The Big Ben Show: Markwayne Mullin, CBS Controversy, Iran On Edge
Plus a little World Cup talk
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Trump Ramps Up Iran War
President Trump said the U.S. would resume attacks on Iran later Wednesday after a drone fired by Tehran hit a U.S. Apache helicopter, prompting several waves of American strikes in retaliation.
Any renewed attacks would follow strikes by both the U.S. and Iran on Tuesday following the incident.
“We’re gonna be attacking them, attacking them very hard,” Trump told reporters Wednesday. “We hit them hard yesterday, and we’re going to hit them again hard today,” he said.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the U.S. would “strike hard” at Iran. “Central Command will be busy tonight,” he said, referring to the Pentagon organization that oversees American forces in the Middle East. “We will bomb key facilities in Iran, the strikes will be strong and clear,” he said.
As well as indicating a resumption of military strikes, Trump revealed in a social-media post that since last month the U.S. military had been executing a “secret mission” to facilitate oil tankers transiting the Strait of Hormuz. The mission has primarily been carried out by U.S. aircraft, including jet fighters and helicopters, assigned to protect vessels moving through the strait, according to a senior U.S. official.
“I am pleased to announce that this effort has resulted in more than 100 MILLION Barrels of Oil making its way through the Strait, and into the Open Market,” Trump said in a post. “More than 200 Commercial Ships have safely traveled through the Strait.”
The Apache that went down late Monday was defending ships in the waterway from Iranian drones and missiles, the senior U.S. official said. The pilots managed to escape the burning aircraft after it hit the water with seconds to go before it sank.
Around 20% of the world’s oil supplies travel through the strait, which Iran has blocked since the start of the war on Feb. 28, leading to a surge in energy prices. The U.S. has blockaded Iranian ports.
He said that the U.S. now controlled the strait, though Iran continues to exert influence over ships seeking to cross. The movement of ships transiting under the U.S. mission, which was reported by The Wall Street Journal, still pales in comparison to the situation before the war, when more than 100 ships would traverse the channel a day. And traffic has all but ground to a halt when skirmishes have broken out.
More here:
Spencer Pratt And The New Populism
Pratt’s invocation of corrupt politicians did evoke the same populist spirit that has animated Donald Trump’s MAGA movement. Yet unlike Trump, and unlike the Left-wing populism of Bernie Sanders, Pratt’s campaign introduced a third, “local,” type of populism.
While both Left- and Right-wing populism ask voters to identify an ideological enemy — whether corporations, the media, coastal elites, or the deep state — localized populism asks voters to reckon with the political reality before them. Rather than blame distant actors for national problems, it directs grievances closer to home: toward those responsible for an empty reservoir, uncleared encampments filled with drug-addled vagrants (Pratt called them “zombies”), or a home that has yet to be rebuilt.
Though Pratt has made this brand of politics viral, its appeal extends well beyond the confines of his mayoral race. In 2024, Daniel Lurie won the San Francisco mayor’s race through a campaign focused on residents’ homelessness and public safety concerns. Indeed, even Zohran Mamdani was elected mayor of New York City in 2025, winning not on the widespread popularity of his socialist maximalism or obsessive anti-Israelism, but because he spoke relentlessly about New York City’s housing and affordability crisis.
But not all ostensibly nonpartisan politics deserve the localized populist label. Dan Osborn, Nebraska’s independent Senate candidate, has cultivated the aesthetic of a working-class outsider while accepting millions in donations from Chuck Schumer’s Senate Majority PAC and campaigning on positions indistinguishable from the national Democratic platform. Osborn’s independence, unlike Pratt’s, appears more strategic than substantive.
Spencer Pratt failed in his ambitious — if somewhat quixotic — quest to become mayor of Los Angeles, but his primary campaign has nonetheless introduced an appealing form of politics, particularly for non-far-Left candidates interested in competing in big, blue cities. The lesson is that populism need not traffic in radical, fringe conspiracism to gain ground. Voters, at least a sizable chunk of them, it turns out, appreciate a candidate willing to speak narrowly about the city he wants to govern.
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Hollywood Reporter: JD Vance to Join The View Amidst FCC clash
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Daily Wire: What Happens When Fantasy Escapes the Gatekeepers
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🪶 Quote
“We have sealed ourselves away behind our money, growing inward, generating a seamless universe of self.”
— William Gibson