The American Conservative Morning Briefing

Good morning! Today is Friday, September 18th 2026, and this is The American Conservative's Morning Brief. W. James Antle III examines Trump's high-risk midterm strategy of putting himself at the center of the campaign, and warns that the very voters he's trying to activate may be the ones most alienated by the Iran war, the Epstein files, and a focus on legacy projects over affordability. As the Iran war reaches its 202nd day, Trump tells Axios he faces a "big decision" on whether to further escalate, while UN-commissioned investigators cite reasonable grounds to suspect U.S. war crimes, including a March strike on an Iranian girls' school that reportedly killed 168 civilians. Houthi forces press new gains along Yemen's Red Sea coast and toward its eastern oil and gas fields, as the national average gasoline price climbs to four dollars and forty-four cents per gallon. and now for the details. We begin with the state of the midterm campaign. President Trump has taken center stage at an unprecedented midterm convention, is spending heavily from his war chest to boost Republican candidates, and is starring in campaign ads himself. Vice President J.D. Vance is expected to be a regular presence on the trail as well. As W. James Antle III writes, there is a real logic to this strategy: anti-Trump voters turn out in droves whether or not the president is on the ballot, while many voters who like Trump personally don't bother to show up when they can't cast a ballot for him. Trump's presence is an attempt to neutralize that inherent Democratic advantage. But Antle notes that the strategy may be running into trouble. The latest New York Times/Siena poll shows Republicans outrunning Trump's job approval rating on issues like the economy and cost of living. And the low-propensity voters Trump is trying to activate may be precisely the part of his coalition most alienated by the Iran war and by the handling of the Epstein files. Outgoing Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana told the Dispatch that the president started a war he promised would last four weeks and is now in its fourth month, driving up gas, diesel, and fertilizer prices. Antle observes that Trump has increasingly turned his focus to legacy projects—the Middle East, the new AI economy, and international trade—rather than affordability. Pushing the AI boom, pressuring the Federal Reserve on rates before inflation is contained, and promoting reshoring over low prices all reflect priorities that in some cases run opposite to those of his voters. Antle concludes that Trump has fixes for the Republicans' problems, except for the ones most directly of his making. Turning to the Iran war, now in its two hundred and second day. President Trump told Axios on Thursday that he is approaching a major crossroads in the conflict. In his words, "I have a big decision coming up. Do I want to go in and annihilate Iran or do I not? It's a big decision. Anything could happen with me." Trump has recently suggested the conflict could end shortly after the November midterm elections, though it is unclear whether the contemplated escalation would change that timeframe. As Luke Nicastro reports, investigators commissioned by the United Nations said Thursday there are reasonable grounds to suspect the U.S. military committed war crimes during strikes on Iran, including a March attack on a girls' school in Minab that reportedly killed 168 civilians. The same investigators found that the Iranian government engaged in gross human rights violations and crimes against humanity during the repression of anti-regime protests in 2025 and early 2026. Their formal report is expected before the UN Human Rights Council on Monday. Meanwhile in Yemen, Houthi rebels have made major gains on the Red Sea coast and now appear to be threatening the country's eastern region, which hosts large oil and gas fields, in continued fighting with Saudi-backed government forces. AAA reports the average price of regular gasoline in the United States now stands at four dollars and forty-four cents per gallon. Those are today's highlights. For the full stories and more, visit theamericanconservative.com. Thank you for starting your morning with us.

Good morning! Today is Thursday, September 17th 2026, and this is The American Conservative's Morning Brief. Ann Coulter argues that the AI industry's loudest doomsayers — from Anthropic's Dario Amodei to OpenAI's Sam Altman — are running a decades-old playbook in which incumbents beg for regulation to smother their smaller competitors. Secretary of State Marco Rubio wraps up his third South America tour, courting a new class of right-leaning governments in Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru with minerals deals, nuclear cooperation, and cartel crackdowns. Joseph Addington reports that with U.S. military attention stretched thin abroad, rewarding willing hemispheric allies has become Washington's most efficient path to progress on crime, drugs, and migration. and now for the details. We begin this morning with the fight over artificial intelligence regulation, and a pointed argument from Ann Coulter about who really benefits when Washington steps in. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman have been leading a chorus of warnings that AI poses an existential threat to humanity, with figures like Barack Obama and Pete Buttigieg echoing calls for sweeping federal rules. A former Anthropic employee, Jacob Coxon, has taken to the airwaves warning that AI could, in his words, "kill us all." As Coulter reports, this catastrophizing follows a well-worn pattern first identified by Nobel laureate economist George Stigler more than fifty years ago: large incumbents love regulation because compliance costs act as a moat, blocking smaller competitors from entering the market. She traces the same script through the old airline cartel, the licensed taxi industry's war on ride-sharing, and Philip Morris's lobbying for the tobacco control law that became known as the "Marlboro Monopoly Act." Coulter notes that American tech has generated some thirty trillion dollars in value over the last fifty years, roughly seventy times what heavily regulated Europe managed, largely because Silicon Valley grew up unregulated. She also points out that Coxon spent three years at OpenAI before his brief stint at Anthropic, and that his vested equity could be worth tens of millions when OpenAI goes public next year — a detail she says interviewers have curiously failed to raise. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has wrapped up his third tour of South America, working to solidify ties with a new generation of right-leaning governments across the hemisphere. Since 2024, conservative governments have come to power in Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, and Honduras, several with President Trump's explicit endorsement. As Joseph Addington reports, the centerpiece of the trip was Colombia, where newly elected President Abelardo de la Espriella — an American citizen who campaigned on strengthening ties with Washington — has joined the administration's hemispheric security coalition, the Shield of the Americas. Rubio arrived bearing a critical-minerals agreement aimed at reducing U.S. dependence on Chinese supply chains, along with a memorandum of cooperation on a civilian nuclear program for Colombia. In Ecuador, which now suffers one of the world's highest murder rates as cartels overrun its ports, Rubio announced a ten-million-dollar initiative against gang recruitment and money laundering, designated the cartel Los Tiguerones as a foreign terrorist organization, and pledged Coast Guard cutters and interceptor vessels for drug interdiction. The tour concluded in Peru, where new President Keiko Fujimori announced her country would also join the Shield of the Americas. Addington argues that at a moment when American military resources are stretched thin elsewhere, rewarding voluntary allies in the Western Hemisphere is an efficient way to advance shared priorities on crime, drugs, and migration. Those are today's highlights. For the full stories and more, visit theamericanconservative.com. Thank you for starting your morning with us.

Good morning! Today is Wednesday, September 16th 2026, and this is The American Conservative's Morning Brief. Zelensky grows increasingly isolated as anti-corruption probes close in on his inner circle, prompting a purge of top generals, sanctions against a former press secretary turned peace advocate, and the theatrical ouster of a scandal-tainted prosecutor general. The Iran War hits day two hundred with Foreign Minister Araghchi heading to Beijing, a Pentagon inspector general report flagging munitions shortfalls, and diesel hitting a record six dollars and twenty-seven cents a gallon. Congressman Thomas Massie forces a House vote on articles of impeachment against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over unauthorized military operations in Iran, putting vulnerable Republicans in a political bind. and now for the details. We begin in Ukraine, where President Volodymyr Zelensky is increasingly isolated as corruption scandals close in around his government, and Western support shows signs of cracking. In recent weeks Zelensky has sacked his defense minister, his commander-in-chief, and the chief of his general staff. This past Sunday, he slapped sanctions on his own former press secretary, Iulia Mendel, who had become a prominent voice calling for peace. And on Monday, he publicly ousted his prosecutor general, Ruslan Kravchenko, who was already under scrutiny after anti-corruption investigators raided his office and uncovered a scheme involving racketeering and money laundering. As Andrew Day reports for The American Conservative, the anti-corruption inquiries are creeping closer and closer to Zelensky himself. Day spoke with analyst Balazs Jarabik of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, who suspects Zelensky orchestrated Kravchenko's departure as political theater—allowing him to leave the country in an official car in exchange for signing a last-minute notice of suspicion against the head of one of the very anti-corruption watchdogs investigating him. Meanwhile, President Trump has publicly told Zelensky to stop striking Russian oil refineries, envoy Jared Kushner has blamed Kyiv for the lack of diplomatic progress, and the European Union has postponed a deadline for extending sanctions against Russia. Ukraine also faces a twenty-seven billion dollar budget shortfall heading into what promises to be a brutal winter of Russian air attacks. As Jarabik told Day, "This is the tragedy of Zelensky, in the end. He remains alone, he has no team left." Turning to the Iran War, which today marks its two-hundredth day. Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi travels to Beijing on Wednesday, after Chinese President Xi Jinping offered over the weekend to help mediate the conflict. But as Jude Russo reports, a diplomatic resolution still looks distant. Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran's National Security Council, dismissed President Trump's suggestion that talks could be imminent, writing that there would be "no talks until Iran's conditions are met." The Pentagon's inspector general has released its first report to Congress on the war, covering April through June. The report found that munitions expenditure in Operation Epic Fury has, in its words, "resulted in strategic inventory shortfalls and revealed industrial base bottlenecks for munitions resupply." It also flagged difficulties in securing naval basing in the Persian Gulf and the strain of relying on Diego Garcia for logistics. Bloomberg reports the UK government is weighing intervention to help Saudi Arabia against Yemen's Houthis, who have made significant gains on the Red Sea coast. Combined with pro-Iran Iraqi militia strikes on the Saudi East-West Pipeline, energy markets are feeling the pressure. Brent crude opened Tuesday at one hundred six dollars a barrel. AAA reports the national average at four dollars and thirty-three cents for regular gasoline and a new all-time record of six dollars and twenty-seven cents for diesel. On Capitol Hill, Republican Congressman Thomas Massie of Kentucky introduced articles of impeachment Tuesday against Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, accusing him of high crimes and misdemeanors over the continued military operations in Iran without congressional authorization. As Spencer Neale reports, Massie introduced the measure as privileged, meaning the House will be forced to take up the resolution—though it is unlikely to pass in the Trump-controlled chamber. The maneuver will put Republican lawmakers on the record over Hegseth's handling of the war. Neale notes the vote could pose a difficult political choice for Republicans such as Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania and Tom Barrett of Michigan, both of whom have joined Democrats and Massie in voting for recent measures to curb the president's war powers, and both of whom face competitive reelection contests in November. Massie himself lost his Republican primary in May to a Trump-backed challenger for whom Hegseth had campaigned. Those are today's highlights. For the full st

