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The President's Daily Brief
May 16th, 2025: Trump Claims US Close To Nuclear Deal With Iran & How Tehran Leverages Global Crime Syndicates For Targeted Assassinations
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- [00:00]
Mike Slater
My name is Mike Slater. I have a podcast called Politics by Faith. I was just talking to a friend of mine who said he hasn't been able to follow the news lately. It's been too much. It's too crazy. It's driving him crazy. And he's just checked out. If you feel that way sometimes, too, I think you'll really like our podcast Politics by Faith. We take the main story of the day and we run it through the Bible. What does the Bible say about this? It's amazing, but it's all there. And then God tells us what to do. We don't even have to figure it out. The answers are right there. He gives us the answers. Politics by Faith. Please join us over there. You can listen to it wherever you're listening to this podcast right now. Politics by faith.
- [00:51]
Mike Baker
It's Friday, the 16th of May. 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, President Trump claimed Thursday that the U.S. and Iran are close to reaching a new nuclear deal, saying that the mullahs have, quote, sort of agreed to terms sort of after White House officials presented Tehran with a new proposal on Sunday. But Iran, well, they're denying the reports of a new proposal and say that there are still large gaps to bridge in the talks. Later in the show, President Trump said Thursday that Gaza should be turned into a U.S. administered, quote, freedom zone as ceasefire talks in Qatar stall and Israel expands operations in the battered enclave. Plus, we'll look at reports that the Iranian regime is aggressively expanding their foreign assassinations and kidnapping operations, leveraging criminal gangs to carry out their dirty work. Now, this would be, of course, the same regime that reportedly plotted to assassinate Trump, that has built a ring of terrorist proxies with the aim of destroying Israel and that has a track record of breaking any agreements related to their nuclear weapons programs. So, yeah, expanding their foreign assassination and kidnapping operations is certainly right in their wheelhouse. And in today's back of the brief, authorities disrupt an alleged plot to carry out an ISIS inspired terror attack on a military facility near Detroit by a former member of Michigan's Army National Guard. We'll have those details. But first, today's PDB Spotlight. We begin today with an update on the nuclear talks between the US And Iran as leaders of the Islamic regime push back on reports of a breakthrough in negotiations. President Trump surprised many on Thursday when he said the US Was getting very close to reaching a new nuclear deal with the mullahs. Saying they had, quote, sort of agreed to the terms of a proposal delivered to the regime by special envoy Steve Witkoff. During the fourth round of negotiations on Sunday, Trump said, quote, we're in very serious negotiations with Iran for long term peace. We're getting close to maybe doing a deal. His remarks came after he said Tuesday that his team had extended, quote, an olive branch to the Iranians, though he stressed that, quote, this is not an offer that will last forever. The time is right now for them to choose. Sources with direct knowledge of the talks exclusively told Axios that Witkoff had handed a written proposal to Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Arakchi in Oman on Sunday, who in turn brought it back to Tehran for review by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Mosud Bean. While the details of the US proposal remain unclear, the document reportedly covers the Trump administration's desired parameters for an Iranian civilian nuclear program, as well as requirements for monitoring and verification. But a senior Iranian official pushed back on the reports Thursday, claiming the regime had not received an updated proposal and that they would never compromise on their right to enrich uranium domestically. A separate Iranian source told Reuters that an agreement was not imminent as there were still large gaps to bridge in the ongoing negotiations. Still, it does appear, if you kind of look at it sideways and squint, that incremental progress is being made. In an interview on Wednesday with NBC News, a senior political and military and nuclear advisor to the Ayatollah claimed Iran was ready to sign a deal with the U. S in exchange for lifting economic sanctions, that is, if key Iranian conditions are met. Oh, they're making demands. The advisor said. Iran would commit to never developing a nuclear weapon, get rid of their stockpiles of highly enriched uranium, and agree to allow international inspectors to supervise the process in exchange for the US Lifting all sanctions