It was all a strategy to create volatility in the stock market and oil prices

In the same week Trump would announce a deal was in the works, he’d attack Iran and announce that he was bombing them, causing the market to swing by several hundred billion, sometimes trillions of dollars in both directions—as well as fluctuate the price of oil for traders to make a killing throughout all the volatility.

Remember: The market doesn’t need to go up for traders to make money. They just need to know where the price of each stock—and the price of oil will be—so they can place bets on the futures.

What we know

Trump views U.S. troops as disposable. He proved that when he called soldiers who died in war ‘suckers and losers’—and when he told John McCain he prefers war heroes who “weren’t” captured.

To Trump, troops are as disposable as the Depends he wears.

Of course he would send them into a war to enrich himself and his cronies.

Then there’s his obsession with Obama

Trump tore up Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran and, according to reports about what’s inside the MOU, Iran has reached some of the exact same agreements as they did with Obama—only Iran is actually better off than they were under Obama’s.

Even JD Vance said on Fox last night “I would say Obama, why in the world if it’s the same thing, why is it that the gulf Arabs hated your deal and they love our deal?”

If Iran is happier with Trump’s deal than it was with Obama’s, that pretty much says it all.

And this morning Trump back away from getting Iran’s enriched material, saying: “You could make the case, why even bother? It's not very valuable stuff."

Thought that was the whole point of war, buddy!

Let’s be real

Do I think Trump is stupid? If you view his decisions from a foreign policy and national security perspective—then yes, he is a moron.

This alleged deal, and this war, were massive blunders. Billions of federal dollars spent per day, U.S. lives lost, no progress on stopping Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, and reportedly $300 billion to Iran in reparations.

A disaster of a deal for America and American taxpayers.

But if you view Trump’s decisions as those of a greedy man who was able to cause trillions of dollars in daily fluctuations in the stock market and ten-figure swings in oil prices with his announcements—while having friends and allies placing bets before each of them—I’d call it the greatest market manipulation in American history.

Theft is the better word, actually.

And he gets away with it because he controls the SEC, the FBI, and the DOJ—and the states he doesn’t control are too afraid to go after him or any of the traders who participated in this heist.

Wrap-up

Just wanted to offer a potential perspective on how—and why—this all played out the way it did with Iran.

Thanks for reading. Happy Tuesday, guys.

Here's what Grande commented under a TikTok video published by the White House that showed ICE officers arresting immigrants.

“Please do not ever use my music in relation to this barbaric, inhumane, heinous nonsense. Fuck ICE."

And it worked..

I just checked the White House TikTok account, and there is no more music playing during their video. It's now just a silent compilation of ICE officers arresting people.

It looks like Ariana Grande beat the White House into submission.

Power of the platform

I always appreciate when celebrities use their platform to speak out against the Trump administration and ICE, knowing that it will alienate some of their audience—especially as a musician.

Now is not the time for silence!

Stay loud. Happy Thursday, guys.

Here is what Dan Cogdell, who represented Paxton in both his impeachment trials and state criminal trials, said to Talarico on a podcast this morning:

“I defended Paxton for years in the impeachment trial and in state criminal cases, but in my view, I think Ken has …

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Here is a video of today’s masterful exchange by Ted Lieu, who took ‘Little Marco’ to the cleaners by using his own words against him (and bringing the visual receipts).

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First, inflation

Not only is Trump’s approval rating in the gutter, but he’s now polling at all-time lows among Republicans on inflation.

Which is why…

His economic advisors are now trying to convince Americans that inflation is actually…good!

Here’s what Kevin Hassett (Trump advisor) said yesterday morning: “The thing I’ve seen is that while people have been spending more money at gas stations, they’ve been spending more money on everything else, which means they’re still very very optimistic about the state of the economy.”

No. People are spending more because everything costs more. And in fact, consumer sentiment is at historic lows, showing Americans are deeply pessimistic about the economy…Trump’s economy.

Also, Trump has been caught falling asleep on TV, and the White House desperately tried to spin it away

Trump’s ‘rapid response 47’ team spent the day trying to convince the public that reporters are the ones falling asleep on camera—not Trump. They literally circulated screenshots of reporters blinking and claimed they were sleeping, all to distract from the fact that Trump has now repeatedly been caught falling asleep in public.

He fell asleep standing up during a healthcare conference, nodded off during Hegseth’s Memorial Day speech, and has fallen asleep multiple times during televised Oval Office meetings…all of which occurred before lunchtime.

Nice to see the media’s been covering this more aggressively.

Meanwhile

Things are starting to go sideways for Republicans:

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Here’s what Bardem said specifically when asked about one of the themes in his film, which was toxic masculinity: "And that problem also goes to Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin and Mr. Netanyahu, those ‘big ba…

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This afternoon, when a reporter asked Trump, "What extent are Americans' financial situations motivating you to make a deal with Iran?"

Here how Trump responded, verbatim: "Not even a little bit. The only thing that matters when I'm t…

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Here’s the post from October of 2012 in which Trump tweeted: “Gas prices are at crazy levels—fire Obama!”

FYI: Under Obama, the national price of gas never exceeded $4. Yet today under Trump, the natio…

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This is according to Forbes, who reports that since Trump assumed the Oval Office, his net worth has skyrocketed from $2.3 billion in 2024 to $6.5 billion in 2026.

If you look at the breakdown, he has $2.1B in crypto and liquid assets, $1.2B in Trump Media, $1.5B in…

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Last night, Lindsey Graham announced that Republicans are introducing legislation to allocate $400 million from the federal budget (our tax dollars) to construct a White House ballroom, which he claims is necessary for “security” purposes following …

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Here is what he posted just now on Truth Social in a psychotic rant that shows how rattled he is over the election results.

“As everyone knows, I…

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According to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, at least 88 of the largest American corporations paid no federal income tax in 2025.

The below companies (including Elon Musk’s Tesla…

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Same headlines. Same arguments. Same scandals. Same commentary. Even the same wars.

It is almost as if I never left.

But in the proc…

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Apparently, the owner is a 28-year-old immigrant from Lebanon who overstayed his visa — and who probably thought that because he was a MAGA sycophant, he’d be safe from the wrath of ICE.

However, here’s what ICE had to say a…

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Here’s a video of the incredibly awkward exchange:

When you strip away everything, what you’re seeing is the CEO of the biggest company in the world bribing the President of the United States to exempt his company from tariffs.

It got me thinking

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Yes, there’s still a lot of time left.

But let’s be honest about some things:

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