Trump Panics as Arab Allies Threaten Him in War

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1:49Ben Meiselas:Donald Trump is panicking as multiple Arab nations that are purportedly allied with the United States are demanding that Donald Trump have U.S. forces engage in a ground invasion of Iran. These Arab nations are saying you can't leave this region unless you obliterate Iran, because if you leave and Iran still controls the Strait of Hormuz and if Iran is stronger than ever, which they are now, you are going to be leaving all of your purported Arab nation allies being left far more vulnerable. and the security umbrella that the United States promised is over. Those quid pro quos, those pay for play schemes, Donald, they are over.

2:36Ben Meiselas:And these Arab nations are saying that they're going to go elsewhere. Here's the breaking news late at night that has Donald Trump a panicking. The United Arab Emirates, supported by Bahrain, Kuwait, and also Saudi Arabia, pushing hard for Donald Trump to order a ground invasion of Iran. Mind you, these nations aren't going to provide their own ground forces. As officials from many Gulf allies of the United States, again, including Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, have conveyed in private conversations that they don't want the ongoing military operation to end until there are significant changes in the Iranian leadership or there's a dramatic shift in Iran's behavior.

3:18Ben Meiselas:Diplomatic officials told the Associated Press. I mean, just over the past 12 hours, you had an oil tanker off the coast of Dubai get hit by Iran. You've had major infrastructure in Kuwait be destroyed by Iran. Iran continues to strike in Israel, recently hitting an oil depot in Haifa, continues to strike Bahrain, continues to hit critical infrastructure and military bases in Saudi Arabia. And then earlier today during a press conference, Donald Trump's press secretary, Caroline Levitt's like, we're going to have the Arab nations pay for this war. We're going to roll out that plan. I mean, yeah, we invaded the region with Netanyahu without telling the Arab nation allies that, you know, bought Donald Trump private planes and put up Trump hotels in their countries and funneled hundreds of millions, if not billions of dollars to Trump Bitcoin and crypto and other Trump ventures like World Liberty Financial.

4:20Ben Meiselas:But we're going to make the Arab nations pay for it. Meanwhile, the Iranian parliament earlier today approved a bill to levy fees on the Strait of Hormuz transit, at least$2 million for any ship to pass through the Strait of Hormuz. This was voted on by the Iranian parliament. So as Donald Trump's like, We've totally obliterated them. They're utterly destroyed. They don't exist anymore. Their parliament met and held a formal meeting where they passed a law to fully take control over the Strait of Hormuz in their legislation. And meanwhile, the speaker of the Iranian parliament, M.B. Galibaf, the guy who Donald Trump says, yeah, I'm negotiating with Galibaf and we're We're becoming closer.

5:07Ben Meiselas:I'll let you know in a few weeks what he's like. MB Galibov posted an hour or so ago, Iran's enemies pass off their wishes as news while simultaneously threatening our nation. They're dead wrong. If they strike once, they'll get hit several times back. The people of Iran, God willing, under the guidance of the supreme leader of the revolution, will make the enemy regret its actions and attain their rightful rights. And as noted, Kuwait's Petroleum Corporation said that Iranian forces attacked an oil tanker, the Al-Salmi, in the Persian Gulf. Tonight, Iran hit this Kuwaiti crude carrier in a Dubai port.

5:48Ben Meiselas:The United Kingdom maritime trade operations also confirmed that there was this strike there. Meanwhile, you have the United States and Israel striking an area in Isfahan, believed to be a ballistic missile depot in Isfahan, though not clear what it is. And then earlier you had the Iranian press secretary, one of the IRGC or foreign ministry press secretaries rather. He's like, we're not having any negotiations with Donald Trump. Don't believe him. There's no communications. Yes, they're trying to convey to Pakistan things to have us talk. But we put forward our non-negotiables that unless we get reparations, we control the Strait of Hormuz, we don't reduce our ballistic missiles or Shahi drones.

6:35Ben Meiselas:We have real security guarantees for us, the Houthis, Hezbollah, and our Iranian Shiite proxies in Iraq. We're not doing anything here. Just remember, listen to what the Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson said play this clip we have had no direct negotiations with america so far since the last round of negotiations until now the u.s demands have been very excessive unrealistic and illogical the meetings that pakistan has with neighboring countries are well, a framework they themselves have established. We have not participated in this framework. Can it be allowed that Iran and Iranians be in a position of confronting the illegal aggression of America and the Zionist regime to use the available capabilities on the soil of regional countries while our armed forces remain silent?

7:38The duty of every authority demands that it respond to such cases with...

7:43Ben Meiselas:And now Senator Marco Rubio is posting videos where he says the following on the Department of State website and their social media accounts. Pay attention to the shift of language. Here's what Rubio said. Here are the clear objectives of the operation. You should write them down. Okay, Rubio, I'll write them down. One, the destruction of Iran's Air Force. Two, the destruction of their Navy. Three, the severe diminishing of their missile launching capability. Four, the destruction of their factories. Bullseye emoji. The severe diminishing of their missile. So they can still have the missiles. They can still keep the regime.

