An Unprepared and Untethered Administration

Hello, this is Michael Moss. Heather Cox Richardson is unable to read the letter today, so I will be reading it in her place. March 17, 2026. Yesterday, President Donald J. Trump continued to demand that other countries help the U.S. reopen the Strait of Hormuz for tanker traffic, but one by one, they declined. It is a dangerous business, and since Trump launched the war without consulting anyone, they don't seem inclined to help him out of the mess he created. For his part, Trump has told reporters that numerous countries have told him they're on their way to help enable ships to transit the Strait, but he has also threatened to leave the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or NATO, over allies' unwillingness to help clear the Strait. Trump has never articulated a clear reason for the war, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli officials have opened another front in Lebanon, saying they intend to destroy the terror infrastructure there as they did in Gaza. So far, Israel's recent operations in Lebanon have killed more than 850 people and displaced at least 800,000. Thomas Grove, Milan Cerny, and Benoit Fossin of The Wall Street Journal reported today that Russia has expanded its efforts to keep Iran in the fight against U.S. and Israel, offering more intelligence sharing and military cooperation. Russia is providing drone components and satellite imagery that enables Iran to strike U.S. troops and radar systems. The reporters say that Russia is trying to keep its closest Middle Eastern partner in the fight against U.S. and Israeli military might, and prolong a war that is benefiting Russia militarily and economically. Meanwhile, Iran has been moving its own ships through the Strait and appears to be willing to allow passage through for countries that are willing to negotiate with it. If that practice becomes widespread, prices on oil will ease, making it harder for Iran to keep up pressure on the U.S. and Israel. Oil is now selling at more than $100 a barrel, up from about $70 a barrel before the U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran that began on February 28. And gas prices have risen by at least $0.70 a gallon since then. As David Goldman of CNN reports, Iran's ability to stop most traffic through the Strait of Hormuz threatens not just about 20% of the world's oil supply as well as natural gas. About 20% of the world's fertilizer also passes through the Strait, which will affect crops for this year's growing season. It will also limit helium, necessary for the cooling process when making silicon chips and cooling medical equipment, and aluminum. Anna Kramer of Notus reported today that last fall, the Trump administration cut all the State Department staffers from the Bureau of Energy Resources who are in charge of maintaining diplomatic contacts with foreign energy bureaus and Middle East gas and oil companies. Those laid off included the only expert in tracking sanctioned oil tankers, and the person in charge of coordinating with the International Agency that manages releases of oil reserves around the world to address crises. There was never any handover or transition. There was no formal handover of contacts or anything like that. We were all just let go, one former State Department energy official told Kramer. Those trying to work on energy issues with the US government after their departure could not find any contacts. Nine former members of the Bureau told Kramer it seems clear the administration did not prepare for a global oil crisis. Trump's claim that nobody expected Iran to hit other countries in the Middle East supports their statement because, as they told Kramer, previous administrations planned for exactly that scenario. Judd Legum of Popular Information explained today that the administration decommissioned the last of its four mine sweeperships in September. Based in Bahrain, the vessels were equipped to find and destroy both moored and bottom mines. They were supposed to be replaced with new systems that use unmanned vehicles, but those so far have been unreliable and the systems apparently have not been deployed. Legum points out that starting a military operation without anti-mining ships in the region to protect traffic through the Straits of Hormuz illustrates how poorly officials planned. According to Aaron Rupar of Public Notice, Representative Eric Swalwell, a Democrat from California, observed that Trump has more plans for the ballroom he's trying to build at the East Wing than anything he's going to do next in the Middle East. The fact that Trump's allies in the White House are backing away from the war, talking to journalists like Politico's Megan Messerly for a piece published today, suggests they see this conflict as a political disaster. Sources told Messerly they hoped the strikes would be quick, removing Iran's leader much as Trump's Venezuela strikes did in January. They said they thought Trump's vagueness on objectives would let him declare victory whenever he wanted to. Now though, the sources told Messerly they think Trump no longer controls how or when the war ends. One told her, we clearly just kicked Iran's ass in the field, but to a large extent they hold the cards now. They decide how long we're involved and they decide if we put boots on the ground. And it doesn't seem to me that there's a way around that if we want to save face. They're warned that officials in the White House need to worry about an unraveling. The sense that Trump has dragged the U.S. into a war in the Middle East is splitting MAGA leadership. Isolationists who supported Trump's claim of being America first and ending long foreign wars are turning on those supporting Trump's Iranian incursion, and their attacks on social media have become deeply personal. They seem to be trying to hive their supporters off from Trump to coalesce around an even more extreme white nationalism that highlights anti-Semitism. Today Joe Kent, a staunch Trump ally, resigned as director of the National Counterterrorism Center saying that he supported the values and the foreign policies Trump had campaigned on, but that he cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran. Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation, and it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby. Although Kent is correct that U.S. intelligence assessed that Iran posed no imminent threat to the U.S., both the White House and House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican of Louisiana, pushed back aggressively on Kent's statements, trying to justify their Iran entanglement. Johnson said, Trump seemed to try to blame former President Barack Obama for the crisis, telling reporters today that if I didn't terminate Obama's horrible deal that he made, you would have had a nuclear war four years ago, you would have had nuclear holocaust, and you would have had it again if we didn't bomb the site. Trump told reporters he thought Kent was a nice guy, but very weak on security, and that he didn't know Kent well. Yesterday Trump told reporters that a former president told him, I wish I did what you did in attacking Iran. He added, Chris Cameron of the New York Times reported that those close to all former Democratic presidents, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and Joseph R. Biden, deny that they said any such thing, or that they have had any contact with Trump lately. This morning Trump posted on social media, Because of the fact that we have had such military success, we no longer need, or desire, the NATO country's assistance. We never did. Likewise, Japan, Australia, or South Korea. In fact, speaking as President of the United States of America, by far the most powerful country anywhere in the world, we do not need the help of anyone. Meanwhile, Trump appears to be attempting to remove the leadership of Cuba. Francis Robles, Edward Wong, and Annie Corial of the New York Times reported yesterday that US officials want to force Cuban President Miguel Diaz Canel from power, but will leave the next steps up to the Cuban people. The reporters note such a move might enable Trump to declare a victory. The US has cut off the oil that feeds Cuba's energy grid, forcing it to collapse. Yesterday Trump told reporters, I do believe I'll be the honor of having the honor of taking Cuba. That'd be good, he said. That's a big honor. Taking Cuba in some form, yeah, taking Cuba. I mean, whether I free it, take it, I think I could do anything I want with it, if you know the truth. They're a very weakened nation right now. Trump's team has blamed the media for what he insists are unfair reports about the Iran conflict. He has also gone after the Supreme Court, complaining on Sunday about its ruling that his tariffs were unconstitutional, but also complaining that the justices permitted Biden to be inaugurated, continuing to insist, in the face of all evidence to the contrary, that the 2020 presidential election was stolen. He insisted that this completely inept and embarrassing court is hurting our country and will continue to do so. All I can do as president is call them out for their bad behavior. Trump called the court little more than a weaponized and unjust political organization. Trump's pressure on the court over his claims of political weaponization and the 2020 presidential election seemed designed to enlist their support for his claims that the 2026 election was rigged if voters choose Democratic majorities in the House and or the Senate. Trump told House members in January that if the Republicans don't retain control of the House, he will be impeached. Trump and his loyalists insist that Congress must pass the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility or SAVE America Act to prevent Democrats from stealing the 2026 election with Trump posting on social media today. The SAVE America Act is one of the most important and consequential pieces of legislation in the history of Congress and America itself. No more rigged elections. Voter ID, proof of citizenship, no rigged mail-in voting. The Republicans won the House, the Senate, and the presidency in 2024, making it hard to argue that Republicans cannot win without new voting rules. But as G. Eliot Morris of Strength and Numbers noted today, since then Trump has lost the working class white voters and Latino voters who put him in office. Republicans could woo them back but instead are trying to push voters off the rolls by demanding proof of citizenship to vote. It is already illegal for non-citizens to vote in federal elections. Such voting is vanishingly rare. And states, which run elections, already require ID. According to the Brennan Center for Justice and the University of Maryland Center for Democracy and Civic Engagement, Trump's demand that voters provide proof of citizenship, a passport or a birth certificate and matching real ID when registering to vote and again at the polls would cut as many as 21 million voters off the rolls. To push the measure through the Senate, Republicans will have to kill the filibuster that requires 60 votes to move a bill forward from debate. Trump is demanding Senate Majority Leader John Thune, a Republican of South Dakota, make that change to Senate rules but Thune and less-magger Republicans don't want to. Republicans say they want to debate the measure so that Democrats will be forced to defend their objection to it. But already the fight seems to be shaping up as between Republicans eager to pass a voter suppression bill to support Trump and those willing to protect voters as well as their own voices in the Senate. Tonight, the Senate voted to take up the measure. Letters from an American was written by Heather Cox Richardson. It was produced at Soundscape Productions, dead in Massachusetts. Recorded with music composed by Michael Moss.