Mike Pence On Iran Strikes & The ‘America First’ Agenda

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I'm Mark Teeson.

I'm Dana Perino.

I'm Rebecca and this is The Fox News rundown.

Thursday March 12th, 2026.

I'm Dave Anthony.

He had a famous falling out with the president after the 2020 election.

But former Vice President Mike Pence is a big Trump supporter

and operation epic fury, telling us it's time to end

Ron's terror threat once and for all.

And I couldn't be more proud of our troops.

I couldn't be more proud and grateful of our commander-in-chief

for having the guts to pull the trigger.

I'm Jessica Rosenthal.

President Trump went back out on the road to talk about the economy

while the data presents a mixed picture the focus is on the future

with the Iran conflict as well as with AI.

I get nervous if wages are rising and productivity is not rising

because as long as productivity is rising,

firms can pay more and it's non-inflationary.

And I'm John Ashbrook and I've got the final word on The Fox News rundown.

This is day 13 of Operation Epic Fury.

With U.S. and Israeli forces continuing to target Iran.

We are in a campaign against a cruel enemy that wants to destroy us.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, through an interpreter,

says this is more intense than last year's conflict.

We crushed their nuclear ballistic capabilities and operation rising lion.

Afterwards, instead of learning the lesson, they tried to redevelop them

and bury them deep underground in such a way that we could no longer target them.

President Trump has said they've been very successful in the conflict with Iran,

targeting its missiles and launchers and its Navy and its nuclear program.

But Democrats are not impressed.

Here's Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.

American troops are in harm's way.

Billions are being spent overseas when there are such desperate needs here at home to lower costs.

Yet the administration still cannot explain a clear strategy or an endgame.

But one big Trump supporter in this conflict is his former vice president, Mike Pence.

Despite their falling out after the 2020 election.

The truth is that this war began 47 years ago.

In 1979, when the Mollos took over around, they held American hostages for nearly 400 days.

Former vice president Pence is also the founder of the advancing American Freedom Organization he created at the end of the first Trump term.

And all through the course of the last 47 years,

one administration after another has essentially been battling against the tentacles

of the Iranian terrorists.

But thanks to the courage of our armed forces and the decisive leadership of President Donald Trump.

With our allies at our side, we're not taking the fight directly to the heart of global terrorism.

And I couldn't be more proud of our troops.

I couldn't be more proud and grateful of our commander-in-chief for having the guts to pull the trigger.

And my hope, my prayer, is that we are setting the conditions to bring the threat that Iran has posed to the American people,

to our interests in the region, to our most cherished ally Israel, to an end once and for all.

The president has said that he didn't think any other president would have the guts to do this.

And he wanted to avoid another president from having to deal with Iran like he has.

And like we've had for 47 years in the future.

He took action also last year with Operation Midnight Hammer.

He said at the time that the US had obliterated with the strikes in addition to what Israel was doing,

Iran's nuclear threat.

But here we are again, what happened?

Well, again, you make a great point, Dave.

I mean, when President Trump made the decision to launch US forces for the first time directly into Iran

against their nuclear program with Operation Midnight Hammer, it was unprecedented, it was historic.

And I think it did obliterate that facility.

But the truth is that our best intelligence supported the fact that during four years of appeasement and capitulation by the Biden administration,

Iran in fact had been reconstituting its nuclear program at multiple sites.

And the intelligence that's become open source at this point is that they were very close to having up to 10 nuclear weapons sufficient uranium.

And so I think the president made the right decision.

Now we have an opportunity, I believe, to create the conditions where the Iranian people can reclaim their nation and set a ran back on a pathway

where it can join the family of nations and contribute to that security and prosperity.

President Trump has come under criticism from the left and Democrats who have said that they have been conflicting versions as to why and how this conflict started.

And they are also uncertain, they say there are more questions than answers when they get updates from the Pentagon about this conflict.

What do you think the ultimate goal of this operation should be and will be?

Well, what's really commendable is that you could anticipate that the left, the progressive left, would be critical, many in the media or critical of the president.

