Trump weighing Iran deal or campaign to 'finish them off'

Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo reacted to a memo about potential Iranian attacks on Americans, the reported threats to U.S. interests abroad and the American military presence in the region.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is reportedly weighing renewed Iran strikes as elections loom, with a similar situation facing President Donald Trump in the U.S.

President Donald Trump sharply criticized former President Barack Obama's previous JCPOA deal with Iran, calling it the "worst and dumbest deal" he has ever seen.

His comments come after Obama lashed out at Trump at a recent midterm campaign rally.

Fox News senior strategic analyst Gen. Jack Keane (Ret), discussed recent reports of satellite images showing Iran attempting to rebuild its nuclear program on Sunday.

Iran has "substantially increased" efforts to target U.S. personnel abroad, with plots to kill Americans reaching "advanced stages" in the Middle East and other countries, according to an intelligence memo obtained by Fox News.

The memo, sent Friday to Secretary of State Marco Rubio by Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton, comes just days after the State Department ordered non-emergency U.S. government employees and their family members to leave Saudi Arabia due to escalating attacks by Iran-backed Houthi rebels.

U.S. officials confirmed the authenticity of the unclassified intelligence memo, which was first reported by Axios.

"Specifically, through various channels, we have received intelligence that Iran has substantially increased efforts to target U.S. personnel," the memo states.

"The lethal plotting efforts by the Iranians against U.S. citizens have reached advanced stages in both the Middle East and certain other countries."

The memo also states that intelligence officials will work to downgrade the classification of certain intelligence so it can be disseminated and shared with State Department personnel.

A U.S. official told Fox News Digital that the government continually monitors and evaluates evolving security threats.

"When it comes to our staffing at embassies, we constantly evaluate new information about the security environment," the official said. "The threat of Houthi attacks and of Iranian terror plots targeting U.S. officials are informing our decisions on staffing adjustments for embassies on RO Status in the region."

This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News' Michael Sinkewicz.

President Donald Trump joined "Sunday Morning Futures" to discuss the economy, midterm elections and the war in Iran.

Trump argued that the U.S. economy is booming with the exception of oil prices, which he says will plummet once the war in Iran ends.

President Donald Trump says he anticipated that the war in Iran would cause oil prices to rise in the U.S., but argues it was necessary to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

Trump made the statement during an interview with Fox 2 Detroit on Sunday night, pointing to recent reports that the oil industry is already recovering.

"You worry that people are gonna vote with their pocketbooks and not reflect as deeply, perhaps, as you are on the Iran war," Fox 2's Roop Raj told Trump. "They're just worried about getting food on the table, gas in the tank."

"Think about it. If they're great Americans, they're going to do what I'm doing because you cannot let--You want to see problems? You want see not only energy problems, but death problems? Let them have a nuclear weapon, because they would use it. And I have to do that first," Trump responded.

"I knew when I did it. Look, we blew the hell out of their nuclear capacity. You know that? Far greater than anyone even thought. It's gone. But I knew that that was going to raise the prices a little bit. Now, if you take a look, the oil, just on the front page of the Wall Street Journal yesterday, oil coming out of the Strait of Hormuz is now topping what it was before the war. Because we have a blockade and it's been, our Navy is, our military, but our Navy has been incredible. We have a naval blockade, and we have more oil coming right now out of the Strait of Hormuz than it was, before the war started," he added.

Iran is approaching a financial reckoning as a U.S. naval blockade threatens to wipe out its seaborne crude oil revenues by mid-December — but the economic pain may fall more heavily on ordinary Iranians than on the military Washington is trying to constrain.

Iran’s trackable floating oil inventory outside the U.S. blockade zone has fallen to zero, according to energy intelligence firm Kpler, which projects that Tehran's crude revenues could dry up by the middle of December as outstanding payments are settled.

But the loss of oil revenue would not necessarily translate into an immediate military funding crisis. Tehran could shield military spending while cutting civilian programs, allowing inflation to erode purchasing power and drawing on alternative revenue sources.

That complicates Washington's pressure campaign: The blockade may deprive Tehran of one of its biggest sources of cash without immediately starving the military and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of the money they need to operate.

Oil directly accounts for roughly 30% of Iran's government budget, according to Gregory Brew, a senior Iran and energy analyst at Eurasia Group, and Miad Maleki, an Iran sanctions and financial expert at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

Iran entered the year expecting to export about 1.7 million barrels per day at roughly $54 per barrel, Brew said. Actual exports have fallen short of that target, though higher oil prices allowed Tehran to build some financial cushion.

Maleki estimated that oil and refined petroleum products account for between 50% and 60% of regime revenue when indirect income is included.

Still, the December deadline is not a date on which Iran suddenly runs out of money.

This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News' Morgan Phillips.

The Israeli military launched large-scale domestic military exercises on Sunday to counter surprise border infiltrations and ground raids across northern and central Israel, mobilizing multiple divisions and air assets amid rising regional tensions.

The drills, set to continue over 48 hours, came as an Israeli security expert invoked the 1973 Yom Kippur War, when Egypt and Syria used exercises to disguise preparations for a surprise attack, warning that escalating tensions in the region could in fact trigger what he described as a "dangerous miscalculation."

The large-scale maneuvers, the IDF said, involve the Northern Command’s 210th Division, the West Bank Division, and the Central Command’s 98th and 96th divisions, alongside the Israeli Air Force.

The exercise, scheduled just ahead of Israel's elections Oct. 27, aims to "maintain the forces’ alertness and readiness, strengthen the ability to defend communities, and make full use of aerial capabilities for defense in the area," according to the IDF.

On Friday, the IDF said troops would practice "a variety of scenarios, including a surprise attack and infiltration into Israeli territory by air and land," incorporating lessons learned from the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attacks on Israel.

"This exercise is mostly about non-state actors with or without Iranian support," Israeli national security analyst Dr. Ehud Eilam told Fox News Digital.

"It's aimed at those in Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan who might try to infiltrate into Israel or send ground raids. Some are supported by Iran; others are not. It could be planned by Iran or be a local initiative."

This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News' Emma Bussey.

Fox News senior strategic analyst Jack Keane joined "Sunday Morning Futures" to discuss reports that Iran could be rebuilding nuclear facilities.

Keane also weighed in on President Donald Trump's military options and the potential for further U.S. action.