Important Sunday Message from MeidasTouch Founder

I’m sitting down with my Sunday coffee a little later than usual today.

Normally I write this early in the morning, but this weekend I’ve been in Austin at South by Southwest with my brothers, representing the MeidasTouch Network at a few events. It’s been great meeting so many people who care about protecting democracy and independent media.

But even while we’ve been here, the MeidasTouch team has been working around the clock covering Trump’s unlawful war in Iran and the global consequences of his reckless decisions.

Before I get into the latest developments, I want to say this clearly: if you value the reporting and analysis we’re doing right now, please become a paid subscriber today.

This Substack is a critical part of how we fund the reporting, research, and coverage our team is producing every single day during this dangerous moment. If you’ve been thinking about subscribing, now is the time.

Here’s one example of the kind of reporting we’ve been breaking.

As first reported by Meidas and later picked up by major media outlets, Trump’s PAC sent a fundraising email promising donors “private national security briefings” about the Iran war. The solicitation even featured imagery from a dignified transfer of fallen American service members.

Pete Buttigieg summed it up bluntly on CNN:

“Any politician who raises campaign funds over the bodies of America’s war dead has no business leading American troops into war.”

At the same time, Trump has been publicly asking other countries to help clean up the consequences of the war he launched. He recently called on nations whose oil shipments pass through the Strait of Hormuz to patrol the waterway—even after years of insulting those same allies and refusing to coordinate with them.

Meanwhile, the economic consequences are already spreading.

Iran has effectively disrupted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz using drones, sea mines, and missile threats. War-risk insurance for tankers has jumped from roughly $200,000 per voyage to more than $1 million, and many insurers are simply refusing coverage.

Freight rates for supertankers have surged to $800,000 per day, and shipping companies are avoiding the region altogether.

What does that mean for Americans?

It means the price of gas, groceries, consumer goods, and shipping could all rise dramatically because one of the most critical oil chokepoints in the world is now unstable.

And the situation could escalate even further.

Another key shipping lane—the Bab al-Mandab Strait in the Red Sea, where about 12% of global oil flows—could also be disrupted if Iranian-aligned groups in Yemen enter the conflict. Combined with Hormuz, those routes represent roughly a quarter of the world’s oil supply.

This is the scale of what Trump has triggered.

Which is why the MeidasTouch Network has been working nonstop to cover every development and explain what’s actually happening.

If you want us to keep doing this reporting, please consider becoming a paid subscriber today.

Your subscription helps us expand coverage, break more stories, and keep delivering the reporting this moment demands.

You can subscribe here today.

I’m going to finish this late Sunday coffee and then get right back to work.

Because the story isn’t slowing down—and neither are we.

—Ben