But not only did he essentially turn aside from the criticism from predictable sources, but also the president pushed back on a growing chorus of isolationist voices on the right,

who not only opposed Operation Epic Fury, but also opposed the effort to take out the nuclear facilities a year ago.

I think what you saw the president do here was in every real sense put the security and long-term interest of the United States first, and I commend him for that.

Mr. Vice President, on that front, I'm sorry to interrupt, on that front, those critics that the president is getting from some of his MAGA supporters on the right is that he campaigned on no wars, that he didn't create any wars, start any wars in his first term.

And he doesn't want any kind of endless war, and he also has an American first agenda, and they say that how is going after Iran and upending potentially financial markets America first?

Well, I think it's important to say, I've said it many times, the president I served with is not an isolationist, but some of his harshest critics.

And it is a fringe of a movement that I believe overwhelmingly supports the president's initiative and our troops in this moment.

But look, it's a loud chorus, it has some loud mouthpieces out there, but I always understood that during our time in the White House together, and in the time I came to know the president, that he believes in leading from the front.

Well, I think that is putting the interest of the American people first, the interest of our strategic priorities first, and I think you could see that the overwhelming majority of people who identify as Republicans are conservative support this initiative.

But I'm happy to talk about what I think the two objectives here could be Dave.

Please do because people have talked about so ending the nuclear threat, ending their missiles and launchers, that's certainly one goal.

But then we have heard that the goal is not regime change, but on the very first day of the operation, the strikes that Israel put in Iran killed the Supreme Leader.

So what is the end game in your view?

First, the military has the opportunity to to grade the security and military infrastructure within Iran to a point where the Iranian people can reclaim their country.

I mean, whether it was the green revolution in 2009 that was largely ignored by the Obama administration, or whether it be the tens of thousands that took to the streets.

In the first weeks of of 2026, only to see the slaughter of more than 30,000 Iranians, the people of Iran have again and again taken to the streets to reclaim their country from the terrorists, Mullahs, and Tehran, and been gunned down.

I really believe that by hitting the security infrastructure, by degrading the ability of the Iranian regime to impose its will by force on its people and to launch force against the United States, Israel, and other allies in the region, you're giving the Iranian people an opportunity to reclaim their country.

And this is a little more long-term, Dave, but I really do believe that disasters were all from Afghanistan under the Biden administration, literally squandered American credibility in ways that emboldened authoritarian regimes and terrorists around the world.

It's a coincidence to me that after Biden's disasters were brought from Afghanistan, Russia invaded Ukraine again and launched their brutal and unprovoked invasion to Ukraine four years ago.

It also is no surprise that with Iran's full support and consent that Hamas launched the worst terrorist attack on the Jewish people since the Holocaust on October the 7th.

I think the second opportunity that the United States has today, because of the President's decision and the professionalism of our armed forces, is to literally restore deterrence on the world stage by demonstrating that America remains the arsenal of democracy, the leader of the free world, and is fully prepared to use force to advance our aims as well.

In 1991, of course, in 1990, we had the whole Iraq invasion of Kuwait, we had the American liberation of Kuwait, and then that conflict ended.

Some have thought the US didn't finish the job and didn't do it properly, and then we found ourselves in a conflict with Iraq again in 2003.

Could that happen again if the US ends this too soon?

Yeah, I was actually a first time candidate for office back in 1990. I have vivid memories of the Persian Gulf War and that first attack.

It was, like we're seeing in Operation Epic Fury today, it was the application of overwhelming military force, our military under Member General Swarzkov and led our troops into Iraq, pushed them out of Kuwait.

It was a brilliant military campaign, but history records that they stopped short of holding accountable the very dictator who had attempted to redraw international lines by force in Saddam Hussein.

And to your point, we went back in 2003 and confronted that same enemy. Now, there was flawed intelligence at the time, but there was never any question that Saddam Hussein was a menace to his own people.

And they threatened stability across the region. And so I think the experience of 1991 is precisely the one the American people ought to reflect on today, which is Operation Epic Fury is applying the same overwhelming force, not stops and starts, but overwhelming military force demonstrating we have the greatest military in the history of the world.

