Transcription
When Trump's Energy Secretary Chris Wright tweeted out that the U.S. Navy was escorting ships through the Strait of Hormuz, when in fact we weren't, did he think they were? Did somebody tell him that we were? Did he have a good reason to believe it?
When he did that, that wasn't even the start of how well the Trump administration is handling this teensy little problem Trump reportedly thought would be no big deal when he decided to launch an unprovoked war on Iran. Trump reportedly told his advisors that he did not believe Iran would close the Strait of Hormuz if he attacked Iran; of course, Iran did.
Then Trump's defense secretary said the Strait of Hormuz was open for transit. Except for the small matter of the Iranians attacking ships that tried to pass through it. Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln.
Then Trump told Fox News that ship captains should, quote, "show some guts and just sail through the strait because they had nothing to fear because Iran was defeated and wouldn't attack any more ships in the Strait of Hormuz." And then Iran attacked more ships in the Strait of Hormuz.
And then Trump said that the U.S. Navy would be happy soon, very soon, to start escorting ships through the Strait of Hormuz. And then the Navy was like, "No, my lord. No, we cannot do that." The memorable phrase there was that it would be a, quote, "kill box for the United States Navy if they even tried to do that."
Then, in advance of a presidential press conference today, Trump administration sources apparently told reporters that very soon, very soon the U.S. government would be announcing a coalition of allies who would be working together to escort ships through the Strait of Hormuz. We were about to announce who our allies were going to be in this joint collective effort. And everybody printed it like that meant it was going to happen.
When will you learn? Watch what they do, not what they say.
Because then the president held that presidential press conference and he announced, quote, "We don't need anybody to help us in the Strait of Hormuz. We don't need anybody. We can do it ourselves." Then he said that he'd be announcing very soon who, nevertheless, was going to be helping us in the Strait of Hormuz. Then he berated and insulted our allies for not doing anything to help us in the Strait of Hormuz, and then reporters all over the world started checking with their own governments. And indeed, whatever he thought he was announcing about other countries coming to help us in the Strait of Hormuz, nobody is coming to help. And in fact, he can't do it alone.
And so what do we got? I mean, maybe we'll get a ballroom? Russia's doing really well out of all this, as the skyrocketing price of oil fills up the Kremlin's coffers and makes them solvent again after all these years of dictatorship and corruption and foregoing on five years of their disastrous war in Ukraine. Russia now is not just getting rich off of Trump's war in Iran. Russia is outright helping Iran kill U.S. troops and target U.S. facilities in the Middle East. Trump's U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Mike Waltz, says Russia has a wartime, quote, "strategic partnership with Iran." Iranian officials have publicly confirmed that they have Russia's, quote, "military cooperation."
We reported last week here on this show that Trump had responded to that by really making Russia pay. Oh, I'm sorry? No, by relaxing U.S. sanctions on Russia. Since then, he's done so again. He has further relieved Russia of the burden of U.S. sanctions while Russia is helping kill American troops.
But it doesn't stop there. David Corn at Mother Jones magazine reports that Trump's DOJ has also very quietly just chosen this auspicious time, while we're at war with Iran. They've just chosen now to ask the courts to withdraw a guilty plea and reverse a prison sentence that was given to a guy who the FBI said is linked to Russian intelligence. The guy has been in jail because he pled guilty to lying to the FBI, specifically to bringing the FBI fake stories about President Biden supposedly taking bribes. The FBI concluded not only that those stories were false but that this guy deliberately lied in bringing that stuff to the FBI and that he was linked to Russian intelligence at the time he was doing this. Now Trump's Justice Department is trying to get the guy sprung and get his guilty plea reversed. The court filing in this guy's case has been signed by Todd Blanche, Trump's hand-picked number two official at the Justice Department, trying to help Russia. And reportedly, Russia is using Russian intelligence to help Iran kill American troops and target American facilities in the Middle East.
