Long Iran War Would Hurt Consumers, But That’s the ‘Last of Our Concerns’: Trump Economic Adviser

“Republicans don’t give a damn about the American people and will continue to make your life more expensive,” said House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) in response.


White House National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett arrives for a video interview outside the White House on March 6, 2026 in Washington, DC.
(Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

Brad Reed
Mar 17, 2026
COMMON DREAMS

White House National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett caused a stir on Tuesday when he indicated that the prospect of US consumers getting hurt by a protracted conflict with Iran was not of particular concern to the administration.

During an interview on CNBC, Hassett dismissed concerns about the Iran war, which is now in its third week, dragging on indefinitely.

“The US economy is fundamentally sound,” Hassett claimed. “And if [the war] were to be extended, it wouldn’t really disrupt the US economy much at all. It would hurt consumers, and we’d have to think about, you know, if that continued, what we would have to do about that, but that’s, like, really the last of our concerns right now... because we’re very confident that this thing is going ahead of schedule.”



In fact, US consumers are already hurting financially from the effects of the Iran war, which has caused the price of both oil and gasoline to skyrocket. Petroleum industry analyst Patrick De Haan reported on Tuesday that the average price of gas in the US has reached $3.80 per gallon, while the average price for diesel fuel has reached $5.03 per gallon.

The war’s impact on oil and gas prices has been exacerbated by Iran closing down the Strait of Hormuz to shipping, and so far there is no indication that it will be reopening anytime soon.

Democratic lawmakers quickly pounced on Hassett’s admission that pain for US consumers was “the last of our concerns right now.”

“The Trump administration is saying the quiet part out loud,” said Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), “the higher costs you’re paying are the LAST of their concern.”

“Trump’s team of Epstein class advisors says it out loud more often than you’d think: ‘consumers are the last of our concern right now,’” commented Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.).

“Well I’m not some sort of political expert but this feels like an unhelpful thing to say,” remarked Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii).

“Trump economic advisor says consumer pain is the last of their concerns,” commented Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.). “Tell that to Americans paying almost twice as much for gas as they were a month ago.”

“The Trump administration has once again said the quiet part out loud,” said House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY). “Republicans don’t give a damn about the American people and will continue to make your life more expensive. You deserve better.”

Trump Adviser Says War-Induced Pain to Consumers Is “the Last of Our Concerns”


“If [the war] were to be extended, it wouldn’t really disrupt the US economy very much at all,” Hassett said.

By Sharon Zhang ,

Truthout

March 17, 2026

Director of the National Economic Council Kevin Hassett (R) speaks as U.S. President Donald Trump makes an announcement on changes to the country's fuel economy standards in the Oval Office at the White House on December 3, 2025 in Washington, D.C.

Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images

National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett brushed aside concerns about harm to consumers caused by the U.S. and Israel’s war on Iran on Tuesday, saying that the war would hurt consumers if it continues but that’s “the last of our concerns.”

In an interview with CNBC, the Donald Trump appointee said that he believes the war will be over in a few weeks, and repeated the president’s assertion that the U.S. is “ahead of schedule” in relation to Trump’s four to six week projection for the war.

If the war continues past that, Hassett acknowledged that it would cause prices to rise for consumers — but he waved away concern over the possibility, claiming that the economy is strong.

“If [the war] were to be extended, it wouldn’t really disrupt the U.S. economy very much at all. It would hurt consumers, and we’d have to think about, you know, if that continued, what we would have to do about that,” Hassett said.

“But that’s really the last of our concerns right now. Because we’re very confident that this thing is going ahead of schedule,” he went on.

Hassett’s dismissive comments about the war’s effect on the economy ignore that the war is already causing pain for consumers.

Gas prices have spiked since the U.S. and Israel’s first strikes on February 28, going from a national average to $3.00 per gallon of regular unleaded gas to $3.79 a gallon, as of Tuesday. High oil prices are causing the price of jet fuel to rise, causing flight prices to increase significantly.

Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz in retaliation for strikes may also cause downstream effects on the price of food. The strait is also a crucial choke point for the global fertilizer supply chain, choking supply right as the spring planting season is kicking off. This means that U.S. farmers may have to ration or forgo fertilizer in some areas, experts say, which may cause shortages of key crops that will cause food prices to rise.

These rising costs come as the Trump administration’s economic policies have caused large job losses, a worsening of an affordability crisis, and a record-setting transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich in the form of Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill last year.

The war, which is historically unpopular, has also already cost taxpayers $12 billion in its first two weeks, Hassett said on Sunday.

Hassett told CNBC that he believes that the war — now in the middle of its third week — will end in the coming weeks. The administration has refused to give a consistent answer on the expected length of the war, or given conditions on objectives they wish to achieve for it to end. Trump has repeatedly claimed that the U.S. and Israel have already destroyed Iran’s navy and air force, despite Iran still carrying out strikes.

An Israeli military spokesperson said on Sunday that Israel is preparing for three more weeks of war, and that the state has “deeper plans for even three weeks beyond that.” A U.S. Central Command request to the Pentagon sent in the first week of the war suggested that the agency expects the war to last through September.

