TACO Trump Declares Ceasefire/Victory Over Iran After “Breakthrough” Meetings That Never Happened. LOLZ
The 48-hour ultimatum expired. The off-ramp was a Truth Social post. And the Strait of Hormuz is still closed.

Dean Blundell
Mar 23

It looks like TACOS are back on the menu, kids. This is what losing looks like when the guy who lost still controls the microphone.

This morning at 7:23 AM, Donald Trump posted an all-caps dispatch from the Department of War (yes, that’s what they call the Pentagon now) announcing that the United States and Iran had held “very good and productive conversations” over the past two days — “in depth, detailed, and constructive” — leading him to graciously suspend planned strikes on Iranian power plants for five whole days.

Tremendous. Beautiful. A complete and total resolution.

There’s one problem.

Iran (and everyone else) says none of it happened.

Iran’s semi-official Mehr News agency denied that any dialogue between Tehran and Washington had taken place. Iran’s official Fars News agency said, citing a source, that Tehran was not engaged in any direct negotiations with the U.S. — not directly, not through intermediaries. Nothing.

So: Trump says they talked. Iran says they didn’t talk. And when pressed on specifics, Trump insisted negotiations happened as recently as Sunday evening — involving Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner — but couldn’t say with whom they actually spoke.

Jared Kushner. The guy who couldn’t get a security clearance. Back in the Middle East. Allegedly talking to someone. Who may not exist.

This is deal-making: Trump knows he lost, needs a win, so engineers it on Truth Social – Minus any merit whatsoever.

Here’s what we actually know about the last 48 hours.
On Saturday, Trump issued a 48-hour ultimatum to Tehran: reopen the Strait of Hormuz — the chokepoint through which roughly 20% of global oil and gas flows — or face strikes on Iranian power plants.

Iran’s response was not “uncle.”

Iran’s Parliament Speaker said that if the U.S. targeted their power plants, retaliatory strikes could see critical infrastructure and energy facilities across the Middle East “irreversibly destroyed.” Iran’s semi-official Mehr News published a map of Gulf power plants with the headline: “Say goodbye to electricity.”

That’s not a country begging for a deal. That’s a country that just called the bluff.

So Trump folded.

But he couldn’t fold quietly, because Trump can’t do anything quietly, so he wrote 200 words in all-caps about how productive his imaginary meetings were and called Maria Bartiromo — who sprinted to the phone like it was 2019 — to announce that “Iran wants to make a deal badly.”

He also explained that it’s hard to get accurate information out of Iran right now because the U.S. is blowing up so much of their infrastructure, including their TV stations, and they’ve killed a lot of reporters.

He’s using his own war crimes as the alibi for why his fictional peace talks can’t be verified.

Sit with that for a second.

Here’s the strategic reality underneath all this caps-lock theatre.
Operation Epic Fury began February 28, 2026. A large-scale joint U.S.-Israeli offensive targeting Iranian nuclear facilities, missile bases, and senior leadership. Iran retaliated — missile strikes on U.S. military installations across the Gulf, strikes on Israeli cities, and the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz. Oil surged past $126 a barrel. More than 2,000 people are dead across Iran, Lebanon, and Israel.

This morning, before Trump posted, S&P futures were pointing to nearly 1% losses. After the post, they flipped to 1.6% gains. Oil dropped 6.2% in minutes.

That’s it. That’s the whole game.

Post fiction. Move markets. Declare victory. Get out.

Trump’s 48-hour ultimatum expired Monday night Washington time. The Strait of Hormuz is still closed. Iran is still firing — debris from an intercepted missile fell into northern Israel this morning, sirens sounding across the north. Witkoff and Kushner allegedly spoke with “counterparts” whose identities remain undisclosed, in talks that one side says happened and the other says absolutely didn’t.

And somewhere in Mar-a-Lago, a man in a red hat is telling himself he won.

He didn’t win.
He threatened to turn the lights off in Tehran. Tehran threatened to turn the lights off everywhere else — Israel, the Gulf States, every U.S. base in the region. Someone in the room — a general, the intelligence community, allied leaders who’ve been screaming about civilian infrastructure targeting for two weeks — told him that wasn’t a bluff worth calling.

