The American Conservative Morning Briefing

Good morning! Today is Tuesday, June 16th 2026, and this is The American Conservative's Morning Brief. Trump says the U.S.–Iran peace deal is "all signed," with terms reportedly including the return of $25 billion in Iranian funds, a mutual lifting of Strait of Hormuz blockades, and a sixty-day window to negotiate Tehran's nuclear program—though Israel signals it does not consider itself bound. Ha...

Good morning! Today is Monday, June 15th 2026, and this is The American Conservative's Morning Brief. The United States and Iran have reached a peace agreement set to take effect Friday, with reported concessions to Tehran including unfrozen assets, though Israel's Sunday strike on Beirut nearly derailed the breakthrough. Israel's bombing of a Beirut apartment building killed at least three as ana...

Good morning! Today is Sunday, June 14th 2026, and this is The American Conservative's Morning Brief. Congressman Thomas Massie used the floor of the House to honor the survivors of the USS Liberty on the fifty-ninth anniversary of Israel's attack on the American ship, drawing fire from Dan Crenshaw and reigniting long-standing questions the political establishment has worked to keep buried. The I...

Good morning! Today is Saturday, June 13th 2026, and this is The American Conservative's Morning Brief. President Trump publicly disputes Iran's leaked terms of the so-called Islamabad Memorandum as a Geneva signing looms, while Gulf leaders reportedly pressed him to cancel planned strikes on day one hundred five of the war. Germany's stunning UN Security Council defeat reflects global backlash ag...

Good morning! Today is Friday, June 12th 2026, and this is The American Conservative's Morning Brief. As the Iran war grinds into its 104th day with overnight U.S. strikes, retaliatory Iranian attacks on Gulf bases, and a whiplash announcement of a phantom peace framework, Josh Paul argues Trump holds a far stronger hand against Netanyahu than Washington seems to realize. Wholesale prices posted t...

Good morning! Today is Thursday, June 11th 2026, and this is The American Conservative's Morning Brief. A provision buried in the House defense authorization bill would deeply integrate American and Israeli weapons production, placing foreign-built parts inside U.S. systems while exempting Israel from the supply-chain safeguards applied to other foreign sources, Harrison Berger reports. The Iran W...

Good morning! Today is Wednesday, June 10th 2026, and this is The American Conservative's Morning Brief. Phillip Linderman argues the Manuel Rocha espionage case is the worst diplomatic betrayal since Alger Hiss, and urges Trump to require any U.S. official holding a security clearance to renounce dual citizenship. Day 102 of the Iran war finds President Trump openly feuding with Prime Minister Ne...

Good morning! Today is Tuesday, June 9th 2026, and this is The American Conservative's Morning Brief. On day 101 of the Iran War, the ceasefire has collapsed into a fresh exchange of missiles and airstrikes, with a draft agreement reportedly sitting on President Trump's desk for nearly twenty days as oil spikes and gas climbs to $4.16 a gallon. Inside the Gulf Cooperation Council, the United Arab...

Good morning! Today is Monday, June 8th 2026, and this is The American Conservative's Morning Brief. Iran fired ballistic missiles at Israel Sunday night in the first major breach of the April ceasefire, after Israeli strikes on Beirut defied private White House objections and Trump publicly urged restraint on both sides. Jennifer Kavanagh argues in The American Conservative that Operation Epic Fu...

Good morning! Today is Sunday, June 7th 2026, and this is The American Conservative's Morning Brief. As FISA Section 702 nears its June 12 expiration, Harrison Berger reports on the bipartisan establishment's scramble to renew warrantless surveillance powers — and why civil libertarians shouldn't celebrate too soon even if it lapses. Ted Galen Carpenter argues that the deepening Russia–China partn...

Good morning! Today is Saturday, June 6th 2026, and this is The American Conservative's Morning Brief. Jack Hunter reports that Thomas Massie, fresh off the most expensive primary loss in American history, has already filed for 2028 and is escalating his confrontations with pro-Israel donors, neoconservatives, and even the White House. David Brady covers the House passing the Ukraine Support Act 2...

Good morning! Today is Friday, June 5th 2026, and this is The American Conservative's Morning Brief. Anik Joshi traces how America's war with Iran is rippling through fragile economies from Indonesia to Pakistan, warning that even nations who opposed the conflict may quietly recalibrate their ties with Washington. The House passes the first successful war powers measure of the conflict, with four...

Good morning! Today is Thursday, June 4th 2026, and this is The American Conservative's Morning Brief. On day 57 of the Iran War, Tehran struck Kuwait and Bahrain with missiles and drones, killing at least one at Kuwait International Airport as Brent crude pushed past $98 and gas hit $4.26 a gallon. President Trump has tied any end to the conflict to a sweeping expansion of the Abraham Accords, de...

