America&#8217;s allies are finally ready to step up to the plate after years of dithering on the Iranian threat.
Those allies are ready with all their combined strength: Germany, France, UK, Italy, the Netherlands, Canada, and Japan. They are firing on all cylinders with urgency, resolve, and action.
Yes, that&#8217;s right. Our allies, who have been reliant on our largesse and mutual defense for decades, finally announced that they are going to help us, their patron state, the United States — with a very strongly-worded letter.
Our allies are doing what they do best. They are saying things.
At some point, the questions have to be asked: Who are our true allies? Who is actually stepping up to the plate? Who is merely judging from the sidelines?
In lieu of any real world support, our valiant allies have now issued a strongly worded letter.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/bss-ep-2392-sub?elementPosition=1&amp;row=6&amp;rowHeadline=Latest+Episodes&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-974957" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1024x171.webp" alt="DailyWire+" width="1024" height="171" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1024x171.webp 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-300x50.webp 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-768x128.webp 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1536x256.webp 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-2048x341.webp 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a>
Here&#8217;s what the letter says:
<blockquote>We condemn in the strongest terms, recent attacks by Iran on unarmed commercial vessels in the Gulf, attacks on civilian infrastructure, including oil and gas installations, and the de facto closure of the Strait of Hormuz by Iranian forces. We express our deep concern about the escalating conflict.
We call on Iran to cease immediately its threats, laying of mines and drone and missile attacks and other attempts to block the strait to commercial shipping and to comply with U.N. Security Council Resolution 28-17. We call for an immediate comprehensive moratorium on attacks on civilian infrastructure, including oil and gas installations. We call on all states to respect international law and uphold the fundamental principles of international prosperity and security.</blockquote>
Whoa, dude. Harsh stuff.
Iran must be quaking in its boots. Our allies are saying things.
The Europeans, Japan? They&#8217;re expressing “deep concern.” Not “regular” concern. “Deep” concern. They are calling on Iran to do things and to stop being so mean.
But wait, isn&#8217;t there some sort of commitment to action in the letter?
The statement does say this: “We express our readiness to contribute to appropriate efforts to ensure a safe passage through the Strait. We welcome the commitment of nations who are engaging in preparatory planning.”
That sounds good, right? But what does “appropriate efforts” mean? Who decides what is “appropriate?”
According to <a href="https://www.axios.com/2026/03/19/strait-hormuz-coalition-allies-statement-uk">Axios</a>, “On Thursday morning, NATO head Mark Rutte and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer spoke with French President Emmanuel Macron and convinced him to lift his opposition to the political statement of support, while leaving the discussion on the practical steps for later.”
Now, to be fair to Rutte, there&#8217;s not much he can do. He&#8217;s the head of NATO, but he can&#8217;t simply deploy force. He certainly recognizes the Iranian threat, and he would like to avoid alienating the United States.
He said, “We all agree, as we always did, that it was crucial for Iran not to get its hands on a nuclear capability, a ballistic missile capability. And what the U.S. is doing at the moment is degrading that capability of Iran. And I think that&#8217;s very important. This is important for European security, for the Middle East. It is vital for Israel itself.”
 The Japanese are also paying lip service here; the Japanese prime minister told President Trump, “I firmly believe that it is only you, Donald, who can achieve peace across the world,” adding they would “reach out to many of the partners in the international community, to achieve our objective together.”
So what are our allies actually committing to?
Nothing. This sort of stupidity is nothing new for our allies, who are quite fond of empty verbiage as a substitute for credible threat of force.
Go all the way back to 1919, when the covenant of the League of Nations was integrated into the Treaty of Versailles. That attempt to form a family of nations — while it was not a success — led to 1928, when 15 countries came together to sign what was called the Kellogg-Briand Pact.
It outlawed war.
Did you know that? That war was outlawed in 1928? The signatories included France, the US, UK, Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India, Belgium, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Italy, and Japan. 47 more nations joined in as well.
And then, three years later, in 1931, Japan invaded Manchuria and nobody did anything. And by 1941, every single nation that had signed the treaty, with the exception of Ireland — which basically stayed out of the war and sided with Germany — was enmeshed in World War II.
Empty verbiage.
The same thing holds true today. For decades, our allies have pretended to oppose the Iranian terror regime while doing virtually nothing to hold them accountable. They&#8217;ve imposed some rather minor sanctions targeting specific officials, unless the United States has pushed them into broader sanctions.
We&#8217;ve had to do all the hard work, as per our usual arrangement.
So here&#8217;s the deal. If we&#8217;re going to do all the work and undertake all the sacrifice and spend the blood and treasure, then we ought to reap the benefit. 
There&#8217;s been a lot of talk about what the United States ought to do next with regard to Iran. The most obvious move, and one I&#8217;ve been advocating, is for the United States to seize Kharg Island. President Trump has been suggesting for a while that this may happen.
Nearly 90% of all Iranian oil passes through Kharg Island. The Iranians have already, in large part, shut the Strait of Hormuz. They&#8217;ve already upped the ante in terms of attacks on surrounding gas and oil facilities. So the United States doesn&#8217;t have tremendous downside here.
What&#8217;s Iran going to do, attack more oil facilities? We ought to seize control of the oil, and then we ought to let American companies keep pumping it, and then we ought to send it to its final destination, China. China would then know that we are in charge of the spigot; Iran&#8217;s terrorist government would be deprived of their monetary flow.
What about the Europeans?
If the price of oil rises, they can buy it from us, not the Iranians.
If they&#8217;re not going to join us as allies, they can pay our companies for the oil.

NATO Leaders Attend 2025 Summit In The Hague

Fake Allies And Backstabbers

Ben Shapiro

Donald Trump

European Union

Iran

Japan

Middle East

NATO

Opinion

Strait of Hormuz

According to the New York Times, a former newspaper, American forces are in deep trouble in Iran as the wily Iranians continue to attack our bombs with their leaders. According to the Times Middle East Bureau Chief, Omar Jihad Mohammed Jihad Jihad Mohammed, wave after wave of American bomb and missile attacks have been repelled by an Iron Dome of Iranian leaders, so that the weapons explode harmlessly against their bodies, destroying nothing but the Iranian Army, Air Force, Navy, missiles, drones, radar and, of course, the Iranian leaders, who are more than willing to sacrifice their lives to protect those Iranian people they haven’t yet murdered themselves.
In an exclusive interview at an undisclosed location, the New York Times’s Middle East reporter Omar Jihad Mohammed Fatwa Mohammed interviewed Iran’s Chief of Police Fatwa Mohammed Jihad Omar Mamdani, who said, “We have the Americans exactly where we want them since…” and while he was unable to finish his sentence because he was assassinated by Israeli Defense Forces, he was immediately replaced by his younger subordinate Allahu Akbar Mohammed Tucker Jihad Jihad Mohammed, who said, “As my predecessor was about to explain…” but he was unable to finish his sentence because he was assassinated by Israeli Defense Forces.
According to either Iranian officials or CNN reporters — it’s difficult to tell the difference — Iran continues to stymie American attacks so that the only thing keeping the American war effort alive is the fact that the French have refused to join the fight, so there’s no one who’ll surrender for us.
And now, the Iranians have achieved a “stunning moral victory,” according to CNN Chief Middle East Correspondent Vladimir Mohammed Jihad Death-to-America Carlson Mohammed Fatwa. In a move reflecting the enduring strength of the Iranian regime, the nation has replaced the fifteen levels of leadership who were wiped out by American and Israeli attacks by appointing as their new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, a one-legged homosexual who’s in a coma.
President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Mohammed Jinping Fatwa Bernie Sanders Jihad celebrated the appointment of Khamenei, saying, “This is a tremendous leap forward for Iranian Diversity Equity and Inclusion. By selecting an unconscious handicapped gay man to ruthlessly oppress their people, Iran has installed an Ayatollah who looks exactly like the sort of person for whom Hollywood has been making movies. We hope this will encourage more people to become one-legged comatose homosexuals so we can begin to fill up our theaters. Otherwise, there’ll be no one there to see it when Nicole Kidman finally manages to move her face again.”
American branches of the organization Queers for Palestine also celebrated the appointment of the gay Ayatollah, with queer house parties across the nation at which they honored Islamic tradition by climbing up to the rooftops and hurling themselves to their deaths. As Queer for Palestine leader Anatole Preposterous announced to his fellow queers, “Iran has struck a blow against the homophobic splat,” although I’m not sure if that was the last word in the sentence or just the sound he made when he hit the pavement.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/hosts/andrew-klavan?elementPosition=6&amp;row=2&amp;rowHeadline=Hosts&amp;rowType=Hosts+Portrait+Carousel"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-974735 aligncenter" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Klavan-watch-now-1024x171.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="171" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Klavan-watch-now-1024x171.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Klavan-watch-now-300x50.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Klavan-watch-now-768x128.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Klavan-watch-now-1536x256.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Klavan-watch-now.jpg 1800w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a>
The organization Feminists for Palestine was also pleased by the Ayatollah’s appointment. FFP President Sally Ann Preposterous (no relation), said, “Although we’re disappointed Iran has not yet elevated a woman to leadership, as feminists, we feel that a homosexual in a coma will at least represent people who hate women without thinking, which is what feminism is all about.”
As for the new Ayatollah, though he has not yet been able to issue a statement of his own, the regime has released some of the old messages he posted on the website Sleeping-Gay-Amputees-dot-Com, which include such remarks as, “Must have good sense of humor,” and “If you like my picture, swipe right.”
Meanwhile, according to PBS Middle East Reporter Mohammed Mamdani Jihad Tucker Tucker Fatwa Jihad, Global financial markets continue to reel at the plucky Iranian attacks on the Strait of Hormuz. PBS interviewed surviving Iranian Naval Commander Mohammed Jihad Fuentes Fatwa Carlson, who said, “We will continue to attack shipping here until…,” but he was unable to finish his sentence because he was assassinated by Israeli Defense Forces.
* * *
This excerpt is taken from the opening satirical monologue of “<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/show/the-andrew-klavan-show" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Andrew Klavan Show</a>.”
Andrew Klavan is the host of “The Andrew Klavan Show” at The Daily Wire. Klavan is the bestselling author of numerous books, including the Cameron Winter Mystery series. The fifth installment, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/After-That-Cameron-Winter-Mysteries/dp/1613166869/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3EGZUC370LG46&amp;dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.Y_NI0mDOKeowShheDQTVx5NH-fAeimJoCD56_T0Acpl8C0mup7uJf-nGGSRLEItaaekoDnvS2vWLMa4Zd2UBXQ8Y-g-P502jOWz-Y8IX3ZQsdlO7WMLrg1xIhNoKmjCorSWUR4C2l_RbiZ7apJ1MfPzGOrrEf7AdAXX6xwnJRVP_XqUfWuMuVthTWscaU3P4vgmS86-96n-721enHfX12CFQWTajqFbVnrsDkexfUf4.6_gTH6h1Bb9Pn375QdF_VAVZSayDvjQBBKGXE-MTiFo&amp;dib_tag=se&amp;keywords=klavan&amp;qid=1754049918&amp;sprefix=%2Caps%2C80&amp;sr=8-1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">After That, The Dark,</a> is NOW AVAILABLE. Follow him on X: <a href="https://x.com/andrewklavan" target="_blank" rel="noopener">@andrewklavan</a>.
The views expressed in this satirical piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