So he called it a negotiation instead.

This is TACO diplomacy in its purest form. Take A Capitulation Out. Dress it in all-caps. Feed it to Bartiromo. Watch the futures tick green.

Four weeks. Billions in destroyed infrastructure. Dozens of embassies. Over 2,000 dead. A global energy crisis. And the off-ramp is a Truth Social post claiming conversations that never happened.

There’s a difference between a man who loses and admits it, and a man who loses and builds a monument to the loss on the bones of men and women in the US military who were maimed or killed during Operation Epstein Fury over the past two weeks.

Five days. LOL. This fucking guy needs to be put in a group home, and America needs to take their country back.

This week, Donald Trump will turn U.S. airports into dystopian hellholes.
Long lines. ICE watchmen. Sudden arrests. Soaring prices. How Donald Trump’s heavy hand will be visible in every terminal.

Miles Taylor
Mar 23

If you travel through an American airport this week, you may not recognize the country you’re in. Just know this: it’s all by design.
Travelers at any major U.S. airport will soon feel like they’ve entered a foreign land. Long lines will snake out the doors. ICE agents will patrol the terminals looking for people to pluck out, arrest, and deport. And soaring ticket prices (in some cases, double or triple what they cost just a month ago) will hit travelers like a gut punch, giving them the kind of economic vertigo more commonly associated with countries suffering from runaway inflation.

All of it will have a single source: Donald Trump.

Indeed, the U.S. airport is about to become the most visible symbol of America’s speedy slide into autocracy.

I’ll start with the lines.

Since February 14th, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has been operating without full congressional funding. Republicans cannot pass a DHS spending bill on their own (a remarkable failure for a party that holds majorities in both the House and Senate). Democrats have refused to supply the necessary votes until the administration agrees to some basic conditions to prevent DHS from becoming the centerpiece of a police state. Basic conditions.

Democrats are not demanding the dismantling of ICE or a reversal of the administration’s immigration agenda, although personally I think they should. In fact, from a legal perspective, their demands sound almost meager. In exchange for their votes to fund DHS, they’re asking that ICE agents identify themselves when making arrests, that people detained be told why they are being arrested, that agents not kick down doors without Fourth Amendment warrants, and that individuals not be disappeared into a shadow network of detention facilities before their families or lawyers can locate them.

In other words, Democrats are insisting that the federal government obey the U.S. Constitution.

The White House has said “no.” Instead, Trump has chosen to make the standoff your problem. That is, if you have any plans to travel through a U.S. airport in the near future, the administration wants you to suffer. By design. The president of the United States is betting that you’ll be willing to forfeit your constitutional rights in frustration rather than deal with long lines at the airport and mounting flight cancellations. Seriously. And unfortunately, he may be right.

Fifty thousand TSA workers — essential employees legally required to show up — have been working without pay for over a month. More than 400 have quit. And travelers at some of the nation’s busiest airports have been told to arrive as much as five hours early. The whole situation is expected to spiral further this coming Friday, March 27, when airport screeners are slated to miss their second paycheck.

All of this is happening on purpose.

The White House is hoping that by the time enough families are stranded in security lines with their luggage and screaming children, they’ll be angry enough to demand that whoever is “blocking” a deal just give in already! “Please,” they’ll shout to their representatives, “give Trump whatever he wants!” And what Trump wants is to keep doing what he’s been doing at DHS, including illegally jailing thousands and thousands of people, including American citizens, residents, visitors, and immigrants.

The White House says it’s going to send DHS agents to the airports to try to alleviate the suffering. But as always, the president let his real intentions slip this weekend.

Trump announced on Truth Social that, starting today, he would deploy ICE agents across U.S. airports to “do security like no one has ever seen before.” This includes patrolling terminals to identify people for “immediate arrest,” he said, if they’re suspected of not having lawful status. He told ICE to “GET READY.”

Anyone who has closed their eyes to the president’s authoritarian crackdown is going to have a hard time keeping them shut if they have travel plans. It’s worth pausing here to note that the U.S. Constitution guarantees Americans the right to travel freely within their own country. It’s not a conditional right. It’s also not a “privilege” extended at the government’s discretion.

