Economic War on ‘Outcast’ Iran. Bessent ‘Unleashed.’ War of Words with Canada. El-Sayed Asks What We All Long to Know: Are You Circumcised, Jesse? Street Vagrants. And More
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent spoke softly but carried a big stick. A very big stick. In a press briefing yesterday, Bessent updated the Trump administration’s policy for Iran: “‘Operation Economic Outcast’ to Isolate and Squeeze Iran.”
Another report from the same outlet: After military and diplomatic efforts, President Trump pins his hopes on economic warfare. Speaking softly did not rule out bluntness, as this story (“Can General Bessent win the war?“) from the London Spectator makes clear:
The United States, Bessent said, is now imposing unprecedented sanctions not only on Iran but on every country, corporation, bank, and shipping company that does business with that regime.
Thanks to these US policies, Bessent said, all Iran’s facilitators must now choose between economic ties with the US and those with the Islamic Republic of Iran. Do business with Iran and you will be severed from the US market and the entire dollar-based trading system, the centerpoint of the world economy.
That policy can be summed up in two words: “economic asphyxiation.” Bessent actually used those words.
A favorable editorial in the Wall Street Journal is headlined “Trump Unleashes Scott Bessent on Iran.” Secretary Bessent compared Operation Economic Outcast to D-Day:
The D-Day analogy may be grandiose, but President Trump has waited nearly six months to take this economic step. Early in the war the U.S. even encouraged Iranian oil exports.
We’ve come a long way. Last week Iran’s central-bank governor admitted the U.S. blockade of Iran’s ports has driven the regime’s oil exports to zero. The United Arab Emirates also announced a halt to all trade with Iran. Mr. Bessent said that was “not a coincidence.”…
Mr. Trump has belatedly found a pressure strategy with Iran that may give him the upper hand. But the IRGC is unlikely to give up its financing networks without a fight. Will Mr. Trump stick to this strategy when Iran next fires on Gulf energy and whispers a soothing word to mediators from Pakistan and Qatar?
The New York Post treated the new policy more colloquially. “Out of Mullah” with a picture of the Supreme Leader empty-handed is the cover. Iran’s currency has plunged with citizens attempting to cash out before U.S. restrictions:
The rial dropped to 2.02 million to one US dollar when the currency markets opened on Monday, meaning the currency is now worth about half of what it was at the start of the year.
Meanwhile, the regime broadcast a three-minute video fantasizing about killing Barron Trump and put a $10 million bounty on President Trump’s 20-year-old son.
National Review’s Noah Rothman posted this story about the same time as Super Scott appeared at the lectern: “Trump Urged to Surrender Quickly in Hormuz Before Success Becomes an Option.” The surrender option comes from the New York Times and other members of the MSM.
The administration’s tariff on Canada didn’t get a good review from the WSJ. An editorial is headlined “The Dumbest Trade War Revisited.” Here is Fox Digital on the back-and-forth between Canadian and U.S. leaders. It’s not just tariffs that are escalating—it’s bombast. The American Spectator is unsympathetic to Canada in Scott McKay’s “Mark Carney’s Smuggler’s Blues.”
President Trump received good news yesterday when the Supreme Court eased the way for the president’s sweeping limits on mail-in voting:
A divided Supreme Court on Monday eased the path for an executive order by President Donald Trump that would impose sweeping new restrictions on mail-in balloting for November’s midterm elections, but the complex and fast-moving legal fight is not over.
The executive order would bar the U.S. Postal Service from sending mail-in ballots to voters not on lists of citizens created by federal agencies. States also would be obligated to send the ballots in envelopes that can be tracked to thwart fraud.
The decision did not address the legality of the Executive Order but ruled rather on whether the states that sued had standing. There will be further challenges.
Socialist Senate hopeful Abdul El-Sayed appeared for a contentious and wide-ranging interview on Jesse Watters last night and asked Watters exactly what America longs to know: “Are you circumcised, Jesse?” Here’s the—uh—context:
Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed got extremely personal with Fox News host Jesse Watters on Monday — asking if he is circumcised — during a bizarre defense of sex change surgery for minors.
“Do you really want to have this conversation? Are you circumcised?” El-Sayed bluntly asked the “Jesse Watters Primetime” host, after arguing that the government shouldn’t get involved in transgender medical procedures for children.
New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani is facing a legal challenge from minority-owned bodegas and supermarkets who realize that Mamdani’s government-owned grocery stores will likely destroy their livelihoods. Amazon has also attracted Mamdani’s adverse attention:
At the heart of the showdown between Mamdani and Amazon is the Delivery Protection Act, which Amazon says would put the jobs of more than 5,000 delivery workers at risk and land heavily on the small businesses that deliver its packages.
A Wall Street Journal editorial earlier this month explained that Mamdani wants to ban Amazon subcontracting and “deliver” the company to the Teamsters, which would raise prices for consumers; it would also reduce freedom for workers rather than protecting them.
Ms. Must was surprised to learn who until recently prevented New York from becoming a wholly owned subsidiary of the far Left. “After Cuomo, New York Lost Its Check on the Far Left” is a City Journal title. Joseph Burns writes convincingly that former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who resigned because of MeToo accusations, is not a conservative and should never be seen as one, but he was willing to thwart the far Left.
“No, Street Vagrants Are Not “Our Neighbors’” is the headline on Heather Mac Donald’s latest iconoclasm (also in City Journal):
A Los Angeles city councilman just coined a new appellation for the drug-addicted vagrants who colonize city streets. They are “our neighbors,” says Hugo Soto-Martínez, a member of the L.A. Chapter of Democratic Socialists of America. Who knew?
This new identity is even more cheeky than the original rebranding of such vagrants as “the homeless.” …
“Neighbor” traditionally conjures the image of someone with an equal stake in one’s community as oneself, who shares one’s interest in stability, and who can be counted on, in times of need, for help. The occupants of the feces- and drug-strewn trash sites euphemistically referred to as “encampments,” as if they were part of a Boy Scout Jamboree, don’t fit the bill.
Those transients are parasites on other people’s efforts to create a community. They contribute nothing, pay no rent or taxes, and inevitably bring lawlessness and predation. They almost invariably turn down the shelter and services offered by feckless outreach workers, since they want no interference with their unrestricted drug use.
Meantime, a member of the vast nonprofit industry dedicated to keeping vagrants on the streets demonstrated the brilliance of the original “homeless” moniker….
Triple Crown for City Journal Today: Don’t miss “A Bellwether for Militancy? The DSA’s New National Youth Leaders,” in which Stu Smith takes a look at the two new co-chairs of the DSA, “who embrace militant labor organizing, international socialist coordination, and plans for a nationwide general strike in 2028.”
The MSM was only too thrilled to run with Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff’s taunt about President Trump’s aide Natalie Harp. Joe Concha argues that this was rock bottom for the legacy media. “Harp is a loyal Trump aide, not a scandal. Get over it,” USA TODAY’s Nicole Russell advises the legacy press.
Vroom, vroom, ya’ll. “Trump’s D.C. Car Race Is the Best of Populism” is the headline on Nicholas Clairmont’s Free Press article:
The race that zoomed around Washington showed what Trump is good at: spectacular and kitschy fun of the most public and American sort. Perhaps he should run for mayor.
