Thank you Lacey Devereaux, Irish Aggie, Julie, and many others for tuning into my live video!
In this morning’s live, we break down three stories that cut to the heart of where we are right now as a country.
First, the spectacular collapse of “Operation Freedom” — Trump and Hegseth’s short-lived military PR stunt promising safe passage for ships through the Strait of Hormuz. It barely lasted 24 hours before being quietly shelved, but not before a South Korean oil tanker got hit, gas prices climbed to $4.50 a gallon, and the administration tried to spin a humiliating failure as a strategic pause on the road to a deal. The problem? The Iranians said there is no deal, and shipping tracking organizations found no evidence any vessel passed through the strait outside Iranian-approved routes. We dig into why this matters beyond the obvious lies.
Second, we look at Axios and reporter Barak Ravid’s pattern of publishing breathless, White House-exclusive “peace deal imminent” stories — stories that consistently move markets and consistently don’t pan out. Is this access journalism gone rotten? Market manipulation dressed up as reporting? Either way, it’s a problem that mainstream media isn’t touching, and it should be.
Finally, a story that shouldn’t get buried — Trump’s Club for Growth allies are pushing to purge moderate Republicans from deep-red state legislatures in Indiana and beyond, replacing them with MAGA loyalists as a warning shot to the rest of the party. The goal is political intimidation. But the result may be handing Democrats an opening in states they haven’t been able to compete in for years — and that’s exactly where the future of democracy is going to be won or lost.
