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Iran Just Threatened to Choke Off a Quarter of the World’s Oil. What Happens Next?
We already knew Trump’s war had shut the Strait of Hormuz, which normally carries 20 percent of the world’s oil. Now Iran’s threatening to slam shut a second chokepoint. A top adviser to Supreme Leader Khamenei warned Sunday that Iranian allies could close the Bab al-Mandeb, the strait between Yemen and the Horn of Africa that carries 10 percent of global trade and five percent of the world’s oil. Together with Hormuz, a dual shutdown would block a full quarter of the planet’s oil and gas supply. The Houthis control the Bab al-Mandeb and have shut it down before, during Israel’s war on Gaza. A Cambridge University Middle East expert called a combined closure a “nightmare scenario.” Gas in the U.S. is already at four dollars and fourteen cents a gallon, up more than a dollar since Trump launched this war on February 28th. This is what a war of choice looks like when it starts rippling through your wallet and the world’s.
A Retired General Just Predicted Nuremberg Trials for Trump’s Illegal War Orders
Retired Army Brigadier General Steve Anderson went on CNN Tuesday morning and didn’t pull a single punch. He called Donald Trump “an absolutely terrible commander-in-chief” and predicted American leaders could face Nuremberg-style accountability for following Trump’s illegal orders. Anderson called the Iran war “the greatest geopolitical blunder the United States has ever committed in its history.” Trump hasn’t set clear, definable objectives the military can actually execute, Anderson said. Meanwhile, Trump posted on Truth Social that “a whole civilization will die tonight” if Iran doesn’t meet his 8 p.m. deadline to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. International legal experts have already said that bombing civilian bridges and power plants would constitute war crimes. Anderson says Trump keeps sending contradictory messages and doesn’t know how to get out of the mess he created. When a retired general is invoking Nuremberg to describe what’s happening in real time, it’s past time for Congress to wake up.
Sick to Their Stomachs. Democrats Are Demanding the 25th Amendment Right Now
Multiple members of Congress are calling for the 25th Amendment to remove Donald Trump from office after his Truth Social post threatening to kill an entire civilization. “I’m sick to my stomach,” wrote California Representative Sydney Kamlager-Dove. “The fate of millions of innocent civilians now depends on the whims of a sick and demented man.” Michigan’s Rashida Tlaib called Trump “a war criminal” threatening genocide. Arizona’s Yassamin Ansari is introducing articles of impeachment against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth for his role directing “this insane military action.” Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey told the military directly that they “do not have to follow illegal orders.” Florida’s Maxwell Frost called for both the War Powers Resolution and impeachment. These aren’t fringe voices. These are elected members of Congress screaming that the president has lost his mind and his legal authority. The question is whether Republicans will step up, or keep looking the other way while the world burns.
Trump Calls Into Budapest to Boost a Failing Autocrat While Iran Burns
While threatening to annihilate a civilization on Truth Social, Donald Trump found time to phone into a campaign rally in Budapest to prop up strongman Viktor Orban. Vice President JD Vance was already on the ground in Hungary, giving a speech days before the April 12th election, where Orban’s Fidesz party is trailing badly in the polls. Vance held his phone up to the microphone so the crowd could hear Trump praise Orban for blocking migrants from the Middle East and Africa. “The United States is with him all the way,” Trump said. This is the same Orban who has systematically dismantled Hungarian democracy, press freedom, and judicial independence. While a war spirals out of control and American soldiers are dying in Iran, the president of the United States is playing campaign manager for Europe’s most notorious autocrat. You genuinely cannot make this up.
Ted Lieu Tells the Joint Chiefs to Defy Trump’s War Crime Orders
California Congressman Ted Lieu sent a direct message to the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He cited the Uniform Code of Military Justice and told military leaders plainly that orders to eradicate a civilization are illegal, and that soldiers who carry out war crimes will be prosecuted by the next administration. It’s a remarkable moment. Lieu is essentially asking the nation’s top military brass to stand between an unhinged commander-in-chief and a potential atrocity. Joint Chiefs Chairman General Dan Caine reportedly raised concerns about the Iran war before it started. Trump ignored them. There’s an ugly backdrop here. The Supreme Court’s immunity ruling, written by Chief Justice John Roberts, gave Trump broad protection for his official acts. But legal scholars are clear that presidential immunity doesn’t make unlawful orders lawful for the soldiers who receive them. The military can’t hide behind Roberts. The UCMJ says what it says. And Ted Lieu is making sure the Joint Chiefs know it.
Trump’s War Is Driving America Toward Stagflation. Is a Recession Next?
Chicago Federal Reserve President Austan Goolsbee went to Detroit Tuesday and told it straight. Trump’s Iran war is creating a classic stagflationary shock, driving inflation up while slowing the economy down. And the Fed doesn’t have a good answer. “There’s not an obvious cookbook,” Goolsbee said. Do you raise rates to fight inflation? Or cut them to save jobs? If you do one, you make the other worse. Oil prices already spiked because of Trump’s tariffs. Then the Iran war hit before the tariff inflation even had a chance to cool off. Gas is at four dollars and fourteen cents nationally and climbing. The Fed is holding short-term rates between three and a half and three and three-quarters percent and markets are betting they won’t move at all for the rest of the year. Goolsbee said the worst outcome would be a stagflationary recession triggered by spooked consumers hoarding their cash. That’s not a hypothetical anymore. It’s what we’re watching happen in real time.
And that’s the way it is, Tonight is Tuesday, April 7, 2026. I’m Thom Hartmann.