TOPSHOT-IRAN-DEFENCE

Iranian Leaders: We Have The Americans Exactly Where We Want Them

Andrew Klavan

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei

Bernie Sanders

Humor

Israel Defense Forces (IDF)

Satire

Tucker Carlson

MAGA is breaking. Trump is losing. The sky is falling.
Our craven mainstream media are frothing at the mouth at the notion that MAGA could be fracturing. All of their juiciest, most lurid fantasies are coming true.
But as it turns out, MAGA is doing just fine — we&#8217;re just shedding some excess baggage here.
A brand new <a href="https://yougov.com/en-us/articles/54342-americans-suddenly-more-likely-to-see-economy-getting-worse-march-13-16-2026-economist-yougov-poll">Economist/YouGov poll</a>, taken March 13-16, asked what President Trump&#8217;s approval rating was on the American attack on Iran. Among MAGA: Voters, 87% supported; 6% disapproved. How about sending ground troops to Iran if necessary? 35% of MAGA said sure; 36% said no: a dead even split. How about on whether to end the war quickly or to stay until the objectives are achieved in Iran? Only 30% of MAGA supporters said that we should end the war as quickly as possible. 58% said that we should keep fighting until all American objectives have been achieved.
No, President Trump is not losing MAGA.
And yet, according to those who have had their brains rotted out by X along with our usual duds in the mainstream media, the base is totally fractured. And they know this because they have found some new heroes, heretic MAGA, who are targeting the administration for destruction. 
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/bss-ep-2390-sub"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-974957" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1024x171.webp" alt="DailyWire+" width="1024" height="171" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1024x171.webp 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-300x50.webp 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-768x128.webp 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1536x256.webp 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-2048x341.webp 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a>
And this brings us to Joe Kent.
Joe Kent is a former failed congressional candidate from Washington state who was elevated to the position of director of the National Center for Counter Terrorism — which you really had never heard of — by President Trump. Kent, a former Green Beret who served in the CIA, was serving under Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.
Kent has a long political history. In 2020, he voted for Bernie Sanders. But then, in 2022, while running for Congress, Kent ran into a bit of trouble because of his associations with white supremacists. According to Nick Fuentes, Kent sought his support, but then was forced to disavow him when that support became public.
Kent has been, for a very long time, conspiratorially minded in the extreme. He suggested that the Secret Service might have been in on the assassination attempt on President Trump in July 2024, among other bizarre theories. He&#8217;s also been strangely supportive of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin&#8217;s aggression against Ukraine.
Before that, though, Kent had some bizarrely heterodox views. In 2020, after President Trump knocked off Iranian terror master Qasem Soleimani, Kent <a href="https://x.com/joekent16jan19/status/1214778671564611584">explained</a>, “We remain in striking distance by choice for no clear benefit. We should crush their ballistic and nuclear capes and get out of Iraq with sanctions to follow.”
Interesting, because that&#8217;s kind of what President Trump has been doing.
Way back when Kent was actually nominated to serve in the federal government, MSNBC was highly critical, <a href="https://www.ms.now/transcript/transcript-rachel-maddow-show-8-9-22-n1298426">saying</a>, “That man you heard speaking is a Trump-endorsed Republican who believes the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump, and he hired a member of the Proud Boys as a campaign consultant. He once told a white nationalist youth group, ‘I don&#8217;t think there&#8217;s anything wrong with there being a white people special interest group.’”
Then yesterday, Kent released a bizarre and paranoid letter announcing his resignation from the National Center for Counter-Terrorism. In the letter, Kent <a href="https://x.com/joekent16jan19">announced</a> that “Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation and it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby.”
You know who he&#8217;s talking about, don&#8217;t you? You know, (nudge, nudge.)
He then stated that Trump had been duped by “high ranking Israeli officials and influential members of the American media who deployed a misinformation campaign that wholly undermined your America First platform and sowed pro-war sentiments to encourage a war with Iran.”
And then, just in case he wasn&#8217;t done blaming the Israelis, he blamed the Iraq war on the Israelis, too. And even then he wasn&#8217;t done, <a href="https://x.com/MelanieLatest/status/2033916987324137737">declaring</a> that his wife, who was killed by ISIS in Syria in 2019, was murdered “in a war manufactured by Israel.”
So to get this straight, according to Joe Kent, who was a Trump appointee in charge of the National Center for Counter Terrorism, President Trump is a dupe of the Israelis and unspecified media members, who knows? The Iraq war was the fault of the Israelis, even though it was opposed at the time by the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon. And also the Israelis are at fault for his wife being murdered by ISIS in Syria somehow.
This is, to put it mildly, nutty.
President Trump himself dismissed the notion he&#8217;s been manipulated by the nefarious “Juden” <a href="https://www.c-span.org/program/white-house-event/president-trump-meets-with-taoiseach-of-ireland/675656">yesterday</a>, saying, “I was against Iran long before I ever thought about Israel being against Iran. I was, if you look back many years ago, I talked about Iran was a big threat to this country, to this world of ours.”
Kent’s take is unsurprising, to be honest. His wife works for far-left propagandist Max Blumenthal, who&#8217;s worked for a wide variety of foreign propaganda outlets.
All of this calls into question why Kent was selected for his job in the first place. Obviously, Kent and his Ron Paul-esque foreign policy preferences have some allies in the administration. According to Fox News, Kent was “a known leaker,” and he was cut out of the president&#8217;s intelligence briefings months ago.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said <a href="https://www.c-span.org/program/white-house-event/karoline-leavitt-speaks-to-reporters-about-war-in-iran/675767">this morning</a>:
<blockquote>It&#8217;s been a while since the president has seen him here at the White House. It&#8217;s been a while since he&#8217;s been involved in the process of the presidential daily briefs and he&#8217;s been actually present for the president&#8217;s intelligence briefings. This was an individual who was not involved in any of the discussions pre-operation and throughout this operation, I think the president views it as deeply unfortunate that this individual, who the president gave the privilege of working for the administration, put out this resignation on government letterhead with many falsehoods throughout, essentially accusing the president of being manipulated by foreign governments. That&#8217;s laughable, and it&#8217;s insulting.</blockquote>
Kent’s resignation letter basically calls Trump a dullard working at the behest of the Zionists. That was enough to earn Kent the royal treatment from our usual friends. He is slated to appear on all the leaders of the anti-Trump Grievance Party podcasts: Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly and all the rest. MSNOW has discovered newfound love for Joe Kent with some strange new respect. CNN is suddenly incredibly happy with Joe Kent, a guy that CNN hated until five seconds ago.
President Trump responded to Joe Kent&#8217;s resignation with a proper level of dismissiveness, saying <a href="https://www.c-span.org/program/white-house-event/president-trump-meets-with-taoiseach-of-ireland/675656">yesterday</a>, “I read his statement. I always thought he&#8217;s a nice guy, but I always thought he was weak on security, very weak on security. I didn&#8217;t know him well, but I thought he seemed like a pretty nice guy. But when I read the statement, I realized that it&#8217;s a good thing that he&#8217;s out because he said that Iran was not a threat? Iran was a threat. Every country realized what a threat Iran was. The question is whether or not they wanted to do something about it.”
And then, for good measure, the president decided to dunk on Kent, showing his rather inconsistent feelings about the Middle East. He reposted a 2020 tweet from Kent that stated, “We should not sit and wait for the next attack, wipe Iran&#8217;s ballistic capability out and get our troops out of Iraq — they are only targets now. No US WIA/KIA is a tribute to the professionalism of our military and Intel professionals not Iranian restraint.”
So back in 2020 Kent was hawkish on Iran.
Leavitt released <a href="https://x.com/PressSec/status/2033932810709315865">a statement</a> detailing all the false allegations in Kent&#8217;s resignation letter.
She stated:
<blockquote>There are many false claims in this letter but let me address one specifically: that &#8220;Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation.&#8221; This is the same false claim that Democrats and some in the liberal media have been repeating over and over. As President Trump has clearly and explicitly stated, he had strong and compelling evidence that Iran was going to attack the United States first. This evidence was compiled from many sources and factors. President Trump would never make the decision to deploy military assets against a foreign adversary in a vacuum. Iran is the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism.
The Iranian regime is evil. It proudly killed Americans, waged war against our country, and openly threatened us all the way up to the launch of Operation Epic Fury. Iran was aggressively expanding their short-range ballistic missiles to combine with their naval assets to give themselves immunity – meaning they would have a degree of capabilities that would give them immunity to hold us and the rest of the world hostage.</blockquote>
The best comment came from Senator John Fetterman, who remains hilariously awesome. He told the Huffington Post, “I don’t really care. I know your readership loves that, and the New York Times love it. And then he&#8217;s going to be the national hero, you know, just like you made, MTG. That that was your mascot for a while. But now her crazy ass is now all about Tucker Carlson. … so, I don&#8217;t really care what he&#8217;s chosen to do, and I wish the best for him in his next life.”
Make no mistake: Trump is still very much in control of MAGA.
And when he wins the war, that control will solidify even further, as it should.

