Bessent compares the pressure to D-Day.
Trump Unleashes Scott Bessent
The Wall Street Journal reports Trump Unleashes Scott Bessent on Iran
On Monday Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced Operation Economic Outcast against Iran and its enablers, even comparing the action to D-Day. “Our objective is to sever every economic lifeline that sustains this tyrannical regime until Tehran stands alone,” he said.
President Trump is working the phones and “every country has a defined timeline to shut down activities we have identified,” Mr. Bessent said. “If they do not take action, we will do so unilaterally.” He declined to lay out the timelines, leaving Mr. Trump room to delay, but he said to expect “a major announcement of a financial institution being sanctioned by the end of this week.”
Iranian politicians are suddenly worried. On Friday President Masoud Pezeshkian urged, “The war must come to an end at some point,” and acknowledged Iran’s economic shortages. On Thursday Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran’s parliamentary speaker and top negotiator, said, “No matter how much military power we have, if people are hungry and we don’t have financial circulation, economic growth and domestic production, we will not endure.”
This is the stuff regime fissures are made of. As if to underscore the point, the electricity went out as the parliament’s energy committee met Monday . . . to discuss Iran’s power outages.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) likely takes a harder line, though it also hurts for lack of oil revenue. Worse, it may be losing control of the Strait of Hormuz as the U.S. escorts increasing quantities of oil. With the price of oil still below $100, the U.S. may be able to maintain its blockade longer than Iran’s regime can bear.
The question as always is whether the Trump Administration will stick to its plans. Mr. Bessent said the economic campaign “will not end until this regime stands alone,” and the pre-emptive action by the U.A.E. is a good sign. But even halting direct trade leaves intact Dubai’s Iran-sanctions-evasion network, whose goal is to disguise any trading with Iran.
Mr. Bessent’s reference to Emirati exchange houses implies he knows this. “Iran’s enablers purchase and transport its petroleum. They facilitate the flow of its finances through exchange houses and free-trade zones,” he said. “They welcome Iran’s flights and maintain registries on its behalf. They turn a blind eye to seaborne fuel transfers and overland transits. They condone illicit use of their banks.”
The Test
Reporter: You described this as an economic D-Day, but D-Day wasn’t a threat of an invasion and the US didn’t give a timeline to Germany. So why not impose the sanctions today?
Bessent: Why would I want to blow up the global financial system?
Taken at face value, global sanctions would blow up the global financial system.
So either we have a lie and a TACO, or Bessent is going to blow up the global financial system.
Wouldn’t that be fun?
Bessent on D-Day
Obsidian Risk Advisors
“This was not economic D-Day,” said Brett Erickson, a Washington-based sanctions expert who runs Obsidian Risk Advisors. “It was something in the middle. The core constraint facing the United States in the Iran War is the global economic timeline. If the United States is unwilling to meaningfully target China, can Washington reasonably justify damaging our international relations and global standing, for a strategy with only a farfetched likelihood of achieving victory?” Unless the United States is willing to accept SEVERE risks, and believe that truly collapsing the Iranian economy could secure victory… What are we doing?
dddd
Question of the Day
Q: Why didn’t we do this before?
A: Because it would blow up the whole global financial system, silly.
Q: Why now?
A: Trump is finally desperate enough to blow up the whole global financial system.
China Story Falls Flat
Sanction Failure
Comparison to the Effort to Topple Castro
60 years, same bet.
60 Years, Same Bet, Same Failure
But that’s OK because Netanyahu is happy again.
#6 Is Trump’s Favorite
In unrelated news, #6 is Trump’s favorite.
I’m glad we cleared that up.
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Yes, it will be fun! The US should continue to SQUEEZE the Iranian Regime until the zit it is pops across the face of the world!
The bolded section below sure sounds to me like a call by the Iranian Regime President to surrender to the US! “…tell the world that we have won and that we are ending the war.” indeed.🤣🤣🤣
What in the world is wrong with AMERICA? How far will they allow this MANIAC sink USA and drag the rest of the world into MAD DEPRESSION because Angry Orange Man isn’t getting his way. Not even good old Canada is OBEYING this NUT JOB.
It’s not America, its boomers. The faster they die off, the better off the world will be. Patience.
I hope Trump does blow up the whole world economic system. We need to flush MAGA forever and I want any that decide to stick around to forever walk in shame knowing they voted once, probably twice, for this orange child idiot and are personally responsible for the damage done.
After nigh half a century sanctioning Iran, this round will be it. Honest!
