The Morning Report — 3/3/26

Good morning kids. And so, despite President Trump serving up heaping helpings of KABOOM to Iran's leadership . . .

President Donald Trump said Monday the initial strikes targeting Iran killed dozens of Iranian leaders during a breakfast meeting with Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Trump confirmed Khamenei’s death in a post on Truth Social Saturday, hours after he announced the commencement of Operation Epic Fury early that morning. “Special Report” host Bret Baier told “America’s Newsroom” co-hosts Bill Hemmer and Dana Perino that Trump was “pleased”with the progress of Operation Epic Fury.

. . . over here it's turning into déjà vu all over again. Or is it? Has the President betrayed the MAGA movement and one of its bedrock principles of no more endless and pointless wars? Obviously the usual suspects on the Left and Right are bleating this out to sow political division for their own advantage . . .

As an aside, I have neither seen nor heard of any reaction from John Kerry. Considering he was one of the chief architects of Obama's nuclear deal that put Iran squarely on the path to getting the bomb, and was often parlaying and paling around with Javad Zarif and other big wigs of the Iranian regime, Even post his tenure at Foggy Bottom, his silence is interesting. Imagine if his rotten criminal corpse turned up in a Tehran mortuary!

But, it may be semantics but in my estimation what we're seeing with Iran is not going to be endless and certainly it's not pointless.

The two questions, which most of us outside the government simply do not have answers to, are: First: Was the threat posed by Iran really that great? Second: Can we effectively and efficiently install a friendly regime in Iran? Those are the two questions. Everything else is noise. . .

. . . This is not being pitched as Iraq 2.0. It is being pitched as a decisive, overwhelming, time-limited force. The early days have been extremely successful. Military leadership decapitated. Key targets neutralized. A regime that has openly threatened American interests for decades suddenly thrown off balance. But early success does not guarantee long-term success. A billion things could go wrong.

Indeed. And so far, so much has gone so incredibly right, the deaths of US servicemen as well as any innocent civilians notwithstanding, but such is the nature of war. As I and others have said and written here and on the podcast as well as elsewhere, The Iranian regime such as it was (and I hope and pray my use of the past tense is correct) had already spent the better part of nearly 50 years spilling rivers of blood, quite a bit of it American, all over the world as far and away the number one state sponsor of terrorism and also in that time had been hell bent for leather in building and acquiring nuclear weapons and sophisticated missile delivery systems, all of which to bring about Armageddon as the precursor to Shiite paradise on Earth and the final conquest of the world, capping off the 1,500-year crusade to make it Islamic from pole to pole and ocean to ocean.

Whether or not President Trump truly understands the existential threat that Islam poses to global peace and the advancement of civilization and human development from an historical, ideological and intellectual perspective I can't say. But that he does take that 50 year chants of "Death to America" and the regime's bloody history is self-evident insofar as where we are today.

And of course there are other considerations vis a vis this President's desire to see America's status in the world as its preeminent power and the driving force of its destiny, not merely for his own place in history but for the sake of ensuing America's security and prosperity well past its 250th anniversary this coming July.

With Kharg Island, Iran’s main oil-export terminal, in flames after Saturday’s US-led attack, China’s energy lifeline is going up in smoke.

Ignoring international sanctions, oil-thirsty China had long been the Ayatollah Khamenei regime’s main buyer.  

To be sure, China was a cheap customer, paying well below the going market price for Iran’s bootleg oil.  

Not only that, it insisted in paying in Chinese yuan, not dollars, ensuring the money would flow back to China.   

Beijing’s slick sales pitches convinced the Iranians to spend their oil billions buying China’s military and telecommunications equipment — like the “state-of-the-art” radar systems that now lie in smoldering ruins after failing to detect the incoming American air strikes.

But the decapitation of Iran’s leadership and the destruction of its Chinese-made defense arsenal aren’t the worst of Beijing’s Middle East woes.  

Iran’s reckless missile barrages have united the entire region against it — causing an enormous loss of face for its chief international backer.

Two years ago, China was riding high in the Arab world.  

In March 2023 it brokered a normalization agreement between Shiite Iran and its longtime Sunni adversary, Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Investment Minister Khalid Al-Falih praised the new Middle Eastern power broker.