Good morning! Today is Tuesday, September 15th 2026, and this is The American Conservative's Morning Brief. President Trump's recent broadsides against British sovereignty over the Falklands and Northern Ireland have alienated even his staunchest allies on the British right, with Nigel Farage, Kemi Badenoch, and Rupert Lowe all publicly breaking with him. Charlie Nash argues there is a profound irony in a supposedly nationalist administration failing to understand the nationalism of its closest ally, risking permanent damage to a partnership no transactional alliance can replace. On day 199 of the Iran War, Trump floated a permanent American claim on Iranian oil while signaling openness to negotiations, as Brent crude opened at 108 dollars a barrel and diesel hit a record 6 dollars and 23 cents per gallon. and now for the details. We begin this morning across the Atlantic, where the special relationship between Britain and the United States is under significant strain. In recent weeks, President Trump has issued a series of statements that have alienated even his staunchest British allies. The president suggested the United States would not necessarily come to Britain's aid should Argentina again move on the Falkland Islands, a remark that emboldened Argentine President Javier Milei to escalate Buenos Aires's sovereignty campaign and threaten sanctions against companies operating in the islands. Days later, Trump said he would like to see Northern Ireland severed from the United Kingdom and unified with the Republic of Ireland, calling it something that would be, in his words, a great feather in everybody's cap. The response from Britain's right was swift. Restore Britain leader Rupert Lowe called the remarks unacceptable and insulting. Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch declared the Falklands British regardless of what Trump says. Reform UK's Nigel Farage, who campaigned onstage for Trump in both 2016 and 2020, publicly broke with the president, saying the people of Northern Ireland neither want a referendum nor unification. Tensions rose further after reports that the Trump administration used U.S. Marines to remove an alleged pedophile diplomat from the London embassy, and news that Washington plans to sell Black Hawk helicopters to Argentina. As Charlie Nash writes in The American Conservative, there is a profound irony in a supposedly nationalist administration failing to understand the nationalism of its closest ally. Nash argues that just as Britain is rediscovering the importance of national sovereignty, the Trump administration risks permanent damage to a partnership that no transactional alliance can replace, a relationship rooted in shared institutions, language, military tradition, and cultural inheritance. Turning to the Iran War, now in its 199th day. President Trump told reporters during his visit to Ireland on Sunday that the United States would consider a permanent interest in Iran's oil industry. In his words, we'll ultimately get out unless we decide to stay and keep the oil, like Venezuela. The president again predicted the war would wind down after the American midterm elections, at which point, he said, oil prices would come tumbling down. Trump also reiterated that he would not intervene in the conflict between Saudi Arabia and Yemen's Houthis, who made significant territorial gains against the internationally recognized Yemeni government last week, increasing their ability to threaten Red Sea shipping. On Tuesday morning, Trump said in a social media post that he was open to the concept of negotiating with what he called the failing Nation of Iran. Meanwhile, a planned meeting on the future of the Strait of Hormuz between the Gulf nations and Iran was postponed. Jude Russo reports that Brent crude opened Monday at 108 dollars per barrel, with AAA reporting a national average of 4 dollars and 32 cents for regular gasoline, and a new all-time record of 6 dollars and 23 cents per gallon of diesel. Those are today's highlights. For the full stories and more, visit theamericanconservative.com. Thank you for starting your morning with us.

Good morning! Today is Monday, September 14th 2026, and this is The American Conservative's Morning Brief. On day 198 of the Iran war, Xi Jinping offers Beijing's "due role" in Middle East peace at the BRICS summit, even as U.S. officials accuse Chinese entities of feeding Tehran satellite imagery used in a deadly strike on American troops in Jordan. A vessel struck in the Strait of Hormuz and today's Iran-Gulf talks in Oman underscore how fragile the world's most vital energy chokepoint has become ahead of the September 24 Trump-Xi meeting. From a Copenhagen coffee shop, Peter Van Buren contrasts the ghoulish arithmetic of American retirement with a Danish system whose modestly higher taxes buy something Americans rarely know: the absence of constant financial fear. and now for the details. We begin with the ongoing war with Iran, now in its 198th day, and growing signs that China is drawing closer to the conflict. Speaking at the BRICS summit in New Delhi over the weekend, Chinese President Xi Jinping said Beijing is willing to play what he called its "due role" in helping bring peace to the Middle East, warning that the war has caused serious losses across the region. Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian and Russia's Vladimir Putin were also in attendance, with the eleven-country bloc issuing a joint statement urging restraint and criticizing sanctions not authorized by the United Nations. But as Andrew Day reports, Washington is also seeing fresh evidence that Beijing has been quietly assisting Iran's war effort. Citing U.S. officials, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday that Chinese entities provided Tehran with high-resolution satellite imagery of an American Air Force base in Jordan ahead of a deadly attack that killed three American troops and wounded four more. Beijing denies the allegation. The revelations come just ahead of a scheduled White House meeting between Xi and President Trump on September 24. Meanwhile, an Iranian commercial vessel was struck in the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday, leaving one dead and four wounded. Iran and Gulf states are set to meet in Oman today to discuss the strait, a chokepoint for global energy trade that Tehran effectively closed at the outset of the war. Turning to matters closer to the American kitchen table, a dispatch from Copenhagen raises hard questions about the anxieties that shadow ordinary American life. Peter Van Buren writes from a Danish coffee shop, where he found himself calculating whether his retirement savings would outlast him, weighing nursing home costs, inflation, and the solvency of Social Security and Medicare. Looking around the room, he realized none of the Danes near him carried that same weight. Every Dane, he notes, receives universal healthcare, free public schools and universities, pensions, generous unemployment insurance, subsidized child care, and near cost-free elder care. Van Buren describes trying to explain the American healthcare maze, with its HMOs, PPOs, deductibles, IRMAA surcharges, and Medicare Parts A through D, to Danes who laughed in disbelief. He walks through the ghoulish calculations Americans make about when to claim Social Security or whether to leave a pension for a surviving spouse. According to OECD figures Van Buren cites, the average American tax wedge sits at about 30 percent; the Danish figure is 36 percent, but in exchange Danes receive comprehensive benefits and five or more weeks of paid vacation. Van Buren's argument is not a call to import Scandinavia wholesale, but a challenge to a system that, he writes, places so much emphasis on making the right private choices or personally suffering the consequences, while delivering comparatively little for what Americans already pay. What he envied in Copenhagen, he concludes, was not the architecture or the bicycles, but the absence of constant financial fear. Those are today's highlights. For the full stories and more, visit theamericanconservative.com. Thank you for starting your morning with us.