Yet this week, the airports through which Americans exercise the right to freely travel will be patrolled by agents that the country has already seen brutally kill their fellow citizens, arrest lawful residents without any due process whatsoever, and disappear people into a secret network of detention facilities being constructed beyond public scrutiny. A year ago, most Americans could not have imagined this is what their country would look like.

But that’s not all.

The planes that U.S. travelers are boarding are fast becoming too expensive to afford, as prices surge and airlines consider scrapping routes altogether. The reason, again, is Trump. His war against Iran, which was launched without congressional authorization and which 92 percent of Americans believe should be ended ASAP, has sent global oil prices into a death spiral. Trump has tried to convince Americans that high prices are actually good for them.

The airport, then, is where all of it converges this week. Terminals are about to become dystopian hellholes, symbolic of everything happening in the United States. Trump’s campaign to assert his power domestically, intimidate the political opposition, transform DHS into his secret police, ignore the law, and launch wars wherever he damn well pleases… will show up in the one place that’s already stressful enough to visit.

More specifically, the long lines are his wager that he can frustrate you into surrendering your constitutional rights. The ICE agents — and the people plucked from the crowd in front of you — will be a reminder of who’s running this country and how the man in charges views his total authority. And the soaring prices will remain his unapologetic tax levied on the world for a war most of them don’t support.

So here’s to hoping that the millions of Spring Breakers who pass through those terminals don’t just bury their heads in the sand when they get to the beach. If they do, they’ll come home without a democracy.

Trump’s European allies are abandoning ship: ‘We cannot be the lap dog of America first.’

Tom Boggioni
March 22, 2026, 2:47PM ET (RAWSTORY)

Far-right politicians across Europe who enthusiastically embraced Donald Trump following his re-election are now rapidly retreating from the relationship, with the Iran conflict and his demands for NATO intervention serving as the breaking point.

According to reporting from the Wall Street Journal’s Bertrand Benoit and Max Colchester, tensions have been building over Trump’s tariff policies—which were struck down by the Supreme Court in a landmark ruling—but the invasion of Iran and subsequent demands that European nations share the military burden have pushed nationalist-minded European lawmakers to openly reconsider their alignment with the American president.

The State Department has actively courted European right-wing parties, channelling grants to think tanks and nongovernmental organizations promoting Trump’s “America First” agenda, including policies on free speech and immigration crackdowns. Initially, these parties welcomed the support and association.

But as Europe absorbs the consequences of U.S. policy decisions, the political calculus has shifted dramatically. European politicians are finding it increasingly difficult to maintain their public gratitude while advancing their own nationalist agendas.

Even longtime Trump confidant Nigel Farage has begun hedging his bets. “Look, he’s a friend of mine. I agree with many things that he does. I don’t agree with other things that he does,” Farage recently admitted, a stark contrast to his previous unqualified support.

Public opinion in Europe has turned decisively against Trump. In the U.K., the vast majority of voters identify as “anti-Trump,” according to YouGov polling. Only a quarter of British and German voters support Trump’s attack on Iran. In France, even right-wing voters hold unfavourable views of the president.

This presents a mounting dilemma for MAGA-aligned parties. As Tim Bale, a politics professor at Queen Mary University of London, explained, politicians like Farage who harbour ambitions for higher office must appeal to a much broader electorate—one that largely abhors Trump.

Criticism from Trump’s European allies intensified around the Greenland episode. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who previously served as a diplomatic bridge between Europe and the U.S., has noticeably cooled her public praise. Her deputy, Matteo Salvini—one of Trump’s most vocal Italian supporters—flatly rejected the president’s requests for European nations to help police the Strait of Hormuz. “Italy isn’t at war with anyone,” Salvini declared.

French far-right leader Marine Le Pen and her protégé Jordan Bardella have escalated their criticism, condemning Trump’s military strikes in Venezuela, though they have remained more cautious regarding the Iran attack, reflecting the party’s strong support for Israel.

