Hi all, Ben here.
First, a quick note. Sorry I’ve missed these afternoon Substack updates the past few days. We’ve been on the road in Austin for SXSW, and I’m incredibly grateful that MeidasTouch won News Podcast of the Year at the iHeart Podcast Awards. We were able to be there for that moment while still maintaining our rigorous reporting schedule on YouTube, and I’m proud that we didn’t miss a beat during such an important time. But now I want to jump right into the latest because Trump’s unlawful war against Iran is spiraling, the consequences are spreading, and the White House is responding with the kind of recklessness and stupidity we’ve come to expect from this regime.
This morning brought another major escalation. The United States and Israel have now confirmed strikes on Iran’s largest natural gas processing facility in southern Iran. Iranian reports indicate the target was tied to the South Pars offshore gas field, a hugely significant energy site. Israel is openly saying the operation was carried out with the United States. This was a direct strike on core Iranian energy infrastructure, and the region is treating it accordingly.
Iran is not viewing this as some limited tactical exchange. Iran is calling a massive escalation. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has now issued evacuation warnings tied to major energy facilities in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. Neighboring countries’ energy infrastructure is now being placed in the crosshairs for retaliation.
Qatar’s foreign ministry also weighed in, warning that the targeting of facilities connected to South Pars, which extends into Qatar’s North Field, is dangerous and irresponsible amid the current military escalation. They emphasized that attacks on energy infrastructure threaten global energy security, the people of the region, and the environment.
And what is Donald Trump doing while all of this is happening? Posting online like a deranged message board troll, per usual. As the region edges closer to a broader energy war, Trump is publicly musing about “finishing off” what remains of the Iranian state and babbling about the Strait of Hormuz, calling it the “Straight.” This is the person making life-and-death decisions right now. This is the man the Republican Party insists is some great strategic mastermind. He is not. He is an impulsive, vindictive fool who thinks geopolitical brinkmanship is the same thing as posting garbage on social media.
Bloomberg is reporting that multiple oil and gas facilities in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE have already been evacuated. The danger here is obvious. The Trump regime launched a war of choice, and now the most predictable consequences are arriving all at once.
One of the most absurd parts of this entire mess is the White House spin. Karoline Leavitt went in front of cameras and essentially argued that this is more of a problem for everyone else because the United States does not need the Strait of Hormuz for its own energy. The White House keep saying that our allies should deal with it because they need it more, despite the fact that Trump spent the past week attacking our allies and insisting he could do this all by himself.
And then, because this White House can always make a bad situation worse, Leavitt pivoted into attacking NATO. Trump’s team is again whining that NATO has been “unfair” to us. You truly cannot overstate how unserious these people are. They light the house on fire, then complain that the neighbors are not thanking them properly for the opportunity to use their hoses.
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Back to my report.
We also heard the White House insist that there is a plan. They want you to “rest assured.” This from the same administration that appears shocked by outcomes that every sentient person on earth knew were likely. Iran threatening the Strait of Hormuz? Predictable. Iran pressuring neighboring Gulf states? Predictable. Oil markets reacting violently? Predictable. Regional energy infrastructure becoming targets? Entirely predictable. Yet Trump and his team keep behaving as though events are surprising them in real time. Either they were not warned, which would be a catastrophic intelligence failure, or they were warned and did it anyway, which is even worse.
That question came into sharper focus during the Senate hearing with Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. Her testimony was a disgrace. She danced, dodged, and pretended not to be aware of Trump’s own public comments when asked whether the president had been briefed on the obvious consequences of this war. Senator Mark Warner pressed her on whether Trump had been told that Iran would likely move against the Strait of Hormuz and strike neighboring Gulf states if attacked.
Gabbard’s response was to hide behind “internal conversations” while insisting the intelligence community provides the president with objective intelligence. Fine. Then we are left with two possibilities. Either Trump ignored the intelligence, or his administration is lying to the public about what it knew and when it knew it. Given this regime’s track record, I’m comfortable saying both are probably true.
