Trump Panics as Hormuz Is Closed

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2:59Ben Meiselas:Donald Trump has been panicking all morning as the Strait of Hormuz is now closed. The IRGC Navy, Iran's top military command, has announced they are hereby closing the Hormuz as a result of the United States and Israel's breach of the Memorandum of Understanding that was signed this past week by Donald Trump at Versailles. Israel has continued to escalate its attacks on Lebanon. Last night, another 20 or so people in Lebanon have been killed. That death toll continues to mount. Two days ago, Israel killed around 50 people in Lebanon. Southern Lebanon has been attacked relentlessly by Israel. Clause one of the Memorandum of Understanding very clearly says a complete and total ceasefire, which includes a cessation of Israel attacking Lebanon.

3:58I'm going to play for you in just a moment what the IRGC, Neva, the SEPA

4:04Ben Meiselas:Navy just broadcasted as they closed down the Strait of Hormuz. But here is what Donald Trump is posting right now with all of this going on, with this potentially creating even more economic calamity. Here's what Donald Trump writes. Poll. Which do you prefer? Democrat or Dumbocrat? In one case, you simply exchange the E for U. So simple and precise. Many people don't know or assume that dumb ends in B. In the other case, you spell out dumb, but it seems to be losing some of the identity to Democrats when done this way, which is better. Or he posts this. Funny how the Democrats like to say that Iran is in a stronger position today than they were three months ago, despite the fact that they have been defeated militarily with no Navy or Air Force.

4:59Ben Meiselas:That's why I call them the Democrats, DJT. Let's play the audio of the SEPA Navy, the IRGC Navy, closing down the Strait of Hormuz, the Navy that Donald Trump says doesn't exist. Let's play this clip right now as the Strait of Hormuz has been closed. Let's play it. This is the Fort Navy, Iran-Islamic Revolutionary Guard Fort Navy. Due to the current of the ferry of Iran and the violation of the U.S. commitments regarding

5:40Ben Meiselas:Now, Iran's foreign ministry spokesperson said the following, the first clause of the memorandum of understanding, namely, ending the war on all fronts, including Lebanon, is the most important pillar of mutual commitments. While Iran has remained committed to its obligation, the other side was required to compel the Zionist regime to cease fire in Lebanon. By failing to do so, it has explicitly violated the agreement. Although steps have been taken regarding the end of the naval blockade and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, this memorandum constitutes a single package. A violation of the first clause calls the entire agreement into question.

6:18Ben Meiselas:And unless the other side immediately takes the necessary measures, The memorandum as a whole faces serious difficulties. One of the things we also knew as well that was taking place, there was an uptick in the number of tankers sailing through the strait in both directions Thursday, but traffic pretty much dwindled on Friday as Israel escalated in Lebanon even more. Ships attempting to pass through the waterway said they were turned back by the Iranian Navy. The Wall Street Journal reports, Iran's Navy? I thought Donald Trump said they didn't exist. And there are apocalyptic scenes right now out of southern Lebanon.

6:57Ben Meiselas:But what's Donald Trump posting about this morning? Posts about Dr. Fauci. Biden administration buried a whistleblower complaint alleging Fauci lied to Congress during the pandemic. You're still attacking Dr. Fauci, a career public servant who dedicated his life to helping the American people. That's what you're doing right now as the Strait of Hormuz is closing as the American people are suffering. Or here's what Donald Trump posted this morning. Italian Prime Minister Georgia Maloney asked over and over for a picture with me during the G7 meeting in France. By the way, yesterday Donald Trump called Italian press to try to mock Georgia Maloney.

7:41Ben Meiselas:And then she came out with a video in response saying, I really don't understand why you behave this way. Like, why do you attack allies? It makes no sense to any of us why this is the behavior of the president of the United States. It's just so unbecoming of the United States and like why you treat countries that are supposed to be your friends like this. We don't understand. This is what Donald Trump's posting this morning. While the Strait of Hormuz has now been closed, he then says about Georgia Maloney, she's doing poorly in Italy with her level of popularity, possibly because she turned down the United States of America, a country that truly loves and protects Italy when it came to denying Iran from obtaining or developing nuclear weapon.

8:23Ben Meiselas:But so did NATO for that matter. She wouldn't even let us use Italy's landing strips or runways, a great logistical inconvenience. And this despite the fact that the U.S. contributes hundreds of billions of dollars a year to protect Italy and other so-called NATO allies. Now, after the United States defeated Iran militarily, she wants to be friends again in order to get her numbers up? No thanks, DJT. Donald Trump's approval in Italy is less than 8%. Let me repeat that. Donald Trump's approval in Italy is less than 8%. Donald Trump attacking Georgia Maloney like this actually helps Georgia Maloney.

9:02Ben Meiselas:And Georgia Maloney is a fairly far right-wing politician. And naturally, Donald Trump should be more allied with someone like Georgia Maloney. But because Donald Trump hates women, hates NATO, hates anybody other than Putin and Xi Jinping, this is how this despicable, vile piece of trash behaves. Georgia Maloney responds, President Trump, these constant unprovoked attacks are senseless. As for my popularity, being your friend certainly has not helped it, nor does it depend on my relationship with you. My popularity depends on my ability to defend Italy's national interests, and that is exactly what I have always done.