Germany presents the starkest rebuke. Senior Alternative for Germany (AfD) lawmaker Peter Felser stated bluntly: “We cannot be the lapdog of an ‘America First’ policy if it destroys German jobs. We must remain a sovereign German party, not just the German branch of the MAGA movement.”

Gerold Otten, an AfD lawmaker and defence expert, characterized Trump’s military actions and contempt for international norms as deeply troubling. “You enter very dangerous territory when you say, ‘I am above the law,'” Otten warned. “On the global stage, saying ‘I’m doing it because I can, because I am powerful’—that leads to the breakdown of civilization, a state where only the law of the jungle remains.”

https://www.rawstory.com/trump-european-allies-2676572846/?u=119b60d179004daa4a11f0327e221740d541b54821cf8fbaf39e7e57f8b9f336&utm_source=Iterable&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Mar.22.2026_7.56pm

“That’s what kids do.” Ex-CIA chief hammers Trump over ‘naive’ oversight

Alexander Willis
March 22, 2026, 3:05PM ET (RAWSTORY)

Leon Panetta, former defence secretary, White House chief of staff, and CIA director, hammered President Donald Trump on Sunday over his handling of the Iran war, telling The Guardian the president was “sending a message of weakness” as he continued to escalate the conflict he initiated.

Panetta specifically criticized Trump for failing to anticipate Iran’s response to U.S. aggression—namely, its move to close the Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping channel, to U.S.-aligned vessels.

“He tends to be naive about how things can happen,” Panetta said, speaking with The Guardian by phone. “If he says it and keeps saying it there’s always a hope that what he says will come true. But that’s what kids do. It’s not what presidents do.”

Given his experience spanning decades as a top official in the federal government, Panetta said it was difficult to comprehend how Trump had failed to predict Iran’s response.

“In every national security council I’ve been a part of where we’ve talked about Iran, that subject always came up,” Panetta said. “For some reason, either they didn’t consider that could be a consequence or they thought the war would end quickly and they wouldn’t have to worry about it. Whatever it was, they were not prepared for it, and they’re now paying a price.”

Panetta also fiercely criticized the assassination of Iran’s previous supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, who was killed in late February in the initial joint strikes from the United States and Israel.

“We replaced an old guy, a supreme leader who was near death at a time when the people of Iran were willing to take to the streets with the hope that they could ultimately change their way of government,” Panetta said.

“And instead today we have a more entrenched regime; we have a younger supreme leader who’s going to be there a while, and he’s much more of a hardliner than the first supreme leader. That didn’t turn out too well.”

https://www.rawstory.com/iran-war-2676572926/?u=119b60d179004daa4a11f0327e221740d541b54821cf8fbaf39e7e57f8b9f336&utm_source=Iterable&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Mar.22.2026_7.56pm

‘Trump is cooked’: Fears of ‘collapse’ spread as war sparks shortage of critical resource

Alexander Willis
March 22, 2026, 9:05AM ET (RAWSTORY)

The United States’ war against Iran has triggered a shortage of a critical resource, one so crucial to the economy that one expert predicted a “horrendous” and imminent “collapse,” while another said that President Donald Trump would bear the blame.

That resource is Helium, which plays a critical role in applications ranging from semiconductor manufacturing to medical equipment. Shortly after Trump first authorized strikes on Iran late last month, Qatar, which supplies a third of the world’s helium, was forced to halt production of the critical resource.

Helium is critical for the function of MRI machines, a technology widely used in medical facilities across the country, including at Walter Reed National Military Medical Centre in Washington, D.C., where Trump received an MRI scan last year that raised questions surrounding his health. It’s also used in the space, defence, and scientific research sectors.

Helium’s applications are so far spread that financial crises and geopolitical expert Tuomas Malinen issued a bleak prediction for what might be in store for the United States in the near future.

“I keep warning you that the collapse will be horrendous,” Malinen wrote in a social media post on X in response to reports of the growing helium shortage.

As for what – or who – will bear the blame for the fallout of a helium shortage, policy analyst Matt Stoller didn’t mince words.

“Stuff is starting to break. “Trump is cooked,” Stoller wrote in a social media post on X. “His base will abandon him.”

