Margaret Holwill

Yesterday, an Iranian-flagged cargo vessel tried to evade the U.S. blockade after leaving Bandar Abbas, exiting the Strait of Hormuz, and transiting along the Iranian coastline. The guided-missile destroyer USS Spruance (DDG 111) successfully redirected the vessel, which is heading back to Iran.   Ten vessels have now been turned around and ZERO ships have broken through since the start of the U.S. blockade on Monday.

California also has ridiculous TAXES on gasoline. Highest prices at the pump of any state without any other factors.

@simonateba You appear to be in terminal, end stage TDS. Stop with the nonsensical insults against Trump. This makes you sound like a lunatic.

MY DAILY LETTER: If he drops a nuclear bomb on Iran, years from now, Donald John Trump will be remembered as one of the world’s greatest monsters, and as a man shaped by a broken childhood, with a racist heart filled with hate and absolute contempt for the rule of law and the U.S. Constitution, who saw himself above Jesus, above God, and above the American people, even as the nation regarded him as an absolute buffoon who ruined the U.S. reputation, triggered a massive and catastrophic economic crisis, made state theft and corruption official, did nothing to help the common man, and left behind only hate, chaos, darkness, and death. But he still has a choice. He can become the opposite of what he’s been by supporting policies that would make life easier for the common man, by becoming truly the America First president he was elected to be.

The Pope is wasting his breath. He should travel to Teheran and get the radical Islamist thugs to relinquish their nuclear capabilities. That would solve the problem and save time, money, and lives.

There is not a single Muslim controlled nation in the world that recognizes free speech, freedom of religion, or basic human rights. There is not a single Muslim controlled region that respects your precious pluralism. Wherever they hold power, they oppress women and persecute Christians. Yet we have both Protestant and Catholic leadership trying to tell the rank-and-file that we should have some sort of communion with Islam and that we worship the same God. I pray for every single Muslim to come to Christ. But in the inimitable words of Jack Nicholson in As Good as It Gets, sell crazy somewhere else. We’re all stocked up here.

@JamesVGrimaldi @austeni Gasoline prices are a limited indicator for media audiences. Still lower than they were under Biden. Oil dropped to $87/bbl today while the markets are reacting favorably. The blockade is working.

@HStreetDC_ @austeni None were met. Enjoy the stratospheric gasoline prices as a result of this poorly thought-out war, which looks likely to "end" (any day now! we've won already!) with Iran's strait tool booth in place.

It has all happened so fast. Opinion has turned hard against Trump and Netanyahu; Israel is no longer the victim but the perpetrator; the United States has gone from bedrock of the world order to rogue state. And Pope Leo has overnight become guardian of humanity’s conscience.

@JamesVGrimaldi @austeni No one has to be a “spokesman” for the administration to follow and understand what’s going on. The goals are clear. Priorities shift as do questions from media. You know me. You know that I even read the tedious stuff.

@HStreetDC_ @austeni Are you a spokesman for Trump, whose reason changes hourly. You also didn’t read the whole statement. That’s just on factor under the 1,000-year-old just war tradition.

@JamesVGrimaldi @austeni If McElroy doesn’t understand that, he hasn’t been paying attention. Or he doesn’t want to know. To make it simple for him, just tell him, “All of the above” or whatever it takes to neutralize the existential threat to Peace.

@HStreetDC_ @austeni As +McElroy said, "our goals and intentions are absolutely unclear, ranging from the destruction of Iran’s conventional and nuclear weapons potential to the overthrow of its regime to the establishment of a democratic government to unconditional surrender."

@JamesVGrimaldi @austeni The “clear intention” is obvious. That the Regime, its proxies, and any possible successors are neutered, eliminated if necessary. That they are no longer able to kill, maim, or enslave others, or to manufacture the arms to do it. By whatever means necessary.

@HStreetDC_ @austeni "You cannot satisfy the just war tradition’s criterion of right intention if you do not have a clear intention." cathstan.org/us-world/in-in…

@JamesVGrimaldi @austeni If he is so concerned about the “muddled, incoherent thinking that led to this war” after 47 years, Leo should have addressed the radical Islamic killers in Teheran. They are the ones who have used their funds to sponsor terrorism. And still do.

@HStreetDC_ @austeni Leo is preaching the Gospel of peace, just as Francis, Benedict, JPII, Paul VI and John XXIII. It boilerplate teaching that happens to conflict with the muddled, incoherent thinking that led to this war.

@JamesVGrimaldi @austeni Not going to discount his courage in Peru during those years. But that in NO way qualifies Leo for his bizarre comments regarding general foreign affairs or the current military actions in the Middle East. Render unto to Caesar…and all that….