Good morning! Today is Sunday, September 13th 2026, and this is The American Conservative's Morning Brief. Amid record-low approval for President Trump's foreign policy, Luke Nicastro argues the administration has quietly succeeded in the Indo-Pacific, pursuing strategic stability with China through realism, rapprochement, and Elbridge Colby's balance of denial defense and active diplomacy. As the Iran War enters its 197th day, Trump has rebuffed Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's push for strikes on the Houthis, even as the Iran-backed group seizes strategic territory near the Bab al-Mandab Strait and gasoline prices climb to $4.31 a gallon. and now for the details. We begin with a look at one bright spot in an otherwise troubled foreign policy landscape. A Quinnipiac poll released last week found just 33 percent of Americans approve of President Trump's handling of foreign affairs, the worst figure of either term. More than six months of war with Iran, a spiraling trade fight with Canada, ongoing bloodshed in Ukraine, and a hardening posture in Latin America have all taken their toll. But writing for The American Conservative, Luke Nicastro argues there is one region where the administration has quietly succeeded, and that is the Indo-Pacific. Nicastro reports that the White House is pursuing what its National Defense Strategy calls a "decent peace" with China, deemphasizing security provocations, expanding military-to-military dialogue, and shifting the frame of the relationship toward economics. He credits Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby, a committed realist, with balancing diplomatic engagement against a strong denial defense along the first island chain. Jennifer Kavanagh of Defense Priorities told Nicastro that Trump has made "very positive moves" by prioritizing stability over confrontation. A tariff truce is holding, and Xi Jinping is expected to visit the United States later this month. Not everyone is satisfied. The New York Times editorial board has accused the president of going wobbly. And analysts Nicastro spoke with warn that 80,000 U.S. troops near China's shores may still preclude lasting stability, and that a future administration may reverse course on Taiwan. Still, Nicastro concludes, the approach marks a dramatic improvement, rooted in Trump's willingness to treat Beijing as a geopolitical peer with legitimate interests. Turning to the Middle East, the Iran War has entered its 197th day. Andrew Day reports that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, in two phone calls Thursday, urged President Trump to launch strikes against the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen. According to Axios, Trump declined, though the commander of U.S. Central Command traveled to Saudi Arabia for meetings. Speaking to reporters Saturday, Trump said the Houthis "called us, and they don't want to fight with us," and offered assurances that things will "work out fine and dandy." The stakes on the ground are rising. Day reports that the Houthis have seized strategic territory near the Bab al-Mandab Strait, a critical chokepoint for global trade and energy. With Iran already restricting traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, Houthi control of the Bab al-Mandab would give Tehran additional leverage. The Saudi Energy Ministry has also shut down its East-West oil pipeline after drone attacks launched from Iraq. Gulf Arab states are set to meet with Iran in Oman on Monday to discuss the Hormuz situation. Meanwhile, in a September 11th commemoration ceremony, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth linked the terror attacks to the ongoing war, vowing that "we will finish this fight." The cost at home is measurable at the pump. The average price of gasoline in America stood at $4.31 per gallon Saturday, up from $2.98 before the war began. Those are today's highlights. For the full stories and more, visit theamericanconservative.com. Thank you for starting your morning with us.

Good morning! Today is Saturday, September 12th 2026, and this is The American Conservative's Morning Brief. Houthi forces seized Perim Island and the port of Mokha, giving the Iran-aligned militia effective control of Yemen's entire Red Sea coastline as the war with Iran enters its 196th day. U.S. diesel prices hit a record $6.06 a gallon and August inflation climbed to 3.4 percent, with energy costs from the Iran war rippling through farms, freight, and the Fed's next rate decision. Jude Russo argues a congressional commission on the Iran war could give both parties political cover to reopen the question of executive war powers and revive constitutional government. and now for the details. We begin with the war against Iran, now in its one hundred and ninety-sixth day. Yemen's Houthi rebels seized Perim Island in the Red Sea on Friday, expanding their control over the Bab el-Mandeb strait. That capture came a day after the Iran-aligned militia took the port city of Mokha from forces loyal to Yemen's internationally recognized government. According to reporting compiled by Luke Nicastro, the Houthis now hold functional control over Yemen's entire Red Sea coastline, raising fears they could throttle shipping through the waterway and drive oil prices higher still. The advance poses particular problems for Saudi Arabia, which exports much of its oil through the Red Sea. The Houthis have also struck Saudi oil infrastructure in recent days, including possible strikes that shut down the Kingdom's East-West pipeline on Friday. CNN reported that more than 100 U.S. military advisors are on the ground in Saudi Arabia providing intelligence and targeting support. Iran, for its part, called Friday for an end to the Saudi blockade of Houthi-held areas and a return to negotiations. Elsewhere, Israel demolished what it called a large Hezbollah facility in southern Lebanon, triggering a 4.1 magnitude earthquake. At home, President Trump attended a ceremony at the Pentagon marking the 25th anniversary of 9/11 and directly tied those attacks to the current war with Iran. Nicastro also notes that the New York Times reported Vice President J.D. Vance has independently sought out military commanders' unvarnished assessments of the war's goals, tactics, and likely trajectory. Brent crude closed Friday just above $100 a barrel. The costs of that war are showing up at the pump. U.S. diesel prices hit a record high Friday, reaching $6.06 a gallon, according to the motorist group AAA. That's up from $5.98 a day earlier and $5.85 a week ago. As Spencer Neale reports, the Iran war is the biggest factor in the surge, as crude oil traffic through the Strait of Hormuz remains limited. Energy analyst Rory Johnston told the Financial Times, quote, "This has been not a spike but a sustained grind higher. We don't really have anywhere near enough diesel on the market." Farmers and the broader agriculture sector are feeling the brunt of the increase—diesel powers combines, tractors, and irrigation equipment. Delivery-dependent businesses are also passing higher freight costs on to consumers. Speaking at the Republican midterm convention in Dallas on Wednesday, President Trump argued the pain is worth it, saying oil "will be going down as soon as we win the war with Iran." Those energy costs are bleeding through into the broader inflation picture. Spencer Neale also reports that the Consumer Price Index rose 0.4 percent in August, putting annual inflation at 3.4 percent, according to new figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Core prices, stripping out food and energy, rose 0.3 percent. Gasoline prices surged 3.9 percent for the month and accounted for more than a third of the overall increase, while the broader energy index climbed 2.1 percent as the Iran war continues to roil markets. Grocery prices held largely flat, and shelter costs rose 0.3 percent. The report is the last major inflation reading the Federal Reserve will see before its policy meeting next week, where officials will weigh whether to raise interest rates for the first time in three years. Despite the uncertainty, the Dow, S&P 500, and Nasdaq all opened higher on Friday. Those are today's highlights. For the full stories and more, visit theamericanconservative.com. Thank you for starting your morning with us.

Good morning! Today is Friday, September 11th 2026, and this is The American Conservative's Morning Brief. On day 195 of the Iran War, Trump promises the fighting ends after the midterms while his own top advisors privately warn it could drag past Inauguration Day, even as Iranian strikes damage American aircraft in Jordan and the Houthis seize a strategic Red Sea port. At the first-ever midterm convention, Trump dangles a five-thousand-dollar dividend to voters, but Jude Russo argues the showmanship can't mask rising prices, tightening credit, and a president who may already sense the majority slipping away. Andrew Day reports from Germany, where the AfD's forty-four percent landslide in Saxony-Anhalt has shattered the postwar taboo that long capped the right, exposing a liberal establishment increasingly reliant on surveillance and coalition blockades to hold back the popular will. and now for the details. We begin with day one hundred ninety-five of the Iran War. President Trump told reporters Wednesday that the conflict will end right after November's midterm elections, saying the Iranians, quote, can't hold out any longer. He repeated the claim at the Republican convention in Dallas, arguing Tehran is hanging on hoping Democrats prevail. But on the same day, the Wall Street Journal reported that Vice President J.D. Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and other senior officials have warned the president privately that the war could drag on through the rest of his term, potentially past Inauguration Day in January 2029. As Luke Nicastro reports for The American Conservative, Iran's Tuesday strike on a U.S. airbase in Jordan appears to have damaged aircraft and possibly injured American troops. Officials confirmed no fatalities, but said some servicemembers may have suffered traumatic brain injuries. One A-10 reportedly had a wing blown off, and eight F-15s sustained lighter damage. Meanwhile, Yemen's Houthi militia has captured the strategic Red Sea port of Mokha, a development that could strengthen their ability to threaten energy shipments through the Bab el-Mandeb waterway. The average price of regular gasoline in the United States now stands at four dollars and twenty-eight cents a gallon. President Trump took the stage Wednesday night in Dallas at the first-ever midterm convention held by either major party. He was, by all accounts, in fine form: discursive, wisecracking, and good-humored. The centerpiece of the speech was a promise of a five thousand dollar Trump dividend for every American adult, should Republicans win both chambers in November. Jude Russo, writing for The American Conservative, argues the performance was a refreshing return to classic Trump, but raises harder questions beneath the showmanship. Russo notes that Trump leaned on real Republican strengths, the stock market, border enforcement, Democratic disarray on identity politics, but struggled to paper over serious headwinds. Selling the Iran War after Americans are already feeling the economic pain is difficult rhetoric. Mocking Democratic appeals to affordability rings hollow when prices are still rising and credit is tightening. As for the five thousand dollar dividend, Russo observes that such a payout would be stupendously expensive at a moment when Treasury yields are climbing into rarefied territory. The only reason to make such a promise, he suggests, is if you don't really expect to have to deliver on it. Russo's conclusion: Trump himself seemed to know Wednesday night that the midterms may already be slipping away, and chose instead to enjoy the adulation of the crowd. To Germany now, where the Alternative for Germany party, the AfD, has won a stunning victory in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt, taking forty-four percent of the vote. The center-right Christian Democrats finished a distant second at seventeen percent. Andrew Day, reporting for The American Conservative, spoke with Filip Gaspar, a political advisor and AfD member, who called it the most significant German election since the fall of the Berlin Wall. Day argues the result marks a genuine breakdown of postwar liberal mythology. For decades, invoking the memory of National Socialism has functioned as a ceiling on right-wing support in Germany. That ceiling appears to be cracking. Day notes the German domestic intelligence agency last year designated the AfD a right-wing extremist party, enabling surveillance and the placement of informants. Since then, the AfD has only grown more popular, becoming the leading party nationally. Chancellor Friedrich Merz reiterated on the eve of the vote that his CDU would never form a coalition with the AfD, invoking Germany's historical responsibility and denouncing the party's remigration policy as ethnic cleansing. Day's argument is that opposition to mass migration, not economic anxiety, is the true engine of the European right, and that voters in the former East, long accustomed to state-imposed ideology, are pr

