I was the hunted,” a grim, MAGA-hat wearing President Donald Trump told reporters in June.


“And now,” he added, “I’m the hunter.”


Anyone wondering what Trump meant found out four days later, when the hammer fell on Iran.


Nine B-2 stealth bombers took off from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri. Two flew west as a diversion and refueled over Hawaii before continuing to Guam. The remaining seven peeled away heading east. And with that, Operation Midnight Hammer was underway.


Virtually invisible to radar, the stealth bombers took on fuel during their journey to the Mid- dle East. Then, about 18 hours after takeoff, with fighter escorts creating a diversion, they en- tered Iranian airspace and pro- ceeded to unload hell on Iran’s nuclear-enrichment facilities. The Iranians knew the For-


dow air shafts that led to the surface were a vulnerability. So they dragged concrete slabs


60 NEWSMAX | AUGUST 2025


across in a feckless bid to cover them. The B-2 pilots simply used


the first Massive Ordnance Penetrator bombs (MOPs) to obliterate the slabs, then sent the other GBU-57 bombs down the chutes at varying angles to maximize the destruction. Thirty-seven hours after


Midnight Hammer began, those seven B-2s and their brave but weary pilots touched


back down at their Missouri air base, having put the world on notice that neither Trump nor America’s military were to be trifled with. Trump soon made clear the


operation was intended to pro- mote peace, not regime change. “No, I don’t want it,” Trump


said of regime change before meeting with NATO leaders in the Netherlands. “I’d like to see everything calm down as quickly as possible. Regime change takes chaos, and ideal- ly, we don’t want to see so much chaos.” Fred Fleitz, chief of staff


for Trump’s National Security Council during his first term, and the current vice chair of the Center for American Secu- rity at the America First Policy Institute (AFPI), explained: “Trump does not want to get involved in nation-building or changing governments. “Changing the government


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100