And Sara McGee, a Democratic candidate for the Texas House of Representatives, offered her own take on the impact of Trump’s war against Iran.

“There are so many downstream elements to this war that people don’t even know about yet way beyond gas prices,” McGee wrote in a social media post on X. “Donald Trump chose to do this, and Congress chose to let him. Betrayal.”

Despite initiating the war, Trump is reportedly seeking an exit as global stability falters and “tremors” ripple through the world economy. Even so, such an off-ramp may not exist anymore, according to at least one former Trump security advisor, with Iran having vowed to keep fighting in response to the U.S.-Israeli attack.

https://www.rawstory.com/iran-war-2676572005/?utm_source=Iterable&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Mar.22.2026_7.56pm

Pete Hegseth’s attempt to drum up support for Iran war immediately blows up in his face

Alexander Willis
March 22, 2026, 10:19AM ET (RAWSTORY)

Amid the ongoing Iran war, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth shared a video on social media Friday of a U.S. servicemember urging fellow servicemembers to be “combat ready” and ready for deployment, but over the weekend, the post soon backfired after critics pointed out it was five years old and featured a retired Marine who had been relieved of duty amid controversy.

Hegseth shared the video without context, leading onlookers to assume that the U.S. servicemember was speaking about the need to be “combat ready” as it relates to the Trump administration’s war against Iran. On Saturday, however, political commentator Micah Erfan revealed the context around the video, context that appeared to undercut Hegseth’s apparent effort to drum up support for war.

“This video is 5 years old and the guy in it was caught breaking into someone’s home,” Erfan wrote to his more than 57,000 followers on X.

The video shared by Hegseth features Christian Bull, a former sergeant major in the U.S. Marine Corps who enlisted in 1998. A former drill instructor in San Diego, California, Bull was relieved from duty due to “loss of confidence in his ability to lead” after being captured on video rummaging through a subordinate Marine’s home.

Bull was reportedly conducting a wellness check on his subordinate—Juan Gamez-Alzate—after he had not shown up for duty. However, Gamez-Alzate’s absence was due to an arrest over a traffic violation, which he claimed he had informed his sergeant major of.

“The Marine Corps aircraft group was notified that I was under custody, so why is [Bull] doing a welfare check when he knows that I’m in custody,” Gamez-Alzate said, the military digital media outlet Task & Purpose reported.

Hegseth having shared the video without context, however, led to an onslaught of ridicule from critics of all stripes.

“Too much alcohol has rotted your brain,” wrote Setareh Sadeqi, an Iranian professor and political commentator, in a social media post on X.

“You’re a drunkard buffoon,” wrote
author and activist Amy Siskind to their more than 446,000 followers on X.

https://www.rawstory.com/pete-hegseth-2676572340/?utm_source=Iterable&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Mar.22.2026_7.56pm

Trump launches into mid-morning incoherent freak-out over ‘total racist.’ Gavin Newsom

Alexander Willis
March 22, 2026, 11:01 AM ET (RAWSTORY)

President Donald Trump lashed out at California Gov. Gavin Newsom Sunday as a “total racist” in a lengthy and confusing rant against several Democratic figures.

Trump’s attack on Newsom was in reference to remarks the California governor made last month to a predominantly Black audience in Atlanta, Georgia, telling them he was “like you” due to scoring below average on a standardized college admissions test.

“Gavin Newscum who admitted that he suffers from mental incapacity, is unable to read a speech, and is dumb but, in saying ‘the dumb comment,’ referred to his audience, and therefore became, in the eyes of African Americans, A TOTAL RACIST — which is probably true!” Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social.

“Gavin admits that he’s a Low IQ individual, which typically is not good for winning the Presidency. His interview may have been the worst ever given by a ‘professional’ politician. I believe, it takes him OUT OF THE RACE. Kamala [Harris] is back!”

Trump also went on to attack James Talarico, the Democratic Texas state representative and Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate. Talarico defeated Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) in his bid for Senate.

“The Democrat running in Texas, James Talarico, turns out to be a FRAUD! It showed after the Election when he beat Low IQ Candidate Jasmine Crockett (No relation to Davy Crockett!),” Trump continued.

