Trump Says U.S. Could ‘Take the Oil’ in Hormuz Push

President Donald Trump said Friday (April 3) the United States could reopen the Strait of Hormuz and “take the oil and make a fortune,” framing control of the world’s most critical energy chokepoint as both a strategic and economic opportunity.

The Strait carries roughly 20% of global oil supply. Traffic through the waterway has been severely disrupted as Iranian threats, vessel attacks, and collapsing insurance coverage have curtailed tanker movements. Tanker flows have stalled, and crude and product markets have repriced sharply higher as a result.

“With a little more time, we can easily OPEN THE HORMUZ STRAIT, TAKE THE OIL, & MAKE A FORTUNE,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, adding the move would be a “gusher” for the world.

The comments add to a series of mixed signals from Washington on how—or whether—it intends to restore flows through the Strait. Earlier statements suggested the U.S. would not take the lead in securing the passage, instead calling on other countries to act.

The operational reality remains unchanged.

https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/Trump-Says-US-Could-Take-the-Oil-in-Hormuz-Push.html

US Satellite Firm 'Indefinitely Withholds' Iran War Images Per Government Request

Planet Labs says it will “indefinitely withhold” satellite visuals of Iran and the wider Middle East war zone after a request from the US government and the Trump administration. In an email to customers, the firm said it is shifting to a “managed distribution” model, releasing imagery only case-by-case for “urgent, mission-critical requirements,” or when release is deemed “in the public interest.” Planet also said it will withhold imagery dating back to March 9, and it expects the policy to remain in effect until the conflict ends.

On March 6, Planet Labs announced a mandatory 96-hour delay on new imagery collected over the Gulf states, arguing that near-real-time pictures could be exploited to “endanger allied, NATO, and civilian personnel.” That measure later expanded into a 14-day delay, described by Planet as an extension of the earlier hold. By March 30, Al Jazeera’s Digital Investigations unit was reporting that independent verification had become harder as commercial providers restricted satellite imagery.

Satellite imagery matters because, unlike press briefings, it can corroborate damage, assess patterns of targeting, and check narratives that would otherwise be accepted on authority. Reporting by the Global Investigative Journalism Network describes how open-source teams used satellite imagery and videos to probe contested incidents during this war, quoting Bellingcat’s head of research warning that a “two-week delay” slows verification and reduces the certainty investigators can reach while events are still developing. It also quotes the Defense Secretary saying, “Open source is not the place to determine what did or did not happen.”

The blackout of satellite imagery from the region is not a story about one firm’s products or customer service. It is a reminder that foreign intervention tends to produce domestic control, often without the drama of a formal censorship order. The same state that wages war can narrow the evidence available to judge that war. The predictable result is that the public is pushed to take the word of the administration’s spokesmen at face value, without timely means to verify or falsify their claims.

https://news.antiwar.com/2026/04/05/us-satellite-firm-blacks-out-iran-war-images-per-us-government-request/

🇭🇺 Magyar Péter suggests that since 2010, Fidesz (Orban’s party) has needed an enemy to distract from domestic issues in Hungary. Magyar goes on to cite Soros, Brussels, and von der Leyen as enemies of the current Orban government. He trivializes the struggle and describes it as just “somebody to fight against… to distract the attention from the state of play in Hungary.” This sounds good to anyone who is completely clueless.

First of all, Soros, the EU, and von der Leyen (and the EU Commission as a whole) are actually threats to Hungary and should be challenged. Nevertheless, Magyar Péter held a professional affiliation with Fidesz since around 2014. So for approximately 10 years Magyar was a willing participant in a non stop distraction campaign or he was too stupid to realize what was going on (and in that case, he is not be fit to be Prime Minister) or he is just a political grifter. The answer is obvious.

But what is most revealing is Magyar’s disclosure later in the interview with DW in which he states that one of his first tasks/goals as Prime Minister would be to travel to Brussels to negotiate and “defreeze the EU funds.” This is only possible if Magyar/TISZA intends to give in to EU pressure and put the best interests of Brussels before the best interests of Hungary and Hungarians.

Post-Orban Hungary: Economic Implications of Regime Change in Budapest

US Vice-President JD Vance travelled to Budapest to support the Hungarian Prime Minister facing pressure from a foreign-backed challenger who could reshape EU politics

In this report, I examine the economic policies of the opposition — Peter Magyar's TISZA Party.

➡️ Read more: https://rwerner.substack.com/p/showdown-in-budapest-eudeep-state

My interview with Elizabeth Lane is live now: https://youtu.be/z6RbuayhfZA

Trump Shares Post Calling for the Killing of Iranian Leaders Who Won’t Accept U.S. Demands

President Trump on Thursday shared a post calling for the killing of Iranian leaders who won’t accept US demands, ramping up his threats against the country amid a very fragile ceasefire.