9:45Ben Meiselas:That is also what I did regarding the American military bases in Italy. Their use is governed by agreements that we have always respected, and that cannot be violated as long as I am prime minister. Italy remains a sovereign nation. In any case, my popularity is none of your concern. I suggest you focus on yours. And you can tell that Donald Trump is panicking behind the scenes because he has CENTCOM, which has turned into a propaganda arm for the regime, is now posting things like this. And CENTCOM has completely and utterly lost all credibility in this war. They would just make some of the most basic and blatant lies.

10:24Ben Meiselas:Remember, they'd be like, Kuwait was not hit with any Iranian drones, and you would see Kuwait get hit. Bahrain was never hit. You would see it get hit. You're like, okay, CENTCOM is just become like a Trump truth social account. So now they know with the Strait of Hormuz close that the economy is going to further tank and the markets are going to crash, right? And that oil is about to surge again after oil prices started coming down and we're about to hit tank bottom. So what do you do if you're a Bernie Madoff on steroids, on nuclear steroids fraud? I mean, like Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme is nothing what Donald Trump and Lutnick and Besant and CENTCOM are doing in the United States.

11:07Ben Meiselas:So what do you do? You put out a statement just like this, right? Commercial vessel flows through open Strait of Hormuz. This is a message to the oil industry and the stock market for manipulation right here. This is what CENTCOM posts. Commercial ship traffic in the Strait of Hormuz increased on June 20th as U.S. forces continued operating in the general area to support freedom of navigation. Safe passage through international water rate remained intact today as 55 merchant ships transited, moving large amounts of cargo and more than 17 million barrels of oil to the global markets. By the way, how much of that oil is Iranian oil going through the Iranian corridor with the blockade being lifted and not these commercial ships?

11:54Ben Meiselas:And also, they're just blatantly lying. More posts about Donald Trump, radical left fools, Democrats, Obama just kept giving them billions in cash. Now, Donald Trump wants to just overwhelm us all with this chaos, with this tyranny, with this propaganda, with these lies. Repeat a big lie over and over again. Goebbels said that over and over and over again and just flood the zone. He has a trillion-dollar right-wing media enterprise and network. Not his. His businesses all fail. But from the right-wing oligarchs that support what he does. just push it out and flood the zone while the American people are suffering right now.

12:38Ben Meiselas:Can't afford rent, can't afford gas, can't afford anything. It's more lies as the Strait of Hormuzes close. So then they put J.D. Vance on TV. J.D. Vance goes on, where else? State regime media. And he says, I'm confident we'll maintain the ceasefire. Here's what J.D. says. Let's play. So first of all, Rachel, I'm very confident we can maintain the ceasefire. And I don't know if there's a divergence of goals or sometimes just a divergence of how to accomplish those goals. I obviously don't want to speak for the Israeli government. Also, J.D. Vance, who purports to be the vice president of the United States, claims he doesn't understand diplomatic protocols.

13:16Ben Meiselas:I've never really been into it. I never really understand it. Could you imagine if former vice president Kamala Harris went on CNN or Midas Touch or MS Now and said, I just don't know diplomatic protocol. I'm just the vice president. You expect me to know diplomatic protocol? I delegate that out. Here, play this clip. So do you have any immediate plans to join Jared and Steve? Yeah, I expect that I will leave sometime the next couple of days. But, you know, it's always a delicate coordination dance and the diplomatic protocols. I got to be honest with you, I don't really understand these things.

13:55I've never been particularly into diplomatic protocols. My attitude is, let's get on the ground and actually fix these problems. But they want to do a delicate dance. The Qataris and the Pakistanis want to make sure that we do this in the right way. So I'm trying to be respectful. Given my position of the last year and a half, I have to care about diplomatic protocols all of a sudden.

14:15Ben Meiselas:More from J.D. Vance right here, who claims the straits are open and things are going amazing. Let's play it. Jared and Steve have been on the ground now for a few hours dealing with some of the technical elements of this negotiation. As you guys know, one of the things the president has set us out to do as a high priority is to open the straits. That's now happened. We actually got 16 million barrels of oil out of the straits. And then his message to the Christians in Lebanon being killed right now by Israel. It's just just think about Jesus, just Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. And then you'll be good.

14:48Ben Meiselas:Here, play this clip. Well, I would just say that to those Christians in Lebanon, keep your faith in Jesus Christ and know that you have a lot of good friends in the United States government who are trying to promote peace in the region. You know, the fundamental problem for those Christians or the reason that those Christians face such violence is because you have Hezbollah, a terrorist organization that has effectively taken up shop in Lebanon. Sometimes they're firing at the Israelis. Of course, that means the Israelis are going to respond in self-defense. And so there's this constant slow burn of conflict.

15:20It's actually gotten a lot better, Rachel, over the last couple of weeks, thanks to the work of the president, of Secretary Rubio, and of a whole lot of others in the administration. But sometimes peace takes a little bit of time to really take root.

