Watch now   Tuesday Afternoon Updates: Trump's Trapped as War Keeps Growing — 3/3/26 Ben Meiselas and MeidasTouch Network Mar 3 Hi all, Ben here. It’s Tuesday morning, and there’s a whole lot of news. I’m going to walk through the key developments we’re tracking right now: Trump’s continued crash out, the growing war in Iran and across the Middle East, the administration’s contradictions, a jaw-dropping admission from inside Trump’s own national security team about what this war actually is, Trump’s unhinged press conference in the Oval Office, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem’s disastrous Senate appearance, and the undeniable trend of MAGA podcasters and influencers peeling away from Trump in real time. Let’s dive in. One of the most shocking updates this morning was the U.S. government telling Americans you’re on your own. The U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem issued a notice saying it is not in a position to evacuate or directly assist Americans departing Israel, and that people should make their “own security plans.” We spend billions on foreign policy infrastructure, we spend billions in aid, and when Americans are trying to get out of an active war zone, the message is: good luck, try commercial options. Nothing we can do. Sorry. Except “commercial options” are collapsing as the region gets hit. Airports across the Middle East are now part of the target set. That’s the reality Trump’s mess has created. We’re watching an expanding war with no coherent mission, no clear objectives, and no visible plan to protect Americans caught in the middle. And this isn’t happening in a vacuum. The Trump era gutting of government capacity matters here. When you hollow out the State Department, leave key diplomatic posts unfilled, treat career professionals like enemies, and run foreign policy like you’re a character in a B-action movie, you end up with disastrous results. On the ground, we’re seeing the war spread outward through ports, energy infrastructure, and strategic chokepoints. This morning there were reports of thick black smoke rising from the port of Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates, an oil terminal south of the Strait of Hormuz, after a drone attack hit oil storage. We’re also seeing strikes and damage reported at ports in Oman. At the same time, Israel is reportedly evacuating embassy staff from the UAE, Dubai and Abu Dhabi, back to Israel. And in Iran, the conflict is escalating at the leadership level too. Reports indicate the building tied to Iran’s Assembly of Experts in Qom was destroyed in strikes while senior figures were gathered during a process connected to selecting a new supreme leader. Whatever anyone thinks of the Ayatollah and the regime, and I don’t have any kind words to say about a repressive theocracy, this is exactly how you accelerate radicalization and deepen hatred toward the United States and its allies. The economic effects are already being felt. Gas and oil prices are jumping fast, and markets opened ugly this morning with major indexes sharply down early in the session. A big driver is the Strait of Hormuz, which has been threatened, restricted, and at points effectively shut down. Much of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas flows through the Strait. There are other knock-on effects too. When global supply is disrupted, alternative sources become more valuable—and that includes Russian crude. So while Trump lights the Middle East on fire, Russia gets a financial boost. Putin is loving every second of this. We’re also seeing allies and regional players scrambling into defensive postures. France, for example, has reportedly deployed fighter jets over the UAE to protect its bases, while trying to avoid expanding its role. Iraq has suspended certain oil operations and shipments due to bottlenecks and the broader instability. And U.S. embassies are issuing blunt security alerts warning of imminent missile or drone attacks in parts of the region, telling people to shelter low, away from windows, and not to go outside. One of the most revealing moments earlier came in testimony involving Elbridge Colby, a top Defense Department official under Trump. Senator Elizabeth Warren completely exposed the Trump administration sham that they are against interventionism. Trump’s public messaging has constantly railed against interventionism, endless wars, regime change, and nation building. Yet the administration is doing exactly the kind of operation it campaigned against. Here’s a transcript of exchange: Warren: The Trump administration's national defense strategy: No longer will the department be distracted by interventionism, endless wars, regime change, and nation building. Colby: This is not nation building. Warren: So this is not interventionism? Colby: No. Interventionism is more a responsibility to protect— Warren: Really? And we didn’t do this to try to protect Israel? Colby: That’s one of the goals. Warren: So it is interventionism. Colby’s responses essentially tried to hand-wave away definitions that are obvious to anyone with a