A multipolar world had emerged, he declared — and cooperation between the Gulf states and China would be “a significant part of the new order.” 

A year into President Donald Trump’s second term, China’s role in that new order seems to be shrinking by the day. 

It’s not just that Iran, the anchor of China’s Middle East ambitions, is now an international pariah.  

That’s only the latest in a long series of recent geopolitical setbacks for America’s chief adversary. . .

. . . From Panama to Venezuela, from Greenland to Iran, the pieces of the puzzle are falling into place. 

Trump is thinking very bigly.

As US energy production ramps up, China is not only deprived of cheap oil from Venezuela and Iran, but also the ability to pay for it by printing renminbi.  . .

. . .His goal is to transform the global order to America’s advantage — which necessarily means greatly reducing the malign influence of Communist China.  

“Winning without fighting is the acme of warfare,” the ancient Chinese strategist Sunzi famously said.

And where China is concerned, it seems that one of Sunzi’s best students is a yangguizi — a “foreign devil” by the name of Donald J. Trump.

Have a great day!

And lastly, a quick shout-out and a huge thank you for your continued support in hitting our tip jar. It truly is appreciated more than you can know.

ABOVE THE FOLD, BREAKING, NOTEWORTHY LINKS
• Victor Davis Hanson: Trump’s doctrine is simple: strike first at the guilty, strike hard from afar, skip the nation-building, and end wars on America’s terms.
  Trump’s Way of War

AMERICA & ISRAEL STRIKE IRAN!
• Trump: “We’re knocking the crap out of them. I think it’s going very well. It’s very powerful.”
  Trump on Iran: ‘The Big Wave Hasn’t Even Happened. The Big One is Coming Soon’
  
• Posting on the third day of operations, United States Central Command wrote on X: “Two days ago, the Iranian regime had 11 ships in the Gulf of Oman, today they have ZERO.”
  CENTCOM: Tehran’s Gulf of Oman Fleet Wiped Out — ‘ZERO’ Ships Remain as U.S. Hits 1,250+ Targets
  “’Number one, they didn’t think we knew, but you never attack in the morning, having to do with winds and sun and a lot of things. It just, it was amazing that we knew everything we knew,’ he said there is a plan.”
  Trump Says US Decapitated Iranian Leadership As They Ate Breakfast (they were eating "Kaboom" - jjs)
  
• “The U.S. Mission to Saudi Arabia has issued a shelter in place notification for Jeddah, Riyadh and Dhahran and are limiting non-essential travel to any military installations in the region,” a “security alert” posted by the Riyadh embassy on X read.
  US Embassy in Saudi Arabia hit in suspected Iranian drone attack: reports
  
• “The first is it was abundantly clear that, if Iran came under attack by anyone, the United States or Israel or anyone, they were going to respond and respond against the United States.”
  Rubio: We Knew Israel Would Attack Iran, Which Would Lead to an Attack on America
  
• Starmer’s comments came despite criticism from US President Donald Trump over the UK leader’s initial refusal to let Washington use British military bases in the conflict.
  UK PM says US will not use British bases in Cyprus
  
• Spain’s decision may strain relations with Washington.
  Socialist Spain Drives Out U.S. Military Aircraft.
  
• Everything else is noise.
  Two Questions Decide Whether The Iran War Is Brilliant Or A Disaster

• IDF chief of staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir: “We will end this campaign with not just Iran being struck but with Hezbollah suffering a devastating blow.” 
  IDF Eliminates Hezbollah Intel Chief, Launches Massive Strike on Iran Regime Targets

• The attack has raised concerns about potential disruptions in global oil supply.
  Saudis Forced to Shut Massive Oil Refinery After Iranian Attack.
  
