I dislike Mark Levin immensely.  Long-time CTH readers know I have a very valid reason to dislike Mark Levin immensely. My approach was to essentially ignore “old yeller” as he shouts and rants about all the things he always shouts and rants about.  I dislike Mark Levin very much; beyond what most here would define as immense.

That said, I also accept that -for whatever reason he has- President Donald J Trump does not hold the same opinion of Mark Levin.  In fact, Donald Trump seems to like Mark Levin.  As a consequence, I retain my peace and ignore everything that circles around their time together.  However, this is also an ¹opportunity.

Mr Levin’s audience has been shrinking quite fast.  The downward spiral has been happening with greater speed and increasing slope for around 15 years.  The diminutive Mr Levin is now a visual representation of the Black Knight Monty Pyton skit. If the name was raised, I quietly just stared in southern.

♦ Within the great podcaster war of 2026, apparently Mrs. Megyn Kelly and Mr Mark Levin have been having a very public feud.  I don’t know the details but given the reality of the past 12 months it probably surrounds Mr Levin’s Israel-First approach toward everything political.  In the latest drama du jour, Mrs Kelly is said to have mentioned that Mr Levin has a small penis, a “micropenis.”

Mr Levin apparently picked up the phone and called his loyal friend, President Donald Trump. Likely looking for an ally of considerable consequence to boost his member-ship status.  After all, Levin’s circle of influence is rather, well, small and shrinking.

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Responding to questions about whether Japan would send military ships to the middle east to participate in escorts through the Strait of Hormuz, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi noted the current constitution blocks Japan from conducting overseas military operations.

Exactly as we outlined when President Trump first made the request via Truth Social {SEE HERE} Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi may want to support the request, but Japan’s post WWII constitution about military operations doesn’t permit it.

Japan’s military can be constitutionally defensive only.

While an argument might be made that escorting oil destined for eventual arrival in Japan may technically squeeze within a narrow interpretation of ‘defense’, considering the operation would take place far from Japan a highly conservative Sanae Takaichi is not going to try and thread that precarious needle.

TOKYO, March 16 (Reuters) – Japan has no plan to dispatch naval vessels to escort vessels in the Middle East, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said on Monday, after U.S. President Donald Trump called on allies to protect tankers traversing through the Strait of Hormuz.

“We have not made any decisions whatsoever about dispatching escort ships. We are continuing to examine what Japan can do independently and what can be done within the legal framework,” Takaichi told parliament.

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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:

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The full event video is below.

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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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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:

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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!”

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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.

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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.

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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}

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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:

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