Watch now   Thursday Afternoon News Updates as Noem is FIRED and Trump Loses Control of War — 3/5/26 Ben Meiselas and MeidasTouch Network Mar 5 It’s Wednesday afternoon and we’re finally in the back half of the week. A lot has happened over the past 24 hours, and if you’re trying to make sense of the rapidly escalating situation around the world, here are the latest updates I’m tracking. First, let’s get into the breaking news. Kristi Noem is OUT as Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. Her cardinal sin: telling Congress that Trump signed off on her absurd $225 million ad campaign for the agency, which featured her prominently. Noem was grilled on this issue by Republican Senator John Kennedy, and her answers were apparently the final straw for Trump. Not because her agency killing multiple Americans on the streets. Not her disastrous handling of FEMA during natural disasters. Not her reported affair with Corey Lewandowski. Not her firing a member of the Coast Guard because he forgot to take her “blanky” off her plane.” Not because she didn’t deploy the Urban Search and Rescue teams for more than 72 hours after floods struck Texas. Not for admitting she killed her dog, Cricket. And I could go on and on and on… But rather, the final straw was her saying that it was Trump’s idea to spend over $200 million on commercials that she starred in. Trump says Oklahoma Senator Markwayne Mullin will become the United States Secretary of Homeland Security, effective March 31, 2026, noting that Noem will be moving to be Special Envoy for The Shield of the Americas, a soon-to-be announced initiative. We will have a full report posting on YouTube about this shortly. More on this as it develops… Meanwhile, the war in Iran is getting more dangerous by the hour. One of the major developments today involves the leadership transition inside Iran. After the killing of the Ayatollah during Trump’s strike, Iran appears to be moving toward elevating his son, Mojtaba Khamenei, into power. That’s significant because many analysts view him as even more hardline and extreme than his father. Trump responded in a way that only further inflamed tensions. During an interview with Axios today, Trump essentially argued that he should have a say in who becomes Iran’s next supreme leader. According to Trump, the choice of Iran’s new Ayatollah is “unacceptable” unless it aligns with his vision for the region. I have to be involved in the appointment, like with Delcy [Rodriguez] in Venezuela,” Trump said. The idea that the United States president would claim authority over the selection of a Shiite religious leader governing tens of millions of people in another country is the kind of rhetoric that only further radicalizes the region. And we’re already seeing the consequences. Overnight and into this morning, Iran launched a new wave of ballistic missile and drone attacks across the Middle East. Explosions were reported in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. Iranian missiles struck the Bahrain Petroleum Company refinery, igniting massive fires that are still burning. Videos circulating online show multiple missiles slamming into the facility as flames spread across the complex. Other footage shows Iranian ballistic missiles traveling at high altitude across Jordan. There are also reports that Iran targeted infrastructure near an airport in Azerbaijan within the past twelve hours. Meanwhile, rhetoric from Iranian leadership is becoming even more extreme. One of Iran’s most senior clerics went on state television declaring that the nation faces a “great test” and openly called for violence against both Israel and Trump. Iran’s foreign minister also pushed back against reports that a ceasefire is being negotiated. According to him, there are no negotiations happening and Iran has not agreed to any pause in fighting. Another flashpoint involves a naval incident that’s now drawing international criticism. Iran and several regional commentators say the United States sank an Iranian vessel near Sri Lanka using submarine torpedoes. The ship, called the Dena, was reportedly participating in a ceremonial naval parade connected to exercises in India. India had required participating ships to be unarmed as a condition of the event. Iran claims the United States was aware of those conditions and still carried out the strike, killing potentially around one hundred sailors aboard the ship. The U.S. position is that the vessel was a legitimate military target during wartime. But the optics of that strike are fueling anger throughout the region. At the same time, reports continue to emerge about Trump attempting to pressure Kurdish forces into launching a ground invasion of Iran. This is particularly risky given the complicated relationships among Kurdish groups spread across several countries From what I’m hearing, Kurdish leadership is resisting the push. Many of those groups remember being abandoned by Trump during his first administration when U.S. forces withdrew from Syria. Their concern is that they would again be left exposed after being pushed into a conflict. There were even reports circulating yesterday claiming Kurdish forces were already invading Iran, but those claims appear to have been false. The concern among analysts is that leaking those reports may have been an attempt to provoke Iranian retaliation against Kurdish regions and drag them into the conflict. Iraq’s Kurdish First Lady, Shanaz Ibrahim Ahmed, released a stunning statement telling Trump, “Leave the Kurds Alone. We Are Not Guns for Hire.” Here’s her full statement