US-POLITICS-SHOOTING-KIRK

Media Hopes MAGA Is Fracturing. Not Even Close.

Federal Government

Joe Kent

MAGA

Republicans

I do not personally know Joe Kent, the former director of the National Counterterrorism Center, so I cannot speak to his character or private motives. But as someone who has publicly claimed friendship with Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard, I find it hard to see how detonating an <a href="https://x.com/C__Herridge/status/2034050521359634577?s=20">atomic bomb</a> on the eve of her testimony before Congress served anyone other than himself.
I sat next to Kent during Gabbard’s confirmation hearing before Congress last year as she showed the United States, our allies, and our adversaries exactly why she was capable of leading the greatest intelligence operation in the world. She handled herself with dignity and with the kind of steady resolve shown by someone who deeply desired to serve her country.
Kent, seated just behind her, wore a Hawaiian lei in a visible show of support for her leadership, her loyalty, and her judgment. That’s why his choice to resign publicly, and to communicate his dissent the way he did, raises an obvious question: where was that support for his friend when it mattered most?
Director Gabbard, for her part, got it exactly right. She has consistently pushed for exhausting diplomacy, but she also made clear that <a href="https://x.com/DNIGabbard/status/2033989780116033948?s=20">the president</a> is the one who decides what qualifies as a viable threat. That is how this works. A political appointee provides an assessment; the commander in chief makes the call. The Trump administration made its call based on the threat Iran posed to Americans and to our way of life.
And that is part of what makes Washington so maddening. This city is full of people who talk endlessly about loyalty, friendship, and principle, then abandon all three the moment public positioning becomes more useful. D.C. has earned its reputation as a town crowded with failed theater kids who routinely avoid demonstrating integrity or loyalty.
Again, I won’t pretend to know Mr. Kent’s intentions in releasing his letter, but his assessment contradicts both his own past <a href="https://x.com/joekent16jan19/status/1214960125200330752?s=20">statements</a> and the views of experts who have spent their lives studying the Middle East. People are free to change their minds, but that usually comes through deeper learning and self-correction. This does not seem to be that. I was not in the room for the threat discussions he now struggles to identify, though he seems to have no trouble tweeting about them, but I have studied Iran closely. And while I do not speak Farsi, I am confident “death to America” is not a warm salutation.
Isolationists fail to grasp a basic reality: this is not utopia. Our enemies, animated by a deep-seated hatred for everything America stands for, cannot be escorted hand-in-hand to peace and partnership. Meeting a threat on their doorstep is not a distraction from protecting the homeland — it is how you keep that threat from reaching ours.
The idea of shuttering our borders completely, allowing no one in or out, is both absurd and self-defeating. The world does not work that way. Plus, I would still like to plan my dream vacation to the South of France, for one thing, and for another, America would not have the power it now has to defend itself if it embraced that kind of isolation.
We are now 18 days into a military operation targeting a threat that has been at our doorstep for far too long. All Americans should support our warfighters and those standing with us against a regime that has terrorized the United States, our allies, our values, and its own people. We also have a duty to ask what our tax dollars are funding and why; questioning is good, because you learn things when you do.
Mr. Kent has every right, as a private citizen and taxpayer, to question and disagree with a military action. But the purpose of questioning is to educate, not to diminish American agency. The reflexive habit of crediting Israel, a nation the size of New Jersey, for every major policy decision made by the president of the United States undermines America’s military strength, economic power, and the very intelligence capabilities Mr. Kent supported. Sometimes the simplest explanation is the best: it had to be done.
To be clear, Iran’s leadership is the world’s number one sponsor of terrorism, a regime directly responsible for the loss of thousands of American lives. A regime that regularly murders its own people en masse and shuts down the internet for its 90 million citizens, cutting them off from telling the rest of the world the truth. A regime that bombs its own neighbors in the Middle East, just because it can. This is the same regime that sent representatives to the illegal, non-democratic swearing-in ceremony of Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro. A regime that aligns closely with China and Russia in order to enforce authoritarian rule throughout the world and displace American influence. Failing to recognize the imminent threat Iran poses to Americans is either a severe misunderstanding of the danger or an intentional deflection.
Joe Kent’s public <a href="https://x.com/joekent16jan19/status/2033897242986209689?s=20">resignation letter</a> places him on a growing list of people whose judgment I have found deeply disappointing. Why? It is disappointing for several reasons. It is disappointing because Kent once spoke <a href="https://x.com/mtracey/status/2033955443010080897?s=20">clearly</a> about the <a href="https://x.com/joekent16jan19/status/1840425323743395853?s=20">threat Iran</a> poses to the <a href="https://x.com/joekent16jan19/status/1838963575320412395?s=20">United States</a>, only to now cloud that reality. It is disappointing because, until yesterday, he occupied a high-consequence role charged with protecting the homeland from major threats, which makes his sudden uncertainty confusing. And it is disappointing because, at this moment, during an ongoing conflict, his public dissent undermines America’s national security posture and, in turn, the safety of the warfighters carrying out the mission.
* * *
Taylor Hathorn is a foreign policy and national security analyst specializing in U.S. defense strategy, Iran and China policy, cybersecurity, and geopolitical risk. She serves as a National Security Fellow with the Independent Women’s Center for American Safety and Security and an Iran Policy Fellow with The Hamilton Society/Public Interest Fellowship. As a Gold Star sister, she is committed to policies supporting veterans and military families and frequently speaks on national security issues affecting service members and their families. She has appeared on NEWSMAX and PBS, and her writing can be found in The Hill, RealClearDefense, RealClearWorld, Townhall, and Evie Magazine. Follow her on X @taylorhathorn.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

House Homeland Security Committee Hearing On Worldwide Threats

Joe Kent Built His Reputation On Iran Warnings — What Changed?

Director of National Intelligence

National Security

Tulsi Gabbard

Washington D.C.

