Trump Folds and Gives Hormuz to Iran

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2:00Ben Meiselas:Donald Trump has already caved. Donald Trump is surrendering again. Project Freedom is now over. It lasted under 24 hours. Yes, Donald Trump has folded. Yes, it is Taco Tuesday, everybody. Donald Trump just posted the following, saying he's shutting down that Project Freedom where he claimed he would be escorting ships in the Strait of Hormuz. He said the U.S. was putting all of its Navy behind it, all of its naval power. And Donald Trump also said this was the single greatest military maneuver in the history of the United States military. He said that in the past 24 to 48 hours. Now, here's what Donald Trump just posted moments ago.

2:42Ben Meiselas:Based on the request of Pakistan and other countries, the tremendous military success that we've had during the campaign against the country of Iran, and additionally, the fact that great progress has been made toward a complete and final agreement with representatives of Iran. We have mutually agreed that while the blockade will remain in full force and effect, Project Freedom, the movement of ships through the Strait of Hormuz, will be paused for a short period of time to see whether or not the agreement can be finalized and signed. Donald J. Trump, as one commentator noted, So he's cease firing the unilateral cease fire, he declared.

3:22Ben Meiselas:Now, Jeremy Sachel at DropSite News said, an Iranian official told me that Donald Trump's post just now is riddled with falsehoods and his operation to liberate the Hormuz Strait failed completely. Quote, we will not participate in direct negotiations until the United States formally announces the end of the blockade, said the official. And Donald Trump has backed down and he has caved. Now also a source very close to Iran's head of parliament, MB Galibov posted the following. CENTCOM has failed in presenting any type of operational initiative to open the Strait of Hormuz. An American destroyer has been attacked by unknown agents and three destroyers are adrift.

4:07Ben Meiselas:The Strait of Hormuz is completely closed and no vessel passes through it. Trump's hasty operations have increased the risk of vessel passage and have effectively blocked the strait entirely. In terms of timing, the strait's closure for another three weeks will create the most unprecedented economic and political crisis in the world, especially within America. So M.B. Galiboff, Iran's parliament leader, put that out. Then Donald Trump announces surrender. And then And MB Goluboff's source then says, or MB Goluboff's proxy says, Trump halts his plan to reopen the Strait of Hormuz after failing to confront Iran.

4:50Ben Meiselas:So on state regime media, which called itself Fox, they had to grapple with this. Oh, we were just talking up Operation Project Freedom. And we were saying this was the greatest military endeavor in the history of the United States. And it was going to escort all of these ships. We had all these people saying that this was the greatest thing and Trump was really in it this time and he was not going to cave and he was super serious this time. So watch what happened on Jesse Waters as Donald Trump admitted complete surrender. Let's play this clip. Fox News alert. The president says based on the request of Pakistan and other countries, we have mutually agreed that while the blockade will remain in full force and effect, Project Freedom will be paused for a short period of time to see whether or not the agreement can be finalized and signed.

5:37We suspect the president is letting the Iranians save face. The enemy just yesterday said they controlled the strait. That was obviously a lie. And watching the Americans escort ship after ship out of the Gulf and them not being able to do anything about that was going to be humiliating. Not only were they going to lose whatever military prestige they had left in the region, their negotiators weren't going to be able to fight for their position after they lost their last bargaining chip. The commander in chief must believe that the Iranians are serious about surrendering. if he's going to pause Project Freedom for the sake of the deal, because you could also continue Project Freedom during the negotiations.

6:23You know, you do want to get these foreign ships moving. The president must know what he's doing. And we're about to find out how insane in the brain the regime really is.

6:34Ben Meiselas:Now, Donald Trump admitted complete surrender. As you'll recall, we were reporting the following. A cargo ship had been attacked with missiles or drones in the Strait of Hormuz earlier today, likely by Iran. This is separate from the South Korean ship and the UAE ship and the Port of Fujairah, which was struck yesterday by Iran. Another ship was hit today. We know that Iran was also firing directly at the United States Navy destroyers. And Donald Trump said, if they dare do that, we're going to wipe Iran off the face of this earth. Well, Iran did it as the Navy destroyers looked like they may be heading in.

7:12Ben Meiselas:And then Donald Trump did nothing. He backed down yet again. I think part of all of this also has to do with the fact that Foreign Minister Aragji of Iran is in China right now meeting with Xi Jinping and meeting with his counterpart, the Foreign Minister of China. This was in advance of Donald Trump going to China because Trump's about to take his trip to China. I think that Trump was so worried that his trip to China was going to be called off because Trump really wants that video of him and Xi Jinping with all of the Chinese soldiers standing at attention. Trump wants that photo and Xi Jinping knows that Trump will do anything.

7:52Ben Meiselas:I think that has to do with this as well, because I think the timing of Aragji with Xi Jinping and Donald Trump's being, you know, being in awe of Xi Jinping, the king, as Donald Trump calls him, and also being a Putin bootlicker. Also, we learned the following as well before Donald Trump made that announcement. A cruise missile launched from Bandar Abbas, Iran, toward the Persian Gulf. We see it. You can You can see the cruise missile. Explosions have been heard on Kashim Island, Bandar Abbas, and Bushir per Iranian media. Then Iran announced, before Donald Trump made that announcement, Iran announces through their parliament, Iran has launched a new system regulating vessel passage through the Strait of Hormuz.