on the regime. Critically, however, he said, any deal must allow Iran to continue their domestic enrichment of uranium for what he claimed are civilian purposes. If the terms from Iran sound familiar, well, they should. The 2015 nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of action, or joint JCPOA, in theory limited Iran to enriching uranium to 3.67%. That's obviously far below the 90% levels that are considered weapons grade. But Iran was quickly accused of covertly flouting the terms. Oh, they were flouting the terms of the deal and resisting the UN's efforts to conduct thorough inspections of all their nuclear sites. Well, they never actually had the ability to inspect all of their nuclear sites. President Trump subsequently pulled out of that deal in 2018 during his first term. Those skeptical of Iran's motivations say that any new deal must fully dismantle the regime's nuclear facilities and see Tehran only rely on imported fuel to support its civilian energy program. The Trump administration's position on Iranian enrichment, however, well, still remains a bit of a mystery. At various points, Witkoff and other senior officials have given contrasting answers on whether they will allow the regime to maintain their so called civilian nuclear program. While US Officials described the fourth round of negotiations last Sunday as encouraging, details of what a new nuclear deal could look like remain scant, and a fifth round of talks have not yet been scheduled. But it goes without saying that the stakes remain very high. Iran's nuclear program has been rapidly expanding in recent years with the enrichment of uranium to 60% purity, far above civilian energy needs and dangerously close to weapons grade levels. In April, the International Atomic Energy Agency released a report confirming that Iran now possesses roughly 605 pounds of uranium enriched up to 60%, which they could theoretically convert into bomb grade material within one to two weeks. Now, that's enough material to produce six nuclear bombs. They also reportedly hold nearly all the components needed to assemble a bomb. All right, coming up after the break, President Trump says that Gaza should be turned into a U.S. administered, quote, freedom Zone and Iran expands their foreign assassination and kidnapping operations, leveraging criminal gangs to carry out their dirty work. I'll be right back. Hey, Mike Baker here. 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Get 20% off your delete me plan by simply texting PDB to the number 64000. The only way again to get that 20% off is by texting PDB to the number 641000 message and data rates may apply. Welcome back to the PDB. President Trump on Thursday once again floated the idea that the US could assume control of Gaza and redevelop the war torn, this time into what he called a, quote, freedom zone. Speaking during a business roundtable in Doha, his second stop on a three nation Gulf state tour, Trump told Qatari officials, quote, if it's necessary, I think I'd be proud to have the U. S have it, take it, make it a freedom zone. He floated the idea of putting people in homes where they can be safe, saying Hamas would need to be dealt with as part of the broader plan. Trump's remarks came as Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu said this week that he Israel will expand its military campaign across Gaza, vowing to launch a full scale military operation in the coming days to defeat Hamas and break the terror group's grip on the enclave. Gaza continues to endure heavy Israeli airstrikes and the IDF expects roughly half of Gaza's civilian population, over 1 million of the enclave's 2.3 million residents, to flee in advance of the military's anticipated operations. While ceasefire negotiations in Doha continue between US Qatari and Egyptian officials, momentum has slowed. Trump's Middle east envoy, Steve Witkoff said Wednesday that progress was being made on all fronts but gave no further details. In that vacuum, Trump used the roundtable to revive his vision of Gaza's post war future. Describing the destruction in Gaza as tremendous death. He told officials, quote, there's practically no building standing. People are living under rubble now. Trump stated that he had reviewed aerial images of the devastation and proposed a US Led rebuilding initiative centered on job creation, infrastructure development and long term economic recovery. Talking about those concepts, the President said, quote, I have concepts for Gaza that I think are very good. Let the US get involved. This was the first time that Trump had presented the idea to Arab leaders in a formal setting. But it's not a new concept, as our regular PDB listeners will remember. Back in February, Trump raised the idea of an American administered reconstruction zone while hosting Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu at the White House. At the time, Trump described transforming Gaza into the Riviera of the Middle east with US Oversight of security, redevelopment and the removal of weapons and explosives. Trump said during those talks, quote, we'll do a job with it. We will own it. Netanyahu, who sat alongside Trump during those remarks, voiced support for the initiative, saying that Israel's campaign to neutralize Hamas could be taken, quote, to a much higher level under Trump's leadership. The Israeli leader has not yet responded to the president's latest remarks in Qatar. As we've been tracking this week, Trump's stop at Doha is part of his broader Gulf state diplomacy push. His administration has already announced over $1 trillion in investment commitments from Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar, deals that Trump said would advance the interests of the U.S. and our regional partners, including Israel. While he skipped a visit to Israel on this trip, unlike during his first term Middle east tour, Trump dismissed any suggestion of strained ties with the Jewish state. Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, he emphasized that his Gulf diplomacy would, quote, ultimately benefit Israel, noting that Washington now has productive alliances with, quote, Middle Eastern countries, essentially all of them. Okay. Shifting back to the Iranian regime, new reports suggest Tehran is expanding its campaign of overseas assassinations and kidnappings by outsourcing operations to international criminal gangs. To obscure its role and avoid direct attribution, Iran has been steadily building a playbook of transnational repression that combines espionage tradecraft with leveraging organized crime networks. These efforts are part of a broader campaign by the Islamic Republic to target dissidents, defectors, and former foreign officials far beyond its borders, all while maintaining plausible deniability. According to a recent BBC report. We're seeing an acceleration of that strategy, one increasingly reliant on proxies with no formal allegiance to the Iranian regime, but with deep reach inside Western cities. At the center of this evolving doctrine is Naji Sharifizondashti, and for background, he's a convicted Iranian drug trafficker turned crime boss who was sentenced to death more than 30 years ago. He's said to have pulled off a dramatic escape from prison, allegedly after killing a guard, and his subsequent criminal activity has drawn suspicion for decades now. Mounting intelligence ties him directly to plots targeting Iranian dissidents in both Europe and North America. An anonymous source who wants news in Dashti told the BBC, quote, if someone sentenced to death in Iran escapes after killing a guard, they're unlikely to make it out alive unless there's more to the story. That more, the source said was his suspected recruitment into Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the irgc, including its elite overseas unit, the Quds Force. His name returned TO headlines in 2020 when Turkish prosecutors linked him to the kidnapping of Iranian dissident Habib Shab, who was lured to Istanbul, abducted and eventually executed in Iran. New details reveal that Zindashti's nephew was arrested in connection with that plot. Zindashti's alleged reach also extends to the US As PDB listeners May recall last year we discussed that federal prosecutors in Minnesota revealed a foiled plan to assassinate two Iranian defectors living in Maryland. Zindashti was accused of offering $370,000 for the hit through a Canadian member of the Hell's Angels biker gang. The FBI intercepted the communications and arrested two suspects before the plot could be carried out. The Maryland case marked one of the clearest examples of how the Iranian regime is using global criminal syndicates to carry out lethal missions on foreign soil, leveraging their anonymity, mobility and reach to pursue enemies of the state far from Iran. Notably, intelligence officials believe these plots are part of an evolving operational doctrine led by unit 840. That's a specialized IRGC Quds Force wing, coordinating with international criminal groups such as the Thieves in Law. That's a violent mafia network born in post Soviet crime circles. One British counterterrorism official told the BBC that Iran's reliance on non state actors is intentional. The official stated, quote, the regime thinks hiring criminals shields them from attribution, adding that such networks, lacking ideological loyalty, are vulnerable to infiltration. Authorities now describe Iran's broader strategy as one of, quote, creeping penetration into Western cities and infiltration they are racing to disrupt. The United Kingdom has become a target of particular focus for Iran. MI5 director Ken McCallum disclosed that British agencies had thwarted more than 20 Iran linked plots in 2024 alone. Western