The President's Daily Brief
January 30th, 2025: Iran Warns Proxies: Don’t Provoke Trump & Syria Demands Reparations From Russia
30 Jan 2025
In this episode of The President’s Daily Brief: Iran has ordered its proxy forces across the Middle East to lay low, as the regime grows increasingly concerned about the threat it faces following Donald Trump’s return to the White House. Syria’s new government is demanding reparations from Russia in an effort to “rebuild trust” after a high-stakes meeting between Damascus’ new leadership and a Moscow delegation. A Massachusetts man is in custody after allegedly threatening to assassinate top Republicans, including newly confirmed Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. And in today’s Back of the Brief, the Trump Administration is revoking temporary protected status for over 600,000 Venezuelan migrants, a major shift in U.S. immigration policy. To listen to the show ad-free, become a premium member of The President’s Daily Brief by visiting PDBPremium.com. Please remember to subscribe if you enjoyed this episode of The President's Daily Brief. YouTube: youtube.com/@presidentsdailybrief Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Full Episode
It's Thursday, 30 January. Welcome to the President's Daily Brief. I'm Mike Baker, your eyes and ears on the world stage. Let's get briefed. We'll start things off today with reports that Iran has ordered its proxy forces across the Middle East to lay low as the regime grows increasingly concerned about the threat it faces following Donald Trump's return to the White House.
Later in the show, the new rebel-led government in Syria is making major demands of Russia, calling for reparations to, quote, rebuild trust after a high-stakes meeting between Damascus' new leadership and a Moscow delegation. It kind of makes you wonder what the price tag is for trust in that relationship.
Plus, a Massachusetts man is in custody now after allegedly threatening to assassinate top Republicans, including newly confirmed Treasury Secretary Scott Besson and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. And in today's Back of the Brief, the new U.S. administration makes another major move on immigration, revoking temporary protected status for over 600,000 Venezuelan migrants.
But first, today's BDB Spotlight. We'll begin in Iran, where a pervasive sense of paranoia is reportedly gripping the country due to Donald Trump's return to the White House.
The leaders of Iran's Islamic regime have given orders to their regional proxy forces to exercise restraint and tread carefully when it comes to the US, fearing that angering President Trump could spark a crisis in the Middle East that threatens the longevity of their weakened regime.
Specifically, Iranian officials have told their remaining militias to lay low and avoid any provocations that could escalate regional tensions. And that's according to an exclusive report from The Telegraph.
As regular PDB listeners know, the mullahs have a complicated history with Trump, the man who they've spent years trying to assassinate over the 2020 killing of Quds Force Commander Qasem Soleimani. Trump engaged in a, quote, maximum pressure campaign against Iran during his first term after pulling the U.S. out of the Iranian nuclear deal, resulting in sanctions that crippled their economy.
Given their history and Trump's penchant for holding a grudge, well, they likely have good reason to fear his return to the Oval Office. Adding to their concerns, their regional position has been catastrophically weakened due to their proxy war against Israel, which has laid waste to Iran's once-powerful axis of resistance over the past 15 months.
Iran's chief regional ally, Bashar al-Assad, has also been ousted from power in Syria, cutting off a key weapons smuggling route for their terrorist proxies. Due to these concerns, Iranian-backed proxy commanders have been told to maintain their defensive positions, but to cease any activity that could be interpreted as aggressive by the U.S. and its regional allies."
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