Tuesday, March 24, 2026

Monday’s Final Word – HotAir

March 23, 2026
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Monday's Final Word – HotAir
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I’d kinda like to be the President so I can show you where your tabs all went …





… or in their own media and social platforms, they’re warning against character assassination of figures like Ghalibaf or Rouhani, because suspicion is spreading inside the regime itself.

Some are even calling for arrests or worse. Others are publicly shaming officials, accusing them of secret talks.

This is the atmosphere on the Islamic Republic’s side of social media. Total panic.

Ed: I suspect that this is the entire reason for the five-day extension on the ultimatum. It’s a stress test for the IRGC and the regime generally, to see if it’s ready to crack. Alinejad has far better sources in Iran to assess this, and she’s seeing the same thing. Trump has the luxury of time, as I wrote earlier, and the room to let the situation in the Strait of Hormuz stretch out until the Marines arrive. At that point, the next move may well be on Kharg Island rather than electrical infrastructure, or both simultaneously. 

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Noah Rothman at NRO: It’s not so much that there is an eagerness abroad in the press for an American defeat in its ongoing war against the theocratic regime in Tehran. If, however, Donald Trump is sufficiently humiliated at the end of this campaign, it seems that, for some, an American defeat is acceptable collateral damage.

What other conclusion could you draw from the American press corps’ reaction to Trump’s announcement on Monday morning that he will delay for five days his promised attacks on Iranian power plants following “in-depth, detailed, and constructive” talks with Iranian representatives? The statement resulted in a stampede of journalists alleging that the president had capitulated. “TACO” Tuesday came early this week.

Such was the political press’s commitment to the default notion that Trump backed down that they took the Iranian regime’s pronouncements at face value. “There is no direct contact with Trump, not even through intermediaries,” Iran’s Fars News Agency reported. “Trump retreated after hearing that our targets would be all power plants in West Asia.”





Why did so many assume that a notoriously mendacious regime was, in this instance, telling the truth?

Ed: Why did no American outlet note that the IRGC controls Fars? Why did not American outlets ask the obvious question: what if Trump is talking to other powers in Iran to isolate the IRGC? The answers to all of these questions are (a) Trump Derangement Syndrome and (b) the Protection Racket Media’s narrative maintenance on the Trump Is Disqualified argument. 

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Ed: Looks like Netanyahu has at least been read into the strategy at this point. His government was reportedly surprised by the extension on the ultimatum. I suspect they aren’t all that concerned about a five-day extension, although they may worry that Trump will take a deal out of expediency that will fall short later. 

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Semafor: Now in its fourth week, the US-Israeli war on Iran has disrupted life across the Middle East and hit aviation, energy, equities, logistics, and trade globally. With few signs of an off-ramp, and officials in Washington and Israel still expecting weeks more fighting, escalation was becoming the default strategy — though Trump’s allusion to constructive conversations with Iran (without saying who on the Iranian side had been talking, or where) suggests that might be changing.

What has become clear is that the supposed rift between the Gulf and Washington, driven by Trump’s decision to go to war despite the risk to Gulf security and prosperity, hasn’t emerged. Instead, there is growing recognition in Gulf capitals — excluding Muscat? — that the Iranian threat is now central to their security calculus for the long term.

However this conflict ends, Gulf states will need to confront and deter Iran’s missiles and drones, Anwar Gargash, diplomatic adviser to UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, said. To do so, the Gulf will need to “solidify our security partnerships with Washington.” Whatever the outcome of Trump’s ultimatum, he is unlikely to lose the support of Gulf leaders in a way that benefits Tehran (or China and Russia).





Ed: Mission accomplished. It’s worth noting that this mission mainly got accomplished by the Iranian regime, which proved the threats it posed to the region almost immediately. That made it very easy for the other Gulf states to choose the US as its partner rather than Iran, and the lack of effective assistance from Russia or China to Iran solidified those choices.  

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Ed: That’s different because SHUT UP FASCIST. More seriously, there is no war crime in attacking infrastructure that supports military and government operations, even if it also supports civilian activities. Trump has wanted to preserve those resources for the next government of Iran, not because targeting them amount to a war crime. Plus, why is no one discussing the attacks by Iran on civilian energy infrastructure and actual civilians throughout the region? 

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Shanaka Anslem Perera on X/Twitter: BREAKING: Iran built a subway system for ballistic missiles inside a granite mountain south of Yazd. Automated rails move warheads and transporter-erector-launchers between assembly halls, storage vaults, and three to ten blast-door exits carved into the mountainside at depths reaching 500 metres. A TEL rides the tracks to an exit, surfaces, fires, and retreats underground before the strike aircraft can respond. The mountain has been under construction for two decades. The IRGC did not build a bunker. It built a weapons factory with its own internal railway, buried deeper than any conventional bomb can reach.

The United States and Israel have struck Yazd Imam Hussein on March 1st, March 6th and March 17th and even earlier today!

