THE SWAMP LOG: Dire Strait, Pentagon Bans Cartoons, Little Marco's Big Shoes
Your weekly dispatch from the nation’s capital
PRESENTED BY: Racket Readers Like You.
THE EXECUTIVE
The president arrived in D.C. late Sunday evening, and will participate in a meeting with the Trump Kennedy Center Board Members at the White House at 11:45 AM. Trump will meet with the United States Ambassador to Japan at 4:00 PM in the Oval Office.
DIRE STRAITS: News of the war in Iran this week could turn on President Donald Trump’s success in persuading allied countries and China to send warships to pry open the Strait of Hormuz, through which 20 percent of the world’s oil flows.
“We are talking to other countries on the policing of the Strait,” Trump said in a press gaggle aboard Air Force One on Sunday. “I think we’re getting good responses.”
“I’ll say this ... we will remember,” Trump emphasized.
So far, Japan and Australia have said no. The United Kingdom has been noncommittal. If China declines, it could jeopardize Trump’s scheduled summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing slated for March 31 to April 2.
Trump has repeatedly claimed victory in the war of attrition against Iranian military and naval assets. But on another front, Iran is winning the battle against global energy supply. Because of the narrowness of the Strait — reaching just 21 miles at its slimmest point — targeting tankers requires no more than a drone, shoulder-fired missile launcher or seabed mine.
“If there’s no response or if it’s a negative response I think it will be very bad for the future of [the North Atlantic Treaty Organization],” Trump later told the Financial Times. Europe has more minesweepers than the U.S., the paper reported.
“I’ve long said that NATO is a one-way street,” he said.
So far a full-blown crisis has been abated.