Though Trump has said that the war is basically over and “way ahead of schedule,” his administration has continued to use escalatory rhetoric. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has reportedly directed diplomats globally to “move expeditiously to diminish the capabilities of Iran and Iran-aligned terrorist groups from attacking our respective nations and citizens” in an internal cable to be sent out by March 20, ABC reported Monday.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon ordered warships carrying about 2,500 Marines to depart to the Middle East on Friday. This could allow the military to launch ground raids against Iranian targets in and on the Strait of Hormuz— which would be a massive escalation.

Hassett’s confidence in the war ending soon comes despite the end of the war seemingly entirely being up to Trump’s whims. Trump has said that the war will end “when I feel it … in my bones” while also saying, on Sunday, that “maybe we shouldn’t even be there at all.”

'Kevin, keep at that!' Trump aide brutally mocked on MS NOW after disastrous gaffe

Daniel Hampton
March 17, 2026 

RAW STORY



(Screengrab via MS NOW)

Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) lit into Trump economic adviser Kevin Hassett on Tuesday after Hassett suggested that consumer pain from the Iran war was "really the last of our concerns" — a comment that appalled MS NOW.

The broadside came during an appearance on "The Weeknight," where anchor Alicia Menendez played a clip of Hassett dismissing the economic impact of a prolonged Iran conflict during a CNBC appearance earlier in the day.

"If it were to be extended, it wouldn't really disrupt the U.S. economy very much at all," Hassett said. "It would hurt consumers and we'd have to think about, you know, if that continued, what we would have to do about that. But that's like really the last of our concerns right now."

The flippant remark stunned co-host Symone Sanders-Townsend.

"Wait — are consumers not part of the US economy?" she shot back. "Consumers are the last of their concerns right now. It's like - oh this comms job, they don't - oof. It's a tough day at work. Every day."


Moskowitz was also taken aback.

"I mean you're looking at me, these were the people who said affordability was a hoax for a couple of months until someone showed the president the polling on that," he said.

Moskowitz rattled off a list of costs already hitting Americans: gas prices up 70 cents per gallon, airline prices rising 30%, and food costs climbing as fuel expenses get passed down the supply chain.

"I don't know if the administration wants to get back to the talking point that prices don't matter, it's a hoax. You know, everything is going to be fine, pay no attention when you get the bill in the mail," he said.

Moskowitz warned that messaging didn't work for Democrats under the Biden administration, and it won't work this year.

"You can't tell people how to feel when they see they can't afford to live," Moskowitz concluded. "But hey, look, let them try it. Let that be the message all the way to November, okay? Kevin, keep at that!"

Afghanistan War Veteran Dies in ICE Custody One Day After Arrest


Mohommad Nazeer Paktyawal served alongside US troops. He died at 41 after ICE arrested him in front of his children.

By Mike Ludwig , 

Truthout

March 17, 2026

Texas resident Mohommad Nazeer Paktyawal died in ICE custody on March 14, 2026.

Courtesy #AfghanEvac


On March 13, multiple Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in unmarked vehicles surrounded Mohommad Nazeer Paktyawal in front of his home in Texas as he prepared to drive his children to school. The 41-year-old father of six children, who had served alongside the 3rd Battalion of the U.S. Army Special Forces in Afghanistan, died in ICE custody the next day, leaving his family in shock, and U.S. veterans of prior Middle East wars outraged.

According to a statement issued by ICE, Paktyawal was transported to a hospital on March 13 after complaining of shortness of breath and chest pains. Paktyawal’s wife says she told officers during the arrest that he uses a rescue inhaler for asthma, but his death the following day remains under investigation. Shawn VanDiver, a Navy veteran and founding president of #AfghanEvac, a group that advocates for refugees of the U.S. war on Afghanistan, said Paktyawal was healthy before ICE agents arrested him in front of his children on a school day.

“But one fact is clear: it is not normal for a healthy 41-year-old man to die within a day of being taken into government custody,” VanDiver said in an email to reporters on Monday. “Mr. Paktyawal survived our war in Afghanistan and trusted the United States enough to rebuild his life here.”

According to #AfghanEvac, Paktyawal joined the Afghan special forces in 2005 and fought alongside U.S. Army Special Forces for years in Paktika Province, one of the most dangerous areas of Afghanistan, during the U.S. occupation. When President Joe Biden ordered a chaotic withdrawal of U.S. forces in August 2021, the U.S. evacuated Paktyawal and his family along more than 124,000 Afghans who assisted the U.S. and faced reprisals from the Taliban, the militants who fought the U.S. for years before taking control of the country.

“His family deserves answers,” VanDiver said. “The American public deserves answers. The U.S. service members who fought alongside Afghan partners deserve answers.”