“He’s got six Genders, insults to Jesus, only vegan food, was wearing a mask in 2023 and 2024, and is a weak, ineffective guy who we ‘allowed’ to win prior to releasing the avalanche of information we had on him because, as bad as Crockett was as a Candidate, this guy is worse! I believe that any human being running against him, sick, incompetent, close to death or, even a child, would win.”

https://www.rawstory.com/trump-2676572416/?u=119b60d179004daa4a11f0327e221740d541b54821cf8fbaf39e7e57f8b9f336&utm_source=Iterable&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Mar.22.2026_7.56pm

Controversial MAGA Senator clears first hurdle to becoming next DHS chief: report

Robert Davis
March 22, 2026, 3:20PM ET (RAWSTORY)

A controversial MAGA senator cleared his first hurdle toward becoming the next Department of Homeland Security secretary on Sunday, according to a new report.

Bloomberg reported that Senators voted 54-37 to advance Sen. Markwayne Mullin’s (R-OK) nomination in a procedural vote, which the outlet noted appears to signal that the former MMA fighter has enough support to be confirmed as the next DHS secretary. The vote happened just a few days after the contentious hearing that Mullin had in the Senate Homeland Security Committee, where he was confronted by Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) about his previous comments supporting an attacker who injured Paul.

The vote also happened at a time when Democrats are refusing to support a bill to reopen part of DHS that has been shut down for more than a month. The shutdown has disrupted operations at the Transportation Security Administration, causing security lines to grow at airports across the country.

President Donald Trump has threatened to deploy ICE agents to airports to address the growing security lines. He wrote on Truth Social that he is prepared to deploy the agents as soon as Monday.

Democrats have said they want to secure reforms to Immigration and Customs Enforcement after agents shot and killed two U.S. citizens during a recent surge in Minneapolis, Minnesota. However, the Trump administration has been hesitant, at best, to reform the agency.

https://www.rawstory.com/markwayne-mullin-2676572939/?u=119b60d179004daa4a11f0327e221740d541b54821cf8fbaf39e7e57f8b9f336&utm_source=Iterable&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Mar.22.2026_7.56pm

Trump’s blistering ultimatum over the Strait of Hormuz astonishes analysts

Robert Davis
March 21, 2026, 8:44 PM ET (RAWSTORY)

President Donald Trump issued a blistering ultimatum to the Iranian regime on Saturday night, one that raised the eyebrows of multiple political analysts and observers.

Trump posted on Truth Social that Iran has 48 hours to reopen the Strait of Hormuz or else the U.S. will strike multiple energy plants in the country. He made the threat as global energy prices continued to climb from the regime’s effective blockade of the Strait of Hormuz for U.S. ships.

“If Iran doesn’t FULLY OPEN, WITHOUT THREAT, the Strait of Hormuz within 48 HOURS from this exact point in time, the United States of America will hit and obliterate their various POWER PLANTS, STARTING WITH THE BIGGEST ONE FIRST!” Trump wrote.

Over the last week, multiple power plants and energy fields in Iran have been struck by Israeli forces. The strikes became such a problem for the Trump administration that Trump demanded Israel stop striking Iran without telling the U.S. first. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has suggested that the Trump administration has been made aware of Israeli operations.

“I’m old enough to remember when he said the U.S. doesn’t care because we don’t even use the Strait of Hormuz. It was, like, yesterday,” space archaeologist Justin Walsh posted on Bluesky.

“We’re not even a month into this war yet, and he’s already threatening to commit war crimes on Main,” journalist Matt Novak posted on Bluesky.

“Such a move would disproportionately harm civilians, something the regime has made clear it cares little about,” journalist Yashar Ali posted on X.

“From claiming the war is ‘winding down’ to threatening a new act of terror against a country of 90 million people,” journalist Aaron Maté posted on X.

https://www.rawstory.com/trump-iran-2676541232/?u=119b60d179004daa4a11f0327e221740d541b54821cf8fbaf39e7e57f8b9f336&utm_source=Iterable&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Mar.22.2026_7.56pm