s, marking its lowest level since April 1983. This reduction is driven by coordinated emergency drawdowns to counter global oil market shocks and high fuel prices tied to geopolitical conflicts, including the war with Iran.
And to help prevent an even bigger backlash against this pointless war of choice.
The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.
Trump Admin Now Crowdsourcing for “Creative” Ideas on Iran
The Defense Department is out of options—and reaching out to others for suggestions on what to do next about Iran.
The Trump administration is running out of ways to pressure Iran, with its airstrikes failing to end Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz or force the country back to the negotiating table. So now the military is asking for “unconventional” new ideas.
CNN reports that an officer in the U.S. Central Command’s intelligence branch sent a message Wednesday to military analysts “looking for new creative and unconventional ways to pressure and punish Iran.” It’s an unusual thing to ask over email, according to CNN, and shows that President Trump knows his options are limited as the war with Iran enters its sixth month.
The email was sent before Trump threatened new airstrikes against Iran and then relented, over the weekend, after Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and other Gulf leaders talked him out of it. Among the plans were attacking Pickaxe Mountain and other Iranian sites reportedly housing nuclear equipment or material.
Those sites are deep underground, however, and would have likely required deploying American ground troops, which Trump is trying to avoid. Eighteen American service members have been killed in the war, according to official counts, and the administration has been criticized for its lack of transparency on military casualties.
“At the end of the day, POTUS will want a deal, so he’ll continually look for ways to get tough and get out of this,” an unnamed source told CNN. “You need creative minds at times—especially if you’re running out of conventional options.”
But more bombing probably won’t change Iran’s negotiating position, according to the CIA and Defense Intelligence Agency. Trump has effectively backed himself into a corner with his ill-advised war, and is having trouble with being able to walk away with anything he can call a victory. American missile stockpiles have dwindled, scores of civilians have been killed, and the global economy, including gas prices, has taken a massive hit. Trump needs a way out.
Just a reminder of the shake up and dismissal of some top military minds since Trump's second term began.....
Gen. C.Q. Brown Jr.: Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Gen. Randy George: Army Chief of Staff
Adm. Lisa Franchetti: Chief of Naval Operations (the first woman to lead the Navy)Adm.
Linda Fagan: Commandant of the Coast GuardGen.
Timothy Haugh: Director of the National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command
John Phelan: Navy Secretary
Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kruse: Head of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA)
Vice Adm. Shoshana Chatfield: U.S. Military Representative to NATO’s Military CommitteeMaj.
Gen. William Green Jr.: Army Chief of ChaplainsGen.
David Hodne: Commander of Army Transformation and Training CommandGen.
James Slife: Air Force Vice Chief of Staff
During Donald Trump's second term, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and the administration have fired or forced the abrupt departure of roughly 15 to over 20 high-ranking generals, admirals, and defense leaders. (By contrast, no high-ranking officers were dismissed during his first term).
And now they're crowdsourcing!
Intoducing for The Cleveland Browns, Quarterback Deshawn "The Predator" Watson. He will also be the one to choose your next head coach.
This is from 3 months ago but a really brilliant commentary. I don't like the headline about "Blasting Hegseth" - that's a clickbait headline. . . . this is just a great, intelligent insight into where we were/are at.
The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.
Iran makes new strait demands, the UAE says a ship was targeted and other Middle East news
Oman says talks to manage the strait between it and Iran continue
Iran issued dramatic new demands for the Strait of Hormuz to reopen as the United Arab Emirates said one of its ships was targeted by an Iranian missile. Yemen’s military attacked the country's Iranian-backed Houthi rebels. And Turkey’s Kurdish peace bill won approval in parliament.
Iran says strait won't open until the US ‘corrects’ behavior
Iran's politburo-like body known as the Supreme National Security Council said the Strait of Hormuz will not open until the United States "corrects its behavior," issuing new demands that could shake up talks on a deal to manage the waterway and traffic on it.
Iran's state broadcaster published the statement by the council’s secretary, Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, who is also a commander in the powerful Revolutionary Guard.
The U.S. must never threaten Iran again, the statement said, and must permanently end the war with Iran and its armed allies in the region. The U.S. must lift the naval blockade of Iranian ports and withdraw its military from the area. It also must "completely compensate" Iran for war damage, lift sanctions and "unconditionally" release frozen assets.
There was no immediate response from the U.S., which has wanted an acceptable deal first on the strait before ending the blockade.
Iran earlier said it was close to reaching a deal with Oman to manage the strait, which runs between the two countries.
Oman, a mediator Gulf Arab country which has said relatively little on the talks, said in a statement Saturday that the discussions were ongoing "in a positive and constructive atmosphere," and condemned attacks on ships on the strait.
