I somehow ended up on a press list for a person named Liz Huston, who calls herself the regional press secretary for the Trump White House, and it’s fun, in an Orwellian way, when I happen upon her emails in my spam folder, which is where they go, for obvious reasons.
Today’s fun: a statement from White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, about gas prices jumping the $4-per-gallon mark.
“When Operation Epic Fury is complete, gas prices will plummet back to the multi-year lows American drivers enjoyed before these short-term disruptions,” said Leavitt, citing “multi-year lows” that dated back actually only about four years, to Year 1 of the Biden administration, prior to Friend of the Trump Administration Vladimir Putin invading Ukraine.
“Multi.”
“President Trump remains committed to fully unleashing American energy dominance, lowering costs, and putting more money back in the pockets of hardworking American families,” Leavitt said.
Main problem with this: Operation Epic Fury was supposedly “complete” a couple of days into the operation, when Trump declared victory.
And again a week in, when he declared victory again.
Rinse, repeat.
I know that he’s now advancing the idea that some sort of “negotiations” with the Iranians are ongoing, which seems odd – that we would need to negotiate with the leaders of a country that we’ve already defeated in a war.
Historically, when one side defeats the other in a war, the losing side isn’t still blocking ships from getting through a narrow strait, or unleashing missile and drone attacks on the winning side’s targets – because, you know, they’ve lost.
Anyway, now we’re hearing that Trump’s inner circle is conceding amongst its own ranks that we may have accept that the new status quo with the Strait of Hormuz, that Iran will be the gatekeeper, and that if Western countries want access, they’ll to have to answer three questions and then pay a toll.
So, yes, let’s count down the days until Operation Epic Fury is “complete,” which we’ve already been told numerous times is the case.
I bet those tolls make it hard to achieve the aims of “lowering costs” and “putting more money back in the pockets of hardworking American families.”
Unless those “hardworking American families” happen to own oil companie.
Hey, at least somebody is making bank out of this nonsense.