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Wednesday, March 4, 2026
President Trump Announces U.S. Economic Boycott of Spain During Meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz
President Trump holds a bilateral meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in the Oval Office. After brief remarks of mutual appreciation, President Trump and Chancellor Merz responded to questions from the assembled press pool.
Chancellor Merz expressed support for the objective of eliminating the regime threat from Iran. President Trump notes at the beginning how Iran is targeting civilian targets in the region and generating even more support from the Gulf states for the USA.
When asked about the British and Spanish refusal to support U.S. military logistics and deployment, President Trump let the media be aware he is not happy with the position of Spain and the U.K. President Trump also announced [11:00 of video] an economic embargo of trade with Spain as an outcome of their position.
President Trump Announces U.S. Insurance Underwriting for “All Maritime Trade Flowing Through the Gulf” Along with U.S. Military Escorts
This is a remarkable position to take. Optimal Solutions:
(President Trump) – “Effective IMMEDIATELY, I have ordered the United States Development Finance Corporation (DFC) to provide, at a very reasonable price, political risk insurance and guarantees for the Financial Security of ALL Maritime Trade, especially Energy, traveling through the Gulf. This will be available to all Shipping Lines.
If necessary, the United States Navy will begin escorting tankers through the Strait of Hormuz, as soon as possible. No matter what, the United States will ensure the FREE FLOW of ENERGY to the WORLD. The United States’ ECONOMIC and MILITARY MIGHT is the GREATEST ON EARTH — More actions to come. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DONALD J. TRUMP“
President Trump will use the full weight of the U.S. military to change behavior in Iran. Not just to change the regime per se’, but to change the behavior of whoever surfaces to represent the interests of the people. The change in behavior is the goal.
While this forced shift is underway, the full weight of the USA will also seek to mitigate any collateral economic damage to well behaved economic partners. Forceful action, optimal stewardship.
Marco after they tell him he’s in charge of the London ship insurance market now https://t.co/FD6FBLKV2d pic.twitter.com/WmbNDoNFaZ
— John Ʌ Konrad V (@johnkonrad) March 2, 2026
Secretary of State Marco Rubio Updates Media
Secretary of State Marco Rubio updates the media on current activity surrounding Operation Epic Fury.
Secretary Rubio begins with an update on what Americans in the region need to know. Rubio asks all Americans to record their status with the U.S. State Department. [State Dept. Website] To get the latest updates visit http://travel.state.gov/destination and enroll to receive alerts directly at http://step.state.gov. Americans who need consular help can reach us 24/7 by phone: +1-202-501-4444 (from abroad) and +1-888-407-4747 (from the U.S. and Canada).
Rubio then outlines the latest report on a drone hitting near a U.S. embassy in Dubai. A drone struck a parking lot adjacent to a chancellery building and a fire broke out. No Americans were hurt or injured. The consulate was already on minimal staffing.
Secretary Rubio then provides an update on the general disposition of the conflict effort. Rubio notes the two most powerful air forces in the world are about to go even more severe in our combat activity deep inside Iran.
The traditional frame of reference for pundits surrounds “the escalation trap.” Most of them are so stuck in their old Washington DC view of nation building they just cannot see another approach.
How do you avoid the trap? You don’t play the game.
You don’t try to control the outcome on the ground. You change behavior, without being on the ground.
Eventually, having killed or destroyed everything you want to see killed or destroyed (including their ability to wage war against you), you withdraw – then demand terms.
You don’t need to be there on the ground.
It’s a version of the Venezuela model.
Tell the governing body, whoever that is, whoever surfaces to claim lead with the support of the people, what you expect. Then you hold them accountable.
If they refuse to change behavior, bomb them again – select the refusers as new targets. Wash – Rinse – Repeat.
Again, pull back, await the governing authority to surface, tell them the expectations, if they balk, reject or refuse, bomb them again…. Pull back, await the next crew, tell them the expectations; if they balk, fail or reject, bomb them again…. Then pull back.
Is there an escalation trap? No, you are trying to change behavior – full stop.
You remain open but cold, hard and indifferent to any non-compliant replies.
Conrad Black - America’s Iran War Is Off to a Good Start
The Iran war is off to probably the best start of any war in modern history. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor is frequently regarded as treacherous but overwhelmingly effective; it permanently eliminated two aging American battleships and severely damaged three others. But the beginning of the Iran war saw the elimination of almost the entire military and civilian leadership of the country, and within three days the entire Iranian ocean-going Iranian Navy has been sunk.