Iran attacks a vessel in the Strait of Hormuz, UAE says
A vessel owned by Abu Dhabi's state-owned ADNOC oil and gas company was attacked while transiting the Strait of Hormuz, Emirati authorities said. The Foreign Ministry said Iran fired the missile as part of attacks on commercial shipping.
ADNOC said in a statement that there were no casualties following the attack early Saturday. The company said over a dozen of its vessels have been attacked by missiles and drones while passing through the strait since the United States and Israel launched the war on Iran in February. One crew member has been killed and 20 others wounded, it said.
ADNOC didn't elaborate on where the attack took place nor on any damage.
Later, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Center said a vessel east of the town of Khasab, Oman, had been struck by a projectile that caused a fire that was put out, with the vessel and crew safe. It was not immediately clear whether this was the ADNOC incident.
Iran and Oman, on the other side of the strait, have been discussing a deal to manage the waterway, which had been considered an international one before the war.
Yemen's military attacks Iran-backed Houthis
The attacks were in response to the Houthis' recent strikes in central and eastern Yemen. Col. Majed al-Nazili, spokesperson for Yemen's military, said the attacks targeted the rebels' "sites and capabilities" on multiple front lines, without elaborating.
The escalation between the Houthis and Yemen's internationally recognized government and its backer, a Saudi-supported coalition, threatens to reignite Yemen's civil war following a 2022 truce.
On Friday, United Nations envoy Hans Grundberg urged the parties to exercise restraint, saying that "Yemen today faces a greater risk of renewed large-scale conflict than at any point since the U.N.-brokered truce of April 2022."
Turkey's Kurdish peace bill wins approval in parliament
A Turkish draft law aimed at advancing a peace effort with the country's Kurdish insurgents passed its first hurdle in parliament on Saturday, with a committee approving the measure that includes a conditional, pardon-like mechanism for thousands of former fighters.
Last year, the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, declared its decision to disarm and disband as part of the peace initiative aimed at ending the decades-long conflict with the Turkish state.
The draft legislation, expected to be approved in the general assembly next week, defines the procedures for the group's disarmament and the rehabilitation of some PKK members. It would suspend some prison sentences for people convicted of membership and postpone the prosecution of others.
The measures would come into effect once Turkey's National Security Council confirms that the group has disbanded and surrendered all weapons.
The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people since it began in the 1980s and has spilled into neighboring Iraq and Syria. Turkey and its Western allies consider the group a terrorist organization.
Just before this incident happened trump planned to announce that an official deal on opening the Strait of Hormuz had been reached and the U.S. had won the war...... again.
Intoducing for The Cleveland Browns, Quarterback Deshawn "The Predator" Watson. He will also be the one to choose your next head coach.
Trump says he’s ‘low-keying it’ on Iran: ‘It will work out’
President Trump said in a new interview he is “low-keying it” when it comes to the war with Iran as it nears its sixth month
“We are only semi-negotiating with them. We are just watching Iran with its huge inflation and the fact they have no money,” Trump told Axios on Sunday.
The president also said Tehran’s economy “is in very bad shape” and that the country cannot compensate its forces.
“It will work out. It always works out. It’s like a chess game,” Trump said of tension between the U.S. and Iran.
With the war against Iran approaching the half-year mark, the fighting is straining U.S. relations with historic allies, raising the price of oil and gas amid the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and polling recently as unpopular among Americans.
According to AAA, the average price of a gallon of regular gas in the U.S. was about $4.00 on Monday morning, with the average price being about $3.14 at this time last year.
Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, presented on Saturday his country’s key demands for the U.S. amid talks to reopen the strait. Iran and Oman have been taking part in discussions regarding the waterway.
Zolghadr in a message shared on state media pressed the U.S. to end its naval blockade in the strait, lift sanctions on Tehran and pay war reparations. He also demanded that the U.S. military withdraw from Iran and halt attacks on Tehran’s allies.
New day, new story. And it isn't even Tuesday yet. This excursion/conflict/war, Trump has repeatedly said from the very beginning would end “pretty quickly,” “very soon” and “pretty much, the very near future.” That has now, six months later, evolved into "low keying" it.
Intoducing for The Cleveland Browns, Quarterback Deshawn "The Predator" Watson. He will also be the one to choose your next head coach.
Trump orders the Navy to return to an older system of launching jets off aircraft carriers
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is ordering the U.S. Navy to remove the advanced system used to launch fighter jets from its newest type of aircraft carrier and return to using older steam catapults that he has long said he prefers, according to a directive issued Thursday.
The new mandate would likely cost billions of dollars and revert the Navy’s most advanced ships to a system that takes more sailors to operate and is more difficult to maintain.
The memo directs the Pentagon and the Navy to present Trump with plans to remove the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System, also known as EMALS, within two months. It also says the Ford-class carrier’s electromagnetic weapons elevators should be replaced.
