'Hit the big red panic button': Trump's top aide summons GOP insiders for urgent talks White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles has called together dozens of Republican strategists from across the United States for an "urgent closed-door summit" as the GOP looks ahead at potentially bruta...

'Hit the big red panic button': Trump's top aide summons GOP insiders for urgent talks

www.rawstory.com/hit-the-big-...

It seems from this that there is as of yet no agreement to have negotiations in Islamabad or anywhere else.

hmmm…

So trump couldn’t manipulate the markets today ? Sad

"I’m winning a War, BY A LOT..."

If you have to keep trying to convince sycophantic followers on your own social media platform, then you probably aren't.

The SOUTHCOM details:

This is the video that SOUTHCOM posted last night over on Twitter of the 46th US strike on a "drug cartel boat". It took place in the Caribbean.

What it could take for the U.S. to remove highly enriched uranium from Iran The fate of the Iran war centers on highly enriched uranium, an essential ingredient for nuclear weapons. A post-Soviet-era operation that could inform a U.S. recovery mission in Iran.

Well worth the read!👇

www.cbsnews.com/news/what-it...

What it could take for the U.S. to remove highly enriched uranium from Iran The fate of the Iran war centers on highly enriched uranium, an essential ingredient for nuclear weapons. A post-Soviet-era operation that could inform a U.S. recovery mission in Iran.

@cherylrofer.bsky.social

Thought you'd be familiar with this piece on Project Sapphire.👇

www.cbsnews.com/news/what-it...

Billionaire Opponent of Diversity Is Underwriting Mailers Targeting Black Voters in Virginia to Aid Donald Trump The front group trying to defeat new maps by using images of Barack Obama and MLK is fueled by Peter Thiel, the 40th richest man in the U.S.

Apartheid man: you can take Peter Andreas Thiel out of apartheid era South Africa, but you can't take apartheid era South Africa out of Peter Andreas Thiel. He's that kind of dude.

Lindsay is doing the best analysis I've seen of the back and forth on talks. This is from the middle of one of her threads.

I don't know what it will take to make Trump get serious. Probably a major market crash.

But he'll announce something tonight and his marks in the market will do his bidding.

Another tell from Trump administration officials is the invocation of WWII allied bombing as “precedent” to defend atrocities or potential atrocities.

The law of war rules governing the conduct of hostilities (eg aerial bombing) have developed quite a bit since WWII.

Wonder what the State Department’s genocide lawyer does these days.

I would've reported on this earlier, but AFRICOM's website has been up and down like a yo-yo the past several days.

AFRICOM reported late yesterday evening (Stuttgart time) that the US conducted an airstrike targeting ISIS-Somalia on April 17, 2026.

www.africom.mil/pressrelease...

Here's the CENTCOM press release of the video and text on the US firing on and stopping the ship headed to an Iranian port.👇

U.S. Forces Disable Vessel Attempting to Enter Iranian Port, Violate Blockade

www.centcom.mil/MEDIA/PRESS-...

So the Iran war polls WORSE than Trump's tweets about the war? Another sign we're in new territory, folks!

Trump's job rating just hit its lowest point of his second term in NBC News polling:

37% of adults approve of Trump’s performance, 63% disapprove — including 50% who disapprove strongly

Two-thirds of respondents disapprove of Trump's handling of inflation and the Iran war

Kash Patel was paid by Russian filmmaker with Kremlin ties, documents show Patel, Trump’s nominee to be FBI director, was paid $25,000 last year by a film company that has promoted anti-Western views advanced by the Kremlin, documents show.

The FBI reported to the Senate Judiciary Committee that Kash Patel had been successfully targeted in recruitment programs run by both the Russian and the Chinese intel services and that Kash had taken money from each. But then we knew this long ago, and the Senate GOP decided they didn't care

Live Updates Trump Says Navy Struck and Seized Iranian Ship as U.S. Prepares for Peace Talks President Trump said a Navy destroyer had attacked and seized an Iranian-flagged vessel in the Gulf of Oman. The White House said it is dispatching a high-level delegation, including Vice President JD Vance, to Pakistan for negotiations.

Breaking News: The U.S. military attacked an Iranian cargo ship trying to get past the American blockade of Iranian ports, President Trump said. Follow live updates.

I look at the motives of several nations.

Lol, Bug Eyed Patel gonna make some dubious arrests. It will not go well.....

US Navy has struck an Iranian-flagged cargo ship in the Gulf of Oman after it was warned to stop.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright tells CNN that gas prices may not drop below $3 until next year.

For 24 hours over Easter weekend, Trump’s team dialed into the Situation Room: Vice President JD Vance from Camp David, Wiles from her home in Florida. They received almost minute-by-minute progress reports, of the military entering Iran, the rescue planes getting stuck in the sand, the efforts to distract the Iranians. They called the last airman by a code name. Trump wasn’t included in the meeting but received updates by phone.

10¶¶ later, WSJ seems to reveal that Trump was too lazy to go from the residence to the Situation Room to monitor the rescue of an airman.

This was the weekend people THOUGHT he was having a health crisis.

Was he?

The strait has been a particular source of frustration. Before the U.S. went to war, Trump told his team that Iran’s government would likely capitulate before closing the strait, and that even if Tehran tried, the U.S. military could handle it, The Wall Street Journal has reported. Some of the president’s advisers were caught off guard that tanker traffic would grind to a halt so quickly after the bombing began, according to a person in contact with the White House. Trump has since marveled at the ease with which the strait was closed. A guy with a drone can shut it down, Trump has said to people, expressing belated irritation that the key waterway was so vulnerable. He has publicly oscillated between demanding support from allies to help open it and insisting that the U.S. doesn’t need or want military assistance.

These two ¶¶ more than 35 ¶¶ into an adventure in sanewashing would be the entire story if reporters cared about accountability for Trump.

www.wsj.com/politics/nat...

Trump was warned abt Strait.
He ignored those warnings.
Now he confesses he was wrong.

U.S. Installs a Trump Loyalist to Lead ‘Grand Conspiracy’ Case Into Trump Foes

U.S. Installs a Trump Loyalist to Lead ‘Grand Conspiracy’ Case Into Trump Foes

A former Trump campaign lawyer, Joe diGenova, is said to be planning to split time between Miami and Fort Pierce, where a grand jury overseen by a Trump-favored judge sits.

w/ Alan Feuer

www.nytimes.com/2026/04/18/u...