1. United States
2. Texas
3. Letter

Trump lifted sanctions on Russian oil sales. Estimates are that Russia has reaped $6B of benefit from the Iran war since it began just two weeks ago. That’s about $400M a day from the increase in oil prices and the easing of sanctions. Or $6B in two weeks. The heads of the G7 had urged Trump not to ease the sanctions. The German Chancellor said he “would like to know what additional motives led the US government to make this decision.” We the people would like to know the answer to that as well. Ukraine is assisting the US with drones and drone experts. Trump is denying this is true. Pete Hegseth is sending 5,000 Marines and sailors to the Middle East. Trump, Vietnam draft dodger, posted a picture of himself standing by his parents in his schoolboy military uniform. He captioned the photo: “At Military Academy with my parents, Fred and Mary!” The lack of negotiating skills and historical knowledge by Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner likely informed Trump’s assessment that Iran talks were not progressing and Iran was not negotiating seriously. Review by the Arms Control Association shows that the Iranian offer showed flexibility and was “an opening offer and unlikely Iran’s bottom line.” Future negotiations might have revealed irreconcilable positions, but “Witkoff’s failure to comprehend key technical realities suggests he misunderstood the Iranian nuclear proposal and was ill-prepared to negotiate an effective nuclear agreement.” Despite widespread reporting, sourced from within the WH that the administration did not accurately gauge the possibility, or effect, of Iran’s closing the Hormuz strait, Hegseth said it was “patently ridiculous” to think the administration didn’t prepare for the potential. Hegseth said the Strait of Hormuz is open. “The only thing prohibiting transit in the straits right now is Iran shooting at shipping,” he said. “It is open for transit should Iran not do that.” He gets paid for that kind of assessment? But he did spend a fair amount of time complaining that a “patriotic press” would say that Iran is weakening. And also took time to voice a war crime of no quarter, no mercy for our enemies. No stupid rules of engagement. No concern for collateral damage even if it’s a school of children bombed because of inaccurate Pentagon intelligence. His insistence that the US never targets civilians forgets about the at least 40 small boats targeted in the Caribbean, killing at least 157 people it insists—without evidence—were “narcoterrorists.” The WSJ reported that Trump’s advisors, including Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine, warned Trump that if the US struck Iran, its leaders could well respond by closing the Strait of Hormuz. But Trump insisted that Iran’s leaders would capitulate and that even if they tried to close the strait, the US military could handle it. And while Trump has told audiences that “we’ve won” the war in Iran, in fact he has no immediate plans to end the war. This war is being led by a TV-ready Christian Crusader fanatic that acts and speaks like an American equivalent of the fanaticism we see in Iran. Led by an American president that lives in a make-believe fantasy where he is always right, he always wins, no one else knows anything better than he does, and if you don’t agree you’re stupid and get fired. He is defying the reality we see, the reality we know, that you know, and still he gets propped up by the GOP Congress. He has mired our country in a horrendous mess of his own making. He is bankrupting us financially and morally. It’s becoming more apparent that there is no bottom to what he can do that you won’t go along with. What is wrong with you all?