below: Sulaymaniah, Iraq - In 1991, the Kurds were urged to rise up against the regime of Saddam Hussein, only to be abandoned when priorities changed. No one came to our defense when the regime deployed helicopter gunships and tanks to crush the uprising. Those memories remain vivid and etched in our minds. Today, we commemorate that chapter as “Raparin” and we do not forget what it taught us. More recently, we saw what happened in Northeast Syria, or Rojava. After all the promises that were made, after Syria’s Kurds stood on the front lines of the war against ISIS, we witnessed how they were treated. Today, the Kurds of Iraq have finally tasted a measure of stability and dignity in life. Because of this, it is very difficult, indeed impossible, for Kurds to accept being treated as pawns by the world’s superpowers. The experiences are there. The empty promises are there. Too often, the Kurds are remembered only when their strength or sacrifice is needed. For that reason, I appeal to all sides involved in this conflict. Leave the Kurds alone. We are not guns for hire. While all of this unfolds overseas, the administration in Washington can’t seem to agree on whether the United States is actually at war. Trump himself has insisted the United States is not in a war with Iran. Yet his own administration officials keep describing the situation as war, and Trump keeps using the word “war” to describe the conflict. In interviews and congressional hearings, different officials have used phrases like “combat operations,” “significant military action,” or simply called it war outright. Members of Congress are now openly acknowledging the contradiction. If this is a war, then the Constitution requires Congress to authorize it. That hasn’t happened. Meanwhile, the economic consequences are already hitting Americans. The Strait of Hormuz — one of the most important oil shipping routes in the world — is effectively closed due to the fighting. Oil markets have reacted instantly. Gas prices are surging across the United States at one of the fastest rates seen in years. Gas now costs more than it did before Trump was president. The stock market is also collapsing, with the Dow more than 1,000 points. Side note: Hey Pam Bondi, does this mean you can start prosecuting the pedos now? Lawmakers are scrambling for solutions, including proposals to temporarily suspend federal gas taxes to soften the price spikes. But those are short-term band-aids for a crisis that could last months or longer. Despite all of this, Trump’s social media activity today paints a very different picture. Instead of addressing the war, Trump spent much of the day posting about pardons for former NFL players, promoting his ballroom project, and sharing weeks-old articles claiming economic success. One of the articles he posted celebrating falling mortgage rates was from February 19 — more than two weeks old. Another post touted a supposed $18 trillion wave of foreign investment into the United States, a figure that is just completely made up. At the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth delivered a speech invoking something he called a “Trump corollary” to the Monroe Doctrine. The speech framed the administration’s global military actions — including recent troop deployments to Ecuador — as part of a broader campaign against what he described as “radical narco-communism.” Hegseth’s comments are raising alarms among foreign policy experts who worry the administration is expanding conflicts across multiple regions simultaneously. Back in Congress, some Republicans are already preparing Americans for a long and painful period ahead. Senators and representatives supporting the war have begun warning that things will be “bumpy” for a while. Administration officials continue to extend the timeline, with reporting now saying insiders in the Pentagon are admitting the war could last through at least September. The GOP’s defense of these chaotic wars is a stunning, though unsurprising departure from campaign rhetoric from just a year ago, when many of these same politicians promised immediate prosperity and stability. International backlash is also growing. One of the most prominent voices speaking out today is Emirati billionaire Khalaf Ahmad Al Habtoor. In a public statement, he demanded to know who gave Trump the authority to drag the entire Middle East into war with Iran. He warned that the countries most likely to suffer from escalation are the nations in the region themselves — the Gulf states that now find themselves directly in the line of fire. He also raised another critical question: whether the war is undermining regional peace initiatives that Gulf countries had invested billions of dollars into supporting. And perhaps the most important reality check right now is this: the expectation that killing Iran’s Ayatollah would trigger regime collapse has not materialized. Instead, the opposite appears to be happening. Analysts report that the Iranian government’s base has become more mobilized and unified. The former leader is now viewed by many supporters as a martyr. And his successor may prove even more hardline. That’s where things stand as we head into the second half of the week. A Trump administration in chaos. A widening war. Rising oil prices. Escalating attacks across the region. Confusion inside the U.S. government about what the mission even is. A collapsing stock market. We’ll keep tracking these developments closely as the situation continues to evolve. Thanks for subscribing. Meidas+ is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.