Where this was said
Iran War: Three Months In, No Deal, and the Strait Is Still Closed
At 29:40 · chapter starts 23:05
Tommy Vietor opens with a cold reality check: three months of war, weeks of siren-emoji tweets about imminent peace deals, and not a single ship is freely transiting the Strait of Hormuz. The US military has escorted roughly 70 ships through over several weeks — compared to 130 per day during peacetime — as nations drain strategic reserves to avoid an economic crash. Tommy details the stalled deal framework: a 60-day fighting pause, unrestricted shipping resumption, and hard follow-on negotiations over the nuclear program; plus a proposed $300 billion post-war investment fund that sounds to him like the JCPOA with Gulf-state laundering. Ben blasts Axios for credulously amplifying leak after leak about imminent deals, calling it a tool of oil market manipulation. He also dissects Trump's Obama obsession: whatever deal eventually emerges will almost certainly mirror the JCPOA's mechanism of releasing previously frozen Iranian assets through third-party countries, and Ben urges journalists to call it out. Trump's own quote — 'I thought they started to get very boring' — captures the incoherence at the center of US policy. [1] — Tommy Vietor "Three months into the Iran war, the Strait of Hormuz is still closed. The 130 ships per day that transited it during peacetime have been re…" 23:05 [2] — Tommy Vietor "130 ships/day vs. 70 escorted in weeks: During peacetime, 130 ships per day transited the Strait of Hormuz; since the Iran war began, the U…" 26:58
Three months into the Iran war, the Strait of Hormuz is still closed. The 130 ships per day that transited it during peacetime have been replaced by a trickle of ~70 US-escorted ships over several weeks. Countries are burning through strategic reserves to prop up energy markets, but each passing day moves closer to an economic crash that far exceeds any peace-talk headline.
The New York Times reported a proposed $300 billion post-war investment fund for Iran, with Trump wanting Gulf states to fund it so the US can claim it isn't providing the money directly.
During peacetime, 130 ships per day transited the Strait of Hormuz; since the Iran war began, the US military has only escorted roughly 70 ships total over several weeks.
Marco Rubio went to Capitol Hill and claimed Operation Epic Fury had substantially degraded Iran's missile program. Reporting tells a completely different story: over 70% of Iran's ballistic missiles and launchers are intact, the Iranian Navy still controls the Strait of Hormuz, and satellite imagery reveals 20 US military bases were damaged — something the Pentagon has never disclosed to American taxpayers.