@HStreetDC_ @austeni He ministered in Peru amidst violence, terrorism and during Fujimori’s authoritarian rule.

@JamesVGrimaldi @austeni Oh, yeah, right…guess Peru sorta slipped my mind when Pontifex started spitballing.

@HStreetDC_ @austeni The Holy Father is naive? You apparently know nothing about his time in Peru

So the Pope met with David Axelrod last week. David Axelrod. Obama's campaign architect. A man who is not Catholic, has never met a pope before, and whose entire career has been engineering political narratives for the American left. And then, by pure coincidence, the Pope immediately started lobbing shots at the Trump administration, and three US Cardinals popped up on 60 Minutes doing the same thing. All organically, I'm sure. I'm a practicing Catholic. I need you to understand that part. But in my opinion, Trump has all the right to lash out at him. Maybe you'll disagree, but in the end, Trump talks like Trump. Water is wet. I'm talking about MY Church being run like a DNC satellite office but with a golden throne. This is the same Vatican that watched governments padlock churches during COVID and said nothing. That let Biden take communion while funding abortion and said nothing. That fired Bishop Strickland for defending actual Church doctrine. That removed Bishop Fernández in Puerto Rico for defending religious exemptions THE CATECHISM ITSELF supports. But somehow Trump is the threat to human dignity. Pope Francis was bad. Leo has turned out to be worse. Francis at least was vague about his politics. Leo went and hired the consulting firm. The man has ignored the slaughter of Christians across Nigeria, the Sahel, India, Syria, Bangladesh, Pakistan. Hundreds of believers murdered, churches burned, pastors kidnapped. His response? Platitudes about dialogue. OF COURSE he won't even name who's doing the killing. But he'll fly across continents to make interfaith gestures the week after his people coordinated a media hit on a sitting US president. The weaponization of belief is obvious. You get the Pope to pick a fight with Trump, and suddenly millions of conservative Catholics have to choose between their faith and their vote.

🚨 WOW. Border Czar Tom Homan just gave the PERFECT response to Pope Leo "I'm a lifelong Catholic. I wish they'd STAY OUT of immigration, they don't know what they're talking about." "Because if they wore my shoes for 40 years, and talked to a 9-year-old girl that got r*ped multiple times, or stood in the back of a tractor trailer with 19 dead aliens at my feet, including a 5-year-old boy that baked to death, if they understood the atrocities that happened on the open border, I think their opinion would change!" "And I welcome discussion with any of them, because they don't understand illegal immigration is not a victimless crime." "Where President Trump had the most secure border in the lifetime of this nation, right now, lives are being saved. He's saving thousands of lives a year because he has a secure border!" "Human traffickers are out of business, right? The cartels are going bankrupt because of that secure border. I wish they'd understand that." "Because if they did, I think they'd have a different opinion." Mic drop.

@Pontifex Since you don’t know about Islam Here ya go⬇️‼️ Why don’t you go to Libya- The Slave Trade is slated for next month.

@Pontifex Pope Leo strolls through Mosques failing to condemn the global horrors of Islam and fully defend Christianity. The West doesn't need Obama in robes... we need another Charles "the Hammer" Martel who beat back the Muslim invasion of Europe in 740 AD.

@TrumpMonte @cspan @ChrisVanHollen Trump may be flamboyant but he isn’t “mentally ill.” The Democrat Media Complex is nuts. They are incapable of understanding what is going on and are acting out Ike toddlers pitching fits. They should seek professional help,for their TDS.

@cspan @ChrisVanHollen We all know he is mentally ill but does his particular illness prevent him from serving? Your wasting your time pointing out the obvious.

From last night: Sen. @ChrisVanHollen: "We see the same President who attacked the Pope putting images of himself online as if he's Christ. This is a deranged man. This is a man that should have no connection to being commander in chief."

@cspan @ChrisVanHollen Sen @ChrisVanHollen has a screw loose. He should find some more illegal alien gang members to have margaritas with and stop acting like a crazy person. He’s from one of the most gerrymandered states in the country and never has to answer to anyone for his destructive behavior.

@washingtonpost This is nonsense. Previous presidents were too timid to face the threat that radical Islam posed to the US, western civilization, and Christianity. To the world itself. How can the pope be so OBLIVIOUS to the existential dangers of radical Islam?

Observers of the Catholic Church say a war of words between a pope and U.S. president is unprecedented. The confrontation, they say, could be more risky for President Trump, who is taking on a core group of Republican voters in a midterm election year. wapo.st/4vsioEH