But the lesson of those days is we need to finish this job and the threat the Iranian regime has posed to the American people, to Israel and to the free world once and for all.

President Trump and Wednesday told Axios that the war will end at the time that he decides it will end, but he did say that there was practically nothing left to target. They've been so successful going after Iran.

And reports that some advisors are urging the president to end this conflict quickly so that we don't have a huge effect to our economy.

You have been with the president. You've been in these high level meetings with the cabinet.

How does he go about the process? Is he someone that advisors can pressure into making a decision he doesn't want to do?

Well, I don't think it's pressure. I think that the president I served with for four years day in and day out is someone who leads by asking questions.

He's someone that constantly assembles input, but then one of his virtues is he's not afraid to make a decision.

And my my sense is the president in saying earlier this week that unconditional surrender was the requirement to bring this conflict to an end.

I have deeply skeptical of nation building and I've never been shy about saying that.

I don't I don't think it's incumbent for America to build a new nation in Iran, nor do the American people want us to do that, but creating the conditions where freedom, loving people in Iran can reclaim their country for a free democratic and non nuclear future.

We have an opportunity to do that and my my home, my prayer is the president.

And this team will let our military create the conditions for just that to occur.

Well, certainly a lot is going to happen before the voting in November.

Former Vice President Mike Pence also founder of the advancing American freedom organization.

Thank you so much for joining us. We really appreciate your time.

Dave, thanks for having me on Fox News rundown. I look forward to being back again soon.

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This is John Ashbrook with your Fox News commentary.

Come and write up.

President Trump visited a drug manufacturing facility in Cincinnati, Ohio

and then a fulfillment and supply chain company in Hebron, Kentucky Wednesday.

So jobs, factories and new investments are pouring in as they do.

We have added 70,000 new construction jobs in just a short period of time,

including 8,000 brand new construction jobs in Kentucky.

The latest economic data that's out gives an update on inflation.

Year over year, it's up 2.4%. That's not too far off from the Fed's target rate of 2%.

Food prices were up, though, 0.4% in February.

And while Shelter Roosevelt rents saw its smallest increase in five years.

But the data comes after the recent negative jobs report.

We lost 92,000 positions in February. Labor force participation fell.

And in the prior year, while foreign foreign workers lost jobs,

native foreign workers saw gains.

Democrats like Senator Mark Warner are critical.

I love when politicians say to people, don't worry about that inflation. It's gone.

American people are smart.

This President promised affordability.

Nevada Senator Jackie Rosen highlighted other frustrations.

Gas prices are going through the roof.

Terrorists still here.

More problems are going to happen because of all of this prices are going to continue to go up.

But the President told the rally in Kentucky the big, beautiful bill is what has kept their taxes lower.

The midterms are coming. They want to raise your taxes higher than you've ever had before.

We have to win.

The midterms are going to be very, very important to keep it going.

And during an interview ahead of his remarks, the President said the US will tap into the strategic petroleum reserve

in an effort to bring down gas and oil prices during this conflict with Iran.

The economy is still growing despite all the shocks that it has received.

Anthony Chan is the Global Chief Economist for Chan Economics and former JP Morgan Chase Global Chief Economist.

I look for the economy this year to grow certainly in the neighborhood of about 2.5 to 2.6%.

And that's despite all the shocks that we've seen so far.

And when you look at the international betting markets, they're also pretty optimistic.

They're all projecting a low probability of a potential recession,

which I don't think is going to happen this year.

And prices are somewhat well contained.

We're not seeing the inflation rate at the Federal Reserve's target,

but it's not really running away from us.

And yes, we will see energy prices picking up because of the war.

But again, now those things should be relatively of a short-term nature,

especially if the President follows through on his promise that this war is almost over.

We should see that those inflation pressures are to use a popular word transitory

or something that the Federal Reserve can look through.

We have this new inflation data, right?

It went up a bit.

But year over year, it looks like we're steady at about 2.4% overall.

My understanding is inflation will always go up.