Meanwhile the Iranians, despite their customary dire threats, have been unable to land a single serious blow against surrounding American bases or ships. The equivalent in December 1941 would have been the killing of President Roosevelt and his entire cabinet and the military leadership, including Generals Marshall and MacArthur, and Admiral Nimitz, as well as the destruction of all of the country’s 17 battleships and all (rather than none) of its aircraft carriers.
The opening actions in the Iraq wars of 1990–1991 and 2003 eliminated Iraqi air defenses and forced the modest Iraqi air force to flee to neighboring countries, but they did not affect the Iraqi political and military leadership and were effectively a preparation for successful amphibious invasions of that country. As all readers know, the first war with Iraq did dislodge it from Kuwait but left Saddam Hussein in place. The second Gulf War led to the trial and execution of Saddam Hussein, but a very expensive and prolonged occupation of Iraq that was ultimately almost a complete failure and handed the principal influence over the Shiite majority of that country to Iran. There has been a very insufficient recognition to date of the sophisticated strengthening of American ability to respond to unorthodox provocations. In 1941, President Roosevelt warned that “We must always be wary of those who with sounding brass and tinkling cymbal would preach the ‘ism' of appeasement,” and in his war message he promised, “We will make very certain that this form of treachery [by Japan] shall never endanger us again.” These guidelines were consistently followed for the balance of the 20th century: The United States was never an appeasement power and its military deterrence capability prevented any state from attacking it directly. |
Eventually, the enemies of the West managed to lure the United States into a guerrilla war in Vietnam that proved very difficult to resolve at an acceptable cost in lives, time, and material commitment. Eventually, President Nixon devised a method of handing the war to the South Vietnamese and providing them with the combat edge through heavy air support even after an almost complete American withdrawal on the ground. The spurious Watergate controversy, during which executive authority evaporated each day, prevented President Ford from resuming bombing of North Vietnam after its invasion of the South in 1975.
The end of the Cold War and the disintegration of the Soviet Union produced comparative peace until terrorism crested with the suicide attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001. The United States responded with its war on terror beginning in Afghanistan, and later the invasion and occupation of Iraq, which was doomed to be a complete fiasco as the occupiers soon dismissed the armed police forces of the Iraqi government while permitting all the disemployed personnel to retain their weapons and their ordnance. A bloodbath ensued.
President Trump was elected on a promise to avoid forever wars but also to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear military power, which had effectively been permitted, with a delay of 10 years, by the agreement negotiated by the Obama administration. Trump revoked that agreement in his first term, and President Biden attempted unsuccessfully to revive it. The current operation is dedicated to a profound eradication of the nuclear military potential of Iran—a complete removal of its ability through an almost unlimited number of conventional warhead missiles and drones to make it almost invulnerable to conventional attack. It also aims to induce a fundamental change in Iranian policy, either through the elimination of the Islamist government or the promotion of a metamorphosis of that regime that amounts to, at least in foreign policy terms, regime change. In the initial destruction of the Iranian nuclear capability last June, as with the abrupt removal of the Venezuelan president and his wife—both actions swiftly and very professionally executed with no American fatalities—Trump demonstrated the American capacity to achieve decisive ends by lightning strikes that did not involve any presence of U.S. forces in hostile territory for more than a few minutes. If America’s enemies cannot inflict significant casualties on the United States as Washington achieves its strategic goals, this is a refinement of Roosevelt’s promise of avoidance of appeasement and retention of deterrence that augurs well for a reduction of violence in the world.