Good morning! Today is Thursday, September 10th 2026, and this is The American Conservative's Morning Brief. In Germany, the AfD's landslide 44 percent victory in Saxony-Anhalt has thrown Chancellor Friedrich Merz's Christian Democrats into crisis, with Phillip Linderman arguing the surge reflects the simple fact that Germany no longer has an authentically conservative party. As European capitals warn of Russian hybrid attacks on NATO soil and pundits urge tougher retaliation, Doug Bandow argues that deepening allied involvement in Ukraine would only push Putin to escalate, and that putting America first means steering clear of a wider war with Russia. and now for the details. We begin in Germany, where Sunday's state election in Saxony-Anhalt has delivered a political earthquake. The Alternative for Germany, or AfD, took a commanding 44 percent of the vote, doubling its share since Chancellor Friedrich Merz took office in 2025. The result has thrown Merz's Christian Democrats into crisis. Merz once boasted he would cut AfD support in half. Instead, it has surged, powered by voter concern over immigration, the economy, and education. Top campaign issues included the country's asylum system, the imposition of gender-identity curricula in state schools, and taxpayer funding for NGOs and public broadcasters. Writing for The American Conservative, Phillip Linderman argues that the AfD's rise is not, as Berlin elites claim, a sinister echo of Germany's authoritarian past. Rather, Linderman says, it reflects the simple fact that Germany no longer has an authentically conservative party. The CDU, he writes, has slow-walked its own supporters into a coalition with the Social Democrats, ratifying left-wing policies on energy, climate, taxation, and borders. Linderman highlights the AfD's rising star in Saxony-Anhalt, 35-year-old Ulrich Siegmund, whom he compares to a young Bill Clinton for his retail political skills. Because of Germany's coalition rules and the so-called firewall against the AfD, Siegmund may still be shut out of governing—but Linderman argues the results are likely to rock the federal system, and that this is a healthy and necessary development for both Germany and Europe. Turning to the war in Ukraine, European capitals are increasingly warning that the conflict is spilling over onto NATO territory. Germany has blamed Russia for last month's drone attack on Leipzig Airport, and the Financial Times describes it as a wake-up call about Moscow's hybrid campaign against Europe. The Washington Post's David Ignatius has called for a joint U.S.–European warning to Moscow, and even proposed that Washington and Europe quietly help Ukraine carry out proportional attacks inside Russia. Writing for The American Conservative, Doug Bandow argues that such an approach would make matters far worse. Bandow traces Vladimir Putin's evolution from a leader who once addressed the Bundestag about closer ties with Europe to a wartime president responding to what he views as an existential proxy war on Russia's border. Bandow does not excuse Moscow's invasion, which he calls criminal and unjustified. But he contends that Western policymakers have little moral standing to lecture, citing the Iraq War, the U.S.-backed Saudi campaign in Yemen, and the Trump administration's recent strikes on Iran. Bandow warns that escalating allied involvement will push Putin, under pressure from Russian hardliners, to double down rather than retreat. Putting America first, he concludes, means avoiding a wider war with Russia over Ukraine, and pressing European allies to step back from a proxy conflict that grows more dangerous by the week. Those are today's highlights. For the full stories and more, visit theamericanconservative.com. Thank you for starting your morning with us.

Good morning! Today is Wednesday, September 9th 2026, and this is The American Conservative's Morning Brief. Joseph Addington warns that Trump's sweeping Venezuelan oil deal, which hands Washington functional control of 65 billion barrels through a single shady middleman, is a flashy gamble that could delegitimize the Rodriguez government and hand a future Venezuelan nationalist a ready-made grievance. Eldar Mamedov argues that Vice President Vance's dismissal of Iran's leaders as "crazy people" is a strategic dead end, pointing to Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei's subtle rebuke of hardliners as evidence Tehran's pragmatists remain open to diplomacy. Mamedov urges Vance to use the coming UN General Assembly to build a regional security framework with Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Pakistan, and Gulf mediators rather than pressing an open-ended war. and now for the details. We begin in Caracas, where President Trump's late-August deal with the government of Venezuela is drawing scrutiny. Under the agreement, the United States, acting through the Pentagon's Office of Strategic Capital, will take a thirty-five percent stake in a corporation called North American Blue Energy Partners, controlled by Venezuelan businessman Alejandro Betancourt. Washington will gain veto power over board appointments, a guaranteed twenty percent of production from seventeen oil fields, and the right of first refusal on the rest. All told, that amounts to functional control of about sixty-five billion barrels of crude—roughly one and a half times America's own proven reserves. The White House says the deal will refill the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and shore up energy security. Writing for The American Conservative, Joseph Addington calls it a big gamble dressed up as a foreign policy triumph. Addington argues the flashy, sweeping nature of the deal is precisely the problem. By transferring a major share of Venezuela's natural resources directly to a foreign government, Washington almost certainly weakens the Rodriguez government it has chosen to prop up, and hands a future Venezuelan nationalist—perhaps the next Hugo Chavez—a ready-made grievance. Addington also raises concerns about Betancourt himself, a so-called "Bolívar Boy" dogged for years by allegations of bribery, corruption, and money laundering, whom the administration has now effectively installed as the head of a quasi-governmental oil enterprise. Addington notes none of this risk was necessary. A series of smaller, diversified partnerships could have delivered comparable benefits without staking American credibility on one man and one megadeal. Turning to the ongoing war with Iran, Vice President J.D. Vance recently urged Tehran to "stop acting like crazy people," and claimed the United States does not target civilians. Those remarks come against the backdrop of credible reports of American strikes on a wedding party in Sirik County and on a girls' elementary school in Minab earlier this year. Writing for The American Conservative, Eldar Mamedov argues that dismissing Iran's leadership as irrational is a strategic dead end. Mamedov points to a recent message from Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, carried by the IRGC-linked Tasnim agency, which criticized the false choice between war and negotiation and publicly praised moderate President Masoud Pezeshkian. That, Mamedov writes, is a subtle rebuke of hardline voices like the editor of Kayhan newspaper, and a signal that Tehran's top leadership remains open to pragmatic solutions. From Iran's perspective, Mamedov notes, the tougher line since the collapse of the Islamabad Memorandum reflects a rational response to unmet American promises on sanctions relief. Mamedov urges Vance to use the upcoming UN General Assembly to engage regional stakeholders—including Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Pakistan, Egypt, Qatar, Oman, and the UAE—and, if possible, Iran itself, in pursuit of a durable regional security framework rather than an open-ended war. Those are today's highlights. For the full stories and more, visit theamericanconservative.com. Thank you for starting your morning with us.