officials believe the uptick in plots is tied to the mullah's vow to avenge the 2020 US drone strike that killed Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani, a campaign that has reportedly included plots against former Trump administration officials like John Bolton and Mike Pompeo. The Islamic regime has long sought revenge for Soleimani's killing. Iranian operatives were also reportedly connected to a foiled attempt to assassinate President Trump during the 2024 presidential campaign. That's an allegation that Tehran vehemently denies. Analysts say the new wave of outsourced hits represents a sophisticated evolution in Iran's approach to silencing dissidents and other perceived enemies. They warn it's a strategy that's more covert, more global, and increasingly difficult to track. All right, coming up next in the back of the brief, we'll discuss an alleged plot to carry out an ISIS inspired terror attack on a military facility near Detroit by a former member of Michigan's Army National Guard. More on that when we come back. Hey, Mike Baker here. Well, look, this July, you may have already heard about this, but this July there's a global summit of brics nations happening in Rio de Janeiro. Now, this block of emerging superpowers, including China and Russia and India and Iran, well, they're meeting with a goal of displacing the US Dollar as the global currency. And they're calling this effort the Real Res. That's a catchy name. Now, as BRICS nations push forward with their plans, well, demand for US Dollars could decrease, obviously bringing down the value of the dollar. And while this transition won't happen overnight, the Rio reset does mark a pivotal moment when BRICS objectives move from possibility toward reality. 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Mike Baker
In today's Back of the Brief we turn stateside where authorities recently unraveled an ISIS inspired plot to conduct a terror attack on an American military facility. Authorities arrested a former member of the Michigan Army National Guard on Tuesday after he attempted to carry out a mass shooting on behalf of the ISIS terrorist organization at the U.S. army's tank, automotive and Armaments Command facility, also known as Tacom, part of the Detroit Arsenal base. The suspect, 19 year old Amar said, allegedly engaged in detailed planning to facilitate the attack, which was set to unfold on Tuesday morning. That's according to a report from ABC News. But US Authorities had long been on to Saeed, first establishing contact with him in June of 2024. A criminal complaint from the U.S. justice Department said that during his initial encounter with undercover officers, Saeed described his quote, long standing desire to engage in violent jihad either by traveling to ISIS held territory abroad or by carrying out an attack in the U.S. saeed had previously pledged loyalty to the leader of ISIS in a video showing him wearing a mask in front of an ISIS flag. He began planning the details of his attack In November of 2024, obtaining armor piercing ammunition and high capacity magazines. Due to the progress he was making. Justice Department officials said that in April of this year, two undercover FBI agents contacted Saeed and offered to work with him to carry out the attack under the direction of isis. Last month, Said reportedly provided the agents with weaponry, giving firearms instructions and training them in the use of Molotov cocktails. He also gave the agents specific instructions on which building at the base to target in order to inflict maximum casualties. During a subsequent meeting earlier this month, Said allegedly flew a drone over the facility for reconnaissance Planning On Tuesday, the day he scheduled for the attack, Said was arrested as he and one of the undercover agents traveled to an area near the Tacom base and launched his drone into the air. Justice Department officials said the incident is a disturbing reminder of the ever present threat posed by Islamic radicals in our own backyard. Said who is charged with attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization and distributing information related to a destruction device faces up to 20 years in prison for each count. Brigadier General Rhett Cox, the head of Army Counterintelligence Command, said, quote, the arrest of this former soldier is a sobering reminder of the importance of our counterintelligence efforts to identify and disrupt those who would seek to harm our nation. End quote. And that, my friends, is the President's Daily brief for Friday 16th May. Now if you have any questions or comments, please reach out to me@pdb the first tv.com and as always, you can check out our YouTube channel. That's at President's Daily Brief. I'm Mike Baker. I'll be back later today with the PDB afternoon bulletin. Until then, stay informed, stay safe, stay cool. It.