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⚡️ — Trust me bro: Senior Trump administration officials tour the press attempting to boost popularity for the war, but are the US taxpayers buying the bullshit?
➡️ Following the recent attacks over two days by the US forces on southern Iran, along with responses by the Iranians for the attacks, as well as those killed and injured, oil prices had began to rise more than $97 per barrel, leading the Trump administration to take to the press, limiting the damage to the markets, and eventually aiding prices to reduce by around $2 per barrel.
🔹 US President Donald Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Energy Secretary Chris Wright, and Treasury Secretary Donald Trump, either called in or held several in-person interviews, journalist question sessions, and TV statement opportunities, in order to tell the US public that the US were doing well, being dominant, winning, while Iran was losing the war both militarily, and now economically too.
🔹 President Trump was asked by reporters that if he wanted the Iranian people to rise up, would he be instructing the CIA to send in arms, which Trump said he wouldn’t want to say, because it would be inappropriate.
🔹 However, Trump did go on to claim that Iran had shot between 20-25 thousand protestors from the January demonstrations, but never provided any evidence or proof of his initial claims months ago of 52,000 killed, let alone any proof that 20 thousand-plus have been killed in the last three months.
🔹 Meanwhile Iranian media, including IRIB, Tasnim News, Mehr News, and Fars News, publish the punishments of those found guilty of being in the demonstrations when they are carried out, as well as the investigation that forewent the sentence.
🔹 President Trump went on to claim that the Iranian regime is getting weaker and weaker by the day, alleging that at some point they’re not going to be able to shoot so easily because the people aren’t going to take it, despite recent internal changes, security changes, and calls for unity from the Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei and other officials, along with regular peaceful street demonstrations in support of Iran and the regime.
🔹 Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had also recently returned from the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Summit (SCO), where bilateral conversations were held with counterparts from Russia, China, India, Pakistan, and other local bordering countries, prior to speeches from Pezeshkian and Russian President Vladimir Putin that urged the organisation of an Organisation Bank so that there was no more reliance on western currency.
🔹 President Trump also claimed the US were controlling the Strait of Hormuz, which would mean recent operations to take out replaced or restored monitoring and radar systems in southern Iran had been successful, however, Trump had admitted they had waited for the two months since July because the military had noticed movements and attempts to recreate the infrastructure, before taking it out.
🔹 Iran, meanwhile, have been receiving regular non-offensive equipment from Russia and China, which would likely include radars and monitoring equipment for replacement around the Strait, allowing Iran to monitor the maritime flow and activity, which, following the war or the end of the US Naval blockade, Iran will need to be able to do, once the country is formally allowed to resume exports and imports.
🔹 Trump said that Iran were trying to build a rocket that drops mines, claiming he’d never heard of such a thing, yet Russia have been doing this for two years, dropping mines along roadways and infrastructure areas around Ukraine, and now even drop FPV drones from rocket drones, so why would Iran be any different? “We saw everything and they’re building it,” Trump said: “We see everything they do – they can’t even go to the bathroom without us seeing it.”
🔹 President Trump said when Iran was hit on the night of September 1, it was because Iran had taken a shot at the bases in Jordan 36 hours before: “I guess eight missiles were shot,” he claimed, saying one was let go because it had been inaccurate, landing in the middle of the desert someplace.
🔹 “We hit them hard last nigh, very hard – they gave a little love tap, but we hit them very hard last night,” he said, without mentioning the deaths or injuries caused as a result of the attacks, whether it was intentional or not: “We took out all the new equipment they tried to build along the Strait of Hormuz, some defensive, some offensive – they were trying to see the ships because they can’t see the ships, and they can’t see it because they have no radar because we blew it up.”
🔹 Trump added: “We blew up much more than their radar last night,” stating it was a very heavy attack: “And we’re prepared to do another one anytime we want.”
🔹 President Trump said: “As soon as it’s over, which I don’t think will be very much longer, I don’t know how much more they can take, but you know, it doesn’t matter – I’m not affected by the election because I’m not running, it is my party that is running, and I’m going to help my party – I think my party respects the fact we are not allowing Iran to have a nuclear weapon.”
🔹 The President told Israeli Kan News later that Israel didn’t need to worry about a renewed war on Iran, because while Trump was US president, Israel would be taken care of.
🔹 President Trump later spoke at the podium rather than the presidential desk, telling Department of War Secretary Pete Hegseth that he did a good job with Iran and knocked the hell out of them, claiming again: “We’re winning that one very big, by the way, in case you haven’t noticed – we have to say it because the press hates to say it.”
🔹 Trump said he was taken by surprise when the Times reported that Iran was not looking too good lately, then again claimed: “They don’t have any aircraft, anything having to do with aircraft or ships – they’re all at the bottom of the sea or at the bottom of a runway.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio
➡️ US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told the Brian Kilmeade Show by phone that the operations in the Middle East are not just about punishing Iran or the Iranian regime, it’s about preventing them from having access to money that could be used to sponsor terrorism, claiming this is something Iran has always done: “They want money for two things,” he said: “To sponsor terrorism and ultimately to have a nuclear weapon, and we can’t allow that to happen.”
🔹 Rubio said he didn’t think a trade deal had been agreed between India and Iran at the recent SCO Summit: “Obviously, countries all develop their own foreign policy, and many countries around the world talk to the Iranian regime,” he said, adding that even the US have met with elements of the regime too: “In terms of some of these discussions that have occurred, there’s been contact with them.”