Good morning! Today is Monday, September 7th 2026, and this is The American Conservative's Morning Brief. Emily Jashinsky examines how Christian conservatives, from Tucker Carlson to Catholic thinkers at First Things and Public Discourse, are breaking with the interventionist consensus and applying Just War criteria to Operation Epic Fury. Iran's parliament speaker Mohammad Ghalibaf warns that Tehran's era of proportionate responses is over after U.S. strikes crippled three Iranian oil tankers, while Israeli strikes hit southern Lebanon and Gaza. Energy Secretary Chris Wright concedes a nuclear deal with Iran may have to wait for the next government, as gas prices climb to 4 dollars and 15 cents a gallon on day 191 of the war. and now for the details. We begin this morning with a look at how Christian conservatives are increasingly breaking with the interventionist consensus, particularly over the ongoing war with Iran. Tucker Carlson has repeatedly returned to the moral question of nuclear weapons, arguing on Joe Rogan's program and again this August that it is simply wrong to drop atomic bombs on people. After President Trump's Easter Sunday threat to Iran, Carlson warned that desecrating Easter was, in his words, the first step toward nuclear war. Joe Kent, a practicing Catholic, resigned as counterterrorism director with an open letter urging the president to reflect on what the United States is doing in Iran, and for whom. As Emily Jashinsky reports, this represents a significant fracture in a movement whose postwar identity was forged in the shadow of Hiroshima and the Cold War struggle against Bolshevism. Jashinsky traces how domino theory once justified interventions from Iran in 1953 to Vietnam and Central America, and how Christian thinkers including Senator Robert Taft and even Billy Graham warned against the moral costs of that posture. Today, in publications like First Things and Public Discourse, writers such as R.R. Reno and Edward Feser are applying Just War criteria to Operation Epic Fury and finding it wanting. Reno argues the strikes are likely to accomplish nothing lasting; Feser contends that preventive war falls outside the natural law tradition altogether. Jashinsky concludes that after Vietnam, Afghanistan, and now Iran, Taft's warnings about global hatred and equal justice under law are finding a new audience among exhausted Christian conservatives. Turning to the war itself, now in its 191st day. Mohammad Ghalibaf, the speaker of Iran's parliament, warned Sunday that Tehran's era of proportionate responses is over, promising faster, more intense, and more painful retaliation following U.S. strikes that appeared to cripple three Iranian oil tankers on Saturday. Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed to have struck several U.S.-affiliated vessels, including what it described as a successful hit on a U.S. Navy drone, though a Pentagon spokesman denied that account. Elsewhere in the region, Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon reportedly killed at least seven and wounded twenty, while a strike in Gaza left two dead, including a six-year-old girl. Here at home, Energy Secretary Chris Wright told ABC News that a nuclear agreement with Iran may never materialize, saying any deal may simply have to await the next Iranian government. As Luke Nicastro reports in TAC's daily war tracker, triple A put the national average price of gasoline at four dollars and fifteen cents per gallon. Those are today's highlights. For the full stories and more, visit theamericanconservative.com. Thank you for starting your morning with us.

Good morning! Today is Sunday, September 6th 2026, and this is The American Conservative's Morning Brief. U.S. envoys Witkoff and Kushner met with Putin in Moscow for three hours on Ukraine, with the Kremlin striking a positive tone as the pair prepare to head to Kiev. On day 190 of the Iran War, Trump dismissed the conflict as "small potatoes" while CENTCOM destroyed three Iranian tankers and the Pentagon polygraphed dozens over leaks. Fraser Myers argues the "Burnham Bounce" is real but fragile, propped up by progressive returnees to Labour while a fractured right and an unaddressed migration crisis loom. and now for the details. We begin in Moscow, where U.S. special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner sat down with Russian president Vladimir Putin on Saturday for more than three hours of talks on the war in Ukraine. No breakthrough appears to have emerged, though the Kremlin and Russian state media described the meeting in positive terms. Putin remarked that "whatever happens, such contacts are undoubtedly always useful," and a Russian envoy called it an "important peacemaking visit." The White House has yet to comment on the outcome, though President Trump said Friday that his envoys were bringing with them a proposal to end the war. Witkoff and Kushner are expected to travel on to Kiev on Sunday for talks with Ukrainian representatives—their first visit to the Ukrainian capital, though they have been to Moscow several times before. Ahead of the U.S. envoys' arrival, Putin declared a 72-hour pause on Russian attacks against Kiev, though not against other parts of the country. As Luke Nicastro reports, the visit—coming on the heels of an unusual trip to Moscow last week by CIA director John Ratcliffe—suggests the Trump administration is renewing its push to broker a ceasefire after months of relative diplomatic stasis. The Iran War has now entered its 190th day. In an exchange with reporters on Friday, President Trump sought to downplay the costs of the conflict, telling reporters, "A lot of people don't call it a war. I call it a military conflict because it's small potatoes for us. It's not a big thing." The president also indicated the U.S. may soon strike Pickaxe Mountain, a heavily fortified underground site believed to play a central role in Iran's nuclear program. On Saturday, U.S. Central Command announced it had destroyed three Iranian tankers off Kharg Island in retaliation for an unsuccessful Iranian ballistic missile attempt on two American warships. Fighting also escalated in Yemen, where clashes between the Houthis and Yemen's internationally recognized government reportedly left more than 60 dead. Here at home, Luke Nicastro relays reporting from the New York Times that the Pentagon is aggressively hunting leakers to stem press coverage of munitions shortages. The Defense Department reportedly administered polygraphs to roughly 50 members of the military's Joint Staff in August, in what sources described as an effort not only to identify leakers but to intimidate others who might come forward. And triple A reported the average price of gasoline in the United States stood at 4 dollars and 15 cents per gallon on Saturday. Those are today's highlights. For the full stories and more, visit theamericanconservative.com. Thank you for starting your morning with us.

Good morning! Today is Saturday, September 5th 2026, and this is The American Conservative's Morning Brief. Newly surfaced testimony from former counterterrorism chief Joe Kent confirms that the New Year's Day 2025 Bourbon Street attacker explicitly cited Gaza and U.S. support for Israel, raising questions about why federal officials publicly described him only as ISIS-inspired. Vice President Vance declines to call the 189-day Iran conflict a war even as CENTCOM investigates a deadly strike on a residential area and Netanyahu tells the IDF that regime change in Tehran is within reach. American households are absorbing the costs of the Iran conflict, with diesel hitting a record 5 dollars and 85 cents a gallon and Brent crude near 90 dollars a barrel. and now for the details. We begin this morning with new reporting on the deadly New Year's Day 2025 attack on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, where an American-born Army veteran named Shamsud-Din Jabbar drove a rented pickup truck into a crowd of revelers, killing fourteen people and injuring more than fifty before being shot dead by police. From the beginning, federal investigators told the public that Jabbar had been radicalized by ISIS, but stayed conspicuously silent about what, exactly, drove him to act when he did. Writing in The American Conservative, Scott Horton and John Weeks report that the missing piece has now been confirmed on the record. Joe Kent, the former director of the National Counterterrorism Center, told the Scott Horton Show in August that he had personally viewed portions of the videos Jabbar recorded on his drive from Houston to New Orleans. According to Kent, Jabbar explicitly cited Gaza and American support for Israel's war there as central grievances motivating the attack. Horton and Weeks argue this raises serious questions about a coverup. The FBI, the Justice Department, and the Biden White House had access to those videos within a day of the attack. Yet in press conferences and public statements, officials described Jabbar only as ISIS-inspired, never mentioning Gaza. The authors note that senior intelligence officials, including former FBI Director Christopher Wray and former DNI Avril Haines, had warned publicly that the war in Gaza was likely to fuel a generation of terrorism against Western targets. Horton and Weeks place the Bourbon Street attack in a long lineage of what they call blowback terrorism, from the 1993 World Trade Center bombing through the September 11th attacks and on to more recent incidents, including the May 2025 shooting outside a Jewish museum in Washington, the June attack at a pro-Israel rally in Boulder, and the March 2026 attack in Austin, Texas, following the U.S. strikes on Iran. Their conclusion is direct: American support for Israel's conduct in Gaza and its regional wars is producing violence against ordinary Americans at home, and the public is not being told the truth about why. Turning to the ongoing conflict with Iran, now in its one hundred and eighty-ninth day. At a Thursday press conference, Vice President J.D. Vance declined to describe the confrontation as a war, telling reporters that despite multiple exchanges with Iranian forces this week, the United States is no longer conducting what he called major combat operations. Vance said he could not predict when the conflict would end, and expressed skepticism about reports that a U.S. strike on a residential area Tuesday had killed civilians, though he acknowledged the claims are under review. U.S. Central Command has separately confirmed it is investigating the incident. In Jerusalem, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the IDF general staff that Israel continues to pursue regime change in Tehran, saying the toppling of the Iranian government is, in his words, close and within reach. Luke Nicastro reports for The American Conservative that the economic costs of the conflict are landing squarely on American households. U.S. diesel prices hit a record high of five dollars and eighty-five cents per gallon on Friday. Because diesel powers freight and delivery, sustained price spikes tend to push inflation across the broader economy. Brent crude was trading near ninety dollars a barrel Friday morning, and triple A pegs the average price of gasoline in the United States at four dollars and fifteen cents. Those are today's highlights. For the full stories and more, visit theamericanconservative.com. Thank you for starting your morning with us.

