Bomb Bomb Oman? Bang Bang Fang Fang! Primaries Today: Byron Donalds. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz. New Dem Manly Man: Hasan Piker. Chinese Christians. More
President Trump is threatening to bomb Oman. Again.
A report in the Wall Street Journal explores why the president might be lashing out at the U.S. ally:
U.S. officials said the Oman picture was murky. The Gulf country that borders the Strait of Hormuz to the south is in talks with Iran to allow more commercial traffic in the waterway. U.S. officials said those negotiations were progressing and could relieve pressure on the global energy market and higher domestic gas prices. But there is lingering concern within the administration that Oman could aid Iran in brokering a nuclear deal more favorable to Tehran, feeding Trump’s anger.
Oman is just the latest country to draw Trump’s anger for not—in his view—doing more to help end the Iran conflict he started alongside Israel. On Sunday, he ordered a cut to a joint U.S.-South Korea military drill because Seoul wouldn’t help pry open the Strait of Hormuz.
While Townhall’s Kurt Schlichter resoundingly supports the president’s action on the drill (“South Korea Just Learned That with Trump, Allies Better Pull Their Own Weight”), an editorial in the Wall Street Journal resoundingly doesn’t:
President Trump announced Sunday evening on—where else?—social media that he had ordered the Pentagon to “substantially reduce” U.S. military exercises with South Korea that were set to begin on Monday.
Mr. Trump cited his “very good relationship” with Mr. Kim, adding that military exercises “send a signal that is totally inappropriate and hostile, to a Country that, as long as Donald J. Trump has been President, has been unthreatening and respectful.”
To the contrary, pulling back from the exercises sends a message of weakening deterrence and readiness against a regime that has a history of threats and aggression against the South. The North had protested, as usual, ahead of the routine exercises, and Mr. Trump’s order is an act of appeasement toward Mr. Kim.
What would Alexander the Great do about Iran? That’s the question the Hudson Institute’s Ludovic Hood asks (“Trump’s Iran War Gordian Knot“). “Deprive Tehran of oil revenue and rally allies against the regime,” is Hood’s answer:
Slicing through this Gordian Knot and arriving at a satisfactory outcome, namely a subdued or new government in Tehran, depends on two lines of effort: waging economic warfare against the regime’s revenue sources and rallying partners to undermine Iran and its proxy network in the region. Mr. Trump should give Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Secretary of State Marco Rubio a blank check to strangle the Iranian economy—above all, sources of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps funding—and to launch a focused diplomatic effort. This effort would be backed by judicious use of force, leveraging regional allies’ capabilities to kneecap pro-Iran militias in Iraq, the Houthis in Yemen and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Iran’s divided leadership is already on the back foot internally and regionally. The Trump administration can damage the regime in both theaters and hasten its demise….
Meanwhile, the Washington Post is on quagmire duty.
Tuesday’s Most Irresistible Headline: “Fang Fang Bang Bang.” It’s the New York Post cover—natch. The story concerns disgraced former Rep. Eric Swalwell’s erstwhile relationship with suspected Chinese honeypot Fang Fang:
A three-year FBI probe into then-Rep. Eric Swalwell determined suspected Chinese spy Fang Fang helped solicit illegal campaign donations — but the investigation was dropped for “national security reasons,” according to bureau files declassified by the White House Monday.
All Eyes on Florida, where there are primaries today. Axios is keeping an eye on the situation. Among the races Axios highlights is the one for U.S. House District 25, in which Rep. Jared Moskowitz faces socialist Oliver Adams Larkin.
Like Moskowitz, Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, first elected in 2004 and former co-chair of the Democratic National Committee, faces a challenger from the left:
Wasserman Schultz, who currently represents Florida’s 25th District, is running in the solidly blue and newly reshaped 20th District. She faces a crowded field of candidates, including progressive Elijah Manley.
Both races spotlight incumbents’ efforts to stay in the House after GOP-friendly redistricting dramatically reshaped the Sunshine State as well as the antiestablishment mood sweeping Democratic primaries this cycle.
