The President's Daily Brief - PDB Afternoon Bulletin | August 29th, 2025: Israeli Strikes Decapitate Houthi Government & Trump Approves Massive Missile Sale To Ukraine

Episode Date: August 29, 2025

In this episode of The PDB Afternoon Bulletin:  First—Israel is taking the gloves off with the Iranian-back Houthis, unleashing targeted airstrikes on Thursday aimed at eliminating the military and political leadership of the Yemen-based terror group. Later in the show—The Trump administration has approved the sale of thousands of extended-range cruise missiles to Ukraine through NATO partners, marking the first major arms sale of new weapons to the war-torn country since President Trump returned to office. 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 Stash Financial: Don’t Let your money sit around. Go to ⁠https://get.stash.com/PDB⁠ to see how you can receive $25 towards your first stock purchase. Jacked Up Fitness: Get the all-new Shake Weight by Jacked Up Fitness at ⁠https://JackedUpShakeWeight.com⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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the Trump administration has approved the sale of thousands of long-range cruise missiles to Ukraine through NATO partners, marking the first major arm sale of new weapons to the war-torn country since President Trump returned to office. But first, today's afternoon spotlight. The Houthi terrorists of Yemen may soon suffer the same fate as their military backers in Iran and Hesbol and Lebanon, as Israel makes a play to decapitate the group's top brass. On Thursday, the Israeli Air Force carried out targeted strikes aimed at wiping out the military and political leadership of the Yemen-based terror group in what has been described by officials in Jerusalem as their most dramatic operation in that country yet. One strike on an apartment building reportedly killed Khuti Prime Minister

Ahmed al-Rahoui, along with several of his compatriots, though Israeli officials are still awaiting formal confirmation of those results. A separate strike on Thursday was said to have targeted 10 senior Khuti ministers as they gathered in a location outside of the capital to hear a speech by the group's leader, an Abdo-Malik al-Houthi, according to our report from the Times of Israel. On Friday, IDF leaders confirmed they were targeting the Khuti defense minister and chief of staff. While they are also still waiting for official confirmation of their deaths, it appears that both strikes were a success. IDF sources told Israel's Channel 13 on Friday that, quote, the direction of the assessments is positive. the assessment that the entire military and governmental elite of the Khutis was eliminated and the attack is growing.

While details are still boring in, it appears the Israeli military employed a bit of subterfuge to successfully execute their attack on Khuti leadership. IDF sources told the Jerusalem Post that they lulled the Khutis into a false sense of security, tricking the group into thinking Jerusalem lacked credible intelligence on the locations of their most senior officials. Meanwhile, Israeli intelligence provided real-time details of the movements of the Houthi leaders to the IDF, which enabled these strikes to be carried out, despite the presence of heavy air defenses in the area. Israeli intelligence also monitored Al-Huti's speech, looking for any signs that he realized senior officials were being targeted and said there was no indication that the terror leader knew what was unfolding. It's hard to overstate the significance of these strikes. Previous Israeli

operations in Yemen have focused on Khutti infrastructure and weapons depots, but have failed to halt the group's relentless drone and missile attacks on Israel. But now leaders in Jerusalem are going for the jugular, so to speak, attempting to throw the group into disarray. The death of the Houthi defense minister, if confirmed, would be particularly consequential. He's served in that role since 2016, and developed a close working relationship with Chasbola and Lebanon, and more importantly for them, with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the IRGC, providing a critical link to the group's paymasters. He was considered the most senior official in the organization's military establishment and oversaw their attacks against Israel. The plans were reportedly a long time

in the making. An unnamed senior official said Thursday that Israel was ready to target Khutti leaders on Sunday when they carried out a series of strikes in Yemen's capital that killed six people, but ultimately decided to wait as intelligence shifted. Israel has not officially commented on the results of Thursday strikes, but Israeli defense minister Israel Katz put out a statement saying, quote, as we warn the Houthis in Yemen, after the plague of darkness comes the plague of death. Whoever raises a hand against Israel, their hand will be cut off, end quote. Israel's fight against Houthis has been raging for nearly 22 months, but leaders in Jerusalem have largely prioritized other Iranian proxies closer to home.

Destroying Hamas in Gaza has been Israel's primary objective since the brutal 7 October attacks, and the terror group is now a shell of its former self. Israel also turned their sights on Khazbullah in Lebanon late last summer, killing most of their senior leadership over the course of just one month, including long-time. time figurehead Hassan Nasrallah. That campaign, which included Israel's covert pager attack, left the group in tatters, neutralizing a key proxy for Iran. And of course, back in June, Israel came for the Iranian regime itself, taking out much of their top military brass during the 12-day war. But now, well, it appears to be the Khutis time. As a reminder, since the 7th of

October 23 attacks, the Khutis have mixed attacks on Israel with assaults on global shes. shipping lanes, describing their operations as a show of solidarity with Palestinians. Their attacks on commercial vessels have killed eight sailors and sunk at least four ships and disrupted global shipping and supply chains. In early May, following an intense bombing campaign in Yemen by the U.S., President Trump announced a ceasefire agreement with the militants, under which the group pledged to stop targeting American maritime assets in the Red Sea. But the deal did not include protections for Israel. and the Houthis have continued targeting the Jewish state and any ships doing business with Israel

with missile and drone attacks. Up next, the Trump administration approves the sale of thousands of long-range cruise missiles to Ukraine through NATO partners. Now, be right back. This podcast is brought to you in part by Stash. Now, imagine investing without ever picking a single stock. Well, with Stash, the experts handle the hard part for you. Now, Stash isn't just another investing app. It's a registered investment advisor that combines automated investing with expert guidance, so you'd have to worry about figuring it out on your own.

