Transcript of Top NATO Commander Sounds Alarm on Trump's Iran Strategy

A top US military general is going public with a dire warning. The United States has run out of military equipment if Donald Trump intends to escalate the catastrophic war in Iran. A general who I've been praising now for the better part of the year, even before the United States invaded Venezuela. He's the one who came out with this publicly. His name is General Alexis Grinkovich. His callsign is Grinch. He's currently the Allied Commander for the United States with NATO. He's a beloved general, and based on him going public, I worry that he will probably be forced out or fired like many of the other top generals and admirals that the Trump regime has pushed out, as Hegseth and Trump have pushed out. But General Alexis Grinkovich Grinkovich, he went public in the past 24 hours, the top US commander in Europe with NATO. He warned that the Pentagon no longer has enough Navy destroyers to be involved in any escalation of this catastrophic war in Iran. The way Grinkovich framed it, knowing that Donald Trump is a Netanyahu bootlicker, is Grinkovich is like, I know Israel's the one dragging us into this escalation again, like Netanyahu dragged us into this catastrophic war with Iran.

But let's be clear, Trump and Hegseth and the US regime of war criminals was complicit with the Netanyahu regime of war criminals. But what Grykowicz is saying is, all right, well then you're not going to be able to protect Israel. We're not going to be able— if that's what matters to you, Donald, apparently that's the big deal for you, not the American people, not the Middle East allies, not anybody else, you war criminal. Well, we're not going to be able to protect Israel. So don't be surprised when Iran is able to pierce through the iron, the so-called Iron Dome in Israel. Iran has already been able to destroy, Grinkowicz explains, and we've been talking about this, the Arab Dome, the dome you promised to protect the Arab nations. Iran is striking all the US bases there, and you're about to expose that the Iron Dome doesn't really, isn't able to protect Israel right now, Grinkowicz is basically saying. So these Navy destroyers, which have intercepted missiles targeting Israel and other locations as well, are stretched by operations in the Mediterranean, the Red Sea, and around Iran, while maintenance issues have further reduced availability. I want you to think about that too.

Maintenance issues. We've seen that with the aircraft carrier groups as well, because Hegseth doesn't know what the hell he's doing. The most basic stuff— keep your equipment operational, keep your ships operational, deal with things like the nuts and bolts. I know that's boring for Donald Trump and Hegseth, things like the plumbing, the laundry, food on the ship, stuff like that Hegseth doesn't care about and doesn't think about. And so you have maintenance issues, you have supply chain issues, you have Iran realizes this. That's one of the reasons the Houthis opened up the Red Sea, um, and shut down the Red Sea to Saudi Arabia's tankers. Saudi Arabia now has to take a longer route around Africa. MBS sent his brother this past week while Netanyahu was in the U.S. His brother's the defense minister, Khalid bin Salman, to meet with Donald Trump and J.D. Vance. MBS called Donald Trump yesterday, and you had the warning from General Grykowicz in Europe saying We don't have the ability anymore with Navy destroyers, uh, to help you if you escalate this catastrophic war. We're giving you this warning. So it wasn't surprising that late last night around 11:00 PM Donald Trump posted, despite the fact that we have the capabilities and levels of military terror strength like we've never had before since World War II, we have military terror ready to go, but the perimeter of a deal with with Iran is now being discussed.

Trump says the perimeter, so we're not going to strike Iran. Look, it's not just an issue of the Navy destroyers. And by the way, the Navy destroyers carry SM-3 and SM-6 anti-ballistic missile interceptors. We also know that the United States has run out of its stockpile of the THAAD interceptors. Like, each one of them costs about $12.5 million each. The PAC-3 Patriot interceptors, we've run out of. And in order to replenish the THAAD and the PAC-3s and these SM-3s and SM-6s takes years. I mean, maybe some PAC-3s will be ready to go in 2029 based on what we depleted, but these THAADs can potentially be pushed to 2030, maybe even later, for when they will be ready. I mean, it is a real, uh, dire situation, uh, indeed. And so I want to share with you, I want to share with you if I can, just to remind you what Grinkovich said back in January of 2026. This is when I began highlighting General Grinkovich. And one of the things he was talking about then is he's like, pay attention, because while Donald Trump is out there attacking Greenland and attacking, you know, all of these countries that, you know, that Trump is attacking our allies, Grinkovich is I just want you to be aware.