• Unit 8200 and Mossad reportedly hacked nearly every traffic camera in the Iranian capital years ago.
  Before The Bombs Fell, Israeli Cyber-Warriors Had Hacked Into Tehran’s Infrastructure For Years
  
• Netanyahu said, “The reason that we had to act now is because, they were — after we hit their nuclear sites and their ballistic missiles program, you’d think they would learn a lesson. But they didn’t, because they’re unreformable. They’re totally fanatic about this, about the goal of destroying America. So, they started building new sites, new places, underground bunkers that would make their ballistic missile program and their atomic bomb programs immune within months. If no action was taken now, no action could be taken in the future.”
  Netanyahu: If We Didn’t Hit Iran Now, We Couldn’t in Future, They Were Building New Missile, Nuke Sites That Would Be ‘Immune’ from Strikes
  
• They thought the Ummah would rally. It recoiled.
  The Mullahs’ Miscalculation
  
• “Trump’s actions should be blamed on—or credited to—himself.” 
  Trump Was Always an Iran Hawk
  
• The ghosts of Jimmy Carter’s debacle at Desert One in 1980 – the worst military humiliation in U.S. history – were finally exorcised
  Trump’s Axing Of Evil Ends Both Neocon And Mad MAGA Ideology
  
• American military power is unrivaled, while Europeans and Canadians give speeches about shoving the American military aside and becoming rival powers. This is not real.
  The Iran Attack Presents A Series Of Reality Checks For The World
  
• As if we couldn't hate the UN anymore. . . I consider myself a Jedi master of sarcasm, but I feel inadequate here. A missile launches from Iranian soil, veers off course, devastates a nearby school, and somehow Washington writes the script. United Nations officials share images later revealed to originate from separate crackdowns. Domestic commentators lean on a single government source that operates one of the world's most controlled media environments.
  UN Weeps on Cue While Tehran Writes the Script

• Raw Egg Nationalist: There’s no easy way to spin this. It could be bad. Really bad.
  The Grudge: What Happens in Iran Next Will Decide the Fate of America First

  CIVIL WAR 2.0, LEFTIST PERSECUTIONS, DEMOCRAT PUTSCH, AMERICAN DISSOLUTION

• Tlaib inadvertantly revealed that she has no identification with the U.S., which she considers the 'other.'
  Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Palestine) refers to the U.S. as 'they'
  
• As foreign capital converges with ideological ambition, America must guard the cultural institutions that shape its liberty before silence becomes surrender.
  Who Owns the American Story?
  
• Glenn H. Reynolds: As commentator William Wolf observed on X, “The fact that a billionaire real estate playboy who liked to slap his name on steaks and wine has proven to be a better diplomat and military strategist than every other politician and foreign policy expert over the last 30 years is such a damning indictment of the DC establishment I honestly don’t know how they recover.”
  Why Trump and Hegseth’s swagger leaves Washington’s ‘elite’ seething

  "DEMOCRAT/LEFTIST/GLOBALIST BORDER BLOODBATH," AMNESTY, IMMIGRATION, BORDER SECURITY

• Mark Pulliam: The Left finds its heroes and idols in the most unusual places.
  The Canonization of Kilmar Abrego Garcia

• The arrests of the ten migrants came after an investigation was launched into their activities starting in 2024 in Kent County, Michigan, the Kent County Sheriff’s Office said in a press release on Thursday.
  Report: Michigan Cops Nab Another South American Migrant Burglary Gang

  THE GREAT SOMALIAN SIMOLEON SWINDLE

• Federal funds may be withheld if Minnesota fails to address the outlined issues, with $184.9 million in taxpayer funding at risk.
  HHS Report Finds MN Child Care Agency is Skipping Fraud Checks, Attendance Verification.
  
• The only thing the California Attorney General does is threaten anyone investigating corruption.
  California Attorney General Promises to Prosecute Anyone Investigating Somali Fraud

  DOMESTIC AFFAIRS, THE COURTS, WASTE/FRAUD/ABUSE

• Plane taking off from Long Island crashes into icy Hudson River during emergency landing
  MIRACLE ON THE HUDSON 2

  WE-ALL-SLAM-FOR-I-SLAM

• "It is exactly in moments like this that resistance fighter are born.”
  Mosque 30 Miles From White House Calls Iran’s Khamenei “Our Leader”

• Imagine if a Christian man had vandalized a mosque.
  Muslim Man Vandalizes San Francisco Church

  OFFICIAL DEMOCRAT PARTY/LEFTIST-ENDORSED ANTI-SEMITISM, ANTI-CHRISTIANITY

• Far-left crusader Graham Platner is once again in the news after two instances of elevating known anti-semitic voices in the last week.
  Dem Senate Darling Stumbles Into Third Nazi-Related Scandal Of Primary Campaign