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Trump struck a new weapons pact with NATO allies, critical American munitions are now officially flowing to Ukraine. On Thursday, the Trump administration approved an $825 million arms sale to Ukraine funded by Denmark, the Netherlands, and Norway. The package includes roughly 3,500 extended-range cruise missiles, as well as 3,350 advanced GPS navigation kits. While the White House has previously approved a number of sales of military equipment and missile defenses for Ukraine, this marks the first major sale of offensive weapons to the war-torn country since President Trump returned to office, according to our report from the New York Times. It's also the first official weapons purchased by European countries on behalf of Ukraine since Trump struck the arms pact with NATO leaders

back in July. As a reminder, that arrangement involves European allies either sending advanced American weaponry to Ukraine from their own stocks while purchasing replacements from America's military industry or directly purchasing the U.S. weapons for immediate transfer to Ukraine. In a statement, the U.S. State Department said, quote, Ukraine will use funding from Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, and foreign military financing from the U.S. for this purchase. This proposed sale will support the foreign policy and national security objectives of the U.S. by improving the security of a partner country that is a force for political stability. and economic progress in Europe, end quote.

The State Department said they notified Congress of the sale on Thursday, and Congress is expected to give their official sign-off on the deal shortly. If everything goes as planned, the missiles will start arriving on the battlefields late this fall. The missiles, also known as extended range attack munitions or ERAMS, because, of course, is an acronym, will provide Keeve with a potent tool against Russia as the Kremlin escalates or attacks on Ukrainian cities. The missiles can be fired from F-16 fighter jets that Denmark, the Netherlands, and Norway are also transferring to Ukraine and have a range of between 150 and

280 miles. That's similar to the range of the storm shadow and scalp missiles. The Ukraine is used to hit targets in Crimea and Western Russia. But there's no word yet on whether the U.S. will place restrictions on their use, like the Biden administration previously did, with long-range missiles. A defense analyst at the European Council on Foreign Relations said the sale might not be a game-changer for Ukraine's Air Force, but will, quote, signal that there's a productive conversation between Europeans and the Trump administration in terms of future supply of modern equipment to Ukraine, end quote. If Vladimir Putin continues to resist diplomatic efforts to negotiate a peaceful settlement to the war, it appears that the Trump administration is prepared to significantly scale up arms sales.

During President Trump's meeting with Ukrainian President Zelensky just last week, the pair reportedly discussed increasing the flow, with European allies committing to purchasing an additional $90 billion, that's with a B, worth of munitions. The sale comes as Ukraine faces heavy bombardments from Russia on a near daily basis. As we discussed earlier on the PDB, on Thursday morning, Moscow's forces unleashed their second largest aerial attack on Kiev since the war began, killing at least 23 civilians and wounding at least 50 others. It marked a sharp escalation from previous aerial attacks as the strikes also damaged offices belonging to the European Union and the UK's British Council.

Despite the Trump administration's efforts to broker a peace, it does not appear that the Kremlin has any plans to slow the pace of their bombardments. Zelensky said the strikes show what the Kremlin really thinks about Western diplomatic efforts to end the war, stating, quote, Russia chooses ballistics instead of the negotiating table. It chooses to continue killing instead of ending the war, end quote. In addition to weapons, Zelensky has urged President Trump to follow through on his economic threats against Moscow and impose new sanctions to further squeeze Russia's floundering wartime economy.

And that, my friends, is the PDB afternoon bulletin for Friday the 29th of August. Now, if you have any questions or comments, please reach out to me at PD. at thefirstTV.com. And if you're so inclined, and I hope you are, remember to check out the latest episode of our extended weekend show, the PDB Situation Report. It hits the airwaves starting tonight at 10 p.m. on the first TV

and can also be found on our critically acclaimed, well, at least by my family anyway, YouTube channel. You can find that on YouTube at President's Daily Brief, and as always, all things PDB can be found on podcast platforms everywhere. Now, for those of you in the U.S. and Canada, I hope all have a very enjoyable and relaxing Labor Day, known in other parts of the world as International Workers Day and typically celebrated on the 1st of May. In the U.S., well, folks celebrate the worker by not working. Instead, it's a time to picnic, to barbecue, to grill out, and of course, don't forget to shop for cars

and mattresses. I'm Mike Baker, and I'll be back over the weekend with the PDB Situation Report. Until then, stay informed. Stay sane. Stay cool. Ryan Reynolds here for MintMobil. I don't know if you knew this, but anyone can get the same premium wireless for $15 a month plan that I've been enjoying. It's not just for celebrities. So do like I did and have one of your assistance assistants to switch you to MintMobile today.

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