The President's Daily Brief - PDB Afternoon Bulletin | March 5th, 2026: Tehran’s Big Gamble Backfires & Americans Stranded Abroad

Episode Date: March 5, 2026

In this episode of The PDB Afternoon Bulletin: First up — Iran widens the war again, this time with drones striking neighboring Azerbaijan and injuring civilians. But instead of forcing regional governments to pressure Washington and Jerusalem into a ceasefire, Tehran’s strategy may be backfiring — pushing more countries in the region further away and deepening Iran’s isolation. Later in the show — the latest on the thousands of Americans stranded across the region as officials race to bring them home amid the expanding conflict. 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 Trust & Will: Estate planning doesn’t have to be complicated—create your will or trust online in minutes with Trust & Will and get 20% off at https://trustandwill.com/PDB   DeleteMe: Get 20% off your DeleteMe plan when you go to https://joindeleteme.com/PDB  and use promo code PDB at checkout. Acre Gold: Start building physical gold with simple monthly payments and enter to win two Ancient Collection gold bars at https://GetAcreGold.com/PDB   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Welcome to the PDB afternoon bulletin. I'm Mike Baker. Your eyes and ears on the world stage. All right, let's get briefed. First up, Iran widens the war again, this time with drone strikes in Azerbaijan. but their strategy may be further isolating the Iranian regime and increasing regional cooperation against Tehran. Later in the show, the latest on the thousands of Americans stranded across the region as

U.S. officials work to bring them home. But first, today's afternoon spotlight. It's the sixth day of the war between the U.S., Israel, and Iran, and today we're seeing the latest sign that Iran's strategy may be producing unintended consequences as it continues to anger friends and neighbors in the region. Overnight, drones believed to have originated from Iran struck the passenger terminal of Nakhchavan International Airport that's in Azerbaijan, damaging the building and injuring civilians. Another drone reportedly crashed near a school in a nearby village.

Now, if geography wasn't your favorite subject in school, I don't see how it couldn't have been, but here you go. Azerbaijan sits just north of Iran in the South Caucasus. that's between Russia, Turkey, and the Caspian Sea. Officials in that country say their monitoring systems tracked four drones coming from Iranian territory, and President Ilham Aliyev has called the strike an act of terror. He's now ordered the Azerbaijani military into full combat readiness and warned that retaliatory measures are being prepared. Now, that alone would be a serious escalation, but what makes this moment especially striking is the diplomatic whiplash it's creating. Only a day earlier, Aliev had made a big public showing of visiting the Iranian embassy in Baku

to offer condolences following the death of Supreme Leader Ali Khomeini. In other words, Azerbaijan had been trying publicly to maintain a working relationship with Tehran. And now, less than 24 hours later, its president is threatening to, quote, crush Iran with an iron fist. That is quite the turnaround. But the Azerbaijan incident didn't happen in isolation. Just hours before that drone strike, another alarming development unfolded involving Turkey. Turkish officials say a ballistic missile launched from Iran was detected heading toward Turkish airspace.

NATO missile defenses intercepted the projectile before it could reach its destination. According to Western officials, the likely target may have been Inserlich Air Base. That's a major NATO facility that hosts U.S. forces. Now, that's an extraordinary development for another reason. Turkey, of course, is a NATO member, which means that within roughly a 24-hour period, Iran appears to have fired weapons toward the territory of two neighboring countries, one a regional energy power in the Caucasus, the other a member of NATO. Tehran, for its part, has denied responsibility for both incidents. We had nothing to do with

it, but those denials are rightly being met with skepticism in both Turkey and Azerbaijan, particularly because, well, Iran is the only country wildly launching drones. and missiles across multiple fronts in this current conflict. And that gets to the larger strategic picture. Iran's apparent strategy right now seems to involve widening the battlefield as much as possible. The logic appears to have been that doing so would cause regional actors to pressure Washington and Jerusalem into stopping their attacks. In total, Iran has attacked 13 of its neighboring countries. That includes Turkey, even though the missile was intercepted before it actually made it into Turkish territory. Now, in fairness, the approach isn't entirely irrational. From Tehran's perspective,

widening the conflict may have seemed like the only viable option for a military that knows it can't match the U.S. or Israel in a direct fight. But the risk of that approach is becoming apparent. Instead of rallying neighboring states to Iran's side, these attacks are having the opposite effect, pushing those same countries toward alignment against Tehran. Azerbaijan has now placed its military on high alert and summoned Iran's ambassador. Turkey has condemned the missile incident and NATO defenses are already actively intercepting Iranian weapons near its airspace. And beyond those two countries, Iran's strikes have already reached multiple states across the Gulf and the broader region. Tehran may have believed it was

demonstrating strength by opening new fronts, but the more countries drawn into this fight, the greater the risk that Iran finds itself facing something far more dangerous than it anticipated, and that would be a region that is increasingly united against it. All right, coming up next, the latest on the thousands of Americans stranded across the region as efforts ramp up to bring them home. I'll be right back. Hey, Mike Baker here. Let me take just a moment to talk about something very important, and that would be planning for the future. Now, no one wants to talk about dying, right? but the reality is creating an estate plan can provide you and your family with tremendous peace of mind.

