no longer raise tariffs overnight under emergency authority, Chinese negotiators may feel less urgency to honor past purchase commitments. Now, politically, this is undeniably a setback. Trump described the ruling as life or death for the U.S. underscoring how central tariffs have become to his second term economic strategy. But the White House did not take the court's decision lying down. Within hours of that ruling, the administration moved quickly, announcing a new 10% global tariff under section 122 of the Trade Act. It's worth noting, since Trump's return to office. Tariff collections have surged roughly 300%. Duties jumped from over $9 billion in March to nearly 24 billion in May. Following the rollout of the tariffs for fiscal 2025, collections reached $215 billion, with fiscal 2026 already running ahead of last year. Stepping back, the broader constitutional question here is how far a president can go in reshaping trade policy without Congress on that front. Now, the Supreme Court has clearly drawn a line, but it has not dismantled the administration's trade strategy. What it's done is narrow the trade talk battlefield. The fastest escalation tool is gone. The broader contest over trade leverage, particularly with China, that continues. And it continues at a moment when both sides are preparing for a high stakes round of negotiations. Okay, I want to shift to Ukraine because as the fourth anniversary of Putin's invasion approaches, the Kremlin unleashed one of its heaviest aerial barrages of the year, an escalation that comes as political tensions simmer across Europe. On Sunday, Moscow fired 297 drones and nearly 50 missiles across Ukraine. President Zelenskyy said a, quote, significant proportion of those munitions were intercepted. As Zelenskyy put it, quote, moscow continues to invest in strikes more than in diplomacy. And that line is significant because this aerial assault came just days after US Brokered talks in Geneva. Talks that, as expected, did nothing to slow the attacks or produce anything that resembled actual progress. This latest Russian aerial assault targeted not just energy infrastructure, which has systematically been targeted for months, but rail, logistics and municipal water systems, too. In other words, the backbone, the infrastructure of civilian life. As a result, more than half a million people in Kyiv were left without power during one of the coldest stretches of winter so far, with temperatures dropping as low as -22 degrees Celsius or -8 degrees Fahrenheit. In a suburb of the capital, a missile flattened a private two story home. One man was killed. At least a dozen others, including four children, were wounded. A local woman said there were, quote, no military facilities in the area, just ordinary people. This latest attack is part of the Kremlin's renewed pressure campaign while ceasefire negotiations continue to stall and as Moscow continues to insist that Kyiv give up large portions of the eastern Donbass, including areas not currently even occupied by Russian forces. As longtime listeners of the PDB will know, it's a demand that Ukraine has repeatedly rejected. But now the pressure on Kyiv hasn't been limited to Ukraine's skies recently. At the same time, tensions are rising inside Europe. Hungary is threatening to block a new package of European Union sanctions against Moscow and Slovakia has warned it may halt emergency electricity supplies to Ukraine. Both disputes stem from disrupted Russian oil deliveries through what's known as the Druzhba pipeline after Kyiv said a January Russian drone attack damaged that route that carries crude to Central Europe, specifically Hungary and Slovakia. Hungary's pro Russian government, led by Putin toady Viktor Orban, has made clear that Budapest could withhold support for key EU decisions unless oil shipments resume. Moscow friendly Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico accused Zelenskyy of behaving maliciously and warned that power supplies could be cut to Ukraine if repairs aren't fulfilled. Despite EU and NATO moves to sanction and obviously reduce Russia's revenues from oil and gas, Hungary and Slovakia, both EU and NATO members, continue to rely on Russian energy supplies. EU foreign ministers are preparing to meet in Brussels to finalize what would be the bloc's 20th sanctions package, hoping to align it with the invasion anniversary on Tuesday. But the unity that defined much of Europe's early response is being tested by the two pro Moscow nations. And then there's what happened in Lviv yesterday. In the western Ukrainian city, authorities are investigating a deadly explosion that killed a police officer and injured 25 others. Ukrainian officials say a break in was reported at a store before officers arrived. When police reached the scene, a bomb detonated, followed by a second blast that appeared to have been designed to target first responders. Law enforcement agencies arrested several people, but details so far remain slim. Ukraine's Interior Ministry says there is, quote, every reason to believe the attack was ordered by Russia. The mayor of Lviv called it, quote, an act of terrorism. So as the anniversary of Putin's war approaches, Moscow is signaling that it intends to keep prosecuting this conflict through force, striking civilian infrastructure, testing European unity, and escalating even as it speaks of negotiations. Okay, coming up in today's Back of the brief, Pakistan launches cross border strikes into Afghanistan, raising tensions along a volatile frontier. More on that when we come back. Hey, Mike Baker here. Let me take just a moment to talk about personal finances. That's an important subject, right. So here's a question. What are your financial goals for this year? Maybe it's getting a house or maybe a new car or maybe a business loan. Well, getting those things means getting your credit in shape now. And Ava's credit building app is designed to work fast to help you build solid credit history with almost zero effort. I'm talking about Ava. That's spelled a V A. You need to check this app out. Seriously. 