At least 41 people have died in ICE custody since President Donald Trump returned to office and launched a brutal crackdown on refugees and immigrants, and at least 12 have died in ICE custody in 2026 alone. In comparison, about 26 people died in ICE custody during all four years of the Biden administration, which worked to reduce the population of ICE’s detention system during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In contrast, the number of people jailed by ICE while they wait to see an immigration judge has skyrocketed from under 40,000 on any given day to roughly 70,000 under Trump’s policies. Civil rights groups, lawmakers, and families report medical neglect, inedible food, and other abuses inside massive immigration jails and prison camps — and the Trump administration is racing to build more.


Paktyawal’s wife told #AfghanEvac that federal agents refused her attempts to pass along a rescue inhaler that Paktyawal relied on to breathe during emergencies.

In boilerplate language attached to press releases, ICE and its parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), claim that immigration detainees are not denied medical care. However, Paktyawal’s wife later told #AfghanEvac that federal agents refused her attempts to pass along a rescue inhaler that Paktyawal relied on to breathe during emergencies.

“His wife says she told officers during the arrest that he needed it,” VanDiver said on social media on March 17. “She says she tried to give them the inhaler. She says they refused.”

Since October, ICE has delayed payments to third-party medical providers such as doctors and dentists within its system of immigration jails for months despite ample funding from Trump and Congress. Multiple immigrants with serious health conditions have filed lawsuits alleging they were denied needed care while imprisoned by ICE.

In this photo provided by grieving family members, Mohommad Nazeer Paktyawal sits holding two of his six children.#AfghanEvac

“The fact that [Paktyawal] survived the Taliban but couldn’t survive ICE paints a dark picture of the morbid effectiveness of institutional violence,” wrote Austin Kocher, an assistant professor and immigration data researcher at Syracuse University, in a March 15 blog post.

According to #AfghanEvac and family members, Paktyawal was arrested on March 13 at 7:00 am and later called his family and reported feeling unwell. In a statement, DHS also said Paktyawal complained of shortness of breath during the intake process at an ICE field office in Dallas. ICE took Paktyawal to the hospital at 11:45 pm, and his family was told he was still alive at 8:00 am the next day. Four hours later, the family learned Paktyawal — a son, husband, brother, and father — had died.

In a statement, Paktyawal’s family said his children watched as he was surrounded by federal agents and taken away, a moment that “will stay with them forever.”


“We still cannot understand how this happened … He was only 41 years old and was a strong and healthy man. His children keep asking when their father will come home.”

“We still cannot understand how this happened,” the family said on March 15. “He was only 41 years old and was a strong and healthy man. His children keep asking when their father will come home.”

DHS said Paktyawal entered the U.S. under the Biden administration’s Operation Allies Refuge, a hasty effort to resettle Afghan war allies in the U.S. that became the largest noncombatant evacuation operation in U.S. military history. The operation suffered from logistical problems from the start and came under fire from Republicans who demanded that refugees be heavily vetted for potential security risks, further complicating the relocation process for tens of thousands of people.

Catholic Charities sponsored Paktyawal’s application for asylum, which was pending at the time of his death. Paktyawal also held a work permit and a Social Security number, according to #AfghanEvac, but he was arrested under Trump’s push for mass deportations. The Trump administration is notorious for blaming its own failures on Biden-era policies. On social media, DHS claimed Paktyawal “provided NO RECORD of military service” and said his “criminal history includes arrests for fraudulent use of food stamps and theft.” VanDiver said both claims are dubious

.

Mohommad Nazeer Paktyawal joined the Afghan special forces in 2005 and fought alongside U.S. Army Special Forces in one of the most dangerous areas of Afghanistan.#AfghanEvac

In the U.S., defendants are considered innocent until proven guilty, and ICE’s statement provides no indication that Paktyawal’s arrests resulted in criminal convictions. Echoing previous statements on individuals who died in custody, ICE appears to be painting Paktyawal as a “criminal alien” based on charges that were likely dropped.

VanDiver said ICE’s claim that Paktyawal provided no record of military service in Afghanistan is also dubious. DHS does not maintain the relevant records, so ICE would have needed to check with other departments to confirm Paktyawal’s service.

“Documentation of Afghan partners typically sits with the Department of Defense, the State Department, and the Special Immigrant Visa and Chief of Mission processes,” VanDiver said. “Claims that there is ‘no record’ often reflect a failure to check those interagency systems.”

Such a failure occurred in the case of Sayed Naser Noori, an Afghan ally who worked as an interpreter for U.S. troops during the war but was arrested by ICE in California during a routine check-in and jailed for months before a judge ordered his release. VanDiver said that at the time, DHS publicly stated there was no record of Noori’s service with the U.S. military, but that claim later proved incorrect after the right documents were identified.

Instead of casting blame on the Biden administration and Paktyawal himself, VanDiver said the government should be explaining how a “41-year-old father of six died less than 24 hours after entering ICE custody.”

“Right now the government appears focused on discrediting a man who cannot defend himself while the central question remains unanswered,” VanDiver said.

Israel Launches “Targeted” Invasions of Lebanon as World Focuses on Iran War

A senior Israeli official told Axios the military is “going to do what we did in Gaza.”

