The President's Daily Brief - July 29th, 2026: Iran's Economy Is On The Brink Of Collapse & Zelensky & Netanyahu In Washington

Episode Date: July 29, 2026

In this episode of The President's Daily Brief: After weeks of U.S. airstrikes, the Trump administration is increasingly betting that economic pressure—not bombs—will be the decisive factor in its confrontation with Iran. I'll explain why officials believe Tehran's economy is approaching a breaking point. President Trump hosts Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for a pair of high-stakes meetings at the White House, with Iran and the war in Ukraine dominating the agenda. The Trump administration prepares a major increase in funding to counter China's expanding global influence through new diplomatic, economic, and strategic initiatives. In today's Back of the Brief, a new investigation suggests Russia declared its feared RS-28 Sarmat "Doomsday" missile operational years before it was actually ready for deployment. To listen to the show ad-free, become a premium member of The President’s Daily Brief by visiting https://PDBPremium.com. Please remember to subscribe if you enjoyed this episode of The President's Daily Brief. YouTube: youtube.com/@presidentsdailybrief Pendulum: Ditch the afternoon crashes and naturally curb your cravings with 20% off the doctor-recommended Pendulum Metabolic Daily at https://pendulumlife.com QUO: Make this the season where no opportunity slips away. Try QUO for free PLUS get 20% off your first 6 months when you go to https://Quo.com/PDB Sundays for Dogs: Upgrade your dog’s food without the hassle—try Sundays for Dogs and get 50% off your first order at https://sundaysfordogs.com/PDB or use code PDB at checkout. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's Wednesday, the 29th of July. Welcome to the president's daily brief. I'm Mike Baker, your eyes and ears on the world stage. And yes, look at that. I'm back on the road. All right. Let's get briefed. First up, after weeks of kinetic action, nightly strikes on hundreds of targets, the Trump administration increasingly believes its most powerful weapon against Iran may actually be economic pressure. Really? You think? There are growing signs that the regime to economy is nearing a breaking point. I'll have the details. Later in the show, President Trump hosted two high-stakes meetings at the White House, sitting down separately with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and Ukrainian President Zelensky as the conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine continue

to evolve. Plus, new reporting reveals the White House is preparing to dramatically increase spending to push back against China's expanding influence around the world. And in today's Back of the brief, a powerful 7.1 earthquake and a series of aftershocks hit southern Japan, causing widespread damage and triggering a massive search and rescue operation. But first, today's BDB spotlight. For weeks now, the focus of America's confrontation with Iran has been the kinetic action, night after night of U.S. airstrikes, carrier strike groups, cruise missiles, B2 bombers, striking targets deep inside Iran.

But according to new reporting, the Trump administration increasingly believes the most powerful weapon in its arsenal may not belong to the Pentagon. Instead, they think it may belong to the Treasury Department. Now, regular PDB listeners know that before this latest war began, we spent a fair amount of time talking about Iran's economy. Inflation was already out of control. Economic growth had largely stalled. Ordinary Iranians were struggling under years of sanctions, while the regime, continued pouring billions of dollars into its military and proxy groups across the Middle East. According to a report from Axios, senior U.S. officials now believe the combination of sanctions,

a U.S.-led naval blockade of Iranian ports, and mounting financial pressure may ultimately inflict more lasting damage on the Iranian regime than another round of bombing. One administration official said intelligence indicates that Tehran is increasingly struggling to pay its soldiers and militias because of the growing financial squeeze. Officials also say they're seeing signs of gasoline shortages, fears of bank runs and growing desperation inside the regime for access to frozen assets and sanction relief. And that assessment appears to line up with what's coming out of Iran.

