Trump Loses Control as War Spreads

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1:57Ben Meiselas:following statement to the American people. He said this to the New York Post moments ago, quote, I don't have the yips with respect to the boots on the ground. Like every president says, there will be no boots on the ground. I don't say it. I say probably don't need them or if they were necessary because I don't have the yips. I don't have the yips. Statement from Donald Trump right there. War is spreading throughout the entire Middle East. Iran is not relenting. There was a disastrous press conference held this morning by Donald Trump's defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Dan Cain.

2:39Ben Meiselas:They talked about a war that could last a very long period of time, weeks, potentially months. Also, Donald Trump's been calling into reporters and saying that he is not ruling out boots on the ground. The specific quote from Donald Trump is, we are going to be escalating this even more soon. It's going to get even less safe. We haven't even hit them referring to Iran hard yet, Donald Trump says. He's also been making a number of other kind of deranged quotes about how he's not ruling out. He said, other presidents, They're afraid of putting boots on the ground. I'm not afraid of putting boots on the ground.

3:19Ben Meiselas:I'm going to do whatever it is that I'm going to do. We also learned that there were three F-15s that were struck by Kuwait in a friendly fire incident. U.S. Air Force fighter jets were mistakenly shot down by Kuwaiti air defenses. Fortunately, all of the individuals on board Those airplanes were safe and they did not die. They all were able to eject. But a major friendly fire incident over there in Kuwait. I want to go through what else is going on. Let's just take this piece by piece of what we are learning this morning. CENTCOM posted the following update. As of 7.30 a.m. March 2nd, four U.S.

4:05Ben Meiselas:service members have been killed in action. The fourth service member who was seriously wounded during Iran's initial attack eventually succumbed to their injuries. 18 American service members seriously wounded so far during this operation. The U.S. military's ongoing strike campaign against Iran, according to a spokesperson from U.S. Central Command. Iranian forces also hit a U.S.-flagged tanker, the Stena Imperative, in the port of Bahrain today, setting the vessel on fire. And while all of this was going on, Donald Trump says it's gonna get less safe. We haven't started to hit them hard yet.

4:40Ben Meiselas:The big wave hasn't even happened yet. The big one is coming soon. Then Donald Trump called up CNN and told Jake Tapper the following as well. Let's just play this clip.

4:51Dan Caine:...that and President Trump,

4:53Donald Trump:I'm just hearing in my ear, just told my colleague Jake Tapper that the big wave is yet to come. So clearly things are gonna be escalating, not deescalating in the future. Well, I think the imminent threat goes back to nuclear weapons. Yeah, but I mean, the assessment was it could take 10 years, 10 years for an ICBM. We know they have. But Trump said it was obliterated, that the nuclear weapons were obliterated.

5:14Ben Meiselas:We know they have stockpiles of nuclear material. We can see this satellite imagery right here, dated Sunday, March 1st, obtained by Planet Labs and Airbus Defense in Space. Hat tip to the fine folks at OSINT Defender who have done a good job at least compiling all this stuff and analyzed by The New York Times. you can see extensive damage that's been done to the U.S. Naval Support Activity Base in Bahrain, the headquarters of the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet right there. Look at the before, look at the after right here. Also, according to ABC, all U.S. military bases are now under threat condition Bravo, which is basically one of the highest level threats of terroristic activity there.

5:57Ben Meiselas:Ali Laranjani, who is one of the top military officials in Iran, runs their national security, their version of their National Security Council, has put out the following statement this morning. Iran, unlike the United States, has prepared itself for a long war. And here's the statement that was put out by the Islamic regime. As in the past 300 years, Iran did not start this war, and our braved armed forces have not engaged in any tax except in defense. We will fiercely defend ourselves and our 6 ,000-year-old civilization, regardless of the cost, and will make the enemies sorry for their miscalculations.

6:38Ben Meiselas:He then posted, Trump has betrayed America first to adopt Israel first, and then posted, Trump's wishful thinking has dragged the whole region into an unnecessary war, and now he is rightly worried about more American casualties. It is indeed very sad that he is sacrificing American treasure and blood to advance Netanyahu's illegitimate expansionist ambitions. He also posts, we will not negotiate with the United States. So folks, it doesn't seem like Iran is going to be relenting or going to be surrendering or going to be even negotiating with Donald Trump at this point. The same time, we know that the Kremlin, Donald Trump's buddy, Vladimir Putin, says that Russia is in continuous contact with Iran's leadership over what Moscow calls outright aggression against Tehran and has expressed deep disappointment in how events unfolded.

7:36Ben Meiselas:So as Donald Trump continues to be a Putin bootlicker, you have Putin and China also siding here with Iran, as we knew they would. Pete Hegseth, Secretary of Defense, held a unhinged press conference this morning with the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Dan Cain, and he just started doing Clint Eastwood quotes. It was very bizarre, this press conference. Let me show you what went down. When he was asked, so is this war going to take four weeks, six weeks, How long is it going to take Pete Hegsiv? He then attacks NBC and says that's a typical NBC gotcha question. If it's four weeks, six weeks, it could move up.

8:16Ben Meiselas:Just stop asking these questions. Here, play this clip. The ability that we have over there.

8:21Dan Caine:I heard the question about about four weeks. It's the typical typical NBC sort of gotcha type question. President Trump has all the latitude in the world to talk about how long it may or may not take. Four weeks, two weeks, six weeks. it could move up, it could move back. We're going to execute at his command the objectives we've set out to achieve. And what he has shown ability to do that other presidents can't quite seem to have the aperture to do, well, I mean, Joe Biden didn't even know what he was doing, is to look for opportunities and off ramps and escalations for the United States that creates new opportunities to execute what we need on our own timeline.