By Sharon Zhang ,

Truthout

March 16, 2026

An Israeli artillery unit fires towards southern Lebanon as seen from a position on the Israeli side of the border on March 15, 2026.Amir Levy / Getty Images

Israel announced on Monday that it is expanding its ground in southern Lebanon, claiming to target Hezbollah as Israel’s defense minister pledges that “hundreds of thousands” of people already forcibly displaced by Israeli attacks “will not return” for the indefinite future.

In a statement, Israeli forces said that soldiers are carrying out “limited and targeted ground operations” in southern Lebanon. The purpose is to “establish and strengthen a forward defensive posture … to create an additional layer of security for residents of northern Israel,” the statement claims, ignoring that Hezbollah has maintained in previous conflicts that it would not retaliate against Israel if Israeli forces withdrew from southern Lebanon.

Axios reported last week that Israel is planning a massive expansion of its ground invasion of Lebanon with the goal of seizing the entire area south of the Litani River. This area is protected under a UN Security Council resolution as part of a decades-old ceasefire agreement, and makes up about 8 percent of the area of the country.

A senior Israeli official told Axios the military is “going to do what we did in Gaza.”

Israel and Hezbollah reached a ceasefire agreement in late 2024, but Israel violated it over 10,000 times in the first year, UN officials said. Now, Israel has unilaterally ended the ceasefire — though some argue Israel never adhered to it in the first place — and severely escalated bombardments and forced displacement in Lebanon, as the world focuses on Israel and the U.S.’s horrific war on Iran.

Israel Has Dropped 4k Bombs on Iran — Surpassing 12-Day War in Just 4 Days
The death toll has already surpassed that of last year’s war, with Iranian officials reporting 1,230 killed so far.  By Sharon Zhang , Truthout March 5, 2026

In just the past two weeks, Israel has killed over 880 people in Lebanon, including over 100 children and dozens of health care workers, according to the country’s health ministry.

Israel has bombed residences, health care centers, and other civilian infrastructure, including in the capital of Beirut. The attacks have created a “humanitarian catastrophe,” as one UN official warned, forcing thousands to take shelter in makeshift shelters or on the streets. The UN says that Israel has forcibly displaced 800,000 people thus far.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz pledged on Monday to continue Israel’s displacement campaign.

“Hundreds of thousands of Shi’ite residents of southern Lebanon who ​have evacuated or are evacuating their homes in southern Lebanon and Beirut will not return to areas south of the Litani line until the safety of northern residents is ensured,” referring to northern Israel, Katz said in a statement.

Reuters reports that, over the weekend, Israeli forces surrounded the key town of Khiam, in southern Lebanon, close to the border of Israel and Syria’s Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

The town is on a hilltop that can oversee large swaths of the area, and is situated near the choke point where the demarcation of southern Lebanon by the Litani River and the “Blue Line” that establishes Lebanon’s southern border almost meet. Analysts say that Israel could use the town strategically to advance military occupation, potentially using it to cut off communication between parts of the occupied area.

Some residents of Lebanon, already having faced years of bombardments from Israel, say they fear that Israel will carry out an extended occupation like its 18-year occupation of Lebanon that lasted from 1982 to 2000.

“I feel like this is preparation for an occupation, and I’m afraid history will repeat itself,” said Iman Ibrahim, a resident of Blida, a town in south Lebanon, to The New York Times. “Everything we used to hear from our grandparents about occupation, we’re living it now.”

Israel Urges Iranian Uprising While Privately Saying They’d “Get Slaughtered”

Israeli officials told US diplomats that the Iranian government is “not cracking” in a State Department cable.

By Sharon Zhang ,

TruthoutPublished

March 17, 2026

A national flag is placed on the ruins of a building that is destroyed during the U.S.-Israeli military campaign that strikes a residential area on March 9, 2026, in Tehran, Iran, on March 12, 2026.

Morteza Nikoubazl / NurPhoto via Getty Images

Israeli officials are reportedly urging the U.S. to join them in their public urging of Iranians to stage an uprising against their government, even as the Israeli government internally assesses that protesters would be “slaughtered” if they did so, demonstrating Israel’s blasé attitude toward Iranian lives amid its bombardments of the country.

According to reporting by The Washington Post published Tuesday, top Israeli officials relayed the message to U.S. diplomats in a cable that circulated in the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem on Friday. The cable said that Israeli officials assess that the Iranian government is “not cracking” and will “fight to the end” — despite hopes by U.S. and Israeli officials that they could “decapitate” the government and achieve collapse.

The cable further said that if Iranians were to stage more protests against their government, as they did in demonstrations earlier this year, “the people will get slaughtered,” Israeli officials said. According to UN Special Rapporteur on Iran Mai Sato, around 5,000 people were killed in the government crackdown on protests as of January, though it has been difficult to assess the precise number of deaths due to biases on all sides.

The cable, which summarized recent meetings by top Israeli officials and U.S. officials, said that nonetheless, Israeli officials are hoping for a revolt and that the U.S. should support such an uprising as well.