You've got Iran. He was in a Switzerland, he was in Sweden rather when he was giving this speech and talking about what a model ally Sweden is. And he was trying to, you know, be nice to like other NATO allies, Grinkewitsch was, but he was like, look, Iran, China, North Korea goes, they're working together. They're building up their munitions while Trump is out there basically attacking allies. That's what Grinkewitsch was basically saying here.

Play this clip.

China continues to fund Putin's war machine. Iran continues to supply technology and weapons. And North Korean combat troops remain in Russia on Ukraine's border. And of course, there's a confluence between Russia, Iran, and Venezuela and their dark fleet of oil tankers that is helping to fund the war. In the Arctic, in the High North, we see a similar trend. Russian and Chinese vessels are conducting more and more joint patrols. Chinese icebreakers and research vessels are in Arctic waters, and their research is not for peaceful purposes. It's to gain a military advantage. Russia, meanwhile, continues testing advanced capabilities in the Barents Sea. As new shipping routes emerge and new resources are discovered, the Arctic only grows in strategic importance. And all of this comes in the midst of an increasing hybrid threat: airspace violations, GPS and GNSS interference, and the shadow fleet in the Baltic Sea threatening underwater infrastructure. In short, the Arctic and Northern Europe by extension has become a front line for strategic competition.

And then in that same, uh, event, again back in January of 2026, Grinkewitsch, who just issued this warning, was talking about trying to do his best to make sure that the U.S. had a readiness posture. And so the fact that he's now saying July 31st, August 1st, August 2nd, that the US no longer has an ability to project a readiness posture when he said this was his main focus as the Allied Commander Europe of NATO back in January. It shows you how disastrous this all is. Here, play this clip.

Well, um, I, I won't comment on the political dimensions of recent rhetoric. It's not my place to do that as a military officer, but I will I just observed the readout from the North Atlantic Council, where all of our permanent representatives from the 32 nations get together to discuss thorny issues. Those dialogues continue in Brussels. They've been healthy dialogues from what I've heard. And I think that's the most important thing. Members of the Alliance who've worked together for so many years are talking together and working through these thorny issues.

You had this role for about 6 months now. Has your priorities in any way changed?

Is it only 6 months?

Oh, I'm sorry you feel that way.

No, no, it's actually been truly a fantastic 6 months. One of the best jobs that exists on the planet, in my view, and I've truly enjoyed it. My priorities have been pretty consistent. I've got several of them. One of us, of course, I'm focused on taking care of our people, your people that you contribute to the Alliance and to our missions. They are the bread and butter of what we do every single day. Every single day. And Michael Claussen and I actually got an opportunity to go see some of the Swedish troops yesterday, Swedish Marines who, I mean, some of the most impressive young women and men that I've seen in uniform throughout my 30, almost 33 years of service. So you all ought to be incredibly proud of what those young people are doing for your country and for the Alliance. So we need to take care of them. We need to focus on them, get them the equipment and the capabilities that they need. My second focus is warfighting readiness. And, you know, the Alliance is ready to fight tonight., but we need to continue to hone our readiness and be more and more ready every single day.

That's headquarters readiness, making sure we have the processes and capabilities in place to do the things we need to do. It's also individual unit-level readiness. Uh, Michael's focused on that here in Sweden. All of the chiefs of defense are, uh, and I am, uh, as well. And it's by being ready that we continue to maintain that deterrence effect.

And again, just to remind you of Grinkowicz as well, Back on March 12th, Grinkovich admitted right away to the war crimes the United States committed in Manab when Trump and Hegseth and the band of war criminals slaughtered the little girls at the Manab Elementary School. Grinkovich took accountability right away. It's why when he's out there going public and saying, we don't have Navy destroyers right now, adding on top of the fact that we don't have THAAD interceptors, and PAC-3 interceptors and, and, and, and going on to say that the issues also have to deal with maintenance issues and were stretched by operations in the Red Sea, the Mediterranean Sea, in addition to Iran. He's saying how dire it is. Listen to what he said about the Manab war crimes here. Play this clip.