And this came just after Joe Kent, Gabbard’s number two, resigned over his objection to the war. That is a major signal of internal fracture inside a national security apparatus. We also know that one of the administration’s top Iran advisers was removed in recent weeks. So while Trump is trying to project strength, the reality looks far more like chaos, purges, and panic.
Gabbard’s written testimony revealed what she refused to say out loud. In prepared remarks submitted to Congress ahead of her testimony, Gabbard stated that Iran’s nuclear enrichment program was “obliterated” in June, and that there have been NO efforts since then to rebuild that capability.
According to the written testimony, entrances to the underground facilities targeted in the strikes have been buried and sealed with cement, effectively shutting them down.
Gabbard also noted that U.S. intelligence is continuing to monitor for any signs that Iran’s current, or future, leadership might move to authorize a nuclear weapons program.
Gabbard affirmed these statements only after being grilled by Senator Jon Ossoff, and did so with just a quick, terse, “yes.”
Gabbard also told Ossoff: “The only person who can determine what is and is not an imminent threat is the president. It is not the intelligence community’s responsibility to determine what is and is not an imminent threat.”
That is quite literally the job of the intelligence community. Her job.
Sen. Markwayne Mullin, Trump’s nominee to replace Kristi Noem as Secretary of Homeland Security, also testified today before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee in a contentious confirmation hearing. The session began tensely with Chairman Rand Paul confronting Mullin over past comments where Mullin appeared to justify or “understand” the violent assault on Paul by his neighbor, leading to a heated exchange where Mullin refused to fully apologize.
Democrats questioned Mullin on issues like mass deportations, ICE operations, tribal consultation, and his vision for the department amid ongoing funding and enforcement controversies. Mullin also refused to rule out putting uniformed officers at polling locations in 2026 “if there is a specific threat.”
After the hearing concluded, Paul indicated he would vote no due to concerns over Mullin’s temperament and “anger issues,” potentially complicating confirmation despite Republican control. The footage of Paul announcing he was a “no” was recorded by MeidasTouch’s DC correspondent, Pablo Manríquez, in the Capitol.
At home, the economic picture is getting uglier too. New inflation data show that wholesale prices are surging. Producer prices are up 3.4% over the past year, the highest annual increase since February 2025, as wholesale costs jumped 0.7% in February, the biggest monthly gain in seven months.
This marks the third straight month of rising wholesale prices, signaling persistent inflation pressure even before the latest spike in oil. Food prices rose 2.4%, with vegetables soaring 48.9%. This also means the Fed’s fight against inflation just got tougher and these costs are headed straight for consumers. I should note, this data is all from before the war’s latest escalation is fully reflected in the numbers, so we can expect it to be even worse in future reports.
Even on financial television, the coverage was grim. Commentators were openly discussing stagflation risks and the possibility that rate cuts could be pushed further off the table. Markets were already reacting negatively. And again, this was the pre-war inflation data.
There is another story here that should not be lost in the rush of international headlines. The Epstein cover-up continues. That should outrage every American. New reporting indicates that a 69-page target profile prepared for the DEA by a now-defunct Department of Justice task force details money laundering and drug trafficking schemes linked to Epstein. Yet that document is being blocked from release by Todd Blanche, Trump’s former criminal defense attorney who now sits inside the Department of Justice. A regime already drowning in scandal is still working to conceal information related to a child sex trafficking network and the financial machinery around it. We must never stop reporting on this topic.
The entire world sees what’s happening. During the St. Patrick’s Day parade in Ireland, there was even an Epstein float mocking the United States. That is where we are. America is being humiliated abroad by a corrupt regime at home that protects the powerful, conceals the truth, and wraps itself in fake patriotism while dragging the country deeper into danger and covering up child sex trafficking rings.
So here is where things stand this Wednesday afternoon. We’re going to keep reporting on this throughout the day and through the week. Thanks for sticking with us, thanks for supporting independent media, and thanks for helping us keep the pressure on when so much of corporate media still struggles to call this what it is.
More soon. Thanks for subscribing!