  FIRST AMENDMENT ISSUES, CENSORSHIP, FAKE NEWS, MEDIA, BIG BROTHER TECH

• Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s longtime supreme leader responsible for executions, censorship, repression, and sponsoring terrorist groups worldwide, was killed in an airstrike on Saturday. His death comes weeks after his regime oversaw the execution of tens of thousands of Iranians who took to the streets to protest his very rule.
  You Don’t Hate Media Enough: NYT, WaPo Remember Ayatollah As ‘Cleric’ With ‘Easy Smile’
  
• “He affected an avuncular and magnanimous aloofness, running the country from a perch above the jousting of daily politics.”
  Legacy Media Obituaries Almost Forget to Mention Khamenei’s Murderous Repression
  
• The Post quoted Ermiya Fanaeian as a Howard PhD candidate with family in Iran. It did not mention her work for 'Armed Queers Salt Lake City,' which included a visit to the Cuban embassy in DC to celebrate the life of Fidel Castro.
  WaPo Presents 'Socialist and Trans Liberation Organizer' Who Founded 'Armed Queers' Group as Concerned Student Protesting Trump's Strikes on Iranian Regime

  
  THE ECONOMY, STUPID

• An annual report from U.S.  Trade Representative (USTR) Jamieson Greer details how Trump’s tariffs have helped recenter the nation’s trade policy to one that focuses on gains for America’s working and middle class.
  Tariff Victory: U.S.-China Trade Deficit Plummets in Trump’s First Year

• New York Times campaigns against 'gilded age' in Wyoming
  Sanders, Khanna Unveil $4.4 Trillion Tax Increase
  
• Elected Democrats rarely limit tax increases to wealthy families once in office.
  Mamdani Says Quiet Part Out Loud About Democrats’ Tax-Hiking Agenda

  CRIME & PUNISHMENT, NON-DOSTOYEVSKY

• The victim "sustained severe and permanent personal injuries, became sick, sore, lame and disabled."
  Austin Shooter Once Mowed Down Pedestrian In NYC, Leaving Her With Life-Altering Injuries: Report

• A State Department spokesperson told the Daily Caller that the 32-year-old suspect, Jared Llamado of McLean, Virginia, was working for the department at the time of the alleged stabbing and his death.
  State Department Official Identified As Suspect In Deadly Alleged Road Rage Stabbing

  RED-GREENS, CLIMATE CHANGE HOAX, DEMOCRAT-LEFT WAR ON FOSSIL FUELS,

• Robert Zimmerman: "I must highlight this lack of understanding however, and how it is has consistently resulted in failed predictions for the past two solar cycles. The Sun is the biggest driver of the Earth’s climate, and we simply do not understand its behavior on a fundamental level. These cycles however do impact the climate, and if we don’t understand them and can’t reliably predict their behavior, how can we possible predict the climate over the next hundred years?
  Sunspot update: Sunspot activity tumbles in February, including the 1st blank days since ’22

  EDUCATION, AND WHAT PASSES FOR IT

• Justice Gerald Lebovits, an adjunct professor at Columbia Law School, said the expulsions were ‘arbitrary and capricious’
  New York Judge Says Columbia Cannot Expel or Discipline Students Who Stormed and Occupied Campus Building 

  
  SECOND AMENDMENT

• During oral arguments in U.S. v. Hemani, Justice Neil Gorsuch addressed the gun ban for “unlawful” users of marijuana by juxtaposing it with. . .
  Justice Gorsuch: Would Founding Fathers Be Disarmed as ‘Habitual Drunkards’?

  L'AFFAIRE EPSTEIN

• During Clinton’s deposition, Mace asked Clinton how she knew Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. Mace later revealed that she had an email from Lutnick that was sent to Epstein “and his people,” inviting them to a fundraising event for Clinton at Cantor Fitzgerald Offices.
  Hillary Clinton Loses It on Rep. Nancy Mace During Epstein Deposition
  
• Email showed judge helping Epstein locate “absconded” woman.
  Remove Epstein Judge Who Approved Mar-a-Lago Raid