Joe Kent has resigned as director of the National Counterterrorism Center. He should never have had the job to begin with. 
Kent <a href="https://x.com/joekent16jan19/status/2033897242986209689/photo/1">explained</a> in his resignation letter that he believes Iran posed “no imminent threat to our nation” and that Israel with the help of Israel’s powerful “lobby” is behind the United States “starting” the war. 
These galling, fact-defying claims reveal Kent’s belief in a crank evil conspiracy about Israel and the “Israel lobby,” i.e., the Jews, controlling American foreign policy. It is exceptionally concerning that it was his job to protect the American people from terrorism and he discounts the role Iran plays in threatening the American people as the leading sponsor of terrorism globally. The regime funds, equips, and trains Islamist proxies throughout the Middle East to harass global shipping and attack Americans and our allies. Iran is directly responsible for the maiming and killing of hundreds of Americans since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Kent’s resignation could have simply stated he does not personally support the war and that his conscience prevents him from continued public service. Instead, he used the position from which he resigned to provide him credibility in an effort to undermine Trump, public support for the war, and the success of the war effort. 
There are two critical points to understand in all of this.
One, the political ecosystem that Kent decided to align with, and which supported his rise to influence within the MAGA coalition over the last several years, includes Nick Fuentes and his followers, the so-called Groypers. Nick Fuentes told Tucker Carlson <a href="https://x.com/moymiz/status/2033974462635512061?s=46&amp;t=lyk8m90xboRd4ImqIJ-GGA">a few months ago</a> on his podcast that he spoke with Joe Kent and supported him and his failed congressional campaign. Fuentes also said that Kent’s campaign manager bought a table at Fuentes’ event and introduced Fuentes to Kent. According to National Review reporter Audrey Fahlberg, Joe Kent’s former campaign manager acknowledged sending texts referring to Jews as “f*c*ing ki*es” and writing “heil f*cking Kent” and “allah f*cking akbar.” Kent also <a href="https://x.com/RichWWilliams/status/2033986403982581852?s=20">publicly aligned</a> with Fuentes when he launched his unsuccessful campaign. All of this is public information and did not prevent him from attaining a senior job in the administration. 
How many more people are serving in the Trump administration share these views or are sympathetic to them? Since Hamas carried out the worst attack on the Jews since the Holocaust on October 7, 2023, the United States has experienced a spike in open antisemitism and expressions of sympathy towards Islamist terrorists. College campuses have been awash with organized protesters chanting “from the river to the sea” and other genocidal slogans against the Jewish people. Since the initiation of Operation Epic Fury, there have been four terrorist attacks here at home: a <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/suspect-in-texas-bar-shooting-wore-property-of-allah-clothing-and-iranian-flag-emblem-according-to-ap-source">shooting </a>at a bar in Austin, an <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/mar/15/new-york-mamdani-teen-suspects">attempted bombing </a>in New York City, an <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2026/03/14/us/michigan-synagogue-attack-hnk">attack </a>on the Temple Israel synagogue in Michigan, and a <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2026/03/15/us/mohamed-bailor-jalloh-old-dominion">shooting </a>at Old Dominion University in Virginia. 
This is a time to clearly and decisively marginalize those who traffic in antisemitic views, not elevate them and place them in positions of authority. 
Two, Dana Loesch said it well when she noted that those circling the wagons for Kent’s stand against Operation Epic Fury are not only undermining President Trump now, they are “power-jockeying for 2028.” They insist that Trump betrayed them in taking joint action with Israel in Operation Midnight Hammer to degrade Iran’s nuclear program, and again now in Operation Epic Fury to dismantle the Iranian regime’s ability to threaten the United States and its allies. They ignore the long pattern of Trump’s support for Israel as a valued and highly capable ally, which was a hallmark of his first term. And, they ignore Trump’s support for a world-class military — he recently said he supports a $1.5 trillion defense budget, which would commit the United States to 5% of GDP on defense spending, matching his demands for the rest of NATO — designed not to retreat and pull up the proverbial drawbridge, but to project power across the globe to defend its declared vital interests in the Middle East, Europe, and Indo-Pacific. 
Additionally, they discounted Trump’s willingness in his first term to use military force to destroy the ISIS caliphate and other Iranian leaders and proxies sprawled across the Middle East. They also ignore Trump’s decades-long view that the Islamic Republic could not have a viable nuclear weapon, and that military action was a plausible and legitimate course of action if Iran refused to willingly dismantle its illicit program. Trump did not betray them. They simply could not manipulate Trump into becoming what they are.
Tucker Carlson is already planning to host Joe Kent on his podcast today (Wednesday). We should expect them to try to galvanize more opposition to President Trump’s efforts in Iran. They may be mad about not having power and influence on policy now, but we should expect this pernicious effort to continue into election season where they hope to have better luck.
* * *
Rebeccah L. Heinrichs is a senior fellow at Hudson Institute and the director of its Keystone Defense Initiative. She specializes in US national defense policy with a focus on strategic deterrence.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

US-POLITICS-SECURITY-NOEM

Joe Kent Never Should Have Had This Job

Radical Islamic Terror

Don&#8217;t fall for the propaganda: Iran is losing. They are getting scorched. 
One by one, the leaders of the Islamic Republic are being eliminated. Generals, security chiefs, regime powerbrokers. All gone. The Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Khamenei, was dead on day one.
No biggie, right? The regime had a backup plan. They proclaimed his son, Mojtaba Khamenei, an impotent, likely gay, half-idiot mullah, as his successor. Even his daddy didn&#8217;t want that to happen.
The problem is, he has not been seen in weeks, and he may be in a coma.
Meanwhile, Iran&#8217;s command structure is shattered. The missile capacity has been slashed by 90%. Whatever is left of the regime is throwing a temper tantrum like a toddler.
So the real question isn&#8217;t why Iran is losing. The real question is why so many people in the West are pretending they aren&#8217;t.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-2389-breaking-iran-s-next-leader-killed?elementPosition=0&amp;row=6&amp;rowHeadline=Latest+Episodes&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-974957" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1024x171.webp" alt="DailyWire+" width="1024" height="171" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1024x171.webp 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-300x50.webp 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-768x128.webp 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1536x256.webp 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-2048x341.webp 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a>
Ali Larijani, the secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran, was poised to step in as the new leader. He was walking around Tehran just a couple of days ago.
Last night, Larijani, who you might remember from such banger tweets as “Our leaders have been, and still are, among the people. But your leaders? On Epstein&#8217;s island!”, is no longer among the people, among any people.
Because he&#8217;s dead.
He was killed last night in an Israeli airstrike. In addition, Reza Soleimani, the head of the Basij — the internal Iranian force dedicated to murdering protesters and quashing dissent — was killed by Israel last night, along with other top members of the Basij.
And now, individual Basij checkpoints in Tehran are being struck with Israeli drones. In fact, according to the IDF intelligence head, Major General Shlomi Binder, “Their command structure is shattered; their capability stripped down to the bone. What you&#8217;re seeing launch now is whatever scraps they can still push out. That&#8217;s their ceiling.”
The United States has so severely degraded Iran&#8217;s missile capabilities that the government has been firing off, in rather desultory fashion, individual missiles, like a kid whose tantrum is ending but is still kind of sporadically kicking as he tires himself out and goes down for a nap.
On day one of this war, Iran launched 350 missiles. Today, they are down to barely double digits. Their ballistic missile capacity has been reduced by upward of 90%. How about drone launches? Same story: 800 drone launches day one, down to 75 on day 15, and even fewer yesterday. Their ballistic missile factories have been destroyed, their drone factories have been destroyed, and their nuclear facilities have been destroyed or heavily damaged.
Don&#8217;t believe me? Ask Muhanad Seloom, writing for — wait for it — Al Jazeera.
Yup. There&#8217;s a gigantic piece in Al Jazeera, Qatar&#8217;s propaganda outlet, titled “<a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2026/3/16/the-us-israeli-strategy-against-iran-is-working-here-is-why?utm_source=chatgpt.com">The US-Israeli strategy against Iran is working. Here is why</a>,” accurately explaining the toll this war has now taken on Iran. Remember, Qatar is a half-ally to Iran. That alone should tell you just where things stand for the Iranians. 
The Qataris, who play both sides, are now pretty clearly taking America&#8217;s side.
The article points out:
<blockquote>The picture is not one of US failure. It is one of systematic, phased degradation of a threat the previous administrations allowed to grow for four decades. &#8230; The campaign has moved through two distinct phases. The first suppressed Iran&#8217;s air defenses, decapitated its command and control, integrated its missile and drone launch infrastructure.
By March 2, US Central Command announced local air superiority over western Iran and Tehran, achieved without the confirmed loss of a single American or Israeli combat aircraft. The second phase, now underway, targets Iran&#8217;s defense industrial base, missile production facilities, dual use research centers, and the underground complexes where remaining stockpiles are stored. This is not an aimless bombing. It is a methodical campaign to ensure that what has been destroyed cannot be rebuilt.</blockquote>
What about the Strait of Hormuz? We keep hearing about that.
The chances of President Trump allowing the Strait to remain permanently closed are zero. That is not going to happen. And leaving Iran in total control of the Strait, just because Iran has a few drones and the capacity to fire them from the shoreline, is, shall we say, a short-term problem.
Soon, the Iranian government will have much larger problems, because it feels as though all of this is a prelude to action by the Iranian people themselves. President Trump noted that Iranians will soon head out into the streets when they feel more secure.
He said yesterday, “So the women had 250,000, even 500,000 people protesting a year ago, and they shot women right through the middle of the forehead with snipers. And they didn&#8217;t have to do many. About ten went down, bleeding profusely and 250 to 500,000 women went running in the other direction because they can be brave. But they’re not stupid and they have no guns. And they have snipers in buildings specifically for this reason. So a woman goes down, falling, bleeding from the head, and it doesn&#8217;t take long for that to spread. And when that spreads, that crowd dispenses. And nobody else has been able to do that to the extent that these people. These people are violent. They killed a minimum, two weeks ago, 32,000 people. And they put out a notice two days ago, ‘If you protest, if you protest, you will be shot and killed.’”
Something is going to change. The time is coming. Chief rivals to the Iranian people are being individually eliminated. Right now, the Iranian people have the Americans and the Israelis actually flying air cover for them. Yes, of course, they&#8217;re going to have to brave death to take on the regime. They’ve done it before.
But last time they did it, no help was on the way. Then, President Trump said help is on the way.
And then President Trump acted.
What happens next will be in the Iranian people’s hands.