One of the country's best-known economists, Masud Nili, who's long been associated with the Iranian establishment, warned this week that Iran's economy has entered what he called, quote, the station before hyperinflation. In other words, the country has moved beyond chronic inflation and is now approaching the kind of runaway price increases that can devastate an economy. Other economic indicators paint an equally bleak picture. Iran's economy barely grew last year, and outside of the oil sector, it actually contracted. The governor of Iran's central bank has acknowledged that investment has collapsed. Real incomes have been cut nearly in half over the past

decade, and the country's banking system is under severe strain. Another senior government official recently warned that roughly 60% of Iranians can no longer absorb additional economic hardships. But perhaps the clearest sign of just how strained things have become is the gasoline situation. Despite sitting atop some of the largest oil and gas reserves in the world, Iran is now openly discussing higher fuel prices and tighter gasoline rationing. That's not because the country has run out of oil. It's because years of sanctions, underinvestment, economic mismanagement, corruption, and now wartime disruptions have left the government struggling to balance supply, demand, and the enormous cost of fuel subsidies. Back in 2019, a sharp increase in

gasoline prices sparked nationwide protests that quickly evolved into one of the biggest anti-government movements in recent Iranian history. The government eventually crushed those demonstrations, well, there's not a surprise, but the memory still looms large in Tehran. Officials know that another fuel price hike could once again push public frustration into the streets. And that's one reason why U.S. officials believe that the economic pressure campaign may ultimately prove so powerful. Sustained financial pressure threatens the regime's ability to govern, to fund its security apparatus, and maintain public support at home. The reality, though, is that economic warfare is often slower, than military action. And history, of course, is full of regimes that endured tremendous hardship

before changing course. So a key question is, does the White House have the patience to maintain the blockade and serious economic pressure? Or is the pressure to end the war to lower gas prices for American consumers and to get the conflict behind them before the looming U.S. midterm elections, is that pressure going to prove greater? All right. Coming up next, President Trump holds high-stakes separate talks with Netanyahu and Zelensky. And new reporting reveals a major U.S. push to counter China's expanding global reach. I'll be right back. Hey, Mike Baker here with a pro tip for feeling your best.

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Again, that's pendulumlife.com for an extra 20% off your first order. Again, pendulumlife.com and get 20% off today. Welcome back to the PDB. The White House became the center of wartime diplomacy Tuesday, as President Trump, Trump hosted Ukrainian President Zelensky and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu in back-to-back meetings just hours apart. The closed-door meetings underscored the balancing act facing the administration as the White House manages Russia's war against Ukraine and the continuing confrontation with Iran. Up first was Zelensky. Now, you'll probably remember the two leaders' contentious White House meeting just last year when Zelensky was asked to leave,

and relations between Washington and Kiev hit rock bottom. And although the two leaders have met several times since then, Tuesday's meeting underscored just how much that relationship has continued to improve. If you've been a longtime PDB listener, you'll know that Trump has long argued that negotiations work best when America is backing a partner that's demonstrating strength, not weakness. And that's exactly the position that Ukraine has worked hard to put itself in. Over the past several months, Kiv has emerged as one of the world's leading innovators in combat drones, developing technology that's now a trend. attracting serious attention inside the Pentagon. In fact, the U.S. has begun studying Ukraine's battlefield experience as it reshapes its own drone programs following the recent conflict with Iran. Zelensky arrived with two primary goals, securing additional American support for Ukraine's air defenses

and restarting peace negotiations with Russia that have largely stalled. The New York Times reports those priorities quickly became the focus of the discussion. First, Zelensky pressed Trump to move forward with plans to allow Ukraine to manufacture U.S. designed Patriot Interceptor missiles, giving Kiev a long-term path to strengthen its most important air defense system. That, as you might imagine, is no small request. There's a reason that Patriot missiles come up in nearly every high-level meeting between Washington and Kiev. They're still the only proven defense Ukraine has against Russia's ballistic missiles, and Patriot supplies remain limited. For Kiev, manufacturing them domestically would help ease that shortage over the long term.

With no breakthrough agreement, though, on the Patriot issue, the conversation turned toward diplomacy. The two leaders discussed reviving stalled efforts to end the war, including the possibility of restarting negotiations among Washington, Kiev, and Moscow, as well as proposals for a ceasefire that would cover long-range airstrikes and security guarantees for Ukraine. For the White House, it's another attempt to find a diplomatic off-ramp, to a war that's now dragged on for well over four years. Afterward, White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt described the meeting as, quote, positive and productive.