Over the course of my career, I've, as a fighter pilot, I've always done everything I can to avoid civilian harm and civilian casualties. And I would tell you, I'm absolutely committed to that. I know the department is committed to that, and that when tragedies like this happen, it causes us all to reflect and try to improve our processes. I've been involved in the targeting process, both at the tactical and the operational levels throughout my career. And I would tell you, we do have a number of safeguards in the system. You know, every single time that at the tactical level I was going to release a weapon on a target, target. I was personally making an assessment as to whether there was any chance of civilian harm. And if there was, was that proportional to the military necessity of striking the target? At the operational level, both from my time in U.S. Central Command previously and then now at U.S. European Command, I can assure you that we have robust standards that we go through and look to see and update the imagery and update our understanding of the target and refresh the intelligence on a recurring basis.

To determine the chances of civilian harm and to address any collateral concerns that might be there. So you just, just know I'm absolutely committed to trying to mitigate that risk.

I appreciate your testimony. I'm highly concerned, however, that Secretary Hagel does not agree with you. Secretary Hagel has criticized rules of engagement designed to adhere to the laws of armed conflict and support civilian harm mitigation. Secretary Hegseth has also cut the Civilian Protection Center of Excellence by about 90%.

Now, at the same time he's giving these warnings, the Pentagon also is further attacking Ukraine and attacking the US leadership in NATO to help Ukraine. As you know, Donald Trump did the ultimate rug pull to Zelensky, promising Zelensky Patriot interceptor licenses and Patriot interceptors, but definitely licenses back during the NATO summit in Turkey. And then this past 48 hours, Trump's like, nah, I'm not gonna give it to you anymore. So Trump tapped Zelensky along for a full month, let Putin build up his ballistics. Zelensky was promised these interceptors or the licenses. He needed them heading into the winter. And now Donald Trump's like, gotcha. Screwed you over. I believe that was all part of— I'm giving you my opinion— with Trump's plans with Putin. But the Pentagon is now handing leadership of NATO's Ukraine military aid coordination group to a European ally. They're going to move it away from Grinkovich as well, marking another step in the Trump administration's effort to reduce the US military role in Europe. This also comes at the same time that the Wall Street Journal reports China is rapidly closing the satellite gap with the US, expanding its surveillance, navigation, and military space capabilities.

Its growing satellite network improves intelligence gathering, precision targeting, and tracking of U.S. forces, while advances in GPS alternatives, AI analysis, and anti-satellite weapons are raising concerns that Beijing could increasingly challenge U.S. military dominance in space. And you've got people like Grinkovich warning about all of this. Meanwhile, you even have state regime media saying the Pentagon is confronting a growing reality. This is from Fox. This is Fox. The Pentagon is confronting a growing reality after months of fighting in Iran. America's stockpile of missile defense interceptors is shrinking so much that military planners are weighing whether they can continue the current cycle of limited retaliatory strikes. Iran strategy appears to be targeting US bases, forcing the US to deplete its advanced missile defense interceptors, such as Patriot and THAAD systems, and compelling the Pentagon to accept greater risk in defending US troops as the conflict drags on. Iran appears to believe this is its best hope about lasting the US military. So Iran over the past several days, while Donald Trump's like, I'm going to blow the effing ass out of them, Iran's like, do it, blow the effing ass out of us, deplete more of your interceptors.

And Iran will shoot very— it will shoot at various US bases, often the Mufakki, the Mufakki Salty base in Jordan, but also the bases in Kuwait, areas in Kuwait as well, make the US launch a few of its interceptors. The US basically has depleted, um, its interceptors, exposed that the US Arab Dome has been eliminated. And now Iran knows that the Navy destroyer capabilities are gone as well. I, I, and by the way, we've been saying this for a long time and now Fox is finally reporting it. But let's remember, what did Hegseth say March 5th, 2026? And you know, when Hegseth says something, he's lying. How do you know he's lying? He opens up his mouth. Here's what Hegseth said March 5th, 2026. Let's play it.

