Ari Fleischer

Iran is currently attacking every country in the Middle East except for Israel. Why? Because they know that if they attack, Israel will be flying over the skies of Tehran immediately. Peace through strength.

US President Donald Trump announced that the United States is taking over the security of shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and resuming the naval blockade of Iran. He published the corresponding statement on the social network Truth Social. Donald Trump the businessman has awakened again: the White House is translating the sharpest geopolitical crisis into the language of a commercial deal. Beyond blockades, Trump is introducing a kind of security tax. Washington is now calling itself the "Guardians of the Strait of Hormuz" and plans to charge 20% of the value of transported cargo for its services. Every point in this decision is beautiful. Pure marketing. Turning the Pentagon into a global security enterprise is absolutely in the spirit of the Trump Organization. The logic is simple: since the US Fifth Fleet spends billions patrolling this artery, why not bill the clients? The scale is huge. The figure of 20% seems pulled out of thin air, but the appetite is impressive. A huge share of global oil transit passes through the Strait of Hormuz. Imagine the size of this "security bill." The details can wait. How to calculate the cost of the cargo? Who exactly should pay? What are the international legal grounds, considering the strait is also controlled by Oman? Trump doesn't traditionally worry too much about such legal "trifles." The main goal is to raise the stakes, and let the subordinates work out the mechanics later. Essentially, this is a hard ultimatum to the largest importers of Middle Eastern oil—primarily China, India, and Japan: either pay Washington for security, or deal with Iran yourselves. In my view, this is yet another grand attempt by Trump to hold Tehran and its partners at gunpoint as part of a major negotiation. The logic is clear: the largest oil importers, seeing the prospect of paying Washington 20%, might themselves increase pressure on Iran and push it toward an agreement. There is also a purely domestic calculation. To the American voter, Trump again appears as a president-businessman who does not simply protect the world order at the expense of the US, but promises to make the whole world pay America for its strength. Whether these huge sums of money can actually be obtained is a secondary question. Politically, the statement is already working.

At the end of a particularly thrilling and rollicking meeting in the Oval Office, Lindsey Graham turned to the room and said: “I’ve never had this much fun in my life.” I cannot describe to you how much joy President Trump’s leadership and friendship brought to Lindsey. Meetings with Graham at the White House were filled with camaraderie, kinship and uproarious laughter. As heartbreaking as his sudden passing is, I hope it will bring some measure of comfort to those who cherished him to know just how much he was living his dream every day. Very rarely in life do you get to be exactly where you want to be, when you want to be there, with who you want to be with, doing precisely what you want to do — that was every moment for Lindsey. When President Trump won in Nov 2024, Lindsey was exultant. Elated. And determined. He couldn’t wait to spearhead work, as the Budget Chairman, on the reconciliation bill that would cement President Trump’s most important campaign promises. I’ll never forget the senate lunch, when a couple Senators were a tad off the program, and Lindsey — in his inimitable way — made sure everyone was onside by the time we left. It was a glorious thing to witness. He knew how to move a room. Lindsey was a senator’s senator. The job was everything to him. Truly did he believe in the splendor of the office and the noble lineage behind it, of which he was the worthy heir. He was a senator in the mold of those who fashioned the institution, someone who still had the ability, in a heated exchange, to use rhetorical power to change the course of events. Which is why we will never forget his legendary Kavanaugh moment. We rarely think that we are out of time with our friends, so while there is a lot more I wish I could have said to Lindsey, I am glad that more than once I told him what that moment meant to the whole nation and why he was the only Senator who could have done it with such utter perfection. Most importantly, I had the chance to tell him on many occasions what his friendship meant to me and to us all. There was never once a time he didn’t answer a phone call and lend whatever assistance was required. It was never a question with Lindsey. He believed deeply in the code of friendship and loyalty. The fact that Lindsey started out as a political opponent only to become one the President’s most steadfast and faithful supporters underscores that Lindsey believed emphatically in the voice of the people. There is a lot more I would like to say. His passing, at a time when he had never been more dynamic, is as unexpected as it is shocking. In many respects, Lindsey was the last of a breed of American Senator whose like we may not yet see again for a long time. He lived every minute in the arena, a political gladiator to the very last. More than anything now, our thoughts are with his Sister, nieces and loved ones. We pray that God will ease their sorrow and heal their pain. Lindsey can never be replaced and will never be forgotten. Godspeed, my friend.