The Daily Wrap Up

24 March, 2026

[Transcript edited for clarity, length and flow]

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The New York Times reports that Saudi Crown Prince and murderer Mohammed bin Salman has been urging Donald to continue the war against Iran, describing the conflict as a historic opportunity to reshape the Middle East. According to people briefed on the conversation, bin Salman has argued that Iran’s government must be dismantled, saying it poses a long term threat to the region, unlike Saudi Arabia.

While Israel also sees Iran as a major threat, there is a key difference. Israeli officials may view a weakened or destabilized Iran as acceptable, but Saudi Arabia sees a failed Iranian state as a direct danger to its own security.

Oil prices have swung sharply as conflicting signals emerged about talks between the United States and Iran. And when I say conflicting signals, I mean whether they were fictional or nonfictional depends on who you ask. Brent crude climbed back above one hundred dollars a barrel after dropping earlier. Remember, before this conflict started, the price of a barrel of oil was somewhere around seventy five dollars, and it got up to one hundred thirteen dollars at one point last week.

That was when Donald said, and I am sure this had nothing to do with market manipulation whatsoever, that the United States would delay strikes on Iranian energy infrastructure and therefore delay committing human rights violations, claiming that there had been productive conversations.

Iran pushed back, denying any contact with Washington and accusing the United States of engaging in market manipulation. The volatility follows Donald’s earlier threat to obliterate Iranian power plants if the Strait of Hormuz was not reopened, a warning that had already driven oil prices sharply higher before falling when he signaled that he would delay those attacks.

This is what he said.

Everything was going great the economy was great oil prices were very low gasoline was dropping we had great everything and I saw what was happening in Iran and I said I hate to make this excursion but we are going to have to do it and I thought the numbers would be worse but we are doing this excursion and when it is completed we are going to have a much safer world

The Wall Street Journal is now reporting that three thousand members of the 82nd Airborne Division have been deployed to the Gulf. That is some evidence that this conflict, or war, or incursion, is far from over.

We are living in treacherous times when you cannot say with confidence that the United States government can be believed over the Iranian regime. That is a very difficult reality to confront.

I do not believe a word that comes out of Donald’s mouth. I do not trust his motives, and he has been lying to us about this war he started for reasons he cannot explain since it began. We also know that he has engaged in market manipulation many times before. It is a business model for him.

At the same time, I do not believe the Iranian regime either. So where does that leave us. It leaves us in a situation where the person who started this war is incapable of handling it or extricating us from it. It leaves us with Iran using its best strategic advantage, closing the Strait of Hormuz, as everybody except Donald knew they would.

It leaves us with a world economy on the brink, oil prices poised to skyrocket, and Americans still not knowing why we are there in the first place.

Meanwhile, TSA workers are entering their sixth week without pay as the Department of Homeland Security shutdown continues. In the midst of that, ICE agents who are getting paid have been deployed to airports.

More than four hundred TSA workers have quit since the shutdown began, with thousands calling out and up to forty percent of staff absent at some airports, creating extremely long security lines and delays.

As Republicans continue negotiations with Democrats, Donald has sent ICE officers to fourteen airports allegedly to fill gaps, even though the TSA workers union says this puts untrained personnel into roles for which they are not equipped.

This is what was said.

ICE agents are not trained or certified in aviation security TSA officers spend months learning to detect explosives weapons and threats specifically designed to evade detection at checkpoints skills that require specialized instruction hands on practice and ongoing recertification you cannot improvise that putting untrained personnel at security checkpoints does not fill a gap it creates one

Given what we have already seen, ICE agents at airports are not there to help with security. They are there to be a threatening presence, to intimidate Americans, and to project power.

There have already been incidents of ICE agents confronting citizens who had already cleared security, including one at San Francisco International Airport. As wait times stretch beyond four hours at some airports, tensions are rising. Tempers are flaring.

ICE agents in tactical gear with weapons are not trained to deescalate those situations. They are far more likely to make them worse.

At the same time, Donald has tied his election interference bill, the Save America Act, to the DHS funding crisis. And yet, according to The Hill, Donald himself just voted by mail ahead of a special election in Florida.

Records show he submitted his ballot earlier this month from Mar a Lago in Palm Beach County.

Only a day earlier, he said this.

Mail in voting means mail in cheating I call it mail in cheating and we have got to do something about it

So by his own logic, he has committed voter fraud.

The Supreme Court is now hearing arguments over whether states can count mail in ballots that arrive after election day, focusing on a Mississippi law that allows ballots to be received up to five days later if they are postmarked on time.

Several right wing justices suggested this could increase the risk or perception of fraud, even though voter fraud is practically nonexistent and there is no evidence that mail in voting increases it.

Fourteen states and Washington DC already allow ballots to arrive after election day. This is not new. Votes are counted over time in every election. That is how elections work.

What Republicans are doing is creating confusion to justify making it harder for people to vote, because they understand something very clearly. The more people vote, the worse their chances are.

At the same time, The New York Times reports that the Trump regime is paying one billion dollars to the French energy company TotalEnergies to cancel wind farm projects in exchange for investments in oil and gas.

That raises an obvious question. Who benefits from that decision.

The Senate has now confirmed Markwayne Mullin as Secretary of Homeland Security, replacing Kristi Noem. Mullin, a former Republican senator and MMA fighter from Oklahoma, was confirmed by a narrow vote.

He is deeply unqualified for the role, both in terms of experience and temperament, yet he will now oversee agencies like ICE, Customs and Border Protection, and Homeland Security itself.

Meanwhile, Oklahoma’s governor has appointed energy executive Alan Armstrong to fill Mullin’s Senate seat for the remainder of the term.

At the Pentagon, officials are removing media offices from inside the building after a federal judge ruled in favor of The New York Times in a case over press access.

The longtime press corridor used by journalists for decades will now close, with reporters moved to an external annex at some unspecified time.

The Pentagon Press Association has condemned the move, calling it a violation of the court’s ruling and raising serious concerns about restricting press access during a time of war.

This is a pattern. The administration takes an illegal or unconstitutional action, gets sued, loses in court, and then finds a new way to do essentially the same thing again.

When the courts tell them to stop, the response is effectively to ignore them.

Senate Judiciary Committee Republicans also held a hearing on the investigation into Donald’s interference in the 2020 election, with Senator Ted Cruz attempting to compare it to Watergate.

This is what he said.

When Richard Nixon abused his power Republican senators stood up to him where are the Democrats now why are they not condemning this investigation

The comparison is absurd. Jack Smith was doing his job by investigating crimes that we all saw happen in real time.

Finally, the fallout from the Epstein files continues to grow. High profile individuals are hiring top criminal defense attorneys. Institutions are launching internal investigations. Congressional pressure is mounting.

Victims themselves are being forced to hire lawyers to protect their identities after botched redactions exposed sensitive information.

Investigators in New Mexico have continued searching Epstein’s Zorro Ranch property using cadaver dogs and drones, though no human remains have been found so far.

The reality is that decades of allegations were ignored. Investigations were delayed. Evidence may have been lost or destroyed.

And the central question remains unanswered.

Will there ever be a full accounting. Will there ever be justice for the victims. Will we ever know who else should be held accountable for their role in those crimes.

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