July 17, 2026

Good morning! Today is Friday, July 17th 2026, and this is The American Conservative's Morning Brief. With the Iran War in its 139th day, U.S. strikes and Iranian retaliation across the Gulf are pushing the region toward wider conflict as President Trump threatens to bomb Iran's power grid and bridges next week. Leonid Ragozin argues Trump has been sold a "tide is turning" narrative on Ukraine, warning that every prior Western attempt to coerce Moscow has ended in fiasco and worse terms for Kyiv. In an interview with The American Conservative, Tucker Carlson calls the West's demographic transformation "mass suicide" and something "world-historic" that elites have refused to allow anyone to discuss. and now for the details. The Iran War has now entered its 139th day, with no sign of de-escalation. Overnight, U.S. Central Command launched fresh airstrikes on what it described as Iranian command centers, air defense sites, and missile and drone capabilities. Defense analysts, however, note that many of the sites CENTCOM claims to have targeted lie deep beneath granite mountains that American munitions may not be able to penetrate. Iran's Foreign Ministry also condemned a reported U.S. strike near a children's cancer hospital in Shahid Baqaei, where more than 200 chemotherapy patients had to be evacuated. In response, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps says it struck U.S. bases and facilities in Kuwait, Bahrain, and Jordan. The stakes rose further after President Trump warned Wednesday that the U.S. would bomb Iran's power plants and bridges next week unless Tehran returns to negotiations. Iran's central military headquarters responded that if that threat is carried out, it will destroy, quote, "all the infrastructure in the region." Reuters reports Iran has asked the Yemeni Houthis to shut down the Bab al-Mandab Strait if American strikes hit its power plants. As Harrison Berger reports for The American Conservative, shipping through the Strait of Hormuz has already collapsed, with only 13 vessels transiting on Wednesday, and Brent crude climbed above $85 a barrel Thursday morning. President Trump, who once promised to end the war in Ukraine within 24 hours of his second inauguration, now appears to have adopted the escalation posture of his predecessor. At last week's NATO summit in Ankara, Trump called Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian oil refineries, quote, "an escalation that can help lead to an end," and praised President Zelensky for doing "an amazing job." Writing for The American Conservative, Leonid Ragozin argues that Trump's shift follows a coordinated PR campaign aimed squarely at the president himself, designed to persuade him that "the tide is turning" against Moscow. Ragozin is skeptical. He notes that Russians have endured far worse hardship in living memory, and that while Ukrainians brace for another winter in unheated apartments, Russians so far face only longer lines at the pump. Russia, he writes, has begun inching toward total war, methodically targeting Ukrainian petrol stations, food-processing facilities, and agricultural equipment. Ragozin argues that every previous Western attempt to coerce Moscow, from the collapse of the Minsk framework to the abandonment of the Istanbul talks, has ended in fiasco, with Ukraine emerging from each escalation facing far worse terms. He warns that Trump may be trying to atone for the Iran debacle by proving himself tough on Russia, but that this path risks producing an even greater catastrophe. Those are today's highlights. For the full stories and more, visit theamericanconservative.com. Thank you for starting your morning with us.