Choostas

@elonmusk Find a post by Elon that's against interest. I'll wait.

As it should.

@marcthiessen @dpletka Marc, 20 years ago, over Iraq: You're either with us or against us. Marc, today, over Iran: You're either with us or against us. Lessons learned: Zero. Wisdom attained: Zero. Intellectual growth: Negative.

Great piece by @dpletka: "Tell me, as a supporter of NATO; as a stalwart of the transatlantic alliance; as someone outraged by Donald Trump’s earlier threats to withdraw from the alliance; what am I to say? How am I to defend the indefensible? In short, I cannot." open.substack.com/pub/whatthehel…

Trump’s comments last night about “Obama’s Iran deal” were simply wrong. It wasn’t perfect, but it capped uranium enrichment at 3.67%. Since Trump scrapped it, Iran has enriched to 60%—much closer to weapons-grade. And that stockpile still hasn’t been eliminated.

It is incredible how concerned MAGA parrots are with the 5% muslims in the EU. It is the go-to argument regardless of whether you are discussing tariffs, NATO, China or postal stamps. Who programmed all of these anonymous accounts that have nothing else to offer in every single thread on Twitter?

@jemimajoanna He doesn't miss anything anyone says about *him*, no doubt. But substance, policy, debate, alternate viewpoints? I don't buy that for an instant.

Everyone saying how ridiculous this is but I disagree. She's not talking about books! "He is always reading the papers and watching the TV, he doesn't miss anything anyone says," she goes on to say. I've often been struck by the same thing

The U.S. spent a year threatening to invade one European country and castigating all the others as useless deadbeats who shied away from action in Afghanistan, all while Europe spent that year inheriting the full cost of Ukraine’s defense. Then the U.S. went to war in the Middle East without even trying to build a coalition or formally asking for European assistance—something Trump says he doesn’t need even though its absence in the middle of the war he launched and claims to have already won has made him rethink U.S. membership in NATO, an alliance he characterizes as a busted flush. This is like a crazy uncle no one wanted over for dinner complaining about the spread and blaming everyone else for not stopping him from shitting his pants and passing out drunk at the table. And insisting he be invited back.

@elonmusk Yes, and because of the way your mind works, your solution was to destroy the entire website. Fucking idiot.

That’s how bad it was

Getting really bored of MAGA ranting about "freeloading" Europeans. The US does not spend a trillion dollars "on NATO." It spends it on a vast global military empire, with a mere 3.6% going toward their bases in Europe. Meanwhile us "freeloading" Europeans spend $454 billion on our own defence. The "freeloading" story is and always has been a lie to keep Americans angry and Europeans compliant.

@elonmusk Agreeing with himself again. Fucking idiot.

True

Let me walk you through what happened one hour before Trump announced the five day moratorium on Iran strikes. $1.5 billion in notional S&P E-mini futures contracts. Four to six times normal activity. One hour before the announcement. Simultaneously, $192 million in crude oil futures purchased at the same time. They made between $300 and $400 million dollars off those trades. Trump claimed he spoke to an Iranian official to negotiate the moratorium. The Iranians said that person doesn't exist and the conversation never happened. This is not the first time. It has happened multiple times. He says something. The trade goes on. He says another thing. The market moves. But whatever you call it — they are laughing at you and they are laughing at me while they do it. Hunter Biden sold a painting and Washington lost its mind. These people are making hundreds upon hundreds of millions of dollars trading on information that only exists inside the most powerful office in the world. I think we are dramatically underreporting how much money is actually being made here. This isn't politics anymore. This is a financial operation running out of the White House.

The absurdity of the Iran War is epitomized by the Trump administration’s decision to partially ease sanctions on Iran and Russia, allowing both countries to rake in huge profits. Russia is set to earn three times more per month from its energy resources. @Morning_Joe

@KDilanianMSNOW Bondi's inability to deliver prosecutions was greatly hampered by a lack of crimes.

Pam Bondi was fired largely because Donald Trump grew dissatisfied with her inability to deliver on prosecuting his perceived enemies, sources tell me. Her allies find that reasoning frustrating, because they say she was hampered by the legal system, not by any unwillingness on her part. Critics say that whole project was corrupt, and that she “took a sledgehammer to the Justice Department and its workforce,” in the words of one former official.

@shashj I don't believe any of this is a worry once Trump is gone. Your Iraq example: the US-Euro split was substantive and well-litigated. Bush even offered Blair a late off-ramp. Point being, even deep splits pre-Trump were fixable. What's not fixable atm is Trump himself, solely.