When it comes to China, I expect we will see Kabuki Theater. The major state owned banks will take some actions to limit visible direct financial transactions with Iran. But the Bank of Kunlun which operates entirely in RMB will expand operations. The teapot refineries will continue to operate as is. The consequences to China of actually complying with this Operation Economic Outcast would be severe. China won’t walk away from a 25 year ally. But they probably aren’t going to do massive dumping of US treasuries, immediately limit rare earth exports, etc. When the Trump Xi summit occurs in September the Kabuki theater will reach its climax–Trump will again proclaim victory while amazingly Iran will continue to export oil and be paid for it.
Russia won’t even bother with the Kabuki Theater.
All talk, then TACO. What else is new? The news cycle is just the same cast of chaos on repeat — a whole troupe of stooges flooding the zone until everyone’s numb. America feels like one giant reality show nobody asked for, but somehow we all get dragged into watching the wreck and then having our noses rubbed in it.
Canada should open trade negotiations with Iran.
Iran has been letting Gulf Nation-owned ships go through the strait. Some of these have then been transferring oil to other ships after going through the strait. Iran is now saying this will end, and that if they are going to be under severe economic sanctions, they are not letting these ships through. Iran is not going to let other Gulf nations sell their oil if they can’t do so.
Trump is flailing, trying everything like the desperate clown he is. He will fail. In the meantime, go long on oil and petroleum products!
Over the past week, tracking data captured only isolated individual VLCC movements—primarily empty vessels running inbound to lift compliant regional cargoes or returning Iran-linked/shadow fleet tonnage.
LOL. Hiding those VLCCs right in front of their nose.
We’re going to threaten every country in the world.
No more dollar settlements or transactions for you unless you comply.
What else can they do? Settle using claims to gold?
Hi hi hi. I’ve got the whole world with their backs to the wall.
Nobody gets to play on the swings until they tell Iran she’s got cooties.
As soon as the long bond yield spikes again due to more loss of confidence, bessent will be 0/3 on his recent financial manipulations (yen, 30yr, iran clusterfuck)
Total clown-show
What’s wrong with these guys?
You gots to have a cool name before you make idle threats against unnamed players.
There is no saving a lame “Operation Economic Outcast” with a casual D-day reference.
#6 is why Trump is desperate to kill mail-in voting and cancel elections too! Imagine being the greatest nation on earth, only to be laid low by a full on pedophile.
Orange Fuckface may succeed in unifying the nations of the world — a true United Nations — with the exclusion of the US.
Trump is still in search of a strategy that will work, to achieve goals that keep changing.
Goals: Friendly regime change, acquire Iranian nuclear material, stop Iran’s nuclear program, stop Iran’s missile program, stop Iran’s support for proxies, take over Iran’s oil, take over the strait of Hormuz, demand unconditional surrender, eliminate an entire country and it’s people.
New and more recent goal: Open the f*cking strait.
Newest goal: To keep gas prices down for Americans.
He has claimed victory over 40 times now, but here we are; with a new “guaranteed to work” strategy. After the previous half dozen “guaranteed to work” strategies have all failed miserably. The new strategy is “threaten the whole world to stop trading with Iran”. This one requires China to sign on as they are Iran’s largest trading partner.
The clock is ticking. The strait is still not open. The SPR is now down to 289 mb. Diesel prices are near all-time highs.
Meanwhile, lets start a trade war with Canada who provides the US with 4-5 mb of price discounted oil each day and helps keep US gas and diesel prices down.
Hahahahaha!
How do you couch “#6 Is Trump’s Favorite” as unrelated news?
The whole point of the war with Iran is to quiet the Epstein files
I’m still laughing at the idea that Carney would cut off oil to the US. Anyone believing this hasn’t looked at a map in a while.
Ontario and Quebec get their oil through Line 9, which enters Ontario at Sarnia, and traverses northeast into Quebec.
Line 9 is certainly fed with Alberta oil, but it first transits south out of Alberta, THROUGH THE US midwest, before re-entering Canada.
Cutting off oil to the US cuts off oil to Ontario and Quebec. Canada is utterly dependent on the US when it comes to oil, both for sale and for domestic distribution.
Canada has no leverage.
Export Fees
@Jeff Larry
Would you consider Canada just stopping the flow as leverage???
Nope. Sorry to burst your bubble.
First, you mean line 5, a portion of which travels through the US. Line 9 is from Sarnia to Montreal.
Line 5 supplies 45% of Ontario oil. The other 55% is transported through Enbridge’s Canadian Mainline, which is entirely in Canada.