The move comes after years of Trump railing against the new, magnetically powered catapult system that shoots fighter jets off the deck of the carriers. It also comes at a time when the U.S. military is trying to find funding from Congress for all its desired equipment and as the Navy is struggling to fill its ships with enough sailors.
Trump’s ire with the new technology goes back to at least 2017 in his first term, when he claimed the new system is “not good” and “doesn’t have the power” of the older, steam systems in an interview with Time magazine.
“You’re going to GD steam,” Trump said at the time. The topic has frequently come up since then at rallies and other events.
While Trump is looking to roll back the latest technology, the newest Chinese aircraft carriers employ electromagnetic catapults and France said it plans to use the system on its new carrier.
Trump’s memo directs the fourth Ford-class carrier, the USS Doris Miller, to be the first ship to include the new changes. That will leave the USS Gerald R. Ford, as well as the forthcoming USS John F. Kennedy and USS Enterprise, untouched.
However, redesigning an already finalized ship for such a major system change will not be an easy task.
General Atomics, the company that makes EMALS, told The Associated Press in an email that the decision not to proceed with the system on the USS Doris Miller “warrants careful reconsideration.”
Trump’s memo that mandates the removal of the system also noted that one of the issues facing shipbuilding is the Navy’s constant design changes, “which have resulted in cost growth, delays, and cancellations.”
General Atomics said the work on the Doris Miller’s catapults and arresting gear was already halfway complete and said “changing course now would introduce significant cost, schedule, and integration risks.”
The move comes as Congress will weigh the necessary budget and funding bills that the Trump administration has said they need to fund the Pentagon and the Iran war.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth estimated last month that the war’s cost grew to $37.5 billion as Republicans prepared a $95 billion package to fund the military, along with other White House priorities.
Hegseth said the supplemental war funding is an “urgent, necessary” injection of money, and with Trump’s proposed $1.5 trillion defense budget a generational investment in the military.
The House narrowly adopted both but the Senate still must act when it returns in September.
Some of the key advantages to the electromagnetic system are its ability to launch aircraft at faster speeds while being easier to maintain, requiring fewer sailors to operate and using less space aboard the ship.
EMALS aboard the USS Ford cut the number of sailors need to operate the catapults from about a dozen to two.
Reverting to a system that requires more people to operate it comes as the Navy has struggled to translate its recruiting successes in the past year to actually filling jobs on warships. At the start of the year, the Navy had about 20,000 unfilled posts across the fleet.
In February, the Navy touted the system in a press release that said it allowed the USS Ford to launch and recover aircraft at a higher rate than its predecessor, the Nimitz-class ships.
New aircraft carrier heads toward Middle East after reports of issues on long-deployed USS Lincoln
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pacific-based aircraft carrier USS George Washington has begun heading toward the Middle East as reports have emerged of mental health and supply issues aboard the long-deployed USS Abraham Lincoln.
The Lincoln has been supporting the U.S. war against Iran, and its deployment has included a record-setting uninterrupted time at sea of more than 260 days. Several Democratic lawmakers are pressing for accountability from the Pentagon over conditions aboard the carrier, which Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Thursday said were “completely misrepresented.”
Extended deployments of carriers during the Iran conflict have raised concerns about the impact on service members who are away from home for long periods as well as the increasing strain on the ship and its equipment. While renewed hostilities between the U.S. and Iran have calmed in recent weeks, the Navy has reimposed a blockade on Iranian ports in the crucial Strait of Hormuz, and the Trump administration has offered no clarity on how it intends to wind down the war.
Hegseth told reporters that the U.S. can maintain the blockade “indefinitely.”
A new aircraft carrier is heading west from the Asia-Pacific
The USS George Washington left port in Da Nang, Vietnam, last week, a Navy statement said. The carrier, along with a cruiser and a destroyer, have since been spotted crossing the Singapore Strait.
A Navy official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to detail sensitive ship details, confirmed that the Washington was in the Strait of Malacca, which links the Pacific and Indian oceans and puts the carrier on a course to head into the Indian Ocean. The Wall Street Journal reported earlier that the Washington would replace the Lincoln as one of the two aircraft carriers now stationed in the Middle East.
The move would leave the waters of the Pacific without a U.S. carrier presence for an unknown period of time. The Trump administration sees China, the dominant power in the region, as “a settled force” that only needs to be deterred from dominating the U.S. or its allies and not the top global adversary that it was under the Biden administration.
The Lincoln originally deployed Nov. 21 from San Diego, and it arrived in the Middle East in January, ahead of the launch of the Iran war on Feb. 28. The Navy conceded that the conflict created a “highly contested environment where traditional supply hubs in the Middle East were disrupted by combat actions.” That, in turn, led to shortages and loss of mail aboard the aircraft carrier, the Navy said in a statement.