The post Trump amplified was written by Marc Thiessen, who served as a speechwriter for the George W. Bush administration. “If there are two factions in Iran, one that wants a deal and one that doesn’t, let’s kill the ones who don’t want a deal,” Thiessen said in a post on X where he was quoting himself from an appearance on Fox News.

Thiessen also made the case to kill Iranian leaders in an op-ed published by The Washington Post on Wednesday titled “Trump Doesn’t Need a Deal to Get What He Wants From Iran,” which President Trump also shared on his Truth Social account.

In the piece, Thiessen argued that Trump should restart the bombing campaign against Iran. “Right now, the remnants of the Iranian regime are under the misimpression that Trump wants a deal more than they do,” he wrote.

“Trump needs to disabuse them of that notion. He has reportedly told Iran that it has three to five days to make a serious counteroffer. If it fails to do so, he should resume combat operations — starting with strikes targeting Iran’s recalcitrant leaders. If the Iranian regime is really ‘fractured’ between a faction that wants a deal and a faction that does not, there is a simple solution: Kill the faction that does not,” Thiessen said.

Thiessen said the US should maintain the blockade and claimed the US military could open the Strait of Hormuz by force and that it just needed 14 more days to “finish the job” against Iran.

The Trump administration has pushed the narrative that Iran’s military has essentially been obliterated, but Iran was able to continue missile and drone attacks throughout the entire war, and according to US officials speaking to The New York Times, US intelligence assesses that Tehran likely has access to the majority of its missiles and launchers.

https://news.antiwar.com/2026/04/23/trump-shares-post-calling-for-the-killing-of-iranian-leaders-who-wont-accept-us-demands/

Report: Iran Caused Far More Damage to U.S. Bases Than the Trump Administration Has Acknowledged

Iranian attacks on US bases across the Middle East have caused far more damage than the Trump administration has publicly acknowledged, and an Iranian fighter jet was able to bomb at least one US base, NBC News reported on Saturday, citing unnamed US officials.

The administration has attempted to cover up the damage to US bases in the war, and has gone as far as requesting that Planet Labs and other satellite imagery companies black out war images, making it difficult to ascertain the damage.

The NBC report said that the Pentagon has also kept the information on the damage from Congress. “No one knows anything. And it’s not for lack of asking,” a Republican congressional aide told the outlet. “We have been asking for weeks and not getting specifics, even as the Pentagon is asking for a record high budget.”

Iranian missile and drone attacks have targeted US bases in seven Middle Eastern countries: Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the US, Iraq, Jordan, and Qatar. US officials said that an Iranian F-5 fighter jet was able to bomb the US base at Camp Buehring in Kuwait despite it having air defenses, marking the first time in many years that an enemy fixed-wing aircraft struck a US military installation.

https://news.antiwar.com/2026/04/26/report-iran-caused-far-more-damage-to-us-bases-than-the-trump-administration-has-acknowledged/

State Department Says US Is in Conflict With Iran ‘At the Request’ of Israel

The State Department said in a statement last week that the US is in conflict with Iran “at the request” of Israel, an acknowledgment of Israel’s role in steering the US into the war, which the US has dubbed “Operation Epic Fury.”

The statement was issued by the State Department’s legal adviser, Reed D. Rubinstein, who attempted to provide a legal justification for the war.

“As the United States has explained in multiple letters to the UN Security Council, including most recently on March 10, the United States is engaged in this conflict at the request of and in the collective self-defense of its Israeli ally, as well as in the exercise of the United States’ own inherent right of self-defense,” Rubinstein said.

The term “collective self-defense” was likely used to echo Article 51 of the UN Charter, which states that nothing in the charter “shall impair the inherent right of individual or collective self-defense if an armed attack occurs against a Member of the United Nations,” but the US does not have a mutual defense treaty with Israel and is not bound by US law to defend the country.

The US and Israel were also the first to attack Iran, undercutting the US claim of “self-defense.” Secretary of State Marco Rubio had previously said that the US launched the war because Israel was planning to attack and that Iran’s retaliation could have involved attacks on US bases.

Rubinstein repeated the argument made by the White House that the US has been in an ongoing conflict with Iran over the decades, which is based on claims that attacks by Iran-allied factions on US troops in the Middle East were part of an Iranian war against the US. The argument that omits the US’s history of backing forces against Iran, such as the US supporting Saddam Hussein in the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s.

https://news.antiwar.com/2026/04/26/state-department-says-us-is-in-conflict-with-iran-at-the-request-of-israel/

"Massie’s opponent—whose stance on the issues is relatively unknown—refuses to debate him and looks likely to be a 'rubber-stamper' politician, but he has the Trump-backed billionaire machine behind him. This small army of powerful millionaires and billionaires, with no connection to the state of Kentucky whatsoever, is quite eager to max out on one-time donations to Massie’s challenger, while also pouring a fortune into anti-Massie super PACs and ad purchases.