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Delivery fees may apply in today's Back of the Brief, I wanted to look at the Pakistan Afghanistan frontier, where a familiar pattern of accusation and retaliation is unfolding once again. Pakistan's military says it carried out cross border airstrikes, killing at least 70 militants, a claim that Afghan officials say instead targeted civilians. Now here's what we know so far. Pakistan's deputy interior minister told an Islamabad television outlet that the strikes targeted hideouts used by militants responsible for recent attacks inside Pakistan. But according to the Associated Press, the interior minister did not present evidence to back up the casualty figures. State run media later reported the number of militants killed rose to 80. So Islamabad is framing the airstrikes as a precise counterterrorism operation, intelligence driven, selective and necessary. But Kabul is offering a different account. Afghan officials say the strikes hit civilian areas in Nangarhar and Paktika provinces, including a religious institution. A spokesman for the Taliban government said the attacks, quote, killed and wounded dozens, including women and children, and they dismissed Pakistan's military death claim as, quote, inaccurate. A local Afghan tribal elder doubled down on Kabul's claim, insisting those killed were not militants at all. He said, quote, they were poor people who suffered greatly. Those killed were neither Taliban nor military personnel nor members of the former government, end quote. Now the provincial director of the Afghan Red Crescent, which is an affiliate of the red Cross, said 18 people were killed in Nangarhar and several others were wounded. Still, though, as is with many of the Pakistan Afghanistan skirmishes and conflicts, an exact death toll following cross border attacks remains very difficult to verify. Kabul summoned Pakistan's ambassador. In protest, Afghanistan's Foreign Ministry called the strikes a violation of its sovereignty and said defending the country's territory is the Islamic Emirates Sharia responsibility, warning that Pakistan would bear responsibility for the consequences. So why the airstrikes over the weekend? Well, as we've been tracking the Pakistan Afghanistan border has been anything but quiet in recent days and weeks and months. Pakistani officials point to a surge in attacks inside their own borders. Just hours before the strikes, a suicide bomber targeted a security convoy in the northern Pakistani border town of Banu, killing two soldiers, including a senior officer. Days earlier, another bomber rammed an explosives laden vehicle into a security post in a northern Pakistan district near the afghan frontier, killing 11 soldiers and one child. Authorities in Islamabad later said the attacker was an Afghan national. Pakistan's information minister says Islamabad is quote, conclusive evidence that recent attacks, including a suicide bombing at a Shiite mosque in the capital that killed 31 worshippers, was carried out by militants acting on the, quote, behest of their Afghanistan based leadership and handlers. As we profiled here on the podcast, Pakistan as long accused the Tariq E Taliban, Pakistan or the TTP of operating from Afghan soil. Kabul and the terror group deny that. Now militant violence has surged in Pakistan, much of it blamed on the TTP and outlawed separatist groups. It's important to note that the TTP is separate but closely aligned with Afghanistan's Taliban. That's an alignment that deepens mistrust between the two governments. And despite the ceasefire that was brokered between Islamabad and Kabul after deadly border clashes back in October of this past year, those killed dozens of soldiers and civilians and suspected militants. Well, the underlying tension and mistrust remain. And that, my friends, is the President's Daily brief for Monday 23rd February. Now if you have any questions or comments, please reach out to me@pdbhefirsttv.com and hopefully you had the chance to check out this weekend's PDB Situation Report. We were joined by former CIA analyst, author and all around man about town Buck Sexton, along with retired Naval Intelligence Commander Paul Chabot. If you didn't have a chance to see it, don't fret. You can still catch it and past episodes on our YouTube channel. Check that out on YouTube, oddly enough, at President's Daily Brief and of course on podcast platforms everywhere. I'm Mike Baker and I'll be back later today with the PDB afternoon bulletin. Until then, stay informed, stay safe, stay cool. It.