Trump Team Spirals Over Damning Report on Bungled Iran War Planning

The Trump administration and its fellow Republicans are going nuts over a CNN report that the White House didn’t adequately plan for Iran closing the Strait of Hormuz.

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth called the report “fundamentally unserious,” openly welcoming the day the news outlet gets taken over by conservative billionaire David Ellison.

“More fake news from CNN: reports that the Trump administration underestimated the Iran war’s impact on the Strait of Hormuz. Patently ridiculous, of course. For decades, Iran has threatened shipping in the Strait of Hormuz. This is always what they do, hold the strait hostage. CNN doesn’t think we thought of that,” Hegseth said at a press conference Friday.

Press secretary Karoline Leavitt called the story “100% FAKE NEWS” in a long post on X, claiming that “a goal of the Operation itself, to annihilate the terrorist Iranian regime’s navy, missiles, drone production infrastructure, and other threat capabilities is quite literally intended to deprive them of their ability to close the Strait.” This belies the fact that Iran took control of the strait days ago and that no ships have been able to cross it without its approval.

Republican Senator Tom Cotton, who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, said on X that “whoever leaked this lied,” regarding the idea that Trump did not plan for Iran to close the strait.

“CNN should do some fact-checking,” Cotton said. “The U.S. has planned for Iran to try and close the strait for decades.” It’s puzzling, though, how the report could be both a leak and a lie at the same time.

White House communications director Steven Cheung shared Cotton’s post, adding that “when [CNN reporter Zachary Cohen] is on the byline, you know it’s FAKE NEWS. His unnamed sources are former Obama and Biden people, Iranian Regime sympathizers, low-level Democrat staffers on the Hill, and liberal donors/activists.”

GOP Senator Tim Sheehy said, “It is categorically false that they did not plan for Iran closing the Strait of Hormuz. Lawmakers and national security officials have known for years that this was Iran’s plan once their backs were against the wall,” again ignoring the fact that the U.S. was unable to prevent the strait’s closure.

A CNN spokesperson Friday said the network stands by its reporting. It seems that the Trump administration is aghast at the criticism it is facing but refuses to acknowledge that the strait is closed right now with all oil exports from the region halted except for Iran’s. Attacking the media won’t change the facts on the ground or in the water.

A prison guard on duty during Jeffrey Epstein’s death has been asked to testify to the House Oversight Committee.

Tova Noel is scheduled to appear for a transcribed interview on March 26, as part of the panel’s ongoing investigation into the alleged sex trafficker.

Noel and Michael Thomas were the two federal prison guards on duty at the Metropolitan Correctional Facility in New York when Epstein was found dead in August 2019. They were previously charged with falsifying reports to conceal their failure to perform adequate checks on the alleged sex trafficker. Those charges were dismissed in 2022.

Noel’s summons could fan the flames of conspiracy theories that Epstein did not kill himself in his jail cell.

The Oversight Committee has heard closed-door testimony on Epstein from prominent people, including Bill and Hillary Clinton. The committee has also subpoenaed Attorney General Pam Bondi for a deposition on her handling of the Epstein investigation. If her track record of discussing Epstein is any indication, it won’t go well.

The president is leveraging his position as commander in chief for another moneymaking scheme.

An eyebrow-raising fundraising email was circulated Thursday by a Trump-affiliated super PAC, promising supporters a “National Security Briefing Membership” in exchange for their cash.

It was sent by the fundraising subsidiary of Donald Trump’s primary leadership PAC, Never Surrender, which emerged from the ashes of his 2024 campaign committee. The note, nonetheless, is phrased as though it were written by Trump himself, and links out to Trump’s merchandising website.

The email offered access to “private national security briefings” and “unfiltered updates on the threats facing America.”

“These final spots are reserved for my strongest supporters (YOU’RE ONE OF THEM!). This is no ordinary membership,” the message reads. “As a National Security Briefing Member, you’ll receive my private national security briefings, unfiltered updates on the threats facing America. The straight truth on border invasions, foreign adversaries, deep state sabotage, and every danger the fake news hides.

“You’ll get the inside scoop DIRECT from me, President Trump, the leader who’s rebuilt the greatest military in history and put America First like no one else,” it continued.

The bizarre and unprecedented offer comes as formal components of the Trump administration tamper with press access to official briefings regarding the Iran war, choking the flow of information to the public.