Satellite imagery shows collapsed portals, cratered ventilation shafts, and destroyed surface infrastructure. The visible damage is real. The invisible infrastructure is intact. On March 20, a long-range ballistic missile launched from the Yazd complex, failed during boost phase, and crashed near Kohistan Park inside Yazd City itself. The launch failed. The fact that it happened at all is the proof. Three weeks of precision strikes on the portals did not stop the railway behind them from delivering a missile to a surviving exit.





Ed: Be sure to read all of this. It explains why eradicating Iran’s missile threat may be just as complicated as eliminating its nuclear threat, and may not be entirely possible with an air campaign alone. It will likely require regime change, a negotiated deal, or both. 

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Ed: The RNC needs to run this ad in prime time on all major networks and platforms, starting now. They should also run it in every airport. 

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Victoria Taft at PJ Media: Donald Trump just dipsey-doodled the Democrats. 

Only Trump can find leverage in the Democrats’ TSA defunding — turning those broke, unpaid TSA agents and the disastrously long lines at the nation’s airports into a teachable, brilliant, GOTCHA moment to behold. When Democrats figure out what hit them, they’ll be so tattooed with this disaster, even the leftist screechers will lead the effort to restore TSA funding. 

Things will change soon because local media in the woke cities are covering the increasing freak out by leftists because Donald Trump is replacing missing, unpaid, TSA agents with paid, and perhaps even masked, ICE agents to help process passengers.

If you’re laughing right now, it’s because you’ve been paying attention to the senselessness of the TSA defunding in the first place and can see Trump’s move.

Ed: I must admit, I had not gamed out using ICE agents to deal with this situation. That is brilliant. Is it sustainable? It might be a distraction from the current mission, but it also shifts enforcement to airports, where it has not been tried much in the past. That might prove very productive indeed. 

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Ed: Americans like out-of-the-box thinking that solves problems. That kind of thinking also makes the source of the problems more obvious, too. 

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Politico: One industry official familiar with the political dynamics of the funding stalemate, granted anonymity to speak candidly, said the ICE deployment is largely “performative,” with the agents not having certain badges to get into secure parts of airports and not being trained to check documents and bags.

However, helping “with queue management, I think that’s a real thing. They can help staff exit lanes,” the official added. “There could be some operational benefit.”

They said they hadn’t yet seen an official list of where ICE agents are being stationed, but had heard they will be at more than a dozen airports.

The official said “the pressure is untenable” and if lawmakers don’t cut a deal by Friday, “there’s probably a world where they stay” in Washington until there’s a resolution. “I think the chessboard is kind of set for this week,” they said.

Ed: Badges? Badges? They don’t need no stinkin’ badges! ICE agents are sworn officers of federal law enforcement. They have jurisdiction to go into any area of airports as they need to execute their missions. The arrival of ICE likely will raise pressure on Democrats to cut a deal, and it makes clear that Trump likes to use the “escalate to de-escalate” strategy in domestic politics as well. 

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This is a lie. You know they were trained.  

> This is what he’d rather do than pass the Democrats’ plan to get the lines moving and pay the TSA workers keeping us safe.

No, you guys are choosing this. And if you don’t like it, fund DHS. It is shameful that you are refusing to do this in the middle of a war.





Ed: Ken Martin is the chair of the DNC … the party that is whipping members to keep Homeland Security shut down in the middle of a war. 

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Ed: Deeeeep Democrat Thought of the Day. 

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NY Post: Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s wife was deeply involved in a Democratic socialist activist campaign pushing political candidates critical of Israel and backing a controversial bill targeting pro-Israel charities, The Post has learned.

First lady Rama Duwaji, a professional illustrator who Mamdani has bizarrely claimed isn’t a public figure, created artwork for the New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America as the lefty group unleashed a public campaign called “PalestineOnTheBallot.com.”

The effort promoted candidates running in Democratic Party primaries who snubbed funding from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and vowed to support the Not on Our Dime Act — a bill that would punish or dissolve registered charities found to support “Israeli settler violence.”

Ed: Her mediocre talent is the most objectionable part of this effort. 

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Ed: Deeeeeep Progressive ‘Christian’ Thought of the Day. Also: No one expects the Anglican Dildequisition!

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Ed: Click through to see how difficult it was to accomplish this task. For what it’s worth, we did all of this for my wife after moving to Texas (required for the state-issued Real ID card), and we got it all nearly instantly, EXCEPT for our marriage certificate. We never did get that from Orange County, California. Fortunately, we had her passport with her married name on it. 





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Ed: Christian Toto and I will be discussing this for tomorrow’s Off the Beaten Path. Bet on it. 


Editor’s note: If we thought our job in pushing back against the Academia/media/Democrat censorship complex was over with the election, think again. This is going to be a long fight. If you’re digging these Final Word posts and want to join the conversation in the comments — and support independent platforms — why not join our VIP Membership program? Choose VIP to support Hot Air and access our premium content, VIP Gold to extend your access to all Townhall Media platforms and participate in this show, or VIP Platinum to get access to even more content and discounts on merchandise. Use the promo code FIGHT to join or to upgrade your existing membership level today, and get 60% off!





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