“Leadership prioritized mission-critical supplies: first food, then hygiene items, then mail,” the statement said, before assuring that sailors aboard the ship now have access to clean water and “healthy meal options.” Democrats call for scrutiny, while the Pentagon defends conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln
Democratic lawmakers are calling for investigations, more information and greater visibility into conditions aboard the ship, which was originally set to return home in May.
“The Lincoln’s prolonged deployment is especially significant because it is occurring in the context of continuing military operations against Iran and the possibility that substantial US naval forces will be required in the region for an extended period,” Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, wrote in a letter to Navy leadership asking for a response to several questions.
Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego, a Marine Corps veteran, said on social media that he is looking to take a bipartisan delegation on an official oversight visit to the ship and that the way sailors are being treated is “not just disgusting; it’s dangerous.”
Hegseth told reporters during a visit to Panama that he wants the Lincoln’s sailors home and crews rotated as quickly as possible but pushed back against reports of problems aboard.
“We make sure that every ship, every crew, every captain has everything we can provide them at every single moment. Some deployments are longer than others, and I have more respect and gratitude for those sailors than anybody. What they do in those high seas in those austere conditions with less port calls — it’s incredible.”
Navy leaders, including acting Secretary Hung Cao, last week held a tense town hall for families of troops aboard the USS Lincoln, at which the commanders of the Navy’s air and surface forces promised to do everything they could to relieve the aircraft carrier. MS NOW reported earlier on the meeting.
When reports of food shortages aboard the ship first surfaced in April, the Navy pushed back, calling those reports “false.”
Reports of mental health concerns and more aboard the ship
Reports have since emerged that sailors on the Lincoln are struggling with mental health concerns. The Navy said in its statement that it has “not observed an increase in suicidal ideations or attempts aboard the ship,” but officials declined to provide data, citing operational security and patient privacy concerns.
The Navy official said that a sailor aboard the Lincoln went overboard in early August but that the person was quickly recovered, treated by the ship’s medical department and transferred off ship for follow-on care. The official would not say if it was being considered a suicide attempt.
U.S. Central Command, which oversees military operations in the Middle East, pushed back on reports about poor conditions.
“The Sailors and Marines of the Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group remain resilient and resolved after more than 260 days at sea, 10,000 aircraft flights, and 1.5 million pounds of ordnance expended,” the command said on social media.
Other carriers also have had long runs that have raised concerns about morale. The USS Gerald R. Ford returned home in mid-May after an 11-month deployment, the longest since the Vietnam War, during which it supported the U.S. war with Iran and the capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro.
During its deployment, the Ford experienced a fire in a laundry space that forced the carrier to turn around and return to the Mediterranean Sea for repairs and left hundreds of sailors without places to sleep.
Concerns about the demands of battle and the dangers of overextending ships and their crew predate the Iran war, with a number of mishaps on ships battling Houthi rebels in Yemen in 2024 and 2025, including the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman on a longer-than-expected deployment.
Iran rejects Trump’s ‘delusions’ on making Strait of Hormuz a US territory
Iran on Saturday rejected President Trump’s assertion that he could declare the Strait of Hormuz a “territory of the United States,” saying the opening and closure of the key waterway will remain up to Iran’s control.
In a post on the social platform X, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said the U.S. has no authority to claim the strait, which has become a major flashpoint in the nearly six-month conflict.
“The Strait of Hormuz has been Iranian, is Iranian, and will remain Iranian,” he wrote in a post translated from Persian to English. “This strait will only be closed and opened under Iran’s command.”
He added that as long as the U.S. does “not accept the reality of defeat” and stop indulging in its “delusions,” Iran will continue to enforce its blockade of the crucial waterway carrying one-fifth of the world’s oil supply.
Trump floated the idea of taking control of the strait during a speech at a police academy in New York on Friday, despite the fact that it is currently under the shared jurisdiction of Iran and Oman.
“Pretty soon, I will be declaring the Hormuz Strait a territory of the United States,” he said.
Trump, who has twice deployed a U.S. naval blockade of the strait during the course of the conflict, has repeatedly reiterated this claim.
“We have control over it. Nobody else. Only us. Our Navy is unbelievable, and things are going great for our country,” he told reporters Tuesday.
Several observers have pushed back on Trump’s claim to the strait. Former U.S. diplomat Richard Haass insisted that no country is in control of the Strait of Hormuz, while Fox News host Bret Baier said that traffic through the waterway has slowed down “to a trickle” despite Trump’s claim.
About 20 percent of the world’s oil and gas passed through the strait prior to the start of the war on Feb. 28, 2026.
Traffic has dropped sharply since Iran moved to close the waterway after the U.S. and Israel launched its first attacks, causing global energy prices to surge.
Only six vessels traveled through the strait last weekend, according to ship-tracking firm Kpler, a fraction of the roughly 130 to 140 ships that typically crossed each day before the war.