The joint United States–Israeli air attacks are occurring at the rate of hundreds or thousands of strikes per day, against which Iran has practically no defense and which are precisely targeted. No country can sustain this level of assault for more than a few weeks. The present campaign is expected to last up to five weeks, but seems to be well ahead of the initial schedule. In all of these circumstances, it is practically impossible for the present Islamist government of Iran to survive, given the American ability to isolate the country completely from any intercourse with the outside world. All talk of a forever war or a reenactment of Iraq or Afghanistan is demonstrable rubbish. This regime will be eliminated or emasculated, and the terrorist puppets organizations on the frontiers of Israel will be cut off from all outside support. The level of violence in the Middle East will be reduced to its lowest level since before the Ottoman Empire became the “sick man of Europe” 200 years ago. President Trump has defeated terrorism, and is positively altering the correlation of forces in the world in favor of the democracies. Like Venezuela, Iran will shortly be supplying oil to Western Europe rather than China, which, coupled with India’s withdrawal as a customer for Russian oil, will make Moscow’s ability to finance its war in Ukraine very difficult. Russia has a GDP smaller than Canada’s and has already suffered a million casualties in a war that has lasted longer than that between Stalin and Hitler. All wars are hell (Gen. Sherman), but this action in Iran is a just conflict for the West that will almost certainly be victorious, have decisive positive consequences, and incur minimal cost. https://list.mailexpress.com/archive/wV7oNan014~331/KJNmJy00sx~331/Y01LCSDPlw~331 |
New Poll Says Trump Could Pull Off Another Big Win - Keeping GOP in Power After the Midterms
You don't have to be a political nerd to know that what happens in 2026 will have a direct effect on the November midterm elections. The American people will render their opinion on things like war in the Middle East, the economy, and immigration at the ballot box. The "conventional wisdom" is that normally, the party in the White House loses seats in the House and Senate. But if there was ever a year and a president that could turn that wisdom on its head, it would be Donald Trump.
A new Harvard Harris poll surveyed 1,999 registered voters on February 25 and 26. It should come as no surprise that since Trump's State of the Union speech on February 24, Republicans have found themselves in a better place. Those surveyed were asked if the midterm election were held today, would they be more likely to vote for a Democrat or a Republican? The results were an even split, 50 percent Republican, 50 percent Democrat. It also indicates an eight-point swing towards Republicans. The same poll in January showed those likely to vote Democrat at 54 percent and Republican at 46 percent.
For the GOP to remain in control after the midterms would be just another win for Trump to add to his long list of accomplishments. It has only happened three times in the last 100 years. Franklin D. Roosevelt did it in 1934 as the country was in the throes of the Great Depression and Democrats grew their majorities, Bill Clinton in 1998, and George W. Bush did it in 2002, in a wave of patriotism in the wake of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Legislative, Political, and Public Affairs James Blair also thinks this is the year it can be done. Blair appeared on Sirius XM's "Breitbart News Saturday" and stated:
“I do believe the Republicans can defy history, and we have a couple important elements to that. First and foremost, we have a record and a clear contrast. We can point very clearly to what things were like two years ago, and the American people remember that: 8 percent interest rates for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage; now they’re under 6 percent. Five dollar an average gallon of gas. Now it’s under $2.50. We have real wages increasing, outpacing inflation. Joe Biden had real wages decreasing $3,000 a year, you know, with inflation far outstripping wage growth and price hikes and all of that. The Democrats gave us this economic nightmare that we inherited, and we are now turning around.”
Blair laid out the facts and figures that are on paper, but what could be the most effective is what the American people saw with their own eyes during Trump's speech. And what they saw was a stark and clear contrast between two political parties. President Trump may have laid out a "trap" that Democrats walked into, but they would have shown who they are anyway. Americans saw a party that would not stand for the mother of a Ukrainian immigrant who was stabbed on a train by a multiple repeat offender, and many would not stand for the Olympic gold-medal-winning hockey team. But what should have gotten the American people's attention the most was when almost the entirety of the Democrat Party, minus those who refused to attend, refused to stand when President Trump asked if lawmakers agreed with the statement, "The first duty of the American government is to protect American citizens. Not illegal aliens."
The Democrat Party has demonstrated through their completely unhinged antics that they have been completely overcome with Trump Derangement Syndrome rage and hatred. That rage is not just directed at Donald Trump, but also at the American people for electing him. If it's good for the country, they are against it.
Republicans should definitely not get overconfident. But when someone tells you in no uncertain terms who they are, believe them.
Trump not happy with U.K. and Spain over Iran stance: 'We're going to cut off all trade with Spain'
'I will say the U.K. has been very, very uncooperative
with that stupid island that they have,' said Trump
US President Donald Trump on Tuesday lashed out at Britain
and Spain for not fully backing his attack on Iran, as he threatened to end
“all trade” with Spain.
“I’m not happy with the UK,” Trump said, as he said of
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer: “This is not Winston Churchill that we’re
dealing with.”
Britain, a steadfast ally of the United States throughout
the two world wars and in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, decided not to join
the assault on Iran that Trump launched with Israel on Saturday.
Starmer said that US fighter jets could use two UK air bases
for a “specific and limited defensive purpose” — one in Gloucestershire in
western England and the other at the joint UK-US Diego Garcia base in the
Indian Ocean.
Starmer said that the United States was not authorized to
use UK bases in Cyprus, one of which was struck by an Iranian-made drone.