Good morning! Today is Friday, September 4th 2026, and this is The American Conservative's Morning Brief. Day one hundred and eighty-eight of the Iran War brings fresh Iranian strikes on U.S. assets in Kuwait and the UAE, a reported American bombing of an Iranian wedding party, and gas prices at four dollars and fourteen cents a gallon. J.D. Vance takes the White House podium for the first time since Karoline Leavitt's exit, dodging questions on when the war ends, refusing to disown Tucker Carlson, and asking Americans for patience on the economy. Ted Snider dissects Trump's self-proclaimed "biggest oil deal in world history" in Venezuela, arguing the Pentagon's seizure of sixty-five billion barrels amounts to plunder that will neither lower pump prices soon nor survive Venezuela's own constitution. and now for the details. We begin with the Iran War, now in its one hundred and eighty-eighth day. Iran launched fresh retaliatory strikes on Thursday, targeting American assets in Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, in open defiance of President Trump's warning that any retaliation would be met with, in his words, an attack that would leave very little of the Islamic Republic remaining. The new strikes extend a tit-for-tat cycle that resumed Sunday night, when U.S. forces hit targets on Iran's Larak Island, breaking a month-long pause. Tehran said it was responding to what it called America's crimes against the Iranian people. As Andrew Day reports for The American Conservative, U.S. forces were responsible for a deadly bombing of a wedding party in southern Iran on Tuesday, according to a New York Times analysis. A six-year-old boy and at least four others were reported killed. Day notes conflicting signals from Washington on how long the war will last. The Wall Street Journal reports that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is quietly extending troop deployments, suggesting the conflict could drag into next year, even as Trump privately tells senior aides he favors declaring the war over. Reuters reports that aides are urging the president to keep the conflict contained through the November third midterms, with the White House prepared to escalate afterward. The war is already biting Americans at the pump. Brent crude was trading near ninety-seven dollars a barrel Thursday, and the average U.S. gasoline price stood at four dollars and fourteen cents, up from two dollars and ninety-eight cents on the eve of the war. At the White House, Vice President J.D. Vance led the first press briefing since Karoline Leavitt's departure as press secretary. As Luke Nicastro reports, Vance was asked whether the Iran War would end before the midterms, and he conceded he did not know the answer, adding that reporters would have to ask the Iranians. Vance also disputed the characterization of the conflict as a war, saying that right now there is no active shooting. Pressed on his relationship with commentator Tucker Carlson, who has been sharply critical of the administration's Middle East policy, Vance declined to distance himself. He called Carlson a friend, saying he would not throw friends under the bus over political disagreements, and adding that doing so would be a terrible place for the United States to go. On the economy, Vance defended the administration's affordability record, arguing that America's inflation problem was not created in a day and that rebuilding the foundation of the middle-class economy would take time. Turning to the Western Hemisphere. President Trump announced last week what he called the biggest oil deal in world history, securing majority U.S. control of more than sixty-five billion barrels of proven oil reserves in Venezuela. The deal follows the American raid on Venezuela and the removal of its president in January, after which Washington effectively took control of the country's oil industry. Under the arrangement, the Pentagon's Office of Strategic Capital takes a thirty-five percent stake in a company run by Venezuelan oilman Alejandro Betancourt López, who is currently under investigation in Switzerland and Spain for money laundering and tax fraud. The U.S. is guaranteed twenty percent of the oil at production cost, first refusal on the rest, and veto power over the company's board. As Ted Snider writes for The American Conservative, the administration is selling this as relief for American drivers, with the Strategic Petroleum Reserve at its lowest level since 1982. But Snider cites Miguel Tinker Salas of Pomona College, who says the only immediate output would come from mature fields still requiring millions in fresh investment, while other fields would take billions and years to produce. Economist Francisco Rodríguez calculates that the promised tax revenues amount to just three dollars and twenty-two cents per barrel, less than five percent of the current price. Snider also notes that Venezuela's constitution treats oil resources as the inalienable public domain, raising legal questions

Good morning! Today is Thursday, September 3rd 2026, and this is The American Conservative's Morning Brief. With Democrats poised to potentially flip the Senate this November, one man could hold their razor-thin majority hostage: Pennsylvania's John Fetterman, whose fervent backing of Israel and Trump's Iran war has already sunk his party's war powers resolutions at least a dozen times. U.S. Central Command struck Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps targets along the Strait of Hormuz as the Iran war entered its 187th day, with Trump dismissing negotiations and again floating regime change while Brent crude climbed to $95.25 a barrel. President Trump formally nominated Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao, a Vietnamese-born retired Navy captain and two-time failed candidate, to lead the service four months after John Phelan's ouster. and now for the details. We begin with the ongoing war with Iran, now in its 187th day. U.S. Central Command announced that American forces struck Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps targets along the Strait of Hormuz late Tuesday, hitting air defense sites, radar systems, maritime assets, and communications facilities. CENTCOM said the strikes were a response to recent Iranian attempts against commercial shipping in the strait and against American service members. Iran had reportedly struck two Saudi supertankers on Monday, killing at least two people. Tehran retaliated with ballistic missiles and drones aimed at targets in Jordan, Kuwait, and Bahrain, and Iranian sources claimed the American strikes killed civilians, including at a wedding in Sirik. President Trump published a post on Truth Social Tuesday evening dismissing the idea of negotiations with Iran and again floating regime change as his desired outcome. As Jude Russo reports for The American Conservative, the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln put in at Pattaya, Thailand, after 250 days without a port call in the Persian Gulf region. Brent crude opened at $95.25 a barrel, and AAA reported a national average of $4.12 per gallon of regular gas. Turning to the midterms, now just over two months away. With President Trump's approval numbers slumping and the Iran War dragging on, polling suggests Democrats are positioned to take the House, and control of the Senate is also in play. Republican-held seats in Maine, Texas, Alaska, and Ohio all appear vulnerable, while Democrats are working to hold Michigan. If Democrats capture four of those five races, they would emerge with a 51-to-49 majority. But as Spencer Neale reports for The American Conservative, that majority may exist in name only, because of one man: Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman. Fetterman has broken sharply with his party, backing Trump's Iran war and staunchly defending Israel. He has voted against Democratic war powers resolutions at least a dozen times, single-handedly killing several. He's appeared on Fox News 56 times since the start of the year, and told NBC News in July that he'd switch parties if Democrats "officially become the anti-Israel party." A new Philadelphia Inquirer, New York Times, and Siena poll finds 73 percent of Pennsylvania Republicans view Fetterman favorably, compared to just 22 percent of Democrats. Neale writes that even if Democrats sweep the close races, they could wake up in January with a majority they cannot actually command. President Trump on Tuesday formally nominated Acting Secretary of the Navy Hung Cao to lead the Navy, four months after the ouster of former Secretary John Phelan. In a post on Truth Social, Trump called Cao a "true warrior" and urged the Senate to confirm him swiftly. Cao, born in Saigon in 1971, served as a U.S. Navy officer with deployments to Iraq, Afghanistan, and Somalia before retiring as a captain in 2021. He made unsuccessful bids for the House in 2022 and the Senate in 2024, and was confirmed as Under Secretary of the Navy last spring, becoming acting Secretary in April. Spencer Neale reports that a date for Cao's confirmation hearing has not yet been set. Those are today's highlights. For the full stories and more, visit theamericanconservative.com. Thank you for starting your morning with us.

