Moments ago, President Donald Trump took questions from the assembled press pool during a lunch with the Trump-Kennedy Center board members.
The full video is below the fold. However, the shorter segment of media questions and answers is highlighted in this video. President Trump was asked about countries willing to support the military escort request through the Strait of Hormuz. President Trump noted an announcement of supporting countries will be forthcoming.
President Trump also noted the biggest beneficiary of the oil from Iran is China, and he would expect those nations who are dependent on the stability of that oil flow to rise in support of the escorts. WATCH:
President Trump gives a rather lengthy impromptu press availability aboard Airforce One flying to Joint Base Andrews.
Within the comments and questions, President Trump notes the countries who are dependent on oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz are requested to provide escort for their shipments. The United States receives no oil from the region, less than one percent of total production; however, nations like China are highly dependent.
The basic request is for countries who are dependent on the oil to support safe transit of their oil. The USA is securing the region, continuing to take apart the ability of the Iranian regime to launch offensive military activity, but for the specifics of the Strait of Hormuz President Trump would prefer allied support due to their specific benefit.
President Trump also addressed the issue of Iranian false information, and the White House frustration that many U.S. media outlets are promoting phony stories knowing the information is false. President Trump was asked questions about the absence of the Iranian people protesting the regime despite their support to change government. President Trump noted the dangers and risks to the Iranian people that still exist on the ground if they attempt to protest in the streets.
When questioned about the political fallout from the Iran campaign, President Trump notes, “I have to do what’s right … the threat must be eliminated.” President Trump is committed to finally ending the decades long issue represented by the Iranian regime. “These people would have used nuclear missiles” if they had them. WATCH:
World War Reddit works both ways. In Ukraine the manipulation was to give the illusion of success for Zelenskyy. In Iran the manipulation is to give the illusion of failure for Trump.
The bottom line in both scenarios is the illusion being disconnected from reality.
[Truth Social] – “Iran has long been known as a Master of Media Manipulation and Public Relations. They are Militarily ineffective and weak, but are really good at “feeding” the very appreciative Fake News Media false information. Now, A.I. has become another Disinformation weapon that Iran uses, quite well, considering they are being annihilated by the day.
They showed phony “Kamikaze Boats,” shooting at various Ships at Sea, which looks wonderful, powerful, and vicious, but these Boats don’t exist — It’s all false information to show how “tough” their already defeated Military is!
The five U.S. Refueling Planes that were supposedly struck down and badly damaged, according to The Wall Street Journal’s false reporting, and others, are all in service, with the exception of one, which will soon be flying the skies. Buildings and Ships that are shown to be on fire are not — It’s FAKE NEWS, generated by A.I.
For instance, Iran, working in close coordination with the Fake News Media, shows our great USS Abraham Lincoln Aircraft Carrier, one of the largest and most prestigious Ships in the World, burning uncontrollably in the Ocean. Not only was it not burning, but it was also not even shot at — Iran knows better than to do that! The story was knowingly FAKE and, in a certain way, you can say that those Media Outlets that generated it should be brought up on Charges for TREASON for the dissemination of false information!”
Perhaps the Ellison effect is actualizing inside CNN, but the insufferable furrowed brows of Jake Tapper were unusually non-combative today as he interviewed U.N Ambassador Mike Waltz while discussing Iran. [Video and Transcript Below]
[Transcript] – Joining us now to discuss, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Mike Waltz, a former Green Beret who served in Afghanistan and the Middle East.
Ambassador Waltz, thank you so much for joining us.
The president just said that the U.S. has beaten and completely decimated Iran, both militarily, economically, and in every other way. Help us understand what that means, that Iran has been beaten. Does that mean that U.S. service members will soon be coming home?
MIKE WALTZ, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED NATIONS: Well, Jake, let’s just unpack that for a moment.
Militarily, the U.S. military has decimated Iran’s air force, their air defenses, their missile capability, their missile production capability. This has been a dominant victory, the likes of which we haven’t seen in modern American military history, economically, the maximum pressure campaign that President Trump put in place his first term and reinstituted the second — as the second major item, executive order that he signed this term.
