IRAN WAR UPDATE

In today’s update, I walk through how quickly this war is sliding from “regional conflict” into a full-on crisis for Americans on the ground. The US is now closing embassies in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait and ordering evacuations across 14 countries — days late — with airspace shut and no clear way out for the roughly 300,000 Americans stuck in the region. I cover the chaos and incompetence: Marines opening fire after protesters storm the US consulate in Karachi, Americans calling State’s emergency line and sitting on hold only to get a canned script that they can’t help, while other countries like Italy are already organizing airlifts. I also get into the direct threats: the US embassy in Saudi Arabia hit in a multi-drone attack, the roof collapsing, the interior contaminated with smoke, and personnel still sheltering in place.

Then I connect the dots on why this war keeps getting more dangerous — because the policy story and the operational reality don’t match. Trump is flip-flopping on regime change, now openly talking about supporting armed groups in Iran, while more Republicans admit out loud that Israel effectively forced Trump’s hand (including Speaker Johnson and Tom Cotton echoing Rubio’s line that Israel was the “imminent threat” factor). I walk through the deadly Kuwait strike that killed six US service members — a so-called “fortified facility” that was actually a makeshift operations center in a trailer with weak defenses, where troops had asked for more anti-drone capability and didn’t get it. I cover Israel reportedly blowing up a meeting of Iran’s Assembly of Experts that may have been selecting a new Supreme Leader, and the insanity of Kash Patel firing a counter-espionage team focused on Iran threats at the worst possible moment. And I close with the political and economic blowback already hitting home: Trump contradicting himself on weapons stockpiles, gas prices jumping 12 cents in a day, and new polling showing the public isn’t rallying — 41% support, 59% oppose.