One might wonder why such a significant effort is being taken to influence the outcome of a primary election in small-town, rural Kentucky. The truth is, this campaign reflects a fundamental struggle observed in societies throughout history—the will of the people versus the influential elite.

Very soon, the people of Kentucky will make their voices heard, not only by casting their vote, but by symbolically sending an even bigger message to Washington.

Will Kentuckians be easily fooled by the dirty tricks of the billionaire class seeking to destroy America? Or will they put their best interests first and resist manipulation and trickery?"

➡️ Full report: https://solari.com/the-washington-war-machine-vs-thomas-massie-the-fight-for-a-sovereign-america/

Chris Martenson: According to a recent Goldman Sachs analysis, only 70% of lost oil production may be restored after 3 months, 88% after 6 months. If this proves true, then the global economy will be missing 1.6 BILLION barrels of oil. Check the video for my math.

The economic implications of this cannot be understated.

Full report: https://peakprosperity.com/the-largest-energy-shock-on-record-is-worse-than-you-think/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=260304-msr-shock-inbound&utm_content=ap_svjeg587sf

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From cozying up to the Bush family to delivering congressional testimony — a closer look at Hungary’s new Foreign Minister’s ties to the US Government

A top Hungarian official, Anita Orban, has significant ties to the US Establishment, including the Bush family. As Hungary's Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, how will this have an impact on her decision-making and strategy?

@taylorhudak

Hungary’s new Foreign Minister Anita Orban met with Cold War strategist and Bohemian Grove attendee Richard Pipes and former CIA Director James Woolsey for her 2007 PhD dissertation

⚡️KYC for Your Phone?

In 7 days, anonymous phones may as well be dead. A new FCC rule demands cell service operators to ask for their customer’s government IDs, personal information, and past phone numbers. This goes for SIM cards, eSIMs, and VoIP numbers.

All supposedly to protect you from automated scam calls.

Let’s get this straight; we’re going to create massive new loosely-protected databases of people’s personal info to protect people from scams?

Its a data breach waiting to happen…

🤳Get the scoop in today’s episode

📲Your private life should stay private. Let’s start with your phone.

—
🫶 @takebackourtech
📩 WEBSITE & NEWSLETTER | 🎥 VIDEOS| XMPP | SUBSTACK

Every Major War Begins Under False Pretenses & the Central Banks Are Beh...
https://youtube.com/watch?v=3Wi_zQX--wE&si=L7Z4oxdpnLwX5iS3

Anita Orbán and the American Influence: The Pro-war Network Behind Hungary’s New Foreign Minister

My latest in Hungary Today: https://hungarytoday.hu/anita-orban-and-the-american-influence-pro-war-network-behind-hungarys-new-foreign-minister/

My new report is out. Bearer not of good news.
https://rwerner.substack.com/p/the-war-against-iran-is-likely-to

Check out my latest deep dive published in The Last American Vagabond: https://www.thelastamericanvagabond.com/the-pro-war-network-behind-hungarys-new-foreign-minister-anita-orbans-deep-u-s-ties/

UK & Canada's Surveillance Bills

The UK is moving forward with a social media ban for children under 16, but the changes affect far more than kids.

To enforce the ban, platforms will have to verify users' ages. While officials haven't confirmed exactly how, facial scans, digital IDs, and other age verification schemes are all on the table. The government is also researching ways to prevent people from bypassing the rules with VPNs.

Meanwhile, Canada's Bill C-22 would expand police powers by allowing warrantless access to subscriber information and could require service providers to build the capability to hand over data or intercept communications. Companies may even be forced to retain data they would normally delete and keep government orders secret.

As surveillance powers continue to expand, protecting your personal information has never been more important.

🪧 Watch the full show on Substack
📱 Reclaim your privacy with Above Phone

Are Taxpayers Helping to Finance America’s Data Center Boom? A Quest for Clarity

Read my latest for Solari here: https://solari.com/are-taxpayers-helping-to-finance-americas-data-center-boom-a-quest-for-clarity/

The federal government as well as local and state governments are providing financial incentives for these investments. Such incentives occur in an environment that lacks transparency and proper disclosure. As an extension of this opaqueness, the benefits to justify these subsidies also remain unclear. Many would argue that promises of job creation have been grossly overstated (and the data centers’ potential role in creating a digital control grid kept secret), while energy and resource concerns—as well as the potential costs of site cleanup if and when the facilities close down or fail—have been minimized. This, in addition to the secrecy surrounding the planning and financing of the data center industry, indicates that the negative impact to local residents and the American taxpayers may be substantial.