As well as reading the North Atlantic Treaty & Article Six, people also need to read a history book. - In 1973 European allies mostly refused landing and overflight rights for the US airlift to Israel - In 1986 Italy, France and Spain refused overflight rights to the Reagan admin during the bombing of Libya - In 2003 many Europeans broke with the Bush admin over Iraq. France, Germany & Belgium blocked NATO planning; Turkey refused the use of its bases. - In 2011 Germany stayed out of the Libya war The current anger at Europe is rooted in a much larger transatlantic rupture. European allies have lost confidence in US judgment and decision-making under this administration; the situation would probably be different if this was seen as a necessary war to stave off an Iranian nuclear weapon. That loss of confidence & trust will have wider repercussions. I worry what it means for a crisis over Taiwan, for instance. It's hard to imagine effective US-Europe co-ordination if a war were to break out while transatlantic relations are at such a low ebb.

@guypbenson @EdMorrissey It sounds like you have absolutely no idea what NATO is, which I know can't be true, and yet here we are. Trump is turning all your minds to goo.

I mean, I also support NATO, but watching our supposed allies close their airspace to us as we destroy the “death to America” regime’s nuclear & missile threats (having just learned the regime has been lying about missiles that can reach Europe) is going to make a lot of Americans question the alliance. That’s on France/Spain/Italy, not Trump.

Since Liberation Day, a year ago today: * US foreign direct investment is lower * US factories employ 89,000 fewer people * US goods trade deficit is UP 2% npr.org/2026/04/02/nx-…

@marcthiessen How is this not just piracy?

Here’s an idea: Why don’t we open the Strait of Hormuz, and then instead of Iran charging $2M per ship to pass through we charge a $2M per ship “escort fee” — which could be waived for counties contributing to the mission to secure the Strait? Automatic identification system (AIS) data shows that the strait was averaging more than 153 vessel transits per day in the weeks leading up to the conflict. That’s more than $300M a day, or $9.2B a month, we could take in. It’s like a tariff on all travel through the Strait!

@MsMelChen Ludicrous, cretinous gaslighting.

Let’s be real here. Europe has spent decades freeloading on American security. Even now, with every NATO member finally hitting the 2% GDP target in 2025. But beyond the financial contributions, the real rupture is philosophical and the Iran crisis has shown a spotlight on it. Europe worships process. Endless committees, consultations, and “predictability.” Macron actually calls it a virtue. For Trump, this is paralysis as his style is to articulate a threat, fix a target, and act. The Americans are men of conviction and purpose. Europe on the other hand lives by bureaucratic liturgy and in high-minded abstractions. Sure, Americans might make mistakes when acting. But Europe never considers what the costs of not acting actually are. Just look at how their nations are doing on various fronts, especially on the border crisis, and you see the same cancerous rot that undergirds their foreign policy approach play out domestically. It's the same problem on a different scale. Iran is currently holding the Strait of Hormuz hostage, choking 20% of global oil and spiking prices past $100 a barrel. Meanwhile, the regime is bleeding from strikes, its nuclear ambitions are still alive despite degraded capability, and its proxies are firing missiles at allies and oil tankers. If this isn’t a clear and present danger to the global economy - of which Europe is a part - then I don’t know what is. Yet when Washington asked to use European bases to finish the job - bases the US has defended for generations, the response was hesitation and hand-wringing. The US did strike from RAF Fairford, but only after warnings that British soil could become a “legitimate target.” If you cannot agree that a theocratic regime with eschatological ambitions who have shown no restraint in hitting out at Gulf countries and threatening the world’s energy jugular is an enemy worth confronting, then what, exactly, are we allies about? Europe loves to preen about being tough on Russia. They issue condemnations and speeches and slap sanctions that hardly work to cripple the Russian economy. Now here was a chance to do something concrete: let the Americans use the bases they already pay for, help clear the Strait, and actually degrade the Iranian war machine that arms Moscow’s proxies. Turmp didn’t ask for boots on the ground or any kind of more offensive action. All he wanted was permission to operate from the infrastructure America has underwritten for decades. They couldn’t even manage that. So can you blame the Americans for seeing NATO for what it is? A paper-tiger alliance that expects Washington to bleed and pay while Brussels and London convenes and deliberates. If Europe refuses to treat Iran as the threat it is while happily letting American power keep the Strait open and the lights on, then the alliance is already dead. Trump is simply stating the obvious and the Americans are becoming very reluctant to subsidize the European delusion any longer.

Trump: I terminated Obama's disastrous nuclear deal that gave #Iran lots of cash. A deal so disastrous that it achieved exactly what Trump is now trying to do--prevent Iran acquiring from a nuclear weapon--and provided the Iranian regime with less cash...(1/2)

@marcorubio Tries to sound authoritative and certain, ends up being rushed, sweaty and full of anxiety. A lamentable performance.