Good morning! Today is Wednesday, June 3rd 2026, and this is The American Conservative's Morning Brief. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum tightens her grip on Morena after Andy López Beltrán's departure and arms herself with a new constitutional weapon aimed squarely at Washington. Ted Snider warns the risk of direct NATO-Russia conflict may be at its highest point of the entire Ukraine war, wit...

Good morning! Today is Tuesday, June 2nd 2026, and this is The American Conservative's Morning Brief. Iran suspends ceasefire talks with Washington over Israeli strikes in Gaza and Lebanon, as oil surges past $97 and Tehran weighs closing the Strait of Hormuz. Andrew Day warns the Iran and Ukraine wars are dangerously intertwined, with Moscow helping Tehran target U.S. assets while American interc...

Good morning! Today is Monday, June 1st 2026, and this is The American Conservative's Morning Brief. As the Iran War ceasefire enters its 54th day, President Trump signals he is "close" to a nuclear agreement with Tehran while Israeli strikes expand deeper into southern Lebanon and gas prices hold at $4.34 a gallon. Anik Joshi argues the recipe for a workable Iran deal has not changed since 2015,...

Good morning! Today is Sunday, May 31st 2026, and this is The American Conservative's Morning Brief. Anik Joshi argues the Gulf states made a costly miscalculation in quietly backing the war with Iran, expecting American protection but instead discovering their true place in the pecking order — with damaged oil infrastructure, threatened desalination plants, and fleeing Western capital revealing t...

Good morning! Today is Saturday, May 30th 2026, and this is The American Conservative's Morning Brief. President Trump moves toward a final determination on an Iran ceasefire memorandum, calling for enriched material to be unearthed and destroyed and signaling an end to the Strait of Hormuz blockade, though Tehran remains publicly skeptical. A Russian drone struck an apartment building in Galati,...

Good morning! Today is Thursday, May 28th 2026, and this is The American Conservative's Morning Brief. As ceasefire talks advance into their fiftieth day, Harrison Berger reports that the framework now mediated by Pakistan closely mirrors the 2010 uranium swap deal Lula da Silva personally handed Trump at the White House this month. W. James Antle III argues that Trump, having tamed both the GOP e...

Good morning! Today is Wednesday, May 27th 2026, and this is The American Conservative's Morning Brief. On day 49 of the Iran War ceasefire, Secretary Rubio says talks will continue despite overnight U.S. strikes, as a possible memorandum of understanding would lift the Hormuz blockade and end the war on all fronts—even as Israel escalates in Lebanon. Andrew Day argues that neither a grand bargain...

Good morning! Today is Tuesday, May 26th 2026, and this is The American Conservative's Morning Brief. Ali Rizk warns that the Trump administration's unprecedented sanctions on Lebanese military and security officials accused of aiding Hezbollah risk being seen as an assault on the entire Shi'ite community, echoing the disastrous de-Ba'athification of post-Saddam Iraq. On day 48 of the U.S.–Iran ce...

Good morning! Today is Monday, May 25th 2026, and this is The American Conservative's Morning Brief. As the Iran War ceasefire reaches day 47, President Trump says a deal to formally end the conflict and reopen the Strait of Hormuz has been largely negotiated, though an Iranian demand to extend the truce to Lebanon is meeting fierce resistance from Israel. Ann Coulter sits down with Andrew Day to...

Good morning! Today is Sunday, May 24th 2026, and this is The American Conservative's Morning Brief. A gunman opened fire near the White House Saturday evening before Secret Service officers killed him, wounding a bystander and triggering a 45-minute lockdown while President Trump was inside. The USS Nimitz and its strike group have entered the Caribbean as the Justice Department indicts 94-year-o...

Good morning! Today is Saturday, May 23rd 2026, and this is The American Conservative's Morning Brief. Forty-five days into the Iran ceasefire, Tehran's terms remain unchanged as Rubio rejects an Iran-Oman proposal to charge transit fees through the Strait of Hormuz, while the Washington Post reveals the U.S. has burned through half its THAAD interceptor inventory defending Israel. Harrison Berger...

Good morning! Today is Friday, May 22nd 2026, and this is The American Conservative's Morning Brief. Day forty-four of the Iran War ceasefire finds President Trump warning of renewed strikes within days, even as Iranian officials signal the latest American proposal has narrowed the gaps between Washington and Tehran. Brent crude climbs above 108 dollars a barrel and gasoline hits four fifty-six a...