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Welcome back to the PDB afternoon bulletin. We're getting a clear picture of the situation-facing Americans stranded across the Middle East as Iran's retaliatory attacks expand. The State Department says thousands of Americans are looking for a way home, as Washington scrambles to evaluate possible evacuation options. Now, speaking to reporters, Secretary of State Marco Rubio says roughly 1,600 Americans have now formally asked the government for help leaving the region, a figure that reflects only those who have reached out directly to the government. What Washington is trying to do now is figure out how to evacuate those people safely. State Department officials say they're working to organize charter flights where possible, while also

examining whether U.S. military aircraft could be used to move civilians if threats to American civilians across the Middle East escalate. At the same time, diplomats are trying to help Americans secure seats on commercial flights wherever routes are still operating. U.S. officials say they've also been working with airlines to deploy larger aircraft with more seats to move as many people out of the region as possible. Rubio has activated a State Department task force focused on tracking Americans across the region and disseminating updated security and travel information as the situation evolves. Through that task force, some 10,000 Americans have received security guidance as the military operations continue to evolve. As our regular PDB listeners are aware, at least three U.S. diplomatic

missions have now been forced to shut down. Embassies in Kuwait, Lebanon, and Saudi Arabia, are currently closed, and Americans have been warned to stay away from those sites until further notice for safety precautions. Complicating the situation, large swaths of airspace in the Middle East are closed or restricted, which means individuals trying to leave have far fewer flight options than usual. The State Department has issued an urgent warning, covering 14 countries and territories across the Middle East, citing what officials describe as serious safety risks. That, of course, would be a statement of the obvious. Meanwhile, Americans who remain stranded in the region say the uncertainty of direction and evacuation has been deeply frustrating. Some U.S. citizens

have taken to social media pleading for evacuation assistance, saying the rapidly evolving conflict and the lack of clear travel routes has left them unsure on how to return home. One American in the UAE, the United Arab Emirates, told the Washington Post that the hardest part of the situation has been what she described as, quote, the absence of clarity. Warnings about the security situation, she said, often arrive without clear guidance on what travelers should do next. To be fair, there's also an element of individual responsibility here. What I mean by that is it's never a good idea to imagine that the government is responsible for your well-being. Anyone who travels overseas, particularly to an environment like the Middle East,

where tensions have been building for months, needs to take it upon themselves to evaluate risk and consider the what-ifs. Should things go south, what options would I have? So being informed, understanding the environment that you're in or traveling to, planning for various scenarios, well, every traveler has that responsibility. Now, there are options for the U.S. military to play a role here if conditions worsen further. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan Kane, says the Pentagon is considering opening seats on C-17 cargo aircraft and other military flights, to help move Americans out of the region if necessary. At this point, a large number of Americans have already made it out of the Middle East. In a statement today from the Assistant Secretary

of State, since the start of the joint U.S. Israeli operations against Iran, nearly 20,000 Americans have safely returned stateside from the Middle East. It's important to note that that number does not include Americans who have relocated to other countries or those who have already departed the region but remain in transit back to the U.S. At the direction of Secretary Rubio, the State Department has launched charter flight and ground transportation options to help move Americans out of the region. The statement from the Assistant Secretary of State says those efforts are continuing to ramp up with additional flights and ground transport options taking place currently. And in a further lifeline to Americans abroad, the State Department just established a crisis intake form

for citizens currently in Kuwait, Bahrain, the UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Israel. By completing the form, which can be accessed via mytravel.state.gov, once again, that's my travel.com. Americans in those countries can receive updates about transportation options. So if you or someone you know is an American citizen and currently in the Middle East, make sure you get online and advise the State Department of your whereabouts. And the easiest way to do that is to enroll in the smart traveler enrollment program known as Step. That's STEP. Just go to step.state.gov.

Again, that's the smart traveler enrollment program. Step. dot state.gov. That gives you an opportunity to advise the U.S. government of your whereabouts. And that allows the State Department to contact you directly as evacuation flights or ground transportation options become available. You can also request emergency assistance by calling the following number 1202-501-44-4-4. Again, let me repeat that number, 1-202-501-44-44. And that, my friends, is the PDB afternoon bulletin for Thursday, the 5th of March.

If you have any questions or comments, please reach out to me at pdb at thefirsttv.com. And, of course, if you want to listen to the show ad-free, that is very easy to do. 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 tomorrow. Until then, stay informed. Stay safe. Stay cool. Hey, Mike Baker here. Now, let me take a moment to talk about personal finances and the importance of diversifying

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