8:56Dan Caine:So you can play games about four weeks, five weeks. He has all the latitude, and I'm glad he does, because there's no better communicator than our president, expressing those things.

9:05Donald Trump:I've been in meetings with the president

9:07Dan Caine:for the last two and a half days. We know exactly where his head space is, and he will communicate as he should exactly what he would like, and we will follow those orders. And I think everything he said on that is right down the middle. Absolutely. Yes, right there. Yes, sir.

9:23Ben Meiselas:Then Hegseth starts to do these bizarre one-liners where he's like, this is not so-called regime change, but this is changing the regime. Here, play this clip. Iran was building powerful missiles

9:38Dan Caine:and drones to create a conventional shield for their nuclear blackmail ambitions. Let me say that again, a conventional shield for their nuclear blackmail ambitions. Our bases, our people, our allies, all in their crosshairs. Iran had a conventional gun to our head as they tried to lie either way to a nuclear bomb. It almost worked under Obama and his terrible deal, but not under this president. Turns out the regime who chanted death to America and death to Israel was gifted death from America and death from Israel. This is not a so-called regime change war, but the regime sure did change. and the world is better off for it.

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12:03Ben Meiselas:As we wrote on the Midas Touch account, it would be nice if we had a Secretary of Defense who knew what he was doing and not just regurgitating quotes from action movies, more from Hegseth right here, where he's asked by reporters, What do you mean by you want our troops to pray or you want, what do you want them to pray for? What's in your prayer for them? What are you talking about right now? Rather than giving us a strategy, you want prayer? That's what you're saying that we should do? We shouldn't ask questions as the American people. It's just prayer. And he's like, yeah, it should just be the biblical prayer.

12:40Ben Meiselas:That's what my family does, the biblical prayer. You know, all of these warmongers, all of these fascists, they hide behind the Bible. They hide behind God when they don't want to answer actual questions. It's utterly despicable. Play this clip. There's a military objective. Last one right here.

12:56Donald Trump:Thank you, sir. As you've said, there are a large amount of U.S. service members that are in harm's way right now. What is your prayer for them?

13:06Dan Caine:First of all, my prayer for them is that I do pray for them. My wife prays for them. Our family prays for them. Our cabinet prays for them. none of this is done on a whim. Having been in their boots, having been in their shoes, having been in their flight suits, I think we, I mean, I know we think about them with every decision that we make and every recommendation that we make to the President of the United States. Those recommendations are made prayerfully. And when I pray every day for them and for this mission. I pray simply for the biblical wisdom to see what is right and the courage to do it.

13:44Dan Caine:It's going to take courage to follow through on this. There's going to be a lot of noise and we pray for that. And we hope all of you do to do as well. Thank you very much.

13:52Ben Meiselas:Appreciate it.

13:52Dan Caine:Thank you.

13:53Ben Meiselas:Then the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Dan Kane, spoke and he said we should expect a lot more losses of life. This mission is going to take a very long time. This is a major operation. major combat operations take a long time we're in a war here play this clip the military objectives

14:11Donald Trump:at CENTCOM and the joint force have been tasked with will take some time to achieve and in some cases will be difficult and gritty work we expect to take additional losses and as always we will work to minimize U.S. losses but as the secretary said this is major combat operations so then a

14:31Ben Meiselas:reporter asks Hegseth, are you concerned about this war spiraling into a longer war? Play this clip.

14:38Donald Trump:Secretary Hegseth and one for Chairman Keeney as well. I understand to your point here that you don't want to broadcast everything for our adversaries to hear, but the American people also want to know what they're sending their men and women to war for. Is there a concern of this spiraling into a longer war and then one for the chairman when you're done?

14:59Dan Caine:Did you not hear my remarks? We're ensuring the mission gets accomplished, but we are very clear-eyed, as the president has been, unlike other presidents, about the foolish policies of the past that recklessly pulled us in to things that were not tethered to actual clear objectives. So we know we have plans, we have generals, we have chairmen, we have commanders, CENTCOM commanders, Admiral Cooper, who's executing very deliberately to ensure outcomes that I laid out are accomplished. But we would never in front of a press pool lay out how long that may take. The mission for our warfighters, which is what matters to us, is very, very clear.

15:41Dan Caine:And they're executing it right now violently.

15:43Ben Meiselas:And then he says that rules of engagement are stupid. He says rules of engagement are stupid. Let's play this clip with maximum authorities.

15:53Dan Caine:No stupid rules of engagement, no nation building quagmire, no democracy building exercise, no politically correct wars. We fight to win and we don't waste time or lives. As the president warned, an effort of this scope will include casualties. War is hell and always will be. A grateful nation honors the four Americans we have lost thus far and those injured. The absolute best of America.

16:25Ben Meiselas:Donald Trump just issued the following statement to New York Post. Donald Trump says, quote, I don't have the yips with respect to boots on the ground. Like every president says, there will be no boots on the ground. I don't say it. I probably don't need them or if they were necessary. I don't have the yips, not the yips. Donald Trump says that's his current message to the American people. He doesn't have the yips. Then Donald Trump said that he really liked that press conference of Pete Hegsiv and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Dan Cain. He says that's right out of the central casting of a Hollywood movie.