US Using UK Military Bases For Defensive Strikes Against Iran

Don’t Believe The Propaganda: The Mullahs Are Losing

Don't Believe The Propaganda: The Mullahs Are Losing

Israel

Qatar

U.S. Military

Democrats and the legacy media have been spinning since the very beginning of President Donald Trump&#8217;s military actions against the Iranian regime. Over the span of two weeks, they have pulled out all the stops to win the battle of narratives and convince the world that it was wrong to strike Iran — or if it was right to strike Iran, this was the wrong time. And if it was the right time to strike Iran, then Trump is doing it wrong.
For those who don&#8217;t spend their Sunday mornings glued to the television — and their Sunday afternoons attempting to dig through a week&#8217;s worth of network and cable news media spin — The Daily Wire has compiled a short summary of what you may have missed.
On ABC News, for example, Martha Raddatz spoke with Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA). He agreed that Iran was &#8220;a problem,&#8221; but immediately pivoted to argue that &#8220;war&#8221; was not the proper response to every problem. He then went on to draw a comparison between Iran and previous military actions in Libya, Iraq, and Afghanistan — and he argued that they were all essentially the same.
&#8220;Yes, Iran is a problem. A problem that needs to be contained. But what we should have learned from Muammar Gaddafi and Saddam Hussein and the Taliban is, you can have a threat and not have a military solution that’s going to make it better.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
BREAKING: Rep. Adam Smith tells Martha Raddatz that “war is not always the answer to a problem.”
“Yes, Iran is a problem. A problem that needs to be contained. But what we should have learned from Muammar Gaddafi and Saddam Hussein and the Taliban… <a href="https://t.co/C5oi0rvSQy">pic.twitter.com/C5oi0rvSQy</a>
— Axel Vesa (@AxelVesa1) <a href="https://twitter.com/AxelVesa1/status/2033209072921481404?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 15, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Smith also offered a comparison to Venezuela and the recent operation to extract former President Nicolás Maduro, adding, &#8220;Iran is not Venezuela. We can’t just fly in, snatch the president and make things change.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Rep. Adam Smith on President Trump’s foreign policy: “Iran is not Venezuela. We can’t just fly in, snatch the president and make things change.” <a href="https://t.co/LLgvsyy61S">https://t.co/LLgvsyy61S</a> <a href="https://t.co/ns5XiVOxU0">pic.twitter.com/ns5XiVOxU0</a>
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) <a href="https://twitter.com/ThisWeekABC/status/2033191028044271657?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 15, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
On CNN&#8217;s &#8220;State of the Union,&#8221; anchor Jake Tapper brought in former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who promptly declared that the action in Iran was proof that &#8220;this is clearly amateur hour at the Pentagon and in the White House.&#8221;
Buttigieg, after claiming that former Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden had secured nuclear deals that prevented Iran from gaining access to nuclear weapons, argued that President Trump had rushed into war because he was unable to get &#8220;a better deal&#8221; and had done so without any kind of planning or preparation.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Pete Buttigieg on the war with Iran: &#8220;This is clearly amateur hour at the Pentagon and in the White House&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/liOQlGQ50w">pic.twitter.com/liOQlGQ50w</a>
— State of the Union (@CNNSOTU) <a href="https://twitter.com/CNNSOTU/status/2033192256820121841?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 15, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Tapper took a pause to defend the media&#8217;s oppositional stance, arguing that he and others doing the same were not being critical because they wanted the United States to lose, but because they were just doing their jobs.
&#8220;Every reporter that I know wants the United States to succeed in every way, and the way that reporters help that happen is by asking questions of people in power and not blindly cheering on leaders who take the nation to war,&#8221; he claimed.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
TAPPER: “Every reporter that I know wants the United States to succeed in every way, and the way that reporters help that happen is by asking questions of people in power and not blindly cheering on leaders who take the nation to war.” <a href="https://t.co/KtfZYSnBJU">pic.twitter.com/KtfZYSnBJU</a>
— State of the Union (@CNNSOTU) <a href="https://twitter.com/CNNSOTU/status/2033185159428591690?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 15, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Margaret Brennan, on &#8220;Face the Nation,&#8221; spoke to several who reinforced the Democrat-driven narrative that the Trump administration was in over its head in Iran.
Former CIA operative Joey Gannon told her that Iran had moved to keep supreme leadership in the Khamenei family because it sent a signal to the world that the regime still had complete control.
&#8220;So, he was a gatekeeper for the supreme leader&#8217;s office in the past. He has strong ties to the IRGC and the Basij, he knows how power actually operates, and he is, effectively, a symbol of continuity right now,&#8221; he explained.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Former CIA operative Jonny Gannon says the decision to appoint Motjaba Khameini as the new supreme leader “is the message from the regime that they are still in control.”
Mojtaba Khamenei is clearly not a charming public face; what he is is a systems operator,” he says. “So, he… <a href="https://t.co/oP6zveXtvO">pic.twitter.com/oP6zveXtvO</a>
— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) <a href="https://twitter.com/FaceTheNation/status/2033222131090084297?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 15, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Samantha Vinograd, an Obama administration alum, took the same posture when she argued that Iran was essentially outwitting the United States strategically.
&#8220;The Iranian regime has demonstrated an incredible capacity to be flexible and adaptive,&#8221; she said, adding, &#8220;They played a long game here. They have invested in propaganda and tools in this country, as well as hiring people to do their dirty work for them, to such an extent that I am concerned that they have the intent and capability to, if not direct attacks here in the homeland, to inspire them .&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Former Homeland Security official Samantha Vinograd says “the Iranian regime has demonstrated an incredible capacity to be flexible and adaptive” in the way they carry out attacks.
“They played a long game here. They have invested in propaganda and tools in this country, as… <a href="https://t.co/GgKqrE9CEG">pic.twitter.com/GgKqrE9CEG</a>
— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) <a href="https://twitter.com/FaceTheNation/status/2033219553694503149?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 15, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) told Brennan that he did not believe the Iranian regime — despite a 47-year record of Iran and its proxies killing over 1,000 American service members and civilians and a recent boast that the regime had nearly enough enriched uranium for almost a dozen nuclear bombs — posed an &#8220;imminent threat&#8221; to the United States. What&#8217;s more, Warner argued that Iran did not pose an immediate threat to Israel — despite Iranian proxies in Hamas and Hezbollah striking Israeli targets on a regular basis.
&#8220;There was no imminent threat to the United States, and I don&#8217;t believe there was even an imminent threat to Israel from Iran,&#8221; Warner declared. &#8220;Over a period of time, particularly with the ballistic missile capability, Israel would be more under threat. The decision to go to war in this case was a choice by President Trump.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) says he stands by the 2025 Annual Threat Assessment by U.S. intelligence leaders who testified at the time that Iran had not reauthorized their nuclear weapons program.
“There was no imminent threat to the United States, and I don&#8217;t believe there was… <a href="https://t.co/MLJA4YT5Gc">pic.twitter.com/MLJA4YT5Gc</a>
— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) <a href="https://twitter.com/FaceTheNation/status/2033215927228002331?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 15, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Jake Tapper