In fact, you hope it goes up, but only buy a little bit.

But that the answer I keep hearing from economists and experts is that

the solution really lies in wage growth.

How does wage growth happen in this climate?

Well, I think wage growth always inherently occurs when you see a surge in productivity.

And the good news here is that productivity in 2025 seemed to be at an uptrend.

And I think that that will continue.

Part of it is the fact that we have less workers.

So therefore, the workers are forced to work a little harder.

But then we are also going to get some help.

My hope and expectation is that we'll get that help from artificial intelligence.

Again, that's not going to come in as a storm, but it's certainly going to come in gradually

and the gradual impact of artificial intelligence will be to boost productivity,

which in turn allows these companies to pay the workers a little bit more.

So yes, people get nervous when wages are rising.

I don't get nervous when wages are rising.

I get nervous if wages are rising and productivity is not rising.

Because as long as productivity is rising, firms can pay more and it's noninflationary.

You know, the conversation about higher wages does naturally lead one to figure,

you know, you need a job in order to get those higher wages.

And we did have a negative jobs report recently.

You just referenced AI and also a smaller workforce.

But what is going on when we see negative jobs numbers?

Well, I think the negative job numbers are coming through as a result of a few factors.

First of all, in 2025, the economy grew at 2.2%.

And that was a little slower than 2024 when the economy grew at 2.8%.

So slower economic growth in 2025.

So you need less workers.

But at the same time, you also saw a huge number of deportations.

Some of the numbers that you've heard from the government is that

we deported almost two and a half million people.

A lot of those were workers and now all of a sudden,

the way the government reports them is that those people are just no longer in the workforce.

They're no longer employed.

So you're not going to have as many people.

That's one of the reasons why the average gain and non-formed payrolls in 2025

was about 15,000 per month.

A couple of years ago, we were recording 200,000 jobs being created a month.

But now you have less people, less people in the population.

You're going to see less jobs being created.

Also, you've got to remember that last year and this year,

you're going to see more than 4 million baby boomers turn 65.

And not all of them will stop working, but a lot of them will.

And that, of course, means less people in the labor force.

So everybody gets nervous about artificial intelligence.

And I say, there are a lot of offsets.

One offset is the baby boomers retiring.

And another one is the continuation of the deportation.

So you're going to have less supply of labor.

And yes, maybe you get a little bit less demand.

But by and large, I am not as pessimistic as some studies out there.

Really portray artificial intelligence.

You, of course, you've heard the Citrini research study that projects unemployment rates of 10.2% by 2028.

I don't think that's going to happen because there are a lot of other different offsets.

Out there, I prefer to focus more on other academic studies.

Like the thing that was federal reserve that said that artificial intelligence could be more like a compliment.

It's going to augment what workers can do.

And therefore, help boost productivity.

And therefore, not reduce the labor force by as much.

Yeah, but talk to me about those about that a little bit more.

Because we have seen in recent days, Jack Dorsey was pretty candid about this when he laid off about 4,000 people from block.

Amazon's been pretty candid about it too.

They're laying off thousands of people saying they've got to move towards more efficiencies.

UPS, Dow, all attributing some of these layoffs to AI automation, efficiency improvements.

And then Thropic CEO says we're going to see cuts to the tune of 50% of entry-level jobs.

I know it in the same breath.

I hear people say, yeah, but we're going to see more jobs eventually because of AI.

But in this short term, and we really don't know how short term it is, this doesn't feel great.

Well, I'm not arguing that we're going to see improvements in productivity.

And that, of course, can translate into a loss of jobs.

Many people that talk about blocks that that is the modus operandi of Jack Dorsey that he usually when it takes a company, he creates a lot of jobs and then he cuts jobs.

He, in fact, cut jobs a few years ago, and there was no AI at the time.

And there was a huge reduction in the workforce that Jack Dorsey pushed through.

So that is one thing.

But the other factor I think that we also need to keep in mind is that even if we see those reductions in jobs continuing,

the fact that you're seeing a reduction in the labor force that I discussed, either because of retirements or deportations, things of that nature.