🔹 “According to Rubio, what will ultimately happen, according to the clarity of the President, is that no country should be helping Iran evade sanctions: “No country should be out there helping them create mechanisms by which they can generate revenue that they will then use to sponsor terrorism and try to build a nuclear weapon, and if countries decide to do that, then we’re going to have to sanction them too.”
🔹 Concerningly, Rubio highlighted a severe shortage of air interceptors, noting that the destruction of Iran’s defence systems had enabled recent actions: “The whole world is asking for more interceptors, and it’s become the number one defence need on the planet – not just for Ukraine, but the planet – countries in the Middle East want it.
🔹 “I know Iran wishes they had interceptors, which they don’t, which is why we’re able to act the way we do and do some things we have, because those things were wiped out by us, but multiple countries around the world… look, it’s just a question of availability, and obviously, I have to remind people, the United States has needs, like, we have our own defence needs, we have our own defence requirements, and before we can help others, we need to have to make sure that our own stockpiles are also sufficient.”
🔹 Rubio said that Iran had lost operational control of the Strait, claiming that Iran laid a bunch of mines, but the US Navy were able to destroy those mines and open broader shipping lanes as a result: “But they keep shooting at things, so we will continue to target those things that pose an imminent threat to our forces, and to global shipping in the Straits,” adding that the Straits will remain open, and will not be under Iranian control.
🔹 Speaking about Iran’s economy, Rubio claimed it was a disaster, because every penny Iran are able to get, whether through sanctions relief, or ‘whatever,’ every penny is not spent on the Iranian people or their own country: “They use that money to fund Hezbollah, and Hamas, and terrorist organisations, and militias in Iraq that threaten us and the world,” he claimed.
🔹 Rubio said: “If they spent a fraction, just half the money, that they’re spending on these militia, if they spent it on their own people, the Iranian people would be better off.”
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent
➡️ US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Fox News that the US sanctions were going to asphyxiate the regime: “I emphasize that we are telling friends and foes not to deal with this regime – I declare that we know who you are, you know who you are, and if we have to, we will put you out of business,” he warmed.
🔹 Bessent continued: “We are going to systematically go through and take every bad actor like that out – we have created new authorities for the Treasury to be able to sanction airlines, maritime, and digital assets,” warning that this was all hands on deck: “Teams from the Treasury, State Department, and DOD have gone out of the world and are having very fulsome talks with anyone supporting the regime.”
Energy Secretary Chris Wright
➡️ US Energy Secretary Chris Wright told Bloomberg that there will be more ways of getting vital oil supplies to the market place as new infrastructure is built, claiming Iran has played a card to hold the world hostage and that everyone would bend to Iran’s need.
🔹 Claiming this was nonsense, Wright alleged that more than 17 million barrels of crude oil was floating out of the Strait of Hormuz on Monday, adding that this was above levels that were seen before Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz due to the US giving in to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, allowing attacks on Beirut and Lebanon in April that killed hundreds of people and left thousands with injuries.
🔹 The Energy Secretary said there were always going to be alternative pathways, because there couldn’t be too many eggs in one basket: “Maybe the world had that with the Strait of Hormuz, but President Trump is changing that,” Wright said. adding that new pipelines will be built, existing pipelines will be expanded to reduce Iran’s future leverage ever to use the Strait again, but the US Navy right now was overwhelming Iranian attacks and getting oil and gas out to the marketplace.
NATO Ambassador Matthew Whitaker
➡️ US Ambassador to NATO, Matthew Whitaker, said that as a bankrupt country, Iran are not going to be able to pay anyone in their military, civil service, government, nor will Iran be able to continue to subsidise their society: “So certainly, the people of Iran will not be happy with the current state of affairs, and they should blame their government,” he told Fox News, adding: “They should blame this regime, and they should ask certainly for a change and a different way forward.”
Presidential Press
➡️ US media favoured by the President began to also report on Iran, with the WSJ claiming President Trump was consulting privately with senior aides about formally ending the six-month war with Iran.
🔹 Trump had shifted to an economic pressure strategy recently, but said he preferred ‘almost total control of the Hormuz Strait’ while the United States maintains roughly 50,000 troops, 19 warships, and extended air-defence deployments to 12 months across the Middle East at the cost of the US taxpayer.
🔹 Officials warned that longer deployments, exemplified by the USS Gerald R Ford’s 11-month sea stint and the 82nd Airborne’s potential presence until 2027 – could strain personnel and affect Republican prospects in the November midterms.
➡️ The report was echoed by Reuters, who said US Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Rubio were pushing to prevent the Iranian war escalating before the November 3 midterm elections, hoping to limit Republican electoral losses.
🔹 According to Reuters, a pause would allow the US military to replenish heavily depleted ammunition stockpiles, noting that officials may consider stronger military strikes following the elections, however, no decision had been made, and a return to full-scale war is uncertain.
➡️ While many don’t tune into Axios reports recently, especially ones penned by Barak Ravid, who also works for Israeli channel 12 and reports recently have been alleged to have been deliberately incorrect and devoid of fact, Axios did write a report saying that Rubio had instructed US embassies worldwide to deliver a ‘diplomatic demarche’ on ‘Operation Economic Outcast’ to the highest levels of government.
🔹 Embassies were allegedly told to demand that countries ‘immediately and systematically’ cut trade with Iran, identify illicit Iranian business activity, and warned countries, companies, and individuals continuing to do business with Iran risk sanctions and losing access to the dollar system.
🔹 The Trump administration is reportedly working to establish an interagency task force to coordinate the implementation and enforcement of the campaign against Iran.
➡️ Sources: Whitehouse.gov, Fox News, Kan News, Reuters, Axios, Wall Street Journal, Brian Kilmeade Show, and more.