  
  DEMOCRAT/LEFTIST AND RINO SCANDALS, MESHUGAS, CHUTZPOCRISY, INSANITY

• During the interview, the 85-year-old former House speaker launched into an attack on the court's July 1, 2024, decision granting presidents immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts. Pelosi wanted to accuse the Court of giving Trump a blanket pass. There were just two problems. First, that’s not what the ruling did at all, and second, she couldn't say the word.
  Malig-Nancy Pelosi’s Latest Flub Raises Question About Cognitive Impairment
  
• Beijing is targeting local U.S. politics with unchecked influence operations in an effort to undermine our democracy.
  California Mayor Refuses To Resign After Ex-Fiance Went To Prison For Being A CCP Spy

  POLITICS

• The poll asked respondents if the congressional election were held today would they be more likely to vote for a Democrat or a Republican for Congress, finding likely midterm voters split down the middle. The results mark an eight-point swing towards Republicans in the Harvard Harris poll since January when 54 percent of respondents replied they would be more likely to vote for Democrats with only 46 percent opting for Republicans.
  Poll: Republicans Surge in General Ballot, Move Closer to Defying History of Congressional Midterms
  
• The Democrat Party is now completely captured by its most radical, Anti-American fringe.
  Two Defining Moments For Trump, And Democrats
  
• When I listened to the State of the Union Address this year, I was reminded of the Res Gestae Divi Augusti — the fascinating autobiographical record of Augustus’ achievements, published in various places throughout the Roman Empire and largely preserved to this day.
  The State of the Union Address: Another ‘Augustan Moment’ for Trump 
  
• If Gavin Newsom is going to try to flex on Donald Trump, he'd better be wearing a cup. . .
  Gavin Newsom's Troll of Donald Trump Spectacularly Boomerangs and Hits Him in the Nads

  FOREIGN AFFAIRS, INTERNATIONAL

• His goal is to transform the global order to America’s advantage — which necessarily means greatly reducing the malign influence of Communist China.  “Winning without fighting is the acme of warfare,” the ancient Chinese strategist Sunzi famously said. And where China is concerned, it seems that one of Sunzi’s best students is a yangguizi — a “foreign devil” by the name of Donald J. Trump.
  Trump hit Iran — but he’s really got China in his crosshairs
  
• Machado — a former lawmaker violently ousted from her democratically elected position as the leader of Venezuela’s only mainstream center-right party, Vente Venezuela — escaped the country in December 2025 with the help of President Donald Trump’s administration, allowing her to receive the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway. She successfully escaped Venezuela after spending over a year in hiding facing constant threats and insults from the Venezuelan socialist regime, which accused her of dubious “treason” charges in the aftermath of the sham July 28, 2024 presidential election.
  Nobel Winner María Corina Machado Announces Return to Venezuela ‘in a Few Weeks’

  DEFENSE, MILITARY, SECURITY AFFAIRS

• Retired Maj. Gen. William Neil McCasland was last seen Feb. 27 at approximately 11:00 a.m. in the area of Quail Run Court NE, the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office (BCSO) said in a post shared on X. It is unknown what McCasland was wearing or in which direction he was traveling at the time of his disappearance.
  Retired General Who Led Air Force Research Laboratory Is Missing, Police Say

  ACTUAL SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY

• Though this is a NASA-funded mission, note that it was built a commercial company and operated not by NASA but by a university. For this reason, it was not only built fast and at a low cost, it uses an innovative flight path that allowed it to be launched anytime and wait in orbit for the right moment to go to Mars. This last innovation provides for a lot more flexibility.
  Rocket Lab completes in-space commissioning of two Escapade Mars orbiters

  FEMINAZISM, TRANSGENDER PSYCHOSIS, HOMOSEXUALIZATION, WAR ON MASCULINITY/NORMALCY

• HB4088 prevents officials from cooperating with investigations and keeps health data behind a veil of secrecy.
  This Oregon Bill Would Hide Data About Gender Procedures for Kids

  CULTURE WARS, NATIONAL SUICIDE

• Christian Toto: Far-left comic shreds media years after Russian collusion hoax collapsed
  Jon Stewart is Late to the Party. Again

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And so, despite President Trump serving up heaping helpings of KABOOM to Iran's leadership . . . President Donald Trump said Monday the initial strikes targeting Iran killed dozens of Iranian leaders during a breakfast meeting...&topic=world_news"> posted by J.J. Sefton at 07:00 AM

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