working brain. But so much of this is because the Trump regime went into this war with no plan and no clear end game. The administration is now floating ideas like supporting Kurdish factions or other anti-regime groups as a substitute for boots on the ground, after a long history of betraying those very groups. Every shift in messaging reveals more of their desperation and incompetence. Meanwhile, we can’t lose sight of the human toll of war. Six U.S. service members have been killed in Kuwait, and reporting has revealed that there were concerns ahead of time about concentrating troops in a location that wasn’t defensible. Those concerns reportedly went up the chain and were ignored. A mass-casualty strike at a school in Iran now has a death toll around 140, most of them children and teachers. The horrors, unfortunately, are only just beginning. Then came Trump’s press conference with Germany’s chancellor Friedrich Merz. It was another humiliating spectable. Trump brushed off rising oil prices. He claimed he’s receiving unprecedented praise for attacking Iran. When asked why there was no evacuation plan for Americans, he said it was because everything so fast. That’s not an acceptable excuse. He also threatened other countries. Because we can definitely afford to lose even more allies right now (sarcasm). Spain was today’s main target. Trump floated cutting off all dealings or imposing trade embargos against Trump because Spain didn’t want to be dragged into his war or allow certain basing/airspace support. He complained about the UK as well. Trump also claimed the U.S. has “unlimited” ammunition and munitions, while simultaneously blaming Biden for supposedly giving too much away. Reports affirm that the U.S. is running low on supply of many vital weapons, despite Trump’s claims. The presser continued to go off-the-rails in typical Trump fashion. He continued to pretend the Supreme Court gave him new tariff powers even though he lost the case, he rambled about planes filled with cash, and boasted about terminating the Iran nuclear deal. Then, he offered a worst-case scenario in Iran: “I guess the worst case would be we do this and then somebody takes over who’s as bad as the previous person, right? That could happen.” Yes, that’s indeed a direct quote. Back on Capitol Hill, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem’s faceplanted during a bipartisan grilling before the Senate. Republican Senator Thom Tillis ripped into Noem: “What we've seen is a disaster under your leadership, Ms. Noem. What we've seen is innocent people getting detained that turn out are American citizens. I could talk about the culture that's been created here with Stephen Miller aiding and abetting. Time, after time, after time, I've been disappointed.” And through all of this, Trump’s information ecosystem is showing signs of collapse. MAGA figures who spent years training their audiences to treat Trump like an infallible brand are now openly criticizing him over this war. People like Megyn Kelly and Matt Walsh are turning against the administration over their actions. Walsh even called out the gaslighting from right wingers who pretended they were against regime-change wars until Trump decided to start one. The propaganda pipeline is breaking. And then you have the White House press operation trying to clamp down, including public pushback against dissenting right-wing voices. Don’t you dare disagree with Dear Leader! The White House is now rushing to try to walk back a war justification stated by Marco Rubio, Mike Johnson, and Senator Tom Cotton. Each of them said some version of Rubio’s comments, transcribed here: Rubio: “I’ve been asked: why now? One reason why is it was abundantly clear that if Iran came under attack by anyone, the United States or Israel or anyone, they were going to respond and respond against the United States. If we stood and waited for that attack to come first, before we hit them, we would suffer much higher casualties We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action, we knew that that would precipitate an attack against American forces.” So that’s where we are. Americans are being told to fend for themselves abroad while the war expands across the region. Energy infrastructure is getting hit, markets are reacting, and oil is surging. The administration can’t articulate consistent goals, can’t explain an endpoint, they are unable to give simple, straight answers to the America public after they lied us into yet another Middle East war. Trump’s public appearances are escalating international tensions with allies at the worst possible moment. DHS leadership is flailing under Senate scrutiny. And the MAGA media ecosystem is continuing to turn. We’re going to continue to follow all the updates. Stay tuned and check the MeidasTouch YouTube channel and podcast for more throughout the day. MeidasTouch editor-in-chief Ron Filipkowski will be publishing his daily bulletin later with all the day’s news, so keep a lookout! Thanks for watching, reading, and subscribing. Meidas+ is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.