Maybe? Maybe our president just can't stop himself from acting to help Russia, even when Russia is acting to kill Americans. Maybe he just can't stop himself. It just feels so good, he can't stop.
But doesn't it seem like in the middle of this war, he should be able to stop himself from at least helping Iran, from helping the Iranian regime, which he has just declared war on? Because also, quietly, amid this inexplicable war on Iran, Trump's Justice Department has also just moved to drop the largest Iranian sanctions case ever in history. This is a case involving a bank, a bank called Hawk Bank. They're being prosecuted for, again, the largest ever known violation of sanctions on the Iranian regime, for illegally sending tens of billions of dollars to Iran. That's what that prosecution is about. And in the middle of Trump waging war on Iran, bombing Iran supposedly because he's so opposed to the Iranian regime, Trump now simultaneously has had his Justice Department drop that case, the largest Iranian sanctions case ever. Because now suddenly he wants to let all that slide. It's almost like he's not really doing things for the reason he says he's doing them, right?
So the Saudis paid $2 billion to Trump's son-in-law, Jared. And now Jared is the U.S. government's point person in the Middle East. The New York Times now reports that while Jared is serving as the U.S. government's point person in the Middle East, Jared is simultaneously asking the Saudis for yet more billions of dollars for his private business. More than $2 billion they've already given him, now he wants more. You know what? Why would they say no? For the low, low price of what they've already given him, the Saudis have apparently discovered that it's the price of renting out something called the Armed Forces of the United States of America to attack their rival nation, Iran. For a war that makes a lot of sense for the leaders of Saudi Arabia and Israel, but makes no sense at all for the United States.
Keep it up. Keep it up. More of this war, right? We paid for it. We're going to get what we paid for. I got to say, I don't know why this isn't more of a showstopping scandal in our country, right? Is it that hard to see what this is? I mean, here's this guy actively asking X country for money. They've already given him billions of dollars. He's asking for billions more dollars for his personal business, his private business. He's asking X country for money. At the same time, he's asking them for money. He is also making U.S. government policy toward that country. That's it, right? Those are all the dots you have to connect. I mean, this is not like string theory, right? The result━I mean, if this guy's asking this country for money for himself while also making U.S. government policy toward that country, the resultant policy is likely to be whatever that country wants it to be. Because if it isn't, then Jared will be less likely to get the money that he is asking them for. Right? The interests of the United States are being exchanged for private income for the president's son-in-law. Is this hard to see? Is this hard to grasp? While we're all wondering why it is really that we're fighting this war they can't explain?
I mean, for his part, the president's son-in-law says he's following the law and following ethics rules. But how would we know? They also aren't even making him file financial disclosures.
And Russia helps kill American service members and gets paid for it by the Trump administration. And don't worry, BP will get new oil for us from the molten center of the earth. Because look, they built something with duct tape. They say we'll work to drill it all up and the tropical walruses will junk shot the thing for us if anything goes wrong. So we'll all be fine.
Meanwhile, this is the most unpopular war in modern American history. The president is trying to manage that by today, threatening to execute, threatening to kill reporters who don't report on the war the way he wants them to. That'll fix it. That'll fix it. Maybe he'll take a page from Putin and tell us we're no longer allowed to call it a war. We all have to start calling it an excursion like he does, or we'll all go to jail, or he'll kill us all. Sure, that'll do it.
The war is unlikely to get more popular in days ahead, as Trump's repeated declarations of victory have not proven to be enough to protect U.S. forces and facilities that have come under fire from Iran and their proxies. A U.S. facility in Bahrain, the U.S. facility in Kuwait, the U.S. embassy in Iraq, the U.S. facilities in Saudi Arabia. Weren't even capable of keeping our ally Kuwait from accidentally shooting down not one, not two, but three of our F-15 fighter jets on the first full day of the war. How was Kuwait able to shoot down three F-15s? Now we're sending in a Marine expeditionary force as the president refuses to rule out boots on the ground, refuses to rule out ground troops.