Good morning! Today is Wednesday, September 2nd 2026, and this is The American Conservative's Morning Brief. Jennifer Kavanagh warns that Trump's expanding wars have pushed the U.S. military to a breaking point, with the Iran conflict alone tying down 50,000 troops and consuming a quarter of the Reaper drone fleet, forcing a strategic downsizing rather than more spending. As Trump pivots to "economic D-Day" against Iran, Middle East experts tell TAC the blockade strategy has little chance of working, will harm ordinary Iranians most, and risks a "mow the lawn" cycle of periodic strikes around the Strait of Hormuz. W. James Antle III argues Trump's self-chosen crises—the Iran war and an erratic tariff regime—are deepening the affordability squeeze and leaving his party exposed heading into the midterms. and now for the details. We begin at the Pentagon, where reports indicate that four top military commanders have raised concerns about whether they can resource their own missions while operations in Iran continue. Writing for The American Conservative, Jennifer Kavanagh argues that despite Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's promise in the 2026 National Defense Strategy to prioritize the most consequential threats, the Trump administration has done the opposite—expanding the U.S. military footprint in Latin America, starting what she calls a disastrous war in the Middle East, and remaining deeply involved in Ukraine. Kavanagh notes the Iran war alone has kept at least 50,000 U.S. service members deployed overseas, and consumed 25 percent of the U.S. fleet of MQ-9 Reaper drones, along with numerous aircraft and significant portions of the air defense network in the region. She points out that in Europe, U.S. presence remains essentially unchanged from January 2025, and intelligence and logistical assistance to Ukraine has actually increased, despite rhetoric to the contrary. Kavanagh writes that the shortfall is not just a munitions problem but a systemic erosion of American military strength that cannot be fixed by throwing more money at the industrial base. Her prescription: a strategic downsizing of missions and objectives, distinguishing between the interests of allies and those of America, and adopting a truly defensive posture. As she puts it, the United States had a one-war military, chose to fight a war with Iran, and will now face the consequences. Staying with the Iran conflict: President Trump has shifted from direct military hostilities toward what Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and the president himself are calling "economic D-Day"—an effort to strangle Iran's economy through sanctions and a blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. Andrew Day reports for TAC that Middle East experts are skeptical this approach will change Tehran's calculations. Rosemary Kelanic of Defense Priorities told TAC that Iran will keep fighting despite the economic pain, calling this an existential conflict for Tehran, and noting that capitulation is not a serious option when Trump's demands are so erratic. She gives economic D-Day, in her words, less than a snowball's chance in hell of working, since China, Russia, and Pakistan have refused to cooperate in isolating Tehran. Sina Toossi of the Center for International Policy told TAC that economic pressure can severely hurt ordinary people without producing the political outcome Washington expects. Day reports that a Pentagon source told Axios one long-term plan is to "mow the lawn" around the Strait of Hormuz—periodically bombing Iran to keep shipping lanes open. Meanwhile, testimonies from Iranian civil society shared with TAC describe impoverished children losing income after scrap warehouses were shuttered, and residents observing that the main burden falls on ordinary people, not politicians. Turning to domestic politics and the coming midterms: W. James Antle III writes for TAC that as the Iran war hits the six-month mark, President Trump continues to drive the national conversation—but to no obvious benefit for himself or his party ahead of the midterm elections. Antle argues that Trump's political skills are especially unsuited to calming the nation in a period of crisis, and that his current crises—the Iran war and an unstable, erratic tariffs regime—are largely of his own choosing, both worsening the affordability crisis. Antle observes that voters are worried about high gas prices, and that even the late Senator Lindsey Graham's own sister ran a campaign focused on affordability rather than Iran or international affairs. He credits Trump with real accomplishments achieved through brute force—securing the border, routing ISIS, cleaning up parts of Washington—but says not everything can be done that way. Antle's conclusion: Trump has chosen to be a wartime president without a vote of Congress, and both he and the country would be better off if he recognized he is not suited to the role. Those are today's highlights. For the full stories and more, visit theamericanco

Good morning! Today is Tuesday, September 1st 2026, and this is The American Conservative's Morning Brief. On day 185 of the Persian Gulf war, the United States and Iran traded direct fire for the first time since July, sending Brent crude back above ninety dollars as gasoline at home climbs past four dollars a gallon. Jason Jones argues the fashionable warning of a "red-green" coalition is an elite pretext for dismembering the anti-war voters — including Arab Americans who helped deliver Michigan — who put Trump back in office. At Jackson Hole, new Fed Chair Kevin Warsh moved against forward guidance, blamed the central bank for 65 months of elevated inflation, and hinted at hikes that could collide with Trump's demands for cuts. and now for the details. We begin with the war in the Persian Gulf, now in its one hundred and eighty-fifth day. Overnight into Monday, the United States and Iran exchanged direct fire for the first time since late July, ending a month-long pause in open hostilities. U.S. Central Command says it struck launchers and troops on Larak Island as Iranian forces prepared to seed the Strait of Hormuz with naval mines. Iran responded by firing missiles and drones at American bases in Jordan and the United Arab Emirates. Jordan reports it intercepted all incoming fire, while the UAE said it "responded to" a drone attack. President Trump told Fox News the United States will hit back hard. Brent crude jumped more than three percent Monday, back above ninety dollars a barrel. As Andrew Day reports, the exchange comes days after the six-month mark of a war Trump had expected to be much shorter. In the recent lull, the administration had shifted to a strategy of further strangling Iran's economy while trying to help ships transit the Strait. Day notes the cost at home is visible at the pump: the national average price of gasoline stands at four dollars and eight cents a gallon, up from two ninety-eight on the eve of the war. Staying with the fallout from that war, TAC contributor Jason Jones takes aim at what he calls a new elite narrative: the warning of a sinister "red-green" coalition, red for communists, green for Islamists, said to threaten the American republic. Jones argues the labels are being applied broadly and loosely, with "communists" meaning young Americans angry about their economic prospects, and "Islamists" often meaning simply Muslims, or even Middle Eastern Christians with foreign-sounding names. He reminds readers that in 2024, Arab American and Lebanese American voters helped deliver Michigan for Donald Trump. Trump carried Dearborn with forty-two percent of the vote, and gained roughly nine thousand votes across Dearborn, Dearborn Heights, and Hamtramck, while Kamala Harris fell twenty-two thousand votes behind Biden's totals there. Jones writes that the second Trump administration's continued support for Israel's campaigns in Gaza and Lebanon, and the ongoing war with Iran, represent a betrayal of the anti-war coalition that put Trump in office. He describes the red-green framing as an "inverse color revolution," an attempt, in his words, to persuade Christians to fear their Muslim neighbors, to persuade peace voters that their allies are Marxists, and to dismember the 2024 coalition without ever having to debate it honestly. Jones, writing after a recent trip through southern Lebanon, urges conservatives to hold that coalition together. Turning to monetary policy, new Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh delivered his first major address on August 28th at the Jackson Hole Economic Policy Symposium, and he may have set himself on a collision course with the president who appointed him. As David Brady reports, Warsh used the speech to move against the practice of "forward guidance," the Fed's habit of telegraphing rate decisions well in advance. Warsh argued that markets have grown too dependent on such signaling, and that the central bank needs clean data — including, in his words, the prices and trading volumes of Treasury securities. Brady reads that line as a pointed jab at Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, whose recent buybacks of long-term bonds were meant to push down yields at the long end of the curve. The national debt has now passed forty trillion dollars, and thirty-year Treasury yields recently hit near two-decade highs. Brady notes that Warsh appears aligned with investor Stanley Druckenmiller, who has warned that suppressing the long yield removes the last fiscal disciplinarian the country has. Warsh also placed the blame for sixty-five months of elevated inflation squarely on the central bank, and signaled continued focus on price stability. Markets read that as a hint of possible rate hikes ahead. That puts Warsh at odds with President Trump, who has publicly pressed for cuts. Brady writes that recent Supreme Court decisions should protect the chairman from arbitrary removal, but that the coming Fed meeting will show whether Warsh's inflation-hawk rheto

Good morning! Today is Monday, August 31st 2026, and this is The American Conservative's Morning Brief. Ted Snider argues that from Ottawa to Riyadh to Kyiv, U.S. partners are discovering that under President Trump, America's signature is written in pencil, with reversed deals on trade, nuclear cooperation, and Patriot missiles now echoing the earlier collapse of the Iran agreement. On day 184 of the Iran war, top Navy, European, Pacific, and Southern Command leaders have warned Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that extending Persian Gulf deployments is draining munitions stockpiles and weakening American posture in other theaters, even as Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei resurfaces in writing to denounce Washington and Israel. Eldar Mamedov takes readers to Karachi, where Gothic cathedrals, Parsi institutions, Hindu temples, and a Christian jazz band at a French consulate reception reveal a Pakistan whose religious minorities. and now for the details. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney took to the airwaves on August 22nd to explain why he walked away from trade negotiations with the United States, exposing Canada to steep American tariffs. Carney offered three reasons: the U.S. proposal demanded compromises on the protection of Canadian culture and the French language; it sought to restrict which countries Canada could trade with; and, at the last minute, American negotiators rewrote items already agreed to. Carney told reporters that under President Trump, America's, quote, "signature was written in pencil." As Ted Snider reports, Carney is not alone in that complaint. Saudi Arabia signed a nuclear cooperation agreement with the United States, only to see Trump announce the following day on Truth Social that there would be no uranium enrichment permitted, and that the deal was now contingent on Riyadh joining the Abraham Accords, conditions never agreed to at the table. Ukraine, likewise, was told in July it would receive rights to manufacture Patriot interceptors. Days later, Trump denied he had ever agreed to any such thing. Snider traces the pattern back to Iran. The 2015 nuclear agreement, which international inspectors repeatedly verified Tehran was honoring, was torn up by Trump in his first term. When Iran signaled willingness to negotiate again this year, including suspending enrichment and accepting expanded inspections, the United States instead bombed Iranian facilities and killed Iranian leaders. Snider concludes that for all the boasts about the art of the deal, what emerges is a pattern of broken deals, one that makes partners and adversaries alike question the value of an American signature. On day one hundred and eighty-four of the Iran war, the Washington Post reports that several senior American military leaders have warned Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that extending operations against Iran risks weakening American defense capabilities in other parts of the world. As Jude Russo reports, the Post cited the mid-August Secretary of Defense Orders Book, the internal document detailing how American military assets and personnel are being deployed. The Navy's top admiral, along with the commanders of U.S. European Command, U.S. Pacific Command, and U.S. Southern Command, all objected to extending deployments in the Persian Gulf. The Army and Air Force supported extending deployments, in some cases into 2027, but flagged risks to other theaters from the diversion of assets. The warnings come amid a string of reports about the depletion of American weapons stockpiles, particularly missile interceptors and long-range precision missiles. Russo notes that extended deployments have taken a particular toll on quality of life aboard naval vessels. Meanwhile, Iran's Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, who has not been seen in public since the war began in February, issued a written statement on the occasion of Muhammad's birthday, calling the rulers of the United States and Israel enemies of the entire Muslim world. AAA reported a national average of four dollars and eight cents per gallon of regular gasoline. Those are today's highlights. For the full stories and more, visit theamericanconservative.com. Thank you for starting your morning with us.