Spin Cycle: Dems, Media Wage War Over Who Controls The Narrative In Iran

ABC News

CBS News

Democrats

Media

NBC News

Politics

Headlines today claim the war in Iran is a catastrophe.
We awakened to some bad but true stories: Oil tankers on fire in the Strait of Hormuz, leading to large-scale oil disruptions and a spike in the price of Brent Crude oil. Rumors of impending Iranian drone attacks in California. And then, the Iranian schoolgirls who were killed in a botched missile attack.
We&#8217;re not going to sugarcoat what&#8217;s going on because war is ugly.
But what&#8217;s happening right now is that Iran is fighting back. The regime is on its last legs, and it knows it. Even if it survives the current conflict, the question is, for how long? Because if they&#8217;re heavily damaged, and if it turns out they can&#8217;t defend against insurgents in their streets or against air flights, air sorties from opposing forces, how long does the regime last?
What we&#8217;re watching right now are the dying throes of a poisonous snake.
But that doesn&#8217;t mean the snake can&#8217;t do serious damage before it goes. This is typically what the endgame of a war looks like. The enemy lashes out with all of its final strength, pulling out every stop, pulling every lever. And then, unless we lose our willpower, they lose.
As Japan collapsed at the end of World War II, American casualties went up, not down. The Battle of Okinawa — fought on territory controlled by Japan since 1879, populated heavily with Japanese citizens and entirely with Japanese subjects — was the bloodiest battle of the Pacific War; 12,000 Americans ended up dead, between 36,000 and 49,000 Americans were wounded, alongside some 110,000 Japanese military killed and another 100,000 to 150,000 Japanese civilians, many of whom committed suicide.
That battle ended June 22, 1945, and within seven weeks the war was over.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-2386-can-iran-hit-the-us"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-974957" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1024x171.webp" alt="DailyWire+" width="1024" height="171" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1024x171.webp 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-300x50.webp 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-768x128.webp 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1536x256.webp 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-2048x341.webp 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a>
This sort of activity isn&#8217;t uncommon, as America&#8217;s enemies realize that they are in their final hours.
The Battle of the Bulge was Hitler&#8217;s final attempt to stave off defeat. It was bloody. It was terrible. And Hitler lost.
At the end of the Gulf War, actually, even after a cease-fire had been declared, the Iraqi Hammurabi Republican Guard Division attacked the U.S. 24th Infantry Division. That was a large-scale mistake, and the U.S. ended up destroying nearly 200 tanks and erasing the Hammurabi Division entirely. But that was sort of the last gasp.
It&#8217;s quite common.
In the 2001 war in Afghanistan, the final Taliban stand, before the launch of their large-scale insurgent warfare strategy that lasted years, was something called Operation Anaconda. That&#8217;s where the Taliban fighters dug in in the mountains, and then they tried to engage U.S. forces. This was in 2002, and they lost.
The losing side very often will launch a last stand, a final push, or pull out all the stops.
That&#8217;s what we&#8217;re actually watching right now. The question is whether Iran&#8217;s activity represents the death throes of the regime or the reconsolidation of regime power.
The answer is not up to Iran. It&#8217;s up to the United States and Israel.
The only hope for the Iranian regime right now is that the United States and Israel somehow stop in their tracks before the Iranian regime suffers irreparable damage.
That is precisely why American enemies make that final push. It&#8217;s the last-gasp attempt to prevent the increasingly inevitable.
Iran is a terrorist regime, and so it&#8217;s pursuing three lines of terror tactics. One terror tactic is targeting the American homeland; a second is targeting the Strait of Hormuz and other Gulf oil supplies, and the third is targeting our allies.
<h3>First: The American Homeland</h3>
Yesterday, ABC News reported that the FBI has warned police departments about the possibility of an Iranian drone attack on American soil. According to the FBI, “As of early February 2026, Iran allegedly aspired to conduct a surprise attack using unmanned aerial vehicles from an unidentified vessel off the coast of the United States homeland, specifically against unspecified targets in California.”
President Trump said, “We&#8217;ve got our eyes on the terrorists.” Asked, “Have you been briefed about how many Iran sleeper cells there could be inside the U.S. right now?” he answered, “I have been and a lot of people came in through Biden with his stupid open border, but we know where most of them are. We&#8217;ve got our eye on all of them.”
The president is not wrong about the open border. The president also added that when it comes to these threats, all we can really do is take them as they come, which, of course, is the reality.
None of this should be a major shock. Iran has infiltrated South and Latin America. That is one of the reasons that the Trump administration moved against Venezuela, which was the center of Iranian activity in the Western Hemisphere under Nicolas Maduro, now a treasured guest of President Trump in prison. Iran and Venezuela even signed a 20-year cooperation agreement, and that included drones and missiles shipped from Iran to Venezuela.  
<h3>Second: The Threat To The Strait Of Hormuz</h3>
This is making a lot of headlines because it should. Iran has been firing ordnance at oil tankers that have been shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. 
But here&#8217;s the point. If you leave the regime in place, a regime that is increasingly powerful and can choke off that waterway any time it wants, it doesn&#8217;t make things better. 
The Wall Street Journal <a href="https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/ending-iran-war-quickly-carries-big-risks-for-the-u-s-and-allies-60c003de?utm_source=chatgpt.com">stated:</a> 
<blockquote>Leaving in place Iran’s theocratic regime—angry, defiant and in possession of its nuclear stockpile and what remains of its arsenal of missiles and drones—would essentially grant Tehran control over the world’s energy markets. It would also sacrifice the security of America’s partners and allies, and possibly make another, more devastating, regional war likely.</blockquote>
Right now, President Trump is holding down oil prices largely by talking about the incipient end of the war through the release of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. But the problem with talking about the end of the war is that it&#8217;s the kind of talk that actually emboldens the Iranians to increase their attacks on shipping, hoping that exerting more pressure on the Strait of Hormuz will force President Trump to stop.
What would be really, really helpful here would be America&#8217;s Gulf allies. Saudis, UAE, Qatar: None of them has actually engaged in action against Iran, even though they&#8217;re the ones who are getting truly pounded. You know what they could do? They could increase their pumping. They could pump to areas not controlled by Iran, such as the west of Saudi Arabia.
Iran has fired far more ordnance at the UAE than it has fired at Israel. If our allies are not going to join us offensively in the fight, they could at least relieve pressure on the oil markets created by the Iranian attacks. We are defending them.
<h3>Third: Terrorizing Our Allies</h3>
Which brings us to the third tentacle of Iranian terror, terror against our allies. Iran knows that the entry of the Saudis and the UAE directly into the war would be quite bad for them. And they know that the Saudis and UAE could help the United States calm world markets. That would allow the U.S.-Israel operation to continue, which is why they&#8217;ve been firing more missiles at the Gulf states than at Israel, trying to convince them to cower in fear.
 Israel has been targeted with 550 strikes by Iran. That is 14% of all strikes. Kuwait has been targeted with 24%, UAE with 44% of all strikes. Bahrain has been hit with almost as many strikes as Israel, and Saudi Arabia has been hit with 176.
Qatar is low on the list because, obviously, Qatar and Iran are half-allies.
Iran has been taking indirect counteraction against Israel. They&#8217;ve been using their proxy, Hezbollah. Hezbollah has been absolutely shellacked by Israel over the last couple of years, since the pager operation, the killing of Hassan Nasrallah, and the ground operation in Lebanon. Iran is hoping that drawing Israeli resources toward Lebanon might somehow save the Iranian government. They&#8217;re counting on the Lebanese government to back down, because the Lebanese government could theoretically exert some sort of pressure or push the Americans to stop Israel. That is why overnight rockets were raining on northern Israel.
If the Lebanese government doesn&#8217;t stop Hezbollah from its offensive action, if Israel is forced to stop its destruction of Hezbollah yet again, that would be a disaster for the region&#8217;s Christians. Lebanon used to be a Christian country before it was wrecked by the Palestine Liberation Organization, before it was wrecked by the Iranians through Hezbollah. Hezbollah is moving to destroy Lebanon&#8217;s Christian population.
Ordering Hezbollah to attack Israel is another sign of a last gasp.
What does all this mean?
It means that in the end, only the true collapse or serious damage leading to the collapse of the Iranian government will bring lasting victory. That&#8217;s what it means. 
Which is why President Trump correctly says we have to finish the job.
“As we end this threat to America and the world, we don&#8217;t want to leave early. We have to finish the job, right?” <a href="https://nypost.com/2026/03/11/world-news/trump-says-us-must-finish-the-job-in-virtually-destroyed-iran-dont-want-to-leave-early/">he told</a> a cheering crowd. 
He is correct. We actually have to finish the job. And the goals spelled out by the administration are clear: ending the missile threat, ending the nuclear threat, and ending support of terrorism. Leaving an Iranian regime in power, or at least not seriously destabilized or weakened, would likely encourage China to take aggressive action against Taiwan. 
It is astonishing to me to see the level of uproar over a war that has lasted less than two weeks with extremely low American casualties, by any historic comparison. If China understands that the American attention span is so short that we can&#8217;t even sustain a serious offensive action with low cost for longer than a few weeks, they will know they can move. 
Not only that, if we don&#8217;t do what we can while President Trump, who actually has stones, is president, then Iran likely will come back, mainly because weaker people will be president. People like Barack Obama, Joe Biden, or pretty much anyone else, because Trump has been uniquely strong on this score. 
President Trump is not wrong to call this out. He <a href="https://x.com/clashreport/status/2031840956639567928">stated</a>: 
<blockquote>“We don&#8217;t want to go back every two years. There&#8217;ll be some day when you don&#8217;t have me as president, you&#8217;ll have perhaps a weak, pathetic person like we&#8217;ve had in the past. Like Barack Hussein Obama, who signed one of the worst deals ever with Iran, where they were going to give up everything. Remember when he filled up a 757 with billions of dollars of cash and sent it to Iran? People forget that. That&#8217;s when I realized the presidency is very powerful. When you could put over $1 billion in an airplane and fly it over and give it to a foreign country that&#8217;s your enemy. How stupid was that?” </blockquote>
The president is not wrong. 
If you want to end threats to America, you actually have to end them.

TOPSHOT-IRAQ-IRAN-US-ISRAEL-WAR

Death Throes Of A Regime

Drones

Oil and Gas

This week Iran claimed to have formally closed the Strait of Hormuz, the 21-mile-wide chokepoint through which roughly 20% of the world&#8217;s oil flows every single day. Three more ships — the Thai-flagged Mayuree Naree, the Japanese ONE Majesty, and the Marshall Islands-flagged Star Gwyneth — were struck by &#8220;unknown projectiles,&#8221; which is almost certainly reporter-speak for Iranian missiles and drones on Wednesday. This brings the total number of vessels attacked since February 28 to at least 14.
Welcome back to the Persian Gulf, circa 1987. Back then, Iran targeted tankers carrying oil from countries supplying Saddam&#8217;s Iraq during the Iran-Iraq War, forcing the Reagan Administration to escort re-flagged Kuwaiti vessels under U.S. Navy protection — a confrontation that ended with American warships sinking a significant chunk of Iran&#8217;s fleet in a single day.
This, then, is our &#8220;Back to the Future&#8221; moment. The Islamic Republic’s dusty playbook from almost 40 years ago dictates if Tehran can&#8217;t export oil freely, no one can. Iran&#8217;s most important security official now, Ali Larijani, put it plainly this week. The strait &#8220;will either be a strait of peace and prosperity for all, or a strait of defeat and suffering for warmongers.&#8221; Iranian military elites went further, vowing not to allow &#8220;a single liter of oil&#8221; to pass for the benefit of America or its allies. 
Since 2019, the IRGC Navy has been methodically re-upping its threats to freedom of navigation, using limpet mines against commercial vessels, seizing tankers, and harassing ships throughout the Persian Gulf. It also exported this threat to its Houthi proxies in the Red Sea, impeding maritime trade in yet another critical waterway after October 7, 2023.  
The mining threat we&#8217;re now confronting was incubated during the Iran-Iraq War. The last time Iran tried this, in 1988, the U.S. Navy responded with Operation Praying Mantis, destroying nearly half of Iran&#8217;s operational fleet in a single day, the largest American naval surface engagement since World War II. Tehran blinked, accepted a ceasefire, and then Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini famously compared it to &#8220;drinking a poisoned chalice.&#8221; The lesson was partially written on the wreckage of Iran&#8217;s vessels. 
U.S. Central Command moved fast this week, destroying 16 Iranian minelayers near the strait on Tuesday. By Wednesday, Trump told reporters the number was up to 28. That&#8217;s real progress but it&#8217;s not enough to change the risk calculus for ship owners and neighboring Arab states. Yet the Iranian maritime threat here isn&#8217;t its conventional fleet, most of which is now, as Trump put it, &#8220;at the bottom of the sea.&#8221; It&#8217;s the hundreds of speedboats and fast attack craft that the IRGC possesses, capable of laying mines faster than they can be hunted down. Destroying a frigate is a photo op. Neutralizing a swarm of cigarette boats is a campaign.
That&#8217;s the hard truth Trump must reckon with. Threatening &#8220;death, fire and fury&#8221; is great for the Truth Social feed. But rhetoric doesn&#8217;t sweep mines or open shipping lanes. Trump says the escort option is on the table. Ship owners are watching to see if he means it.
He should.
The Reagan administration faced a strikingly similar moment in 1987, when Iran was targeting tankers in the Persian Gulf during the &#8220;Tanker War.&#8221; Reagan&#8217;s answer was Operation Earnest Will, which involved re-flagging Kuwaiti tankers under the American flag and providing them with U.S. Navy escorts through the Persian Gulf. It was a direct challenge to Iranian maritime aggression, and it worked. The message was clear: the free flow of commerce is a vital American interest, and the United States will back that interest with force. Iran stood down.
Trump is now facing his version of that moment, and it is arguably a harder one, given the scale of the current conflict, the mining threat, and the IRGC&#8217;s asymmetric capabilities. The only way out of this crisis is through it. That means not just destroying minelayers after the fact but going after the IRGC Navy comprehensively, including its fast attack craft, its shore-based missile batteries, and its port infrastructure. 
It also means considering convoy operations to restore confidence among ship owners and allied regional states, who right now see little reason to risk their vessels in a waterway the United States has not yet secured. And it means making clear to Iran&#8217;s current leadership that the Strait of Hormuz is not a bargaining chip.
This is Trump&#8217;s Reagan moment. He&#8217;s already scored a significant security win: Ali Khamenei is gone, Iran&#8217;s conventional navy is decimated, and the regime is staggering. But the war for the global economy is still being fought on a battlefield 21 miles wide, between Iran and Oman. Winning it would deliver something Reagan never quite achieved: a decisive, lasting blow to the IRGC&#8217;s ability to hold the world&#8217;s oil supply hostage.
The question is whether Trump will pull the trigger not just on Iran&#8217;s military, but on reopening the artery that keeps the global economy alive. The Strait is where the real test of Trump’s resolve against the Islamic Republic begins.
* * *
Behnam Ben Taleblu is a senior fellow and Senior Director of the Iran program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