“It’s taken three, four days for us to work out where we can
land. There would have been much more convenient landing there, as opposed to
flying many extra hours,” Trump said in apparent reference to Diego Garcia.
Trump, after a series of flip-flops, has criticized Starmer
for agreeing to return the Chagos Islands, where Diego Garcia lies and whose
people were expelled by Britain, to Mauritius and instead to lease the base.
“I will say the UK has been very, very uncooperative with
that stupid island that they have,” said Trump, who was speaking next to German
Chancellor Friedrich Merz at the White House.
Trump voiced fury at Spain, where the left-wing government
of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has not allowed the United States to attack
Iran through bases long used by US forces.
“Spain has been terrible,” Trump said, adding that he has
asked Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to “cut off all dealings with Spain.”
He also pointed to Sanchez’s public refusal to
join NATO allies in a pledge to boost defense spending to five percent of GDP,
a level pushed by Trump which says the United States bears too much of a
burden.
“So we’re going to cut off all trade with
Spain. We don’t want anything to do with Spain.”
It remains unclear what power Trump would have
to “end” trade with Spain, after the Supreme Court struck down his use of
emergency powers to slap arbitrary tariffs on other countries.
Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares
earlier said that his government would only allow the use of the Naval Base
Rota and Moron Air Base for activities consistent with the United Nations
Charter.
Primary Season Gives Conservatives The Chance To Kick Feckless RINOs To The Curb
Republican voters’ routine apathy to the primary process has permitted RINOs to hijack the party and stonewall conservative priorities.
Conservatives are about to have the chance to oust some of the Republican Party’s worst elected officials. The question is: Will they take it?
Primary elections to decide which Republicans will run in the 2026 midterms are now officially underway, with the states of Arkansas, North Carolina, and Texas each holding such elections on Tuesday. The states are the nation’s first primary contests for the 2026 cycle and will hold subsequent runoff elections later this spring for races in which no candidate garners the required percentage of the vote to secure the nomination.
Among the most notable is Texas’ Republican Senate primary, where incumbent Sen. John Cornyn is facing challenges from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Rep. Wesley Hunt. While polls aren’t always predictive of how a race turns out, many surveys compiled by RealClearPolitics have consistently shown Paxton leading the pack.
According to the RCP average, Paxton leads with 39.2 percent of the vote, while Cornyn and Hunt trail with 35.4 and 15.8 percent, respectively. Should no candidate receive more than 50 percent during Tuesday’s race, the top two vote-getters will face each other in the May 26 runoff to determine who will be the Republican nominee for the general election.
Other noteworthy races include North Carolina’s Senate GOP primary to see who will compete for outgoing Republican Sen. Thom Tillis’ seat and the Republican primary for Paxton’s soon-to-be-former seat for Texas attorney general.
The primary process is an avenue for conservative voters to ensure that the individual seeking to represent them in public office is actually willing to fight for their beliefs and preferred policies on the issues that matter, when they matter. Unfortunately, too many GOP voters have long neglected it.
What’s become apparent in recent years is Republican electors’ routine apathy to the primary process has permitted RINOs (Republicans In Name Only) to hijack the party and stonewall conservative priorities.
The battle to pass the SAVE America Act encapsulates this problem perfectly.
One would think that approving a bill codifying widely popular voter ID and proof-of-citizenship requirements in federal elections would be the bare minimum Senate Republicans could accomplish with their majority. Yet, a handful of GOP senators — many of whom hail from solidly Republican states — are reportedly blocking efforts to force Democrats into a talking filibuster to move such legislation forward.
Such fecklessness isn’t exclusive to the federal government, either.
“Republican” officials in so-called “red states” like Indiana sabotaged efforts to redistrict the state’s congressional map ahead of the 2026 midterms. Others, in states like West Virginia, have blocked or killed medical freedom legislation and additional conservative-backed policies.
At every turn, left-wingers masquerading as Republicans have stifled conservative priorities. And at every turn, GOP voters (and via his bad endorsements, President Trump) have allowed them to get away with it.
Republican electors can pick whichever candidate they choose in any given election or sit out the process altogether. That’s their prerogative as voters. But continued neglect of primaries has shown there are consequences to abandoning this important feature of American citizenship.
Being a citizen is a duty that requires one to be engaged with his governments and holding his elected officials accountable when they stray from the pledges they made. That’s the responsibility of any and every American.
Should conservatives fail to realize this and act on it, then the status quo, in which RINOs screw over their constituents, will continue unabated.