We've got no shortage of munitions. Our stockpiles of defensive and offensive weapons allow us to sustain this campaign as long as we need to. Again, our munition status only increases as our advantage increases.

But then February 5th, 2025, Hegseth was bragging how he was giving these interceptor capabilities to Israel while sitting across from Netanyahu. Let's play it.

We've supplied munitions that were previously not supplied that are useful in eradicating radical enemies, and we are committed to continuing to do so.

So—

March 4th, 2026, you had General Dan Cain, the 3-star general who's now the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, who was not qualified to become the chairman of the Joint Chiefs because he was not a 4-star with the requisite combat experience. But because Hegseth is a racist and Trump is a racist, they fired C.Q. Brown Jr., the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, who, by the way, Trump elevated to, uh, a top position back in Trump's first administration. Biden elevated him to the position of chairman of the Joint Chiefs. He was a qualified 4-star, and then they fired him, pushed him out to have the unqualified Dan Caine because he had a nickname, Raisin, and he's white, and they had to give him a waiver because he wasn't qualified. Let's play this clip.

The throttle is coming up, as the secretary said, as opposed to ramping down. This will allow us to maintain consistent pressure on the adversary over the coming days, disrupt their launch timelines, and impose cost every day around the clock. I know there have been a lot of questions about munitions. We have sufficient precision munitions for the task at hand, both on the offense and defense. But I want to tell you, teammates, as a matter of practice, I don't want to be talking about quantities. And I know there's been a great debate about that, and I appreciate the interest, but just know that we consider that an operational security matter.

And to remind you as well, when Senator Mark Kelly questioned Hegseth back on April 30th, 2026, this was April of 2026. Okay, now we're post-MOU. Uh, we've had the re-escalation of the catastrophic war. And so as bad and dire as things were when Mark Kelly, Senator Kelly was questioning Hegseth Imagine this scenario times 10 times worse where we are right now, and we've literally run out of weapons. And you have a top general saying we've run out of weapons. Let's play this clip.

Okay, how many years to replenish? That's the question. I think that's exactly the right question too, Senator, because the time frame we were existing under was unacceptable. Okay, well, tell me what this budget does. I mean, months and years. Fast years. We're building new plants in real time, though, just to replace what we have extended. I said months and then you said years. But it depends on the weapon system, but 2 to 3, 4x of what we have today. So yes, we're dealing with the reality under the previous administration of what they sent to Ukraine and what they allocated elsewhere.

I got it.

So we fired rapidly, years worth of munitions, and it is clear that we're— these are being expended to try to achieve some objectives. That was the plan. But Mr. Secretary, this war is stuck.

And so again, as a result of the US running out of these interceptors, Iran's been able to strike these US bases in the region with impunity. They're able to hit it hard. And we've been following with the surveillance for the satellite footage all of the areas that they've been able to hit. You had again MBS and MBS's brother calling Trump, you're out of missiles. What are you doing? You've exposed all of our nations. There's no Arab Dome. All of the security interceptors and all of the security benefits you promised us for our quid pro quos have been thrown out the window. You look like a loser. And now Iran has its ballistic missiles and Shahids. They're going to strike our energy infrastructure if you start to bomb their energy infrastructure and you can't protect us anymore, Donald. You're utterly pathetic. By the way, China's moving in now and going to offer a security umbrella to the Middle East in the absence of the United States. Um, and, um, then Donald Trump announced, I've agreed for the future benefit of the world and likewise the survival of a successful and prosperous Iran that we're going to do— we've come up with the perimeters of a deal.

He goes, did you mean the parameters? The perimeter of a deal, he says. So I'm not going to bomb Iran and blow the effing ass out of them as he's previously threatened. Serious developments, folks. We'll keep you posted every step of the way. Let me know what you think. Hit subscribe. Let's get to 7 million subscribers. Thanks for watching. Hey, if you want the full story, how democracy got here and how we take it back, preorder our new book, WTF America, today. Just scan the QR code or click the link in the description.

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