8:35Ben Meiselas:According to state TV, ships must first notify Iranian authorities, then receive an electronic message outlining navigation rules. after accepting these terms, they are granted a transit permit. Permits will be issued by a newly established governing body. Now, while this was all taking place, J.D. Vance was giving a speech. And here's what happened during J.D. Vance's speech. It was so utterly humiliating. Here, play this clip. When I see that, when I see Iowa farmers who need to get that E15 to market, All right. What is this? What is Zach? You're gonna have to help me out with her name here.

9:13I lost my page here. Okay. All right. Okay. There we go. Sarah Trone Garriott. There he is. I'm on the wrong page here.

9:23Ben Meiselas:Now, Barack Ravid, Donald Trump's chief outside propagandist over at Axios, He posts U.S. flag, Iranian flag, ship emoji. Trump suspends Hormuz operation, claims progress on Iran deal. My report, this guy's like Trump stenographer. What's Iran posting? Iran's posting photos of their fast boat saying these boats control everything. Efficiency matters, not size. They're posting this photo or this cartoon AI image of Donald Trump in the bottom of the Persian Gulf. latest press briefing from the depths of the Persian Gulf in ultimate misery. Let's check in with Professor Pape, who's been, I think, spot on on Donald Trump's escalation trap and the escalatory ambiguity that Trump's created, which was clear that Donald Trump and the U.S.

10:12Ben Meiselas:were never going to achieve their objectives and that Trump had no clue what he was doing. Here's what Professor Pape just posted. Trump just buried Project Freedom with the tax on UAE oil. It already failed on day one. Trump is desperately bouncing from one extreme to another. A doom spiral of strategic failure in the escalation trap. The first 60 days of the Iran war didn't go wrong. They followed a script and that script is now forcing the U.S. into a far more dangerous phase. Hubris, overreach, denial, escalation. 60 days in, Iran's nuclear stockpile remains intact. U.S. allies refuse direct military participation.

10:54Ben Meiselas:Oil repriced around Hormuz risk,$95 to$115 per barrel on the futures market. Those aren't mixed signals. They are markers of strategic failures. If the U.S. were succeeding, Professor Pape says, Iran would be negotiating on Washington's timeline. Allies would be committing forces. Markets would be stabilizing. None of this is happening. In How the Mighty Fall, Jim Collins shows how corporate success turns into collapse. Hubris, overreach, denial, desperate gambles. That same logic is now driving the Iran war. When great powers fail early, they don't stop. They escalate. Wars don't usually end when initial objectives fail.

11:38Ben Meiselas:They enter a phase where leaders try to prevent that failure from becoming visible. That's where the war is now. And when I hear that, I also think about Putin invading Ukraine, the same hubris, the same psychoticness of Donald Trump. Now, just this morning, folks, just this morning, Pete Hegsitt, Secretary of Defense, said Iran is embarrassed because we control the strait. They do not. Hegsitt said this this morning. Here, play this clip. Two U.S. commercial ships, along with American destroyers, have already safely transited the strait, showing the lane is clear. We know the Iranians are embarrassed by this fact.

12:21They said they control the strait. They do not. So American ships led the way, commercial and military, shouldering the initial risk from the front, as Americans always do. And right now, hundreds more ships from nations around the world are lining up to transit.

12:39Ben Meiselas:And Rubio said this morning, the operation is over and Epic Fury, we're winning. Here, play this clip. I think you're linking it. The operation is over. Epic Fury is a president notified Congress. We're done with that stage of it. OK, we're now on to this project of freedom. As far as a negotiation is concerned, I think the president's been clear that part of the negotiation process has to be not just the enrichment, but what happens to this material that's buried deep somewhere that they have still have access to if they ever wanted to dig it out, that has to be addressed. And that's being addressed in the negotiation.

13:10I'm not going to go further on what progress has been made on that topic because I don't want to endanger the negotiations. But suffice it to say that the president and this entire team is aware of the centrality of that question. And that will have to be addressed one way or the other.

13:22Ben Meiselas:And Rubio said that the new goal is we'll take control of the Strait of Hormuz. Here, play this clip. The actor that enables Iran sanctions evasion is going to face secondary sanctions exposure and a loss of access to the U.S. financial system. As President Trump has said, and the facts clearly bear out, the United States of America holds all the cards. There is no scenario here in which if they decide to join a ladder of escalation, they wind up getting the last say. But our preference is for these straits to be opened to the way they're supposed to be open back to the way it was. Anyone can use it.

13:57No mines in the water. Nobody paying tolls. That's what we have to get back to. And that's the goal here. Every day the conflict continues. However, our leverage on Iran will continue to increase and their position will continue to weaken, especially as the blockade really begins.

14:11Ben Meiselas:And folks, we've been seeing this every night in Iran, the people out there in Tehran Square just celebrating, having the time of their life, apparently, as they've defeated the United States in war. They've brought down Donald Trump. Trump looks utterly humiliated and embarrassed. Perhaps the most pathetic excursion, the most pathetic, catastrophic and unlawful war, the most pathetic thing the United States has ever engaged in. One of it's certainly up there. I've never thought that the US would be viewed as such a loser, but that's what happens when you have a loser in the Oval Office. So disgusting.

14:45Ben Meiselas:Hit subscribe, everybody. Let's get to 7 million. Thanks for watching.

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