Well, that's very diplomatic. And Zelensky appeared to agree. Following the meeting, he called it a, quote, good meeting. That's very descriptive, citing renewed efforts to restart peace negotiations that have stalled for months. As for a potential date of U.S. brokered Kiev-Moscow talks, well, that remains unclear. But as Zelensky departed the White House, attention quickly shifted to the Middle East. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was next, marking his first trip to Washington since February, just before the U.S. became directly involved in the months-long confrontation with Iran.

While Zelensky arrived at a White House where relations had steadily improved, Netanyahu walked into one facing a noticeably different dynamic. The alliance between Washington and Jerusalem remained strong, of course, but recent weeks, exposed growing disagreements between the two leaders over how to handle Iran and the broader Middle East. So, you ask, where are the two sides diverging? Well, Trump and Netanyahu have differed over several major issues, including the administration's recent diplomatic outreach to Iran, a proposed civilian nuclear agreement with Saudi Arabia, and reports that Washington may approve the sale of F-35 fighter jets to Turkey. And ahead of their meeting, Trump blasted Netanyahu

on Fox News, dismissing him for highlighting recent Israeli intelligence, suggesting that Iran was rebuilding its military capabilities. Trump said, quote, why don't you just tell it to me? Why do you have to announce that to the whole world? End quote. But despite that frustration, the Israeli prime minister said his objectives were straightforward Tuesday, to discuss Israel's security, strengthen the country's position across the region, and continue expanding what he called the quote, Circle of Peace through the Abraham Accords. What we know of the meeting comes from a readout from Netanyahu's office, stating that the two leaders held what it described as, quote, an excellent and comprehensive discussion centered first and foremost on ensuring Iran never acquires a nuclear weapon. They also reviewed the U.S. Brokered Framework

Agreement between Israel and Lebanon that's seen repeated flare-ups from Khazbullah fighters attacking IDF personnel. Overall, Tuesday's meetings ended without any major policy announcements, or new commitments from the White House. All right, I want to turn now to the growing competition between the U.S. and China, where the Trump administration is preparing to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to counter Beijing's expanding influence. And that strategy first begins with a major policy reversal. You may recall that last year, the Trump administration,

working through the Department of Government Efficiency, better known as Doge, dramatically reduced the size of the federal government, dismantled USAID, and scale back America's diplomatic footprint by cutting numerous overseas programs. Now, the White House is reversing course. The administration is preparing to pour hundreds of millions of dollars back into initiatives that were designed to directly compete with China, not militarily, but through infrastructure,

technology, diplomacy, and American soft power. And the best example of that strategy is unfolding much closer to home than you might expect. New reporting from the Associated Press, which obtained documents from sent to Congress, reveals the administration wants to spend nearly $176 million, replacing aging undersea telecommunications cables across the Caribbean and Central America with secure alternatives designed to keep Chinese companies out of the region's digital infrastructure. Now, at first glance, spending nearly $180 million on undersea cables might not sound especially exciting. But those cables carry roughly 95% of the world's international internet traffic, meaning whoever builds and maintains and secures them, gains enormous economic, diplomatic, military, and intelligence advantages.

And that's exactly why Washington has become increasingly uneasy about China's growing footprint across the Americas. For years, the White House has watched Chinese companies expand their presence through ports, telecommunications networks, and Belt and Road projects, including, Chinese-owned ports at both ends of the Panama Canal. From the Trump administration's perspective, those aren't simply business investments. They're strategic assets that expand Beijing's influence in a region that the U.S. views is vital to its own national security. But that's just the opening move. Internal State Department planning documents indicate the administration is considering an additional $340 million for more than 50 separate projects aimed at countering Chinese influence across Latin America, Africa, and Asia. The document argues that, quote, the U.S. must respond to the

