Ben Rhodes

It was because they sued us in international court.

But anyway, the point is you're right.

He keeps wanting there to be some military action he takes that kind of forces the appearance that the Iranians have lost somehow and they come out with their hands up and surrender something.

But the reality is he can't do that.

Because he's killed some of the Iranian leadership.

The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, which is the most hardline aspect of that regime, is calling the shots.

They're the one who've closed the straits.

They're not going to want to concede anything that goes beyond something like the JCPOA.

And so Trump either has to kind of take his vast military armada and go home, having humiliated himself before the entire world, done none of the things he promised when he launched this war from his golf club.

And he kind of can't come to terms with that.

And so we're in this crazy place where we're on the precipice of a potential global economic calamity if these shortages continue to persist in countries around the world.

Americans can't afford the price of gas, never mind fertilizer and other things that depend on that strait.

And so he's caught between the huge political costs he's going to pay if this continues, and he's already paying, and his ego.

And it's an uncomfortable place for the entire world to be stuck.

Even beyond that, he's raised the price of oil, which benefits not just Iran, but Putin, but- Russia.

Importantly, what Iran has done is they've begun to treat the Strait of Hormuz like a toll road.

They're already getting paid just to let tankers through.

And crypto, mostly.

Yeah.

Well, they've done what Trump did.