Line 5 also supplies 60% of Quebec oil.
Ontario can make up the difference by getting a greater allocation of oil from the Canadian Mainline.
Quebec can make up the difference by increasing imports of Brent and North African crude.
Both of these options are entirely possible, but would take some time and are more expensive than the current situation.
Canada has a lot of leverage. Again, I do not want Canada to cut off our oil, but I would think they could slap an export tax on it.
Is this in place of the “bomb them to hell” rhetoric from a few days/weeks/months ago?
Seems we bombed them with all our bombs and that hasn’t worked… why not? If that doesn’t work we can ask Jesus to smite them.
Donnie asked about it, but was surprised he’s the Prince of Peace, not war, called him a loser.
It’s like Ben Stiller in Mystery Men. The super power of “making threats”.
“No, I mean I make really really serious threats” 😀
The WSJ is still a bit slanted even in hammering Trump. Iran dropped a drone or missile into the engine room of a USN escorted tanker exiting the SOH on the contested Omani side earlier today leaving it disabled. The bullshit is legendary these days, a post factual world. And sanctions simply hasten the demise of the US dollar.
China? Russia? Iran’s biggest trade partners….nope, off limits
How long will this take?
Certainly not 6 months, right?
65+ years so far for Cuba, and the government there is still in place
If this is such a good idea then why did Trump allow Iran to sell some $6 billion worth of oil, if I remember right, a couple months back and why was this policy not put in place the evening of February 28, 2026? I thought we entered this war to win and get a few concessions from Iran, so why did we not use all the tools available up front and why did we undermine this effort with the relaxation of the closed straight for Iran traffic? This is probably too little too late, potentially going to be destructive to our foreign policy situation, harmful to our long-term economic wellbeing with trade redirected away from our shores and fail to get Iran to make any concessions. are there any other tools of war we are not using currently? Is there anything other than the southern border that trump is doing right? What a mess.
Everyday is a new day policy-wise: gotta “stray the course”.
Ggotta stray the course…That’s good!
That was the price of getting the SOH opened a bit, which the Arab states (U.S./Israeli partners) desperately needed, while also giving U.S. time to re-arm and prepare for new attacks on Iran. They had no intent of fulfilling conditions of the MOU. It also seems like U.S. thought they could open up the southern route in Oman’s waters to pry SOH from Iranian control. Iran squashed all of that with pre-emptive strikes on the Muwaffaq al-Salti base in Jordan along with resumption of attacks on non-compliant vessels transiting the Oman route. They were fools if they thought that Iran would behave like total dupes and let the U.S. wrest control during the MOU window while the U.S/Israel violated nearly every condition.
D-Day wants its name back.
The truly terrifying thing ? Trump is not the real problem, he’s a symptom of a sick nation. Who remembers how relative little Nixon had to do to get kicked out? Remember how awful it was when Eisenhower got caught lying? Our national culture has decayed into anything goes and no standards in politics. What and when constitutes finally going too far?
What’s really scary is that we don’t know whether things are decaying or whether it’s always been this bad but thanks to the internet / cell phone cameras its just a lot more out in the open now.
Something tells me that sex scandals, abuse of position/power has always happened in the White House. I watched the Garfield series (Death by Lightning) on Netflix about President Garfield in the 1800s and back then there were plenty of power plays and dirty dealings going on. They just didn’t get reported the way they do now.
JFK was a known horndog.
“What and when constitutes finally going too far?”
The movie, Idiocracy, is representative of too far (and some of those scenes are looking familiar -think UFC Freedom 250)
Every enforcer of rules or edicts faces the risk that, if they are onerous enough, folks will find alternatives.
The USA at long last is pushing very firmly into that sort of territory globally. Trump himself raised some form of this argument, but of course, this is Trump we are talking about:
” … During the 2024 election campaign, President Donald Trump suggested that he would implement a major change in the US’ policy approach away from its prior widespread use of international sanctions. …”
https://www.spglobal.com/market-intelligence/en/news-insights/research/us-sanctions-approach-trump-second-term
Everything the deranged clown and his band of misfits do is an adventure. The most unprofessional and incompetent group to ever grace the white house. In fact, their actions and attitudes are embarassing. Unfortunately, the dc stooges don’t have a spine to do the right thing.
If you listen closely, you could hear the distant, plaintive strains of Yakety Sax.
All I know is “Operatiom Build More Missiles In Huntsville” for many years to come. Ka Ching!!!! 💰 💵