The far-left Manley slams Wasserman-Schultz for running in a black-majority district. More on Wasserman-Schultz’s peril. Multiple Florida districts have been redrawn. USA TODAY reports on what it calls a “socialist insurgency” in Florida. The race to watch is Florida’s gubernational primary:
Rep. Byron Donalds, first elected in 2020 to represent Naples, Fort Myers and the surrounding area, is backed by President Trump and has long branded himself as a “Make America Great Again” member of the House. He is a prominent member of the House Freedom Caucus and in 2023, challenged Kevin McCarthy in the race to become speaker, forcing 15 rounds of voting. Donalds also put his name in the bid to replace McCarthy 10 months later when he was ousted from the speakership.
Alaska also has primaries today. The Dems aspire to flip a Senate seat. Mary Peltola, a Democrat, a former member of Congress, is said to be polling well against incumbent Republican Senator Dan Sullivan. It didn’t hurt Peltola’s polling that there was a decoy Dan Sullivan in the race. Taking no chances, Peltola distanced herself from Kamala Harris spurning Harris’ allegedly unsolicited support.
Meanwhile, Daniel McCarthy suggests at PJ Media that the Dems have developed a “southern strategy” aimed at keeping the old—and we do mean old—Clinton gang in power in the party.
Put away your camo hunting gear, Tim Walz. The Dems have a new masculinity symbol, Mao Man Hasan Piker. Liz Peek writes:
Most people have never heard of Piker, but suddenly stories about him are popping up everywhere. Rolling Stone, for instance, published a fawning piece that described Piker as a “matinee-handsome progressive icon who’s uniquely talented at translating radical-left politics for Gen Z bros.”
Why the sudden acclaim? Piker is the new favorite of the radical Left, campaigning with the likes of Abdul El-Sayed, who is running for a vacant Senate seat in Michigan, and is the darling of progressives like Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
And now for somebody who belongs to the undefinable category of “woman:” The Sophie Cunningham controversy has spilled over onto subreddit. Whatever that is.
Israel, meanwhile, will also face elections soon. Incumbent Prime Minister Benjamin has a new campaign poster boy: New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani: “Israeli PM puts Mamdani on billboard with Ayatollah Khameni, Hezbollah chief: ‘They want Netanyahu to lose’.”
We’ve ruminated on what Alexander the Great would do in Iran (Persia to Alex). “Constantine’s Example for China” is the intriguing headline on Walter Russell Mead’s column. Constantine, as you recall, made Christianity legal in the Roman Empire. Since “the success of Christianity in China may be the least reported, most important story of our time,” Mead suggests that China would reap huge economic benefits from making Christianity legal in China.
Build the Ballroom! That seems to be the cry of esteemed columnist and radio host Hugh Hewitt, who argues that the Supreme Court should urgently allow construction to proceed:
The backdrop to this case is not just repeated attempts on the lives of this and other presidents, but also rapidly evolving surveillance technology that has to be countered, and, of course, the astonishing evolution of the threats from drones and hypersonic missiles over the past three years. This president and future presidents should not be hindered in securing their homes, offices and national security facilities from a threat matrix that has soared off the charts.
“Eco-lunacy is the real menace to humanity,” argues Brendan O’Neill at Spiked Online:
You know you’re living in tyrannical times when an authority figure demands you look into the fire and renounce your heresy. Heatwave season has been awash with such neo-medievalism. In full priestly mode, London mayor Sadiq Khan said our ‘burning summer is proof’ that climate-change deniers ‘aren’t just delusional, they’re deadly’. This suffocating heat is a ‘dramatic warning’ sent by ‘nature’ to disprove the deniers’ ‘bullshit based on lies’, said Teresa Ribera of the European Commission. Hellish flames reprimanding humanity for its sinful thoughts? Where have I heard that one before?
“A Senate Food Fight on SNAP Welfare Waste” is the headline on a Wall Street Journal editorial:
Democrats demanded a two-year delay of this state accountability for improper SNAP payments, but their real goal is to push it off indefinitely. The Senate GOP’s farm bill draft offered a one-year reprieve. All of the Agriculture Committee’s Democrats voted it down. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, the ranking member from Minnesota, argues the cost-sharing provision has perverse incentives, and she has a point.
