Fearing the world hadn’t met its daily crazy quota, Donald Trump convened an afternoon press conference Monday, ostensibly to discuss the weekend rescue of a US airman from a mountainside in Iran.
With him at the briefing were CIA director John Ratcliffe, Joint Chiefs chair Dan Caine and, of course, Fox & Friends host-turned war czar Pete Hegseth.
Americans didn’t learn much about the operation they didn’t already know. It was logistically challenging and ultimately successful if you don’t count two transport aircraft which the Pentagon had to burn after they were disabled at a makeshift airfield. (“We blew up the old planes,” Trump explained. “Blew them to smithereens.”)
He tossed out some numbers (there were 155 combat aircraft involved in the rescue mission) and Ratcliffe some superlatives (everything was “flawless”). Hegseth took the opportunity to boast on DEVGRU’s behalf. The IRGC was “embarrassed and humiliated,” he said.
The discussion quickly pivoted to what’s next in light of Trump’s ultimatum. On Sunday, he threatened to turn Iran into “hell” by “blowing everything up” within 48 hours. “Everything” means power plants, bridges and other civilian infrastructure in what, technically, would constitute a giant, premeditated, preannounced war crime.
Trump reiterated those threats on Monday while addressing children gathered at The White House for the annual egg roll.
“Iran is strong but not so strong like they were a month ago, I can tell you that,” Trump said, flanked by the First Lady and the Easter Bunny.
A few hours later, at the press conference, he claimed the US could take out “the entire country in one night.” “And that night might be tomorrow night,” he warned.
Hegseth played along. “Iran has a choice,” he said, before channeling the Grail knight: “Choose wisely!”
Eventually (and inevitably), the briefing devolved into a harangue with Trump weighing in on any number of topics, some relevant others not as much.
There wasn’t any evidence to suggest he’s ready to call off tomorrow’s “scheduled” demolition. Just minutes before the briefing, The Wall Street Journal said the Pentagon’s “pulling out existing lists of potential [energy] targets” to hit if Trump “decides to attack” on Tuesday.
Asked if he’s concerned about the humanitarian crisis that’d invariably accompany widespread attacks on civilian infrastructure, Trump said, of everyday Iranians, “They’d be willing to suffer in order to have freedom.”
“We’ve had numerous intercepts: ‘Please keep bombing'” he went on, suggesting the Iranian people are enthusiastic about the prospect of being blown apart in their own homes. “And when the bombs are not exploding, they’re saying ‘Please come back, come back, come back!'”
I cant process what he said with that Easter Bunny one side and Melania the other. Maybe I’m hallucinating.
” i picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue”
That’s funny!
That Easter Bunny video is one of the more surreal things I’ve ever seen.
I was going to post exactly that.
Beam me up, Scotty.
I never would have expected for the Easter Bunny to be in on this.
At least he’s not nodding his head and pumping his fist.
The fact the bunny was there and didn’t voice an objection makes it complicit.
We’ll know soon enough if “he choose poorly”.
I wonder who was in the Easter Bunny suit? It’s usually somebody relevent (and not just a random paid entertainer). I know it was often Susan Rice back in the Obama days.
It puts a whole nother spin on things when you imagine that it’s Miller in there.
That wasn’t Miller?!
If you read some Israeli news articles, they are expecting US boots in Iran, their boots are busy in Lebanon. It would appear that the Iranians are quite good engineers at hardening their launcher locations. Dig them back out and good to go.
His Thursday night speech was hardly a rally around the flag moment. Praising allah Sunday morning may have fell deaf on Crusaders ears.
Quite a few soldiers are not thrilled about a crusade. secW may have the makings of a morale problem.
Dying for oil, not popular?
The equity market seems to believe that whatever happens, whether that be ceasefire or Stone Age, will not result in an extended disruption in global oil flows. I guess we are in the “Boy who cried Wolf” fable.
Let’s hope they don’t sink the maine or create an Alamo
Pete Hegseth and the Last Crusade
Equities are keying off Art Cashin’s wisdom
“You never bet on the end of the world, that only happens once, and the odds of something that happens once in an eternity are pretty long.”
I prefer my own version…
Don’t bet on the end or the world…if you’re right you won’t be around to enjoy.
Yep. That’s exactly right. And the last 10 years of my life have been spent trying to convey that point while simultaneously documenting the slow-motion unraveling of the world as I’ve known it for my entire adult life. It’s a tough thing to communicate: It’s actually falling apart — this is not a drill — but it’s a glacial process and you shouldn’t let it color your investment decisions.
“glacial” is a very apropos word choice.
Thank you. That was purposeful.
Last week our Dear Leader cautioned us about making trades based on a dislike or hatred of DJT. I am with him on that. For those who are trading on a short-term horizon mostly driven by buy-backs and model flows. I even love to torment a couple of fellow readers here by insisting that earnings don’t matter in the shorter term. Nor do “valuations”.
But I differ from our DL when it comes to investing for the long haul rather than making shorter-term trades. If you run portfolios with a longer investment horizon the president’s antics do matter when it comes to global allocation decisions.
I’m seeing more and more commentary highlighting the damage that is being done based on Trump’s actions. But what should be more alarming is a growing dislike of all of us, not just the president. This may not dissipate when he eventually loses power.
Why is that? One of my business partners keeps reminding us that it is not just Trump because WE ELECTED HIM. The American electorate chose to return him to power and many still continue to resolutely support him. Yeah, you can argue that we have the most liquid markets and such, but are we the best or only place to park and invest your life savings? The example of Brexit may be telling, no?
We’d see this first in FDI and foreign retail investor behavior, right? Professional investors are driven by cynicism and avarice, they’d (we’d) invest in Hell if the short term risk/reward were right.
I thought Donny Darko was weird.
I underestimated reality.
Same bunny.
I’m not much for *1’s, but you earned it!
“Tattaglia’s a pimp, he never could have outfoxed Santino . . . What I didn’t know ’till this day, was that it was the Easter Bunny all along.”
…dude perfect…
I read that in Brando’s voice too.
And now for a total digression, but that one iconic moment is so pivotal. Vito is in denial. Tattaglia absolutely could have, and did, outfox Santino. If Tattaglia was a pimp, Santino was a gigalo. Vito needed the revelation that there was a traitor to rationalize how a son of his could fall for such an easy trap. He would make sure after that Michael was coached to never be so credulous, but in consequence, he could never find peace. The pendulum swung (swinged? swang?) the other way, and it cost Vito’s third son.
In the end, you either wind up sleeping with the fishes, swimming with the pigs, or… I dunno, some crazy Easter Bunny sh!t.
The energy targeting is aheady underway. Israel hitting South Pars gas or petrochem, Iran hitting Jubail in Saudi (not sure what, energy or petrochem). MBS says Saudi will not pay tolls, will entirely bypass SoH with pipelines, coordinates of which helpful Russia has surely provided to Iran.
Futures have oil in the $70s by fall.
I don’t see where the confidence comes from.
25th Ammendment now.
I mean, if not now…what would it actually take?
Think about how far we’ve gone when Marjorie Taylor Green is sounding an alarm that Trump has lost his mind, AND she sounds credible saying it. That’s at least as surreal as the Easter Bunny playing ride-or-die with the lunatic fringe.
And this is why reading “Trump should” articles is a waste of time.
Nobody’s forcing you to read. If there’s anything more aggravating than a non-voter who pens lengthy laments for democratic backsliding, it’s someone who wittingly subjects themselves to content they know’s going to upset them, and then blames everyone else when they get upset.
. . . maybe they should have just given him that Peace Prize . . .