Critics have said that the cable demonstrates Israeli officials’ indifference toward whether civilians live or die, after years of Israel wantonly slaughtering civilians in Palestine and countries across the Middle East.

“This should not surprise anyone,” said Trita Parsi, executive vice president for the Quincy Institute, in a post on social media. “That the Israelis would use the Iranian people as cannon fodder in their war with the Islamic Republic was crystal clear to anyone who had followed the Israeli-Iranian rivalry in a clear-eyed way. Nor can anyone reasonably expect that Israel would act in the best interest of the Iranian people. Israel pursues its own interests, full stop.”

On the first day of the U.S. and Israel’s bombardments on February 28, U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu both put out video addresses urging the Iranian people to take up arms against their government as they rained death and destruction from the sky. Since then, the U.S. and Israel’s bombardments have killed over 1,400 people in Iran and injured at least 18,500, according to Iranian health officials. Israeli intelligence and military officials have long urged Iranians to protest against their government, and the U.S. has meddled in Iranian politics for decades.

“I think a lot of people will feel very betrayed by this assessment,” Iran analyst and Johns Hopkins University assistant professor Narges Bajoli told The Washington Post, saying that it would be viewed as exploiting Iranian lives for political gain

Trump floats extreme plan to get ‘non-responsive allies’ in gear

Alexander Willis
March 18, 2026  

RAW STORY

U.S. President Donald Trump holds an event to sign an executive order creating an anti‑fraud task force headed by U.S. Vice President JD Vance in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., March 16, 2026. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

President Donald Trump floated a startling plan Wednesday in the hopes of forcing the United States’ “non-responsive allies” to provide military assistance in his administration’s war against Iran.

Trump has reacted angrily at the NATO countries in recent days after his repeated calls for military assistance had been either ignored or outright rejected. After being attacked by both the United States and Israel, Iranian leadership has vowed to respond aggressively to any sea vessels aligned with either of the two countries attempting to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial shipping route through which 20% of the world’s oil trade flows.

In an apparent attempt to force NATO countries’ hands, Trump revealed a new plan on Wednesday in a post on Truth Social.

“I wonder what would happen if we ‘finished off’ what’s left of the Iranian Terror State, and let the Countries that use it, we don’t, be responsible for the so called ‘Straight?’” Trump wrote, potentially misspelling "strait." “That would get some of our non-responsive ‘Allies’ in gear, and fast!!!”

Trump’s social media post marks the first time the president has floated the idea of facilitating other countries to effectively take control of the Strait of Hormuz. Whether the proposal convinces U.S. allies to join the Trump administration’s war effort remains to be seen.

Allies Resist Trump’s Demands to Aid Travel Through Strait of Hormuz


No country has committed to Trump’s demands as the administration scrambles to address rising gas prices.

By Sharon Zhang , 

Truthout

March 16, 2026

A MarineTraffic map showing ship movements in the Strait of Hormuz is displayed on a smartphone screen with a map in the background in this photo illustration, as commercial vessel traffic through the key oil shipping lane decreases amid the ongoing conflict involving Iran.

Jonathan Raa / NurPhoto


Truthout is a vital news source and a living history of political struggle. If you think our work is valuable, support us with a donation of any size.

Several allies to the U.S. have rebuffed President Donald Trump’s demands and threats this weekend for countries to aid in opening transit through the Strait of Hormuz, as oil prices spike in the third week of the U.S. and Israel’s war on Iran.

As of Monday morning in the U.S., no countries had committed to aiding in Trump’s plan to form a naval coalition for access to the strait as Iranian forces attack ships attempting to cross it.

In a post on Truth Social on Saturday, Trump said that countries are forming a coalition to open the strait. He asked allies to join him in the mission of aiding travel through the waterway.

“Hopefully China, France, Japan, South Korea, the UK, and others, that are affected by this artificial constraint will send ships to the area so that the Hormuz Strait will no longer be a threat by a nation that has been totally decapitated,” Trump wrote.

“We have already destroyed 100% of Iran’s Military capability, but it’s easy for them to send a drone or two, drop a mine, or deliver a close range missile somewhere along, or in, this Waterway, no matter how badly defeated they are,” he went on, clearly contradicting himself.

Australia has said that they don’t plan to send ships for the effort. China has not commented on Trump’s demands, with a Foreign Ministry spokesperson reiterating the country’s call for all parties to end its military operations.

Japan and South Korea have said that they are considering the request, but have not committed; the issue will likely be a topic of discussion during Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s White House visit on Thursday.

European countries have also demurred. On Monday, Germany said that they would back sanctions efforts against those blocking the strait, but declined direct military involvement, saying: “As long ⁠as this war continues, there will be no participation, ⁠not even in ⁠any effort ⁠to keep the Strait of Hormuz open by military ‌means.”

Greece also declined to participate in any military operations in the strait. The U.K., Italy, and Luxembourg expressed an opposition to direct military involvement, saying that they prefer diplomatic solutions. The U.K. “will not be drawn into the wider war,” Prime Minister Keir Starmer told reporters on Monday.

