CENTCOM Commander Admiral Brad Cooper provides an update on the latest military engagements during Operation Epic Fury. Commander Cooper highlights video footage and captured images of Iranian war infrastructure to show the before and after results of U.S. strikes. WATCH:
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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.
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.
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.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force Gen. Dan Caine, hold a press briefing at the Pentagon to update on Operation Epic Fury.
Secretary Hegseth notes the Iranian war machine is destroyed. All of the operations, companies and technical systems needed to manufacture weapons and war material have been destroyed. The Mullahs in Iran are no longer in control of the governing system. The IRGC is being degraded daily.
Hegseth’s cadence and dramatic focus can be a little weird at times. Thus, the video is prompted to the statements and explanations by General Dan Caine. General Caine begins with a discussion of the KC-135 refueling aircraft. WATCH:
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CENTCOM has confirmed the loss of a KC-135 refueling aircraft, Stratotanker, that went down in western Iraq.
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Heavenly Father, fill our hearts with thankfulness and appreciation for their sacrifice. Give us the wisdom through Your grace, to find direct words of prayer for comfort and strength. Help us to honor their service and retain our focus of abiding gratitude for their unwavering resolve as they fulfill their mission. ~Amen
Tanker ships in the Gulf region continue to be targeted by various Iranian munitions including air and sea drones. Three tanker ships were hit today. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright appears on Fox News to discuss the issues with Iran and the decision to release oil from the SPR. WATCH:
WASHINGTON—U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright released the following statement regarding the International Energy Agency (IEA) and the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR):
“Earlier today, 32 member nations of the International Energy Agency unanimously agreed to President Trump’s request to lower energy prices with a coordinated release of 400 million barrels of oil and refined products from their respective reserves.
Despite the Trump administration pushing maximum transparency, there is a lot of noise and wrong information surrounding the U.S. military operation ‘Epic Fury’ against Iran. Much of the false or incorrect information is coming from consultants to sell their opinions to corporate media.
Whenever the fog of war surrounds military activity that takes place against national security information, it is best practice to listen to the leadership who control and command the actual activity being reported on. CENTCOM Commander Bradley Cooper provides updates on strategic missions. The information is shared via CENTCOM’s X Account. WATCH:
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Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Dan Caine hold a press briefing from the Pentagon with updates on Operation Epic Fury. “The First Ten Days” recapped.
General Dan Caine noted CENTCOM Commander Brad Cooper will continue delivering intermediate updates. Caine also outlined how targeting of the Iranian missile systems continues as a priority along with the systematic destruction of the Iranian navy assets. Both aspects of the operation continue having maximum success and impact.
General Caine also noted how the third objective of dismantling Iran’s infrastructure systems to mechanize war are intensifying. “We are moving deeper into Iran’s industrial base,” General Caine noted. Missile attack launches from inside Iran have dropped 90%, and one-way drone launches have dropped more than 80%. 50 Iranian vessels have been destroyed by U.S. targeting.
As Iran’s treat capacity to target vessels continues to be degraded, the Strait of Hormuz begins to open.
US West Texas Intermediate Crude Oil Futures with April 2026 Expiry, traded at $89.89 per barrel, down by 5.2%. This oil benchmark touched an intraday low of 84.45 and recorded an overall decline of 29.3% from $119.43 per barrel level that was touched on March 9th. Yesterday, US WTI plunged nearly 18%.
Brent Crude Oil Price: Brent crude has nosedived by nearly 26.2% and touched an intraday low of $88.10 per barrel. This is compared to $119.50 per barrel mark it hit on March 9. Yesterday, the price dropped nearly 9%. {SOURCE}