TOPSHOT-WAR-IRAN-US-ISRAEL-THAILAND-ATTACK-LOGISTICS

Trump’s Hormuz Moment: The Only Way Out Is Through

Trump's Hormuz Moment: The Only Way Out Is Through

Shipping

You are being lied to about the Trump administration&#8217;s action against Iran.
You&#8217;re being lied to over and over and over again because liars, including Democrats, the horseshoe Right, and terrorists, are working together to make the United States lose.
I’m going to walk you through the three big lies making the rounds right now — and debunk them one by one.
Lie #1: The war is a quagmire, an interminable, never-ending conflict, doomed to catastrophe; we’ll probably have to use nukes.
This is nuts. Can we be real about something for a second? We are 12 days into this war. 12 days. Not 12 years, like Vietnam. Not 12 months, like the Spanish-American War, which ended with the United States winning Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines from Spain.
12 days, which is about how long cottage cheese takes to spoil in your fridge.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-2384-4-lies-about-the-iran-war"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-974957" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1024x171.webp" alt="DailyWire+" width="1024" height="171" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1024x171.webp 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-300x50.webp 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-768x128.webp 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1536x256.webp 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-2048x341.webp 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a>
Lie #2: Iran is doing great. They&#8217;re outlasting us. They&#8217;ve never been stronger. They&#8217;ll be able to stand up to us forever.
You see this in the AI slop all over X; people making up videos of things that do not exist and pumping them out, showing Iran with nuclear-age weaponry that the aliens used in Independence Day.
No. The war is going incredibly poorly for Iran. Iran is on its last legs, although. I should say last leg, because Mojtaba Khamenei, the new supreme leader of Iran, reportedly is down to one leg. Apparently, the Israelis blew off the other one in the same strike that took out his father. Allegedly, Mojtaba isn&#8217;t even conscious, which is why, at a ceremony for him where the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps showed up to pledge allegiance to him, they were forced to use a cardboard cutout of him on a poster board they had printed at an Iranian Kinko&#8217;s.
By the way, this is also how I run our office. I put up a cardboard cutout, and then my staffers talk to it, and we call it a successful meeting.
According to the <a href="https://nypost.com/2026/03/10/world-news/ayatollah-khamenei-opposed-son-mojtaba-from-becoming-irans-next-supreme-leader/?utm_source=chatgpt.com">New York Post</a>:
<blockquote>Assassinated Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was so opposed to his son taking power that he noted it in his will, experts told The Post. “In Khamenei’s will, he explicitly asked Mojtaba not to be named as successor,” said Khosro Isfahani, a research director for the opposition group National Union for Democracy with ties to Iranian intelligence.</blockquote>
Still, the critics argue catastrophe is upon us. And that brings us to&#8230;
Lie #3: The oil shock is going to end this war, or Iran&#8217;s just going to cut off the Strait of Hormuz forever. You&#8217;re going to be standing in line like the Jimmy Carter era, waiting to pump gas. 
Nope. You remember when on Monday morning, people were freaking out about the Strait of Hormuz and the supposed Iranian threat to global oil supply, and there was talk about the price of crude per barrel going up to $150-200?
It was the fastest turnaround in modern market history because the price of oil soared by roughly $40 a barrel. But by the close of business yesterday, crude had dropped again below $90 a barrel.
So clearly we&#8217;re in terrible trouble. The economy&#8217;s about to collapse.
Not.
If you listen to the idiots, you would think these people really thought that President Trump was going to launch a major action in the Middle East without any idea how it might upset the oil markets.
If there&#8217;s one thing (among others) President Trump understands profoundly, it is the impact on markets. This is why he launches strikes on Friday nights — not to annoy me because it&#8217;s the Sabbath and I can&#8217;t cover it — but actually because the markets don&#8217;t open until — wait for it — Monday.
He did it with Maduro. He did <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/116202054617775180">it here</a>.
<blockquote>If Iran does anything that stops the flow of Oil within the Strait of Hormuz, they will be hit by the United States of America TWENTY TIMES HARDER than they have been hit thus far,” he wrote. “Additionally, we will take out easily destroyable targets that will make it virtually impossible for Iran to ever be built back, as a Nation, again — Death, Fire, and Fury will reign upon them — But I hope, and pray, that it does not happen! This is a gift from the United States of America to China, and all of those Nations that heavily use the Hormuz Strait. Hopefully, it is a gesture that will be greatly appreciated.</blockquote>
I love it when he starts just doing heavy metal lyrics.
You notice the veiled threat? It&#8217;s pretty wonderful. It&#8217;s basically Trump saying, “Hey, China, I know you&#8217;re working with Iran, but we are going to keep the oil flowing to you for now if you&#8217;re nice.”
President Trump is feeling it.
He said <a href="https://x.com/JewishWarrior13/status/2031118410319327568">yesterday</a>, 
<blockquote>Together with our Israeli partners, we&#8217;re crushing the enemy in an overwhelming display of technical skill and military force. Iran&#8217;s drone and missile capability is being utterly demolished. Their Navy is gone. It&#8217;s all lying at the bottom of the ocean. 46 ships. Can you believe it? In fact, I got a little upset with our people. I said, ‘What quality of ship?’ ‘Excellent, sir. Top of the line.’ I said, ‘Why don&#8217;t we just capture the ship? We could have used it. Why did we sink them?’ They said ‘It&#8217;s more fun to sink them.’ They like sinking ‘em better.</blockquote>
He&#8217;s the best. He&#8217;s just the best. 
If you cannot laugh along with the president about the United States sinking Iranian Navy ships, you need to have a better time in life.
The president also spelled out a timeline. It will be short, and it will be over soon. President Trump talks about this war to reporters the same way I talk to my kids about a trip to the doctors: It will be over “soon.”
Maybe that&#8217;s because Trump&#8217;s opponents here are acting like children.
Over the years, we&#8217;ve talked about “good” Trump and “bad” Trump.
This is not “bad” Trump. And it&#8217;s not “good” Trump.
This is unsurpassed awesomeness.