A lot of that will certainly offset it.

And in fact, the world economic forum put out a study that you may actually end up seeing more jobs being created over the next couple of years because of artificial intelligence out there.

And they actually put out a report saying that as many as 78 million jobs globally will be created over the next decade or so,

because of artificial intelligence. So there are many studies out there.

And I don't argue with the notion that there will be a lot of companies, a lot more that will be reducing.

But there will also be a lot of companies that are higher.

I want your thoughts on gas prices right now.

We see oil prices rising, of course, due to the conflict with Iran.

But the international energy agency now says they're going to release the largest volume of emergency reserves in history, 400 million barrels.

I think that's about a third of their main energy stockpile is, is this a wise decision?

Oh, I think it is a wise decision because it really puts back into the market somewhere between 15 and 18 days of supply out there.

So every, every little can help.

The issue I have is that the best way to solve this problem is to open up the straight up for moves.

I just wrote a sub-stack publication talking about how important that is.

We can talk about ways to do it. We can say we're going to escort Navy ships.

We can say that we're going to knock out all the capability of bombing by Iran.

We can say a lot of things, but the reality is they still have drones.

Iran has the capability of producing 10,000 drones per month.

That's not going to stop.

They even have miners that can actually dive into the water and then put explosive device in these large ships.

And then, of course, there is another concern out there.

And that is that the increase in supply of oil that we're going to do from these strategic patrol reserves.

If you keep the straight of almost closed for three or four weeks, that's not enough.

We're still going to be at a deficit situation.

And that's a real problem out there.

So, yes, all these things that we're doing are the right thing.

And I commend the government official, commend the president for doing everything he can to fix this.

But if we really wanted to solve this problem, we have to open up the straight up for moves.

One more for you, if I may.

And this is kind of a broad question.

But go into the future with me for a second.

Imagine in Iran that can no longer function like it has.

As a major funder of terrorism, a much weaker Iran in the Middle East.

I know this is like very macro, but does that have the potential to be quite good for the economy?

Not only is it good for the U.S. economy, but I think it's good for the global economy.

Because if any time you take out bad actors out of the system and all of a sudden we all seem to get along a lot better than we did before.

There's less risk of terrorism.

There is lower geopolitical risk.

Business and the global economy thrives in that kind of an environment.

So I don't think you'll find any economists from either side of a political aisle that were with Quibble with this.

Any time you take out actors that are mischievous, that actually do things that distort the economy or distort economic forces.

And you remove them or you lessen their power.

It's actually a big plus for the overall global economy.

And these are some of the things that the president has talked about.

And I guess I think it's fair to say that nobody could argue with that.

That if you somehow reduce the risk of bad things happening in the global economy, the global economy will grow faster.

And that's a good thing.

Global Chief Economist for Chan Economics, Anthony Chan.

Thank you so much for your time.

My pleasure.

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It's time for your Fox News commentary.

John Ashbrook.

What's on your mind?

As Operation Epic Fury continues raining destruction on the Iranian regime,

Democrats continue their shutdown of America's Department of Homeland Security.

The DHS, which was created in reaction to the worst terrorist attack in American history,

has been shut down and it has real consequences.

Debrave men and women serving our Coast Guard aren't receiving their paychecks.

The thousands of TSA workers protecting airline travel aren't receiving their paychecks.

And ahead of the spring travel rush, airport security lines are backed up.

In Houston on Sunday, the TSA line was three and a half hours long.

Chuck Schumer is once again playing politics instead of protecting the American people.

And after multiple opportunities, Senate Democrats again rejected a plea to reopen Homeland Security even for two weeks.

Borders are Tom Homan has made it clear that four years of open border policies under Joe Biden

let countless bad actors from the other hemisphere into our country.

And now Democrats won't fund the federal department charged with protecting us from the various attacks it was created to prevent.

Even as ISIS supporters are detonating bombs in New York City, defense of our homeland shouldn't be a political issue.

Americans are depending on it.

I am John Ashbrook, co-host of the Ruthless Podcast.

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