Good morning! Today is Sunday, August 30th 2026, and this is The American Conservative's Morning Brief. Scott Greer argues the conservative intelligentsia's "common good" crusade collides with a Republican base that just wants to be left alone, embracing folk libertarianism over any elite-defined collective mission. Daniel Zoughbie urges Washington to abandon the Munich analogy and seek a Treaty of Ghent-style off-ramp from the six-month Iran war, as casualty counts climb and true costs may exceed a trillion dollars. Treasury launches "Operation Economic Outcast" against Banque Misr's UAE branches, while President Trump touts a Venezuelan oil deal he calls the biggest in world history, giving America equity in 65 billion barrels of reserves. and now for the details. We begin with the war in Iran, now grinding into its sixth month, and a call for Washington to look for an off-ramp before the costs climb further. Writing for The American Conservative, Daniel E. Zoughbie argues that the perpetual invocation of the Munich analogy — the warning against appeasement — has crowded out a more relevant lesson: the Versailles analogy. It was the punitive peace of 1919, Keynes warned, that wrecked Germany and cleared the way for Hitler. Zoughbie contends that maximum-pressure economics has a poor track record. Cutting off Imperial Japan helped bring on Pearl Harbor. Embargoing Cuba brought on the missile crisis. Sanctions on Iraq hollowed out its middle class and paved the way for a second war. He points to the War of 1812 and the Treaty of Ghent as a better model — an honest acknowledgment of stalemate, followed by reciprocal steps to restore the status quo. Under such a framework, Washington would pull back its strike groups, and Tehran would readmit international nuclear inspectors. Zoughbie cites former Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, who told him the Iran war ranks among the costliest foreign policy blunders in American history. Pentagon figures show 624 wounded service members, and while Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth puts the tab at $37.5 billion, Harvard economist Linda Bilmes estimates true short-term costs closer to $370 billion — with long-term costs likely pushing past a trillion. Zoughbie closes with John Quincy Adams's warning that America goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy. Staying with the Iran war, the Treasury Department on Friday opened a new front in the economic campaign against Tehran. Jude Russo reports for The American Conservative that the United States will cut the United Arab Emirates branches of Banque Misr — Egypt's second-largest bank — out of the dollar system as the opening move of what officials are calling "Operation Economic Outcast." The bank has thirty days before it loses correspondence rights with American financial institutions. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the department had promised to sever every economic lifeline Tehran has left, and warned that Iran's enablers cannot continue to enjoy access to the U.S. dollar. Treasury alleges that between January 2024 and June of this year, Banque Misr's UAE arm processed roughly $1.8 billion for more than a hundred companies tied to Iranian shadow banking networks. Additional sanctions target the manager of Bank Melli's UAE branch and a Hong Kong trading house. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, in an interview with the Iranian Student News Agency, conceded that the sanctions are biting, telling critics who claim otherwise that "common sense is a good thing." As of Friday's close, Brent crude sat at $89.37 a barrel, and AAA reported a national average of $4.08 for a gallon of regular gasoline. To our south, President Trump on Friday announced what he called, in his words, the biggest oil deal in world history — a public-private arrangement that he says will give the United States majority control over more than 65 billion barrels of proven Venezuelan oil reserves, at no cost to the American taxpayer. Jude Russo reports for The American Conservative that Trump credited Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio with brokering the deal, which he says more than doubles American oil reserves. According to Axios, the transaction will take the form of a partnership with American companies and the Venezuelan government, which still controls the country's nationalized oil industry. An American source described it this way: "It's not a purchase. They're giving us equity." Venezuela's Acting President Delcy Rodriguez — who took power after the American ouster of Nicolas Maduro in January — confirmed the agreement, and said it would generate $209 billion in tax revenue for Caracas. The final details of the transaction have yet to be announced, and Axios notes it is not clear the deal has been fully finalized. Those are today's highlights. For the full stories and more, visit theamericanconservative.com. Thank you for starting your morning with us.

Good morning! Today is Saturday, August 29th 2026, and this is The American Conservative's Morning Brief. Five years after the Kabul withdrawal, Curt Mills argues Joe Biden's decision to end America's longest war stands as the bravest presidential act of his lifetime, contrasting Biden's honesty with what he calls a more messianic Pentagon now waging war in Iran. Nikos Mohammadi examines J.D. Vance's invocation of Huey Long at an Ohio steel plant, asking whether the Louisiana Kingfish's substantive populism can actually be revived on the right or will remain merely a matter of style. and now for the details. We begin this morning with a reflection on the fifth anniversary of the American withdrawal from Afghanistan. On August 29th, 2021, a U.S. drone strike in Kabul killed ten people, including seven children, in what CENTCOM commander Frank McKenzie later publicly acknowledged was a tragic mistake. That admission came amid the chaos of an exit from a two-decade war. In a piece for The American Conservative, Curt Mills argues that, five years on, the decision to leave Afghanistan deserves recognition as the bravest and best act of any president in his lifetime. As Mills writes, Joe Biden got the strategy right, and had been right for over a decade, going back to his time as vice president when he privately considered resigning over President Obama's Afghanistan troop surge. Mills contrasts the Biden Pentagon's conduct with what he describes as a more spiritually dishonest and messianic posture under Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and CENTCOM commander Admiral Brad Cooper, following the American decision earlier this year to enter a new war with Iran. Mills concedes Biden's record was marred elsewhere, particularly on Gaza, on inflation, and on the excesses of the Covid era. But on the core question of ending America's longest war, Mills offers a straightforward verdict: Biden got it done. He also notes that Donald Trump, who negotiated the original Taliban deal, was rolled by his generals on Afghanistan in his first term, and points to the ongoing Iran war as evidence that presidential convictions do not always survive contact with the Pentagon. Vice President J.D. Vance drew attention last week when, speaking at a steel plant in his hometown of Middletown, Ohio, he invoked the memory of Louisiana's Depression-era populist governor and senator Huey Long. Vance quoted Long's famous slogan, "Every Man a King," and tied it to the Trump administration's law-and-order and border agenda. The reference set off alarms among neoconservative commentators, libertarians at Reason magazine, and mainstream liberals, who variously accused Vance of flirting with authoritarianism or socialism. Writing for The American Conservative, Nikos Mohammadi walks through Long's actual record: a state governor who built roads and bridges, expanded LSU, provided free textbooks, ran adult literacy programs, opened low-income hospitals, and eliminated the poll tax, all in a Louisiana previously dominated by Standard Oil and New Orleans oligarchs. Long's Share Our Wealth program, Mohammadi notes, likely pushed Franklin Roosevelt toward the more radical Second New Deal. Long also opposed American imperialism abroad. Mohammadi speaks with former TAC senior editor Rod Dreher, a Louisiana native, who recalls his working-class father defending Long as the reason rural families had good roads and schoolbooks. Dreher argues that the only contemporary politician who could plausibly claim Long as an inspiration is Vance himself, though he cautions against leaning too heavily on a figure whose complex legacy requires so much explanation. Mohammadi's piece raises a sharper question as well: whether Long's substantive populism can be revived on the right, or whether it will remain, for now, a matter of style. Those are today's highlights. For the full stories and more, visit theamericanconservative.com. Thank you for starting your morning with us.