8:20Ben Meiselas:They can still control the Strait of Hormuz. There's no regime change. They're stronger than ever. But you're saying that they'll have to get rid of their Navy and their Air Force. They're hitting with the drone swarms, the FPV drones and the Shahid drones and the ballistic missiles. That's what they're, but they don't, just as long as those are diminished, by whose account? Notice that there was nothing on that list as well about not enriching uranium or nuclear capabilities or anything like that. Do you see the whole shift in the language, which coincides? And I'll do a longer report on this, but the Wall Street Journal reporting the following.

8:56Ben Meiselas:Trump is signaling he's willing to end the war with Iran without reopening the Strait of Hormuz, effectively handing control of the choke point to Iran and punting any plan to reopen it to a later date. By the way, Iran won't accept that unless they have security guarantees. That's pretty obvious. You heard what they said. Trump tells his aides he's willing to end the war without reopening Hormuz. In other words, he's willing to surrender. That's what he's saying. Administration officials assess that forcing the waterway back open would mean extending the military mission. Y 'all did the invasion.

9:27Ben Meiselas:It was your catastrophic unlawful invasion where you said you were going to do regime change. And now it's reopened the Strait of Hormuz. That's what you're considering a win? Do we all realize how pathetic it is? Here's how it's being described also. Trump has, according to the Wall Street Journal, informed his aides, what we said before. The plan now is pressure Tehran diplomatically to restore the free flow of trade. If that fails, Washington would press allies in Europe and the Gulf to take the lead on reopening the Strait, officials said according to the report u.s officials determined that a direct mission to reopen the strait of hormuz would risk prolonging the war beyond trump stated four to six week timeline instead the strategy has shifted toward degrading iran's military capabilities while winding down active operations while iran now moves towards fully codifying which you heard its toll system in the strait of hormuz a member of iran's national security commission said lawmakers approved the formal plan to codify Iran's control.

10:28Ben Meiselas:The proposal includes new financial arrangements. It's a tolling system they now control. Oman, notably, is referenced as a potential partner in shaping the legal framework. Remember Oman, who Donald Trump picked to be his mediator back in late February before Donald Trump and Netanyahu invaded Iran? Remember the Omanian foreign minister who said that there was a deal in principle in the afternoon and that night, Netanyahu and Trump invaded Iran. Yeah, Oman is now working with Iran to help them solidify the Hormuz toll system. Why Oman? One, they're close by, but two, it gives it legitimacy that now we're working with the mediator who's now on our side, blessing our ability to control Hormuz.

11:15Ben Meiselas:Like, do we see the moves that are being made? Oh, but while that's being reported, a few things. I'll do a longer report on this. Financial Times reports a broker for U.S. War Secretary, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, attempted to purchase a defense-focused fund shortly before U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran. The inquiry reportedly involved a multi-million dollar investment in BlackRock's defense industrial active ETF via Morgan Stanley, but the transaction was never executed because the fund was not yet available to Morgan Stanley clients. The Pentagon rejected the claim, calling it fabricated.

11:50Ben Meiselas:And the NASDAQ-listed IDEF fund has risen about 28 % over the year, but it's down roughly 13 % over the past month. You have this world-renowned economist, Mohamed El-Erian, says, I must say I'm more worried than the average. He said that the war has triggered both a price shock and a demand shock, warning a chain reaction from energy shock to inflation shock to demand destruction with Asia, already fearing actual physical shortages, raising the risk of financial instability if the conflict continues. But folks, one of the main architects of this war, Lindsey Graham, was photographed by TMZ at Disneyland with a bubble wand.

12:32Ben Meiselas:And by the way, my little daughter, 18 months, she loves the bubble. She was at Disney World. Sorry, not Disneyland. Disney World. My baby daughter, she loves the bubble wand at Disneyland. And he was waving that around, apparently. Said Lindsey Graham had to show how tough he was. And he goes, spend some time breaking clays in Edgefield County today. Doesn't get much better than that. We're hunting some duck. We're hunting some pheasant out there. I'm a tough guy. Meanwhile, gas prices over$4 officially. The national average has just hit$4 a gallon, according to Gas Buddy right now. U.S. oil prices surged above$105 a barrel.

13:10Ben Meiselas:Brent is over$114,$115 a barrel. That's what we got for now. We'll keep you posted every step of the way. That's my report for now. Hit subscribe, help us get to 7 million subscribers and thanks everybody for watching. Want to stay plugged in? Become a subscriber to our sub stack at MidasPlus.com. You'll get daily recaps from Ron Filipkowski, ad-free episodes of our podcast and more exclusive content only available at MidasPlus.com.