Their currency is tanking. Their foreign reserves are completely depleted. And that’s why you saw the most recent uprising. You saw the uprising based on economic terms. And then, diplomatically, we just saw this week at the U.N. Security Council 135 nations — Jake, it was a U.N. record — 135 nations side with the Gulf Arab countries and condemn the GCC — excuse me — with the Gulf Arab countries, the GCC countries, and condemn Iran for its atrocious attacks on civilian infrastructure, ports, airports, hotels, resorts. And, as I pointed out at the Security Council, I don’t see how the regime argues that those are military targets. They are clearly not, and they are clearly deliberately targeting civilian infrastructure.
And I have got to tell you, this shoot-in-all-directions strategy that Iran has taken on is backfiring. They have never been more diplomatically isolated. Just one more point. Russia and Iran had an opportunity to veto that measure, and they stood back and did not. They abstained.
So, with friends like those, I think Iran is going to stay incredibly isolated.
In the midst of the two pontificating princesses of Parliament verbally slapping each other with cashmere sweaters, Prime Minister Mark Carney made a rather remarkable statement.
According to the Canadian Prime Minister, he has blocked ten thousand IRGC members from entering Canada {at 1:00 minute of video below}. Now, why would 10,000 Iranian Revolutionary Guards think it was a solid option to exit the conflict for safety in Canada?WATCH:
The Panicans will be greatly disappointed by the foresight and economic planning a proactive White House deployed before the confrontation with Iran began. [Video and Transcript Below]
White House National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett, leaves CBS’s Margaret Brennan stuttering to respond to the insight presented. As noted in the interview, proactively the Trump administration planned to mitigate any oil disruption for the U.S, undertaking a series of moves before Operation Epic Fury began.
Iran thinks “that they’re going to harm the U.S. economy and get President Trump to back down,” Hassett says. “There couldn’t be anything that was a stupider thing to say because the bottom line is that our economy has got all this momentum in the world and we’ve got lots and lots of oil,” he continued.
Then highlighting how the strength of the U.S. position actually ends up with leverage in trade negotiations, Hassett notes, “we have lots of trading partners that are more on the hook from imported oil from these guys.” Which draws attention to President Trump’s statement yesterday saying, in essence, ‘come guard your oil shipments while we kill bad guys’. WATCH:
[Transcript] – MARGARET BRENNAN: We go now to President Trump’s top economic adviser, Kevin Hassett. Good morning to you.
KEVIN HASSETT, DIRECTOR NATIONAL ECONOMIC COUNCIL: Good morning.
MARGARET BRENNAN: The IDF spokesperson said this morning that Israel’s combat operations will go through the beginning of April. Is that also the U.S. timeline? And if so, how much will this conflict cost the economy if it goes on another three and a half weeks?
HASSETT: Right. Well, one of the things that we’ve been briefed on almost every day is what’s going on and what the president is being briefed on with regard to the Iran war. And as of yesterday this story was- the message was that people, the defense- Department of War believed that it would take four to six weeks to complete this mission and that we’re ahead of schedule. So we are a couple of weeks in and I think that should give you some clarity about when we expect that the president will decide that we’ve achieved his objectives. The other thing I can say is that you can also look at futures markets, which are interesting because you’ve cited over and over the spot price of gasoline, which, of course, is affected right now by the disruption of the strait, but if you look at the futures prices, they are expecting a rapid, rapid end to the situation and much, much lower prices. In fact, I don’t think I’ve seen a sort of future price path with such a steep decline in all my years watching futures.
Some additional contexts not included in the British-centric financial review below.
(1) Japanese Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae will be at the White House next week. This meeting was scheduled several weeks before Operation Epic Fury began. The timeline continues to indicate that President Trump’s primary geopolitical focus is on China, not necessarily the U.K-EU angle, although that is a materially significant overlay.