France declined to send ships on Thursday, even before Trump’s requests. “I’m very clear and firm on this topic; at this point, there is no question of sending any vessels to the strait of Hormuz,” said French Minister of Defense Catherine Vautrin. However, France said last week that it is deploying roughly a dozen naval vessels to the Mediterranean and the Red Sea amid the escalation.

The European Union’s top foreign policy official, Kaja Kallas, has advocated for a diplomatic response. She said that she spoke with UN Secretary-General António Guterres over the weekend about replicating the UN’s Black Sea initiative for the safe export of grain, fertilizer, and other goods from Ukraine amid Russia’s invasion.

Iran offered last week to allow countries passage through Hormuz if they expelled ambassadors for the U.S. and Israel from their countries.

The cool response from the international community to Trump’s demands comes despite the president openly threatening countries if they don’t comply. In an interview with the Financial Times on Sunday, Trump said: “If there’s no response or if it’s a negative response I think it will be very bad for the future of NATO.”

The Trump administration has still refused to give a definitive timeline for the end of its bombardments, with Trump saying last week that the war will end “when I feel it … in my bones.” Iran is unlikely to reopen the strait, which is one of its biggest points of leverage, until at least the end of the U.S.-Israeli bombardments, which health officials report have killed over 1,200 civilians so far.

The war and closure of the strait, which is entering its third week, is roiling global oil prices and causing a major fertilizer shortage that is threatening U.S. agriculture at a crucial time for planting.

On Monday, gas prices continued to rise, hitting an average of $3.72 a gallon — the highest price since October 7, 2023. Prices could hit new highs if the war continues, former White House energy adviser Bob McNally said in an interview on “60 Minutes” that aired Sunday.

“If we don’t open up Hormuz soon, I can see us making new records,” said McNally, who was an energy adviser during President George W. Bush’s first term in office.

Trump has fixated on oil prices, first saying that his administration has lowered gas prices, and now claiming that higher oil prices are actually good for the U.S. amid a nationwide affordability crisis. Last week, the Trump administration began to tap into the U.S.’s strategic oil reserves in an attempt to stymie price rises. His administration has also invoked the Defense Production Act to increase oil and gas development, including the reopening of a California pipeline responsible for a major oil spill in 2015.

McNally said, however, that no policy other than opening the strait could stop the oil price spikes and supply chain disruptions.

“I’ve worked in the White House during an energy crisis. There are no policy solutions to a prolonged closure of the Strait of Hormuz,” McNally said. “You open up the toolkit, and the tools in there, the options range from marginal, through symbolic, to deeply unwise. Escorts are a sideshow, strategic stock releases are a sideshow…. Gas tax holiday, sideshow. You gotta restore the flow of the Strait of Hormuz.”

As US Bombards Iran, Trump Opines: “Maybe We Shouldn’t Even Be There at All”

“We don’t need it. We have a lot of oil,” Trump said. “It’s almost like we do it for habit.”

By Sharon Zhang 

Truthout

March 16, 2026

President Donald Trump wondered if the U.S. “shouldn’t even be there” when answering questions about the war on Iran on Sunday, claiming that Iran’s military is already totally obliterated as the U.S. and Israel’s bombardments enter their third week with no end in sight.

A reporter asked Trump on Sunday about his demands that other countries aid him in trying to force transit through the Strait of Hormuz while it’s closed by Iran. In response, he said that other countries should “come in and protect their own territory” and “they should help us protect it.”

But, as he muddled through a response, he added that the U.S. doesn’t “need” control over the strait because the U.S. already has the oil it needs.

“You could make the case that maybe we shouldn’t even be there at all, because we don’t need it. We have a lot of oil,” Trump said. “But we do it. It’s almost like we do it for habit.”

The comment has increased scrutiny over the Trump administration’s aims for the war. The purpose for launching the war is constantly shifting, and lawmakers have repeatedly said that the administration has not laid out the purpose of the war in briefings. It’s also unclear when the war will end, with top administration officials like Special Envoy Steve Witkoff saying “I don’t know” when the end will be.

Israel said on Monday that it’s prepared for three more weeks of war, and Energy Secretary Chris Wright said on Sunday that it will end in a few weeks. However, Trump said last week that the war was “very complete” and has been claiming for days now that Iran’s military is obliterated, which is untrue.

“Militarily, we’ve — as far as I’m concerned — we’ve essentially defeated Iran. I guess they can have a little bit of fight back, but not much,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One. “We’ve taken out their navy. We’ve taken out their air defense. There’s no air defense whatsoever.”

NBC reported on Monday that Trump is presented with options to end the war regularly, but has declined to take any of them.

Still, the U.S. and Israel’s bombardments continued on Monday. Iran’s Health Ministry says 1,444 people have been killed and over 18,500 injured since February 28. Human rights group HRANA counts at least 1,330 civilians killed, including over 200 children.

These attacks, particularly the likely U.S. strike on a school in Minab, Iran, that killed scores of children, have drawn scrutiny over their compliance with international standards on civilian safety. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has drawn condemnation from legal experts and politicians after saying last week that the U.S. would show “no quarter, no mercy” for Iran.

