It’s My War and I’ll Cry If I Want To

A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo.

Denial and Self Pity

With oil briefly topping at over $119 per barrel, Israel attacking Iranian oil facilities, and Iran retaliating against LNG facilities in Qatar, while the Strait of Hormuz remains bottled up except for select Iranian-approved shipments, President Trump is on social media offering his hot takes like an online troll — and with about as much credibility

After disparaging Israel’s earlier attack on oil tanks in Tehran, Trump took to social media last evening to distance himself from the latest Israeli attack, on the South Pars Gas Field in Iran. The post is a mix of special pleading, dubious assertions, and self pity. Trump pretends to calm the waters by pouring oil on them while simultaneously threatening to light the oil on fire:

More importantly, however, there’s reporting that Trump is full of shit when he claims the United States knew nothing about the impending Israeli attack. Under the headline “Israel strikes Iran natural gas facility in coordination with U.S.”, Axios’ Barak Ravid reports that the Israeli strike was done not just with the knowledge of the Trump administration but with its approval.

“The Israeli officials said the strike was coordinated with and approved by the Trump administration,” Ravid reports. “A U.S. Defense official confirmed that.”

The coordination took place between the White House and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office, according to officials Ravid spoke to. “The U.S. was aware, but was not part of the attack,” a source told him.

Perhaps you find yourself bedeviled trying to following the Middle East conflict in a serious and sober way while the President is poorly play-acting as commander in chief.

Latest on the Middle East …

• WSJ: Escalating Attacks on Gulf Energy Assets Plunge Iran War Into New Phase
• WaPo: Pentagon seeks more than $200 billion in budget request for Iran war
• WSJ: Short-range U.S. missiles are likely being launched from Persian Gulf countries, though none of them has admitted to allowing their land or airspace to be used to attack Iran.

Quote of the Day

 “We’re over here just grinding away on banger memes, dude. There’s an entertainment factor to what we do. But ultimately, it boils down to the fact that no one has ever attempted to communicate with the American public this way before.”—a senior White House official involved in producing TikTok-style mash-up videos to promote the Iran war

Joe Kent Under FBI Investigation

Joe Kent, the right-wing influencer who just resigned as director of the National Counterterrorism Center over the Iran war, was already under FBI investigation for allegedly improperly sharing classified information, Semafor reports.

While the investigation, which predates his resignation, doesn’t appear to have been in retaliation for his opposition to the Iran war, the revelation of the investigation “came after a coordinated Trump administration effort to discredit Mr. Kent as untrustworthy and disloyal,” as the NYT put it.

‘Just the Beginning’

A top Pentagon official told Congress this week that the Trump administration’s campaign against alleged drug-smuggling boats is “just the beginning” of a war against Latin American drug cartels which could include unilateral strikes on foreign territories.

Sobering Read

A years-long NYT investigation uncovered credible allegations that United Farm Workers co-founder Cesar Chavez groomed and sexually abused girls who worked in the labor movement.

Following yesterday’s publication of the investigation, 95-year-old Dolores Huerta — who co-founded the UFW with Chavez — came forward to say she too had been sexually abused by him in two encounters. “Both encounters led to pregnancies, which she hid,” the NYT reports. “She later arranged for the children to be raised by other families.”

Jeffrey Epstein Watch

• Democrats on the House Oversight Committee stormed out of a Capitol Hill meeting with Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche after Bondi would not commit to complying with a subpoena for her sworn testimony about the Epstein files.
• In a letter, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) accused Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche of blocking the Drug Enforcement Administration from releasing an unredacted document from the Epstein files about an investigation involving drug trafficking and money laundering, Bloomberg reports.
• British authorities are seeking the cooperation of the Justice Department as they pursue Epstein-related investigations of Prince Andrew and former ambassador to the U.S. Peter Mandelson, the commissioner of the Metropolitan Police told Politico.

The Corruption: Pardon Edition

• NYT: Across his two terms, President Trump has granted clemency to more than 70 allies, donors and others convicted in fraud cases, three dozen of those since returning to office.
• CBC: Canadian crypto fugitive Andean Medjedovic paid far-right hoaxsters Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman a  $300,000 retainer to seek a presidential pardon.

US Downgraded in Democracy Index

The Swedish research group Varieties of Democracies Institute has downgraded the United States in its annual democracy index: “The speed with which American democracy is currently dismantled is unprecedented in modern history.”

Correction

Yesterday’s Morning Memo misidentified the assistant U.S. attorney thrown out of court by U.S. District Judge Zahid Quraishi as one of the trio of leaders of the New Jersey U.S. Attorney’s Office installed by Attorney General Pam Bondi. It was in fact the office’s head of appeals, who is not one of the trio.

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