15:34Ben Meiselas:Now we have Israel's defense minister, Israel Katz, said the following about Lebanon. The entire first line of Lebanese villages has been destroyed. We're destroying Lebanese houses. The residents will never see them standing before their eyes again. I read you Ben Gavir's statement about how he wants for thousands of Lebanese mothers to weep and that we're unleashing hell and we're going to kill everybody over there. I mean, it's just the most horrific message I read yesterday. You have Ambassador Michael Leiter, the Israeli ambassador to the United States. He's posting, Hezbollah broke the ceasefire, not Israel.

16:12Ben Meiselas:Terrorists lie. Hezbollah is a terrorist organization. Hezbollah lies. Iran is using its proxies to extract concessions. That is the motorist ambarandi of a murder regime. Don't be fooled. Israel has no territorial ambitions in Lebanon. Israel seeks to live side by side with its neighbors behind secure and recognized borders. Israel is honoring the ceasefire while defending itself against terrorist attacks as any self-respecting country would. More details to come. Ryan Grimm quotes this Israeli ambassador to the U.S. and says, Israel seeks to live side by side with its neighbors behind secure and recognized borders.

16:49Ben Meiselas:Israel, of course, is inside Lebanon. It's inside Lebanese territory, which is the opposite of behind the border. They are refusing to leave, and now the Strait of Hormuz is closed again as a result. It is more important to Israel to expand the territory it occupies than it is to comply with the MOU agreed to by the United States, which Israel claims to be an ally of. And we heard from all of the Israeli leaders yesterday saying that they're going to destroy Lebanon. And then they did it. And then they killed all these innocent people. We have photos of the innocent mothers and families and children.

17:24Ben Meiselas:And I think about my little daughter, Jimena. And I think about these little images of these little girls here who have been murdered in the last 48 hours. Close to 100 people. Mostly innocent kids and mothers and fathers have been killed. And it is beyond tragic. It is beyond horrific. We also are learning, though, that Iran is pursuing a two-fangled strategy. While they choke the Strait of Hormuz, they've also said, though, you want us to show up in Switzerland? You want us to show up and continue to discuss this memorandum of understanding? OK, well, we'll shut down the Strait of Hormuz, but we'll show up to Switzerland.

18:04Ben Meiselas:And guess who Iran is sending to Switzerland while they shut down the Strait of Hormuz? A delegation led by, get this, Galibaf, the parliament leader, Abbas Aragchi, the foreign minister, the deputy SNSC head Ali Bagher Khan, central bank governor Abdel Nassar Hamananti, deputy foreign minister Garb Abadi and Bakhi, and deputy oil minister Hamid Bord. As Babak Vadad explains, the composition here is striking. Diplomacy, national security, sanctions relief, banking, and energy are all represented at the senior level. This looks less like a routine negotiating team who's heading to Switzerland right now and more like a delegation prepared to discuss implementation of a broader framework.

18:54Ben Meiselas:Who's the United States sending? Steve Whitcoff? Why that guy? Who is this guy? Some guy who was involved in New York real estate in Harlem? Some slumlord? Witkoff? Jared Kushner, Donald Trump's son-in-law, who was about to go bankrupt with his 666 Fifth Avenue during Trump's first term, and the Qataris had to basically bail him out by giving money to private equity that then helped Jared get bailed out of his venture over there? Jared Kushner? Look, I despise Marco Rubio, but isn't this the role of like the secretary of state? Isn't that like our top diplomat should be there? No, we don't have them there.

19:39Ben Meiselas:J.D. Vance may be going now also, who you just saw over there. J.D. Vance may be going. And I'll leave you with this right here. This is from Ehud Omer, former prime minister of Israel. He wrote in Haaretz the following. This is a former prime minister of Israel who wrote this. Israel is conducting a systematic campaign of ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity in the West Bank. As Medhi Hassan writes, if you were to write this headliner article in a variety of US, UK, German, or French media outlets, your career might be on the line, and you'd probably be accused of anti-Semitism. And yet the author of this piece is the former Prime Minister of Israel.

20:21Ben Meiselas:And Ehud Omar says, these are unprecedented and harsh accusations against an Israeli government and the defense establishment, especially from a former prime minister. But after years of restraint, I have no choice but to make them. Oh, and then moments ago, Donald Trump just posted this. Trump holds the cards in Netanyahu's shaky re-election chances. Trump holds the cards. Really? You think you hold? After all I've just said, you think you hold the cards here? No. You hold your phone with your fat, tiny little thumbs and you make social media posts like a little troll. The world has zero respect for you.

21:02Ben Meiselas:You are something even weaker and worse than a paper tiger because the word paper tiger has the word tiger in it. You know what you are, Donald? You are a crumpled piece of paper. You are a crumpled. You're not a paper tiger. You are a crumpled piece of paper that deserves to be thrown in the trash. And you've destroyed the United States standing in the world. You've destroyed the lives of millions of Americans. You've destroyed the lives of people throughout the world. And it is such a disgusting and despicable thing that just you are. Anyway, everybody hit subscribe. Let's get to 7 million subscribers.

21:41Ben Meiselas:Thanks for watching, everybody.

21:49Ben Meiselas:at store.midastouch.com.