Legal experts say that even just that order can constitute a war crime, as orders that there should be no survivors are prohibited under international law.

Meanwhile, the price tag for the war is mounting. Trump’s National Economic Council director, Kevin Hassett, said on Sunday that the U.S. had spent $12 billion on the war up until that point; and The Washington Post reported last week that the U.S. dropped $5.6 billion worth of munitions on Iran in the first two days of the war alone.

'Chickens are coming home to roost': Global disgust of the US grows

U.S. President Donald Trump with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on May 6, 2025 (Official White House Photo by Daniel Torok/Flickr)

Sarah K. Burris

March 17, 2026 

ALTERNET

President Donald Trump wants more countries to help with his war in Iran, but so far, he hasn't had any takers. According to CNN data analyst Harry Enten, there's a good reason for that.

Speaking about the growing disgust with the United States, Enten said that the global community is out.

"The people in those countries hate, hate, hate the U.S. military action in Iran," said Enten.

In Canada, that number is -27 percent. Japan is -73 points. The U.K. is -34 percent.

"The people in those countries absolutely despise the U.S. military action. Iran. No wonder the leaders in those countries are, let's just say, a little apprehensive about helping out the U.S.," he added.

Indeed, most U.S. allies rejected Trump's requests for help, even countries that rely on Iran for oil. Others haven't indicated one way or the other.

CNN host John Berman compared the Iran war to the Iraq war in 2003. During that war, President George W. Bush had administration officials court allies' involvement and made the case before the United Nations.

Canada is now 27 points less in its support for Iran over Iraq. Japan is 45 points down from its support of the 2023 war, and the U.K., which went to war with the U.S., is down 48 points from those 2003 numbers.

One of Trump's campaign comments in 2024 was that the global community doesn't "respect" the United States. Now it has become clear the world likes America a lot more under President Joe Biden than under Trump. Support for the U.S. under Trump has dropped by 79 percent.

"The bottom line is this: the folks overseas are far less likely to view the U.S. favorably. And those chickens are coming home to roost in this situation, as there's very little support abroad for the U.S. military action in Iran," Enten closed.




- YouTubeyoutu.be

Meteorologist attributes baffling Trump claim to 'the Sharpie in his brain'

U.S. President Donald Trump gestures as he makes an impression of a transgender weightlifter during his address to House Republicans at the Kennedy Center, January 6, 2026. REUTERS Kevin Lamarque

Adam Lynch

March 17, 2026

ALTERNET

Certified Broadcast and Consulting Meteorologist John Morales said he was thrown by President Donald Trump’s recent weather claims about Cuba.

The Miami New Times reports Trump told reporters on Monday at the White House that Cuba is not in a hurricane zone, beginning his remarks that Cuba was a “beautiful island” with “great weather.”

“They’re not in a hurricane zone, which is nice for a change, you know?” Trump told reporters. “They won’t be asking us for money for hurricanes every week … I do believe I’ll have the honor of taking Cuba. That’s a big honor.”

Aside from a modern-day U.S. president declaring his plan to “take” a legitimately and internationally-recognized nation for his own, Trump’s claim about Cuba’s balmyalternet sharpie Trump

hurricane-free weather “was news to meteorologists everywhere and to his own administration,” reports the Times.

Stunned, Morales attributed Trump’s mind-boggling claim to “the Sharpie in his brain at work.

Morales was referring to Trump vandalizing an official government weather map in 2019, apparently with a Sharpie, to expand the range of projected impact for 2019’s Hurricane Dorian — just to avoid admitting he’s lied about the hurricane menacing the state of Alabama.

But even more astounding, the Miami New Times reports Trump appeared to have forgotten that just two months ago, his own administration had delivered $3 million in disaster relief to Cuba after Hurricane Melissa slammed the island last October.

“The Trump administration said it sent charter flights from Miami in mid-January to bring food kits, hygiene and water treatment kits, household items, and kitchen supplies to 24,000 people in the hardest-hit areas of Santiago de Cuba, Holguín, Granma, and Guantanamo,” reports the Times. “The administration was working with the Catholic Church to ensure ‘assistance reaches the Cuban people directly and without regime interference.’”

A January 26 U.S. Department of State press release even states that “The United States remains steadfast in supporting the Cuban people’s post-disaster recovery,” before declaring the aid “the first in a series of shipments of humanitarian assistance … designed to reach those most in need, bypassing regime interference, and ensuring transparency and accountability.”

Months before causing its own island-wide hurricane-style electricity blackout, Trump’s people declared “our humanitarian assistance is part of a broader effort to stand with the Cuban people as they seek a better future.”

In addition to its January aid, the administration followed up its generosity in February with the announcement of an additional $6 million in supplies because of the lingering humanitarian and energy crisis of Cubans affected by Melissa.

