Jeremy Scahill

There's no question about that.

Inflation is skyrocketing in Iran.

No one is going to say that Iran's economy is doing great.

But Iran has many months of supplies and you're not seeing core shortages.

of food.

Malls are still open.

Stores are still stocked.

Green markets are still functioning.

Gas is still available.

You know, this is not the strangulation that Trump thought.

And I think that it was just becoming an epic failure.

And the clock was ticking toward this China visit.

And Trump was under a lot of pressure from China in particular to make a deal and stop this.

Jeremy, I'm curious, what do you think was the actual purpose behind Project Freedom?

Because it seems like a rational person looking at the current landscape would understand that commercial shipping vessels are probably not going to go along with a plan to have the U.S.

military guide them through forcing their way through this Iranian blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.

Was this a genuine attempt that...

they thought was actually going to work?

Or was this sort of an attempt to get a provocation from Iran?

Or like, what do you make of this?