(2) “A major U.S. weapons package for Taiwan worth about 14 billion dollars is awaiting approval from Donald Trump and could be announced after his planned visit to China later this month, according to sources familiar with the discussions. The proposed deal would be the largest U.S. arms sale ever to Taiwan and comes as military tensions between China and the self-ruled island continue to rise.” {SOURCE}
Tucker Carlson has announced the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has been monitoring his contacts with people within Iran and is potentially referring the issue to Dept of Justice (DOJ) officials for criminal review.
According to his previous self-admissions, Carlson was strongly against the Trump administration taking military action toward Iran and had travelled to the White House to express that opinion to President Trump. If the CIA was monitoring his contact with officials within Iran, this should NOT come as a surprise.
Given the nature of the conflict both before (during negotiations) and after the military hostilities began (operation epic fury), it would be negligent if the Intelligence Community was not monitoring that communication. Obviously, Tucker should know that; it’s a simple DUH issue.
You don’t get private time with President Trump about an issue of national security without the IC monitoring your behavior with foreign contacts. That said, the part about a potential criminal referral would depend on the nature of the communication itself.
As an example: a quid-pro-quo toward an interview with a high-level Iranian official in exchange for specific dialogue pushed through a widely followed social media platform could present legal issues (FARA etc.). Given the specific part of the video where Mr. Carlson strongly emphasizes he was never paid; it seems to me the Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA) is source of the issue.
Here’s the risk. According to the DOJ regulations, a person does not need to get paid by the foreign entity in order to violate FARA. However, on the other side of the issue, journalists -news or press services engaged in bona fide news or journalistic activities- are exempt from having to register under FARA guidelines. Tucker Carlson knows what his contacts were about, states his innocence and claims he is being targeted. WATCH:
President Trump’s latest two messages via Truth Social present an interesting geopolitical approach with multiple enmeshed aspects.
First, some background context is needed. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and USTR Jamieson Greer are in Paris to meet with Chinese government officials ahead of a scheduled meeting between Chairman Xi Jinping and President Trump.
The main objective of the pre-summit assembly before President Trump goes to Beijing, is to hammer out the actionable agreement details that can be signed off by Xi and Trump. Bessent and Greer are looking to put a deal together with their Chinese counterparts so that Trump and Xi can announce mutually beneficial outcomes during their summit.
Second, President Trump has already indicated the March 31/April 1 meeting with Xi will be all business. The traditional pomp and splendor will not be present, and Trump will only be visiting Beijing – no sidelines.
Third, Secretary Rubio will be accompanying Trump on this trip to Beijing, which might seem ordinary were it not for the fact that in 2020 China sanctioned and banned Rubio from entering China for criticizing Xinjiang and Hong Kong.
Fourth, there are rumors that President Trump is going to announce a significant weapons deal with Taiwan at some point immediately following the trip. If those rumors are true, it would be a top priority for the Chinese advance team in Paris to stop that from happening.
Regardless of what happens in the next few weeks, President Trump will be meeting with Chairman Xi with full Eagle eye confrontation toward the returning dragon stare. There will be no panda mask on this trip whatsoever; this face to face is an apex predator showdown, while the world watches intently.
While the original focus was on questions about the Iran war, at the tail end of an impromptu presser yesterday, President Trump was asked about Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and the status of U.S. national security.
President Trump said he was very disappointed that President Sheinbaum refused his offer of assistance in eliminating the cartels in Mexico. Ultimately culminating in the statement, “the cartels are running Mexico.”
Considering everything President Trump is doing to secure the Western Hemisphere objective, it must be very frustrating to eliminate various narcotraffickers, human smugglers and transnational agents of chaos, and yet still have one of the closest geographic nations unwilling to address the biggest criminal elements near our borders.
The bilateral USMCA discussions between the U.S. and Mexico are ongoing, I think we can expect this element of friction and ultimately leverage to be present in the overall outcome.
Personally, I think if the government of Cuba flips, there will be exceptional pressure on Mexico to finally address the issue.