A president killing for the 'fun' of it sounds 'like a serial killer': analysis

Adam Lynch

March 17, 2026

ALTERNET


Zeteo political correspondent Asawin Suebsaeng says a U.S. president bragging about mass-killing other nation’s populations and idly discussing demolishing a whole island “just for fun” is not okay.

The Trump administration is doing it its ‘best Ted Bundy impersonation,’ said Suebsaeng, citing President Donald Trump saying “We totally demolished Kharg Island, but we may hit it a few more times just for fun” to NBC News on Saturday in reference to his recent bombing of Iran’s oil-export hub.

“The prosecution of Trump’s war has been a massive, blood-caked scandal and crime,” said Suebsaeng. “Beyond the moral and practical abomination of the operation, the president and ruling party dove backwards into this without even the appearance of a clear mission or plan, and tried to sell the American people a pack of lies to justify the war. And as the bodies pile up, the White House is propagandizing about carnage as if it were nothing but a violent, nihilistic video game. The casual talk of mass-death and the meme-ification of a regional bloodbath underscore the advanced depravity that drives Trump administration policies, at home and abroad.”

And, yes, Trump indeed quoted the Zodiac Killer, who famously said “I like killing people because it is so much fun.” But it’s not just “one Mad King doing Mad King brain-rot,” warned Suebsaeng. His advisers are happy to join the “fun.”

“Death and destruction from the sky all day long,” former Fox host and current defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, said at a March press briefing early this month. He also said Friday that he would allow “no quarter, no mercy for our enemies,” in what Suebsaeng considered “an apparent call to violate international law so that Americans may slaughter more freely.”

Even former House speaker and Trump advisor Newt Gingrich got in on the violence, posting on X that “Instead of fighting over a 21-mile-wide bottleneck (strait of Hormuz) forever, we cut a new channel through friendly territory. A dozen thermonuclear detonations and you’ve got a waterway wider than the Panama Canal, deeper than the Suez, and safe from Iranian attacks.”

“To be fair, what Gingrich is proposing would less resemble serial-killing, and more closely resemble mass murder,” said Suebsaeng, “but tomato-toMurder, as the idiom goes.”

“To get serious again for a moment: the fate of the world is very much on the line, and the morally vacant gang running the US government and its blundering, ‘Fox-and-Friends’-ified war machine is waging its military onslaught as if it were directing a crudely improvised snuff film. It is easy to get numb to Team Trump’s artery-spray of corruption and bloodlust,” Suebsaeng added. “Don’t. None of this is okay.”

National park land literally blown up by Trump's obsession in key swing state

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks, as a patch of blemished skin is visible above his shirt collar, during a Medal of Honor ceremony at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., March 2, 2026. REUTERS/Ken Cedeno

Alex Henderson

March 18, 2026

ALTERNET

In the past, Arizona had a reputation for being reliably conservative. Sen. Barry Goldwater (R-Arizona), despite his vehement disdain for the Religious Right, was a highly influential figure in the Republican Party — and his successor, GOP Sen. John McCain, identified as a "Goldwater Republican."

But Arizona has evolved into a volatile swing state. Arizona has a Democratic governor (Katie Hobbs) and two Democratic U.S. senators (Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego), yet Donald Trump carried Arizona by roughly 5.5 percent in 2024. And Republicans have majorities in both houses of the Arizona State Legislature.

Arizona is having plenty of heated political debates in 2026, and one of them involves the border wall project that got underway during Trump's first presidency. MAGA Republicans in Arizona want to see the construction of a U.S./Mexico border wall continue to move forward, but other Arizona residents are saying that while they want border security, they also have environmental concerns.

The Atlantic's Nick Miroff addresses those concerns in an article published on March 17, describing the effect of national park lands in the key swing state.

"At Coronado National Memorial in Arizona," Miroff explains, "the demolition crews blowing up national-park land tend to announce explosions at least a day in advance, as a warning for hikers to stay away. The crews have been working their way up the western slope of the park for the past couple of months, right along the international boundary with Mexico. President Trump's border wall needs a smooth, straight path, and there are mountains in the way. Trump didn't build along this stretch of the border during his first term, but his crews are now working at a furious pace."

Miroff adds, "They have already completed about five miles of 30-foot-tall barrier, painted jet black at the president's insistence because he thought it looked more intimidating and would be hotter to the touch."

One of the longtime Arizona residents who is openly critical of border wall construction in the San Raphael Valley area is Kate Scott, who said that seeing the wall makes her feel "physically sick."

Scott told The Atlantic, "I refuse to allow people to take our land, annihilate our animals, our plants, our water. I do not accept that as my reality. And if more people started to understand that it's not our reality to accept, they will come up with ways to push back."

Zay Hartigan, a local fire chief in that area of Arizona, told The Atlantic he considers the border wall "just a waste of money" and that surveillance towers deter smugglers.

"The valley had been shaped across tens of millions of years, by volcanoes, floods, earthquakes," Miroff notes. "Native peoples, Spanish explorers, Mexican settlers, Apache warriors, cowboys, and mountain bikers all passed through. None of them has left anything as immense and lasting as what Trump is building."