Yet it’s far from the first time that Trump has attempted to use his power and political prestige to milk money from his base. Trump’s long list of election-year hustles included launching a remarkably ugly sneaker and a limited-edition, $60 God Bless the USA Bible co-promoted by “God Bless the USA” singer Lee Greenwood, which was ultimately forced on Oklahoma public schools by its MAGA superintendent.

Trump also took the parent company of his social media platform Truth Social public and stamped his name on a new cryptocurrency platform headed by his two sons, Eric and Don Jr., which even the president’s allies criticized as a “huge mistake.”

The grift has continued into his presidency. This week, Trump’s meme coin advertised an opportunity for investors to actually meet him in person—though the billed April 25 gathering at Mar-a-Lago is not actually on the president’s schedule, according to a White House official who spoke with Politico. Instead, Trump is slated to attend the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner for the first time.

Jay Clayton, Donald Trump’s pick to lead the District of Southern New York, has been tasked with investigating “people and institutions” tied to Jeffrey Esptein—but he himself has financial ties to the very Wall Street banks and firms under scrutiny, The Lever reported Thursday. 

Clayton holds between $1.5 million and $6 million worth of Apollo Global Management stock, according to public financial disclosures. He previously served as the group’s board chairman from 2021 until his Justice Department appointment in 2025. 

Leon Black, the billionaire former CEO of Apollo Global Management, was ousted from his role in 2021 after an internal review discovered he’d made $150 million in payments to Epstein for financial advice between 2012 and 2017. Black was later accused of raping a 16-year-old at Epstein’s mansion. He was ordered Thursday to be deposed as part of a lawsuit alleging Bank of America profited from Epstein’s alleged sex-trafficking. 

Clayton also holds between between $15,000 and $50,000 in JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America stock, as well as between $1,000 and $15,000 in Bank of New York Mellon and Citigroup stock—where Congress alleges $1.5 billion in “suspicious financial transactions tied to sex trafficking crimes committed by Jeffrey Epstein” and his co-conspirators once flowed. 

Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden previously published a report finding that executives at JPMorgan Chase waited to disclose Epstein’s suspicious transactions to regulators in order “to continue working with Epstein,” even after he was terminated as a client over money laundering concerns. Citing newly unsealed emails, the report indicated this was done because of Epstein’s influence over Black. Wyden also pressed the Treasury Department to probe Citibank for “suspicious activities” related to Epstein. 

Clayton was also tasked with spearheading the work of redacting victims’ identifying information from the trove of documents published by the Department of Justice—an entirely separate debacle that has seen images of public officials redacted while publishing 40 nude pictures of women (possibly underage), among a plethora of other errors.  

“Jay Clayton has a very personal interest in seeing the Epstein story as a cabined-off story involving a mysterious ‘who could have ever known it’ villain, rather than the story of interconnected immoral elites it appears to be to impartial people,” said Jeff Hauser, executive director of the Revolving Door Project, a government watchdog.

“That’s a really paralyzing bias to bring to the role of prosecutor,” Hauser said. “We should want professional skeptics to serve our prosecutors, not the credulous.”

European leaders are incensed after President Trump temporarily lifted sanctions on Russian oil to remedy oil costs after his war on Iran sent prices per barrel skyrocketing.

“We think that’s wrong,” German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said. “There is currently a price problem, but not a supply problem. And in that regard, I would like to know what other factors led the U.S. government to make this decision.… We want to ensure that Russia does not exploit the war in Iran to weaken Ukraine.… Nor will we allow Moscow to test NATO on its eastern flank and up here in the north.”

“In no case should an increase in the price of oil lead us to change our position with regard to Russia,” said French President Emmanuel Macron. “That is the position of the G7, and of course that of France and Europe.”

Many see Trump’s decision as another example of his extreme deference to Russian President Vladimir Putin, allowing Russia to profit when oil gets pricey while claiming to want to end its invasion of Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called the move “not very logical.”

“The lifting of sanctions means that [Russia] will receive more money and there will be more drone attacks” in the Middle East, Zelenskiy said. “Russia will get money for its war machine, and there are a lot of drones that are built on Russian soil to destabilize the Middle East.… Russia is receiving new resources because of the destabilization. Ukraine must receive what has been promised.”