Irancardboard

Debunking The Lies About The Iran War

Mojtaba Khamenei

Oil tankers are again passing through the Strait of Hormuz this week as President Donald Trump ratchets up the pressure on Iran to stay away from the ships that transport around 20% of the world&#8217;s oil every day.
The number of tankers passing through the strait ticked up to 20% of its normal level on Monday, according to an analysis from Goldman Sachs. Some tankers have braved the strait by <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-03-09/greek-oil-tanker-exits-hormuz-shipping-strait-with-signal-off">turning off</a> their transponders. The increase in tanker traffic in the strait comes after nearly a week of oil flow had been effectively shut down due to the ongoing war in Iran.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Goldman Sachs: some oil is moving through the Strait of Hormuz <a href="https://t.co/G396UEgdSj">pic.twitter.com/G396UEgdSj</a>
— Brian Sozzi (@BrianSozzi) <a href="https://twitter.com/BrianSozzi/status/2031291116939567442?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 10, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
In an interview with CBS News on Monday afternoon, President Trump said he is considering taking control of the Strait of Hormuz and warned that the Iranian regime would be completely obliterated if it continued to threaten maritime traffic. Trump also suggested that the U.S. military is close to achieving its goals in &#8220;Operation Epic Fury&#8221; and added that the United States is &#8220;very far ahead of schedule&#8221; after initially predicting a four-to-five-week operation.
After Trump gave his optimistic update, the price of Brent crude <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/oil-prices-plummet-stocks-climb-after-trump-update-on-iran-war?author=Zach+Jewell&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=0&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Trump+Reassurance+On+Iran+War+Lifts+Mood+Across+Oil%2C+Stocks">plummeted</a>, and stock prices ticked up. Later on Monday, Trump <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/116202054617775180">warned</a>, &#8220;If Iran does anything that stops the flow of Oil within the Strait of Hormuz, they will be hit by the United States of America TWENTY TIMES HARDER than they have been hit thus far.&#8221;
&#8220;Additionally, we will take out easily destroyable targets that will make it virtually impossible for Iran to ever be built back, as a Nation, again — Death, Fire, and Fury will reign upon them — But I hope, and pray, that it does not happen!&#8221; Trump added.
Ali Larijani, a top Iranian official, <a href="https://x.com/alilarijani_ir/status/2031323351952568569">shot back</a> at Trump with a direct threat of his own aimed at the U.S. president.
&#8220;The Ashura-loving nation of Iran does not fear your paper threats,&#8221; Larijani said. &#8220;Even those greater than you could not eliminate the Iranian nation. Watch out for yourself—lest you be eliminated!&#8221;
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/live-updates-iranian-protests-intensify-as-citizens-demand-end-to-ayatollah-rule?topStoryPosition=undefined&amp;author=Daily+Wire&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=0&amp;row=1&amp;rowHeadline=Top+Stories&amp;rowType=Top+Stories&amp;title=LIVE+UPDATES%3A+Hegseth+Scorches+Any+Doubt+About+U.S.+Military+Protecting+Civilians+In+War">FOLLOW THE DAILY WIRE&#8217;S LIVE UPDATES ON IRAN WAR</a>
U.S. War Secretary Pete Hegsesth said during a press briefing that Tuesday would mark the most intense day of U.S. strikes yet, while Iran&#8217;s military capabilities continue to dwindle. Since the beginning of &#8220;Operation Epic Fury,&#8221; U.S. forces have hit over 5,000 targets in Iran, according to Adm. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Americans are beginning to feel the effects of the ongoing war in Iran as gas prices jumped to their highest national average since 2022, with the conflict disrupting global oil flow. Brent crude reached nearly $120 per barrel on Monday — its highest price in nearly four years — before dropping late in the afternoon. President Trump <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/116196014942465383">promised</a> on Sunday that oil prices &#8220;will drop rapidly when the destruction of the Iran nuclear threat is over.&#8221; He argued that the &#8220;short term&#8221; increase in prices &#8220;is a very small price to pay for U.S.A., and World, Safety and Peace.&#8221;
&#8220;ONLY FOOLS WOULD THINK DIFFERENTLY!&#8221; he added.

TrumpIran

Trump’s Stark Warning To Iran Triggers Increase In Oil Flow

Crude Oil

The following is an edited transcript excerpt from <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/hosts/michael-knowles?elementPosition=4&amp;row=2&amp;rowHeadline=Hosts&amp;rowType=Hosts+Portrait+Carousel">The Michael Knowles Show</a>.
* * *
You know you&#8217;ve gone too far in your Middle East bombing campaign when Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) tells you to cool your jets. 
Sen. Graham — whom I like personally — has never seen a Middle Eastern country he didn’t want to bomb. He&#8217;s been beating the drum for war for a very, very long time.
That&#8217;s why it gives a lot of credibility to his criticism in his recent tweets on X:
<blockquote>Our allies in Israel have shown amazing capability when it comes to collapsing the murderous regime in Iran. America is most appreciative…</blockquote>
You can just sense there’s a “but” coming. And here it is:
<blockquote>However, there will be a day soon that the Iranian people will be in charge of their own fate, not the murderous Ayatollah regime. In that regard, please be cautious about what targets you select. Our goal is to liberate the Iranian people in a fashion that does not cripple their chance to start a new and better life when this regime collapses. The oil economy of Iran will be essential to that endeavor.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Our allies in Israel have shown amazing capability when it comes to collapsing the murderous regime in Iran. America is most appreciative.
However, there will be a day soon that the Iranian people will be in charge of their own fate, not the murderous ayatollah’s regime.
In…
— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) <a href="https://twitter.com/LindseyGrahamSC/status/2030801898891026592?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 9, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Source: @LindseyGrahamSC/X.com
For background, Graham&#8217;s statement comes after Axios published <a href="https://www.axios.com/2026/03/08/us-dismayed-israel-iran-fuel-strikes">this article</a>, which says:
<blockquote>Israel&#8217;s strikes on 30 Iranian fuel depots Saturday went far beyond what the U.S. expected when Israel notified it in advance, sparking the first significant disagreement between the allies since the war began eight days ago, according to a U.S. official, Israeli official and a source with knowledge.</blockquote>
Now, whenever the United States and Israel — or any two allies — are publicly disagreeing, there’s always the possibility that it’s partly a show. Sometimes governments signal disagreement publicly while coordinating privately. But this situation suggests otherwise. There may be a legitimate difference of opinion. Maybe a little tail wagging the dog here?
On its own, Lindsey Graham publicly rebuking Israel is notable. He’s a major, longtime supporter of Israel and a major supporter of regime change in Iran. He is not exactly shy about using the military. And he’s saying: guys, what are we doing here?
The reporting says the United States is worried this could backfire strategically. And those concerns highlight the stakes of the war.
My reaction from the beginning — when the possibility of war with Iran started circulating — has been that there are two very firm camps making overly simplistic arguments.
On one hand you have the pacifists who say war is never the answer, that there is never any place for war. That’s not a serious moral or political position.
On the other hand you have hardcore ideological neocon types — who say the United States has a moral duty to spread liberal democracy everywhere on earth. That’s also a very ideological view.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/hosts/michael-knowles?elementPosition=4&amp;row=2&amp;rowHeadline=Hosts&amp;rowType=Hosts+Portrait+Carousel"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-1054531" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/MK-watch-now-1-1024x171.jpg" alt="DailyWire+" width="1024" height="171" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/MK-watch-now-1-1024x171.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/MK-watch-now-1-300x50.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/MK-watch-now-1-768x128.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/MK-watch-now-1-1536x256.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/MK-watch-now-1.jpg 1800w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a>
If you get rid of those two extremes, then there are the people in the middle where reasonable minds can disagree over the wisdom of the Iran campaign. That&#8217;s certainly where President Trump is. That&#8217;s certainly where I am and where I think most people are.
In the lead-up to the Iran war, when it became clear it was going to happen, I was asking people who were in the know — grand strategy types, diplomats — what do you think about this? Should we go to war in Iran? Should we not go to war in Iran?
And the most persuasive answer I heard was: Well, if we can do it quickly and successfully, then it would be good to change out the regime. But if we can&#8217;t, we shouldn&#8217;t.
So, I&#8217;ve said from the beginning, if I were on the National Security Council (NSC) — not that anyone invited me — but if I had been on the NSC, I would have made all the arguments I could against the Iran strike. Not based on any particular moral argument. I think there&#8217;s legal justification to go into Iran. Again, the government had more knowledge than I did when they launched the strike, but if they had asked me, based only on publicly available knowledge I would have said: Look, I don&#8217;t know that the threat from Iran is as grave as people are suggesting or as imminent. Also, I&#8217;m not confident that we can efficiently and effectively swap out the regime in Iran to get a more Western-friendly regime.
So because of those practical, prudential, pragmatic matters, I don&#8217;t know that it&#8217;s the right idea. But if you could convince me otherwise on those two points, then I would say, yes, it&#8217;s probably a good idea.
And these are the stakes here.
President Trump is taking a much more realistic view. This comes right out of his National Security Strategy that was released last November. President Trump clearly believes that he&#8217;s the guy to do it — that he can do it. He has great confidence in himself and in his foreign policy and in the people he&#8217;s empowered to efficiently get rid of the Iranian regime and build up a more pro-Western regime.
Similar to what he did in Venezuela. An operation free of global fallout, that will rebuff our enemies like China and Russia, and that will make America great again — that will help us on the world stage and give us a chance, after decades of decline in the American empire, to be great again.
He thinks he&#8217;s the guy who can do it. And maybe he is. He&#8217;s got a pretty good record so far.
The distinction between him and, say, George W. Bush when it comes to foreign policy would be: Bush wasn&#8217;t that good at it, and I am good at it.
But in order for that to work, things need to go perfectly. And that&#8217;s a really, really tall order in the best circumstances.
And in order for that to work, we need to not turn the Iranian people against us. We need to keep public sentiment against the Islamic regime and at least tolerating us, if not openly supportive of the United States, grateful for our mission.
And we need to make sure the country doesn&#8217;t become completely destabilized. Which means sometimes we need to rein in Israel — just like we would have to rein in any other ally if they got a little out of control.
That&#8217;s the point Lindsey Graham is making. That&#8217;s the point it seems the White House is making with the leak to Axios.
Those are the stakes.
As I’ve had to explain to friends who are deeply skeptical of the war in Iran — the quasi-isolationists — if this works, it will be the greatest foreign policy achievement of any president since the end of the Cold War. Take the Cold War off the table, and it may rank among the most significant foreign policy victories of the last eighty years.
But if this goes south, Trump’s legacy will look a lot like George W. Bush’s.
Those are the stakes.
Stakes so high that even Lindsey Graham is publicly signaling caution — urging Israel to rein it in. That alone tells you everything about how high they are.

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