January 12th, 2026: U.S. Military Preparing to Strike Iran & ISIS Targeted in Syria
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It's Monday, the 12th of January. 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 is weighing options for possible strikes against Iran as the regime unleashes a deadly crackdown at home and warns that any U.S. action would trigger retaliation against the U.S. and Israel. Later in the show, U.S. forces unleash large-scale strikes on ISIS targets across Syria. As Washington signals, the fight against the terror group is far from over. Plus, the U.S. and Venezuela take tentative first steps toward restoring relations. Baby steps, but hey, still steps, as both sides signal a diplomatic reset after Nicolas Maduro's ouster.
And in today's Back of the Brief, possible ripple effects from the capture of Maduro as Nicaragua frees political prisoners just days after similar moves in Venezuela. But first, today's PDB Spotlight. New reporting from The Wall Street Journal and New York Post says the Trump administration is now actively weighing military strike options against Iran, including discussions about which Iranian sites could be targeted if the regime continues its violent crackdown on protesters. U.S. officials stressed that no final decision has been made, no forces have been repositioned, no equipment moved, but the key here is that this is no longer abstract contingency planning. According to multiple officials, the conversations have moved into specifics, what targets would matter, what kind of strike would be effective, and what are the objectives of any potential strike.
Now, this reporting is almost certainly not accidental. Letting details like this leak, well, it's a message to Tehran's leadership. The window to step back is closing, and the events on the ground may soon outrun their ability to control them. President Trump has said repeatedly that the U.S. would not stand by if the Iranian regime carried out violence against its own people. And behind the scenes, the Pentagon is now doing what it always does when a president draws a public red line. They're mapping out options to enforce that red line. And if recent events tell us anything, the Mullis and the IRGC, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, they have little reason to assume that this president is bluffing.
And for their part, the regime appears to be taking the threat seriously. Iranian officials have responded with explicit warnings of their own, saying that if the US strikes Iran over the protests, American troops in the region would be legitimate targets, and that Israel would also be in the crosshairs. This is classic Iranian messaging. Tehran is trying to raise the perceived cost of US action by broadening the battlefield, essentially saying this would not stay confined to Iranian territory or a single exchange. Any strike, they argue, would trigger regional consequences. That said, it's not entirely clear what Iran is truly capable of at the moment. The regime is still recovering from the 12-day war, their economy is crumbling, its security forces are stretched thin, and it's facing the most serious domestic unrest in years.
All of that raises real questions about how much capacity Tehran actually has to follow through on its threats. That's not to say that Iran is powerless or harmless.
What military options is the U.S. considering against Iran?
Even in a weakened state, the regime does retain the ability to act in a significant manner. Of course, all of this is happening as the situation on the ground inside Iran is deteriorating rapidly. Over the weekend, protests turned significantly more deadly as the regime escalated its response. Security forces were filmed firing directly into crowds in multiple cities.
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