Chinese Communist Party's growing economic, technological, and diplomatic leverage around the world, which undermines our national interests, end quote. According to the planning documents, the administration wants to strengthen cybersecurity, safeguard critical infrastructure, and minimal supply chains, and prevent China from expanding its influence over strategic ports and communications networks. Now, some of those proposals are highly targeted, including new security operations centers in Argentina and Belize, along with initiatives designed to protect industries in Ecuador, Jamaica, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay from Chinese influence. Taken together, the proposals represent a significant reversal from where the administration stood just a year ago,

restoring many counter-China initiatives that were paused following the Doge-led government cuts. Trump is still expected to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping in September, around the annual UN General Assembly in New York. Washington is keeping diplomatic channels open, while simultaneously investing in a much broader effort to limit China's influence worldwide. Beijing, as you would expect, rejects Washington's criticisms. Chinese Communist Party officials insist that their overseas investments are intended to promote development and international cooperation,

not expand Chinese influence. And they say that with a straight face, which in itself is very impressive. All right, coming up in the back of the brief, a powerful earthquake and a series of aftershocks hit Japan as rescuers race to find survivors. More on that when we come back. Hey, Mike Baker here. Now, I've been a business owner for years, and as a business owner, I know the importance of staying in touch with clients and potential clients of always being available. because, as you know, missed calls can mean missed potential clients and lost revenue. That's why today's episode is brought to you by Quo, that's QUO, the business communication system

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Sundaysfor Dogs.com slash PDB. Sundays for Dogs.com slash PDB or simply use code PDB at checkout. In today's back of the brief, a powerful 7.1 magnitude earthquake struck Japan's southern Kumamoto prefecture on Tuesday,

causing widespread damage across the island of Kyushu. disrupting transportation and power infrastructure, and triggering a massive search-and-rescue operation. The shallow quake struck in the late afternoon, local time, sending residents scrambling for cover as building shook violently across the region. A tsunami advisory was briefly issued for parts of the coast before being lifted, while officials reported no abnormalities at nearby nuclear facilities. Now, the earthquake left a trail of destruction in its wake. Roads buckled, bridges were damaged, and power was.

knocked out to thousands of homes. High-speed rail service across much of Kyushu was suspended, flights into and out of the region were cancelled, and authorities urged roughly 300,000 residents to evacuate, as emergency crews fanned out across the hardest-hit communities. Officials also warned that strong aftershocks and the threat of landslides could continue for days, particularly in areas already destabilized by the initial quake. The most serious incident occurred at the Aon Shopping Mall, where part of the structure collapsed following what authorities believe may have been a gas explosion triggered by the earthquake. Between 20 and 30 workers remain unaccounted for as firefighters, police, and military personnel searched through the debris. Elsewhere, a massive

chimney collapsed at a paper mill, trapping additional workers beneath the rubble. Hospitals across the region are treating dozens of injured residents as rescue operations continue around the clock. Japan's Prime Minister, Senei Takahichi, quickly mobilized the country's self-defense forces to assist local emergency responders, dispatching troops, aircraft, and heavy equipment to the disaster zone. Several major manufacturers, including semiconductor and automotive plants in Kyushu, temporarily halted operations, while engineers inspected facilities for structural damage. Now, the earthquake is a reminder of both Japan's vulnerability and its remarkable preparedness, Sitting atop the Pacific Ring of Fire, Japan experiences thousands of earthquakes every year

and has spent decades developing some of the world's strictest seismic building standards and most sophisticated early warning systems. Buildings are engineered to sway rather than collapse. Millions of residents regularly participate in earthquake drills, and alerts can reach cell phones and television broadcasts seconds before the strongest shaking arrives. Those investments have undoubtedly saved countless lives over the years. But as today's disaster demonstrates, even the world's best-prepared nation can't eliminate

the destructive power of a major earthquake. As night falls over southern Japan, rescue crews continue searching through damaged buildings, while officials work to determine the full extent of the devastation. And that, my friends, is the President's Daily Brief for Wednesday, the 29th of July. Now, if you have any questions or comments, please reach out to me at PDB at thefirsttv.com. And if you've ever wondered what an ad-free version of the PDB might sound like, well, we've got you covered. Just become a premium member of the President's Daily Brief by visiting PDB Premium.com. I'm Mike Baker, and I'll be back later today with the PDB afternoon bulletin.

Until then, stay informed, stay safe, stay cool.