IRAN WAR UPDATE: Israel killed Iran’s security chief, Ali Larijani, who up until a few months ago, was on the short list for candidates the US wanted to run Iran. Trump reiterated his appeals for European countries to join his war in Iran. Greek PM Mitsotakis this morning said that Europe wil not enter the war. Keep in mind that Trump has spent the last year of his presidency bashing Europe, bashing their militaries, threatening them with war over Greenland, not consulting them about war with Iran, and then, when Britain tried to send ships, Trump refused them. But now, after Trump claimed we already defeated Iran, Trump is desperate for Europe to send troops. Reuters reports that prior to the start of American airstrikes, Trump was briefed on intelligence reports that Iran could retaliate and attack U.S. Gulf allies. Trump yesterday claimed no one told him that Iran might attack its Gulf neighbors if the US attacked Iran. It has been widely known that this was a possibility for the 40 years that I’ve studied international relations. NBC reports that Military officials have included options in regular war planning for President Donald Trump to end the conflict in Iran should he decide to do so, six people familiar with the plans told NBC News. So far, he hasn't. Iran is permitting safe passage of ships from some countries it deems friendly. Oil prices are up slightly this morning, about 1%. US gasoline pridces continue to steadily rise. Regular is now at $3.81/gallon. It was around $2.90 before the Trump invaded. Top Trump economic adviser Kevin Hassett says: "If the war were to be extended, it wouldn't really disrupt the US economy very much at all. It would hurt consumers, and we'd have to think about what we'd have to do about that, but that's really the last of our concerns right now." Nearly half of generic prescriptions used in the US come from India, which relies on The Strait of Hormuz to import critical materials used to manufacture and ship them, and 90% of all prescriptions filled in the US are generic brand. An Iranian-backed militia successfully used a (likely fiber optic) FPV drone to carry out a reconnaissance mission through the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad yesterday. Seen in video, the drone flies unchallenged through the embassy complex for nearly two minutes. Trump has postponed his trip to China, saying he doesn’t want to be away during the war. Trump’s die-hard MAGA Director of the National Counterterrorism Center has resigned in protest over the war in Iran, blaming Israel for pressuring the US to start the war. He is/was a top deputy of Director of National Intelligence Tusli Gabbard, who also vehemelty opposed attacking Iran before she started working for Trump. NOTUS reports that months before the Trump administration started bombing Iran, the Department of State fired its oil and gas experts. Treason update from CNN’s Daniel Dale The White House got back to me with three examples of media outlets that quoted Iran's claim that it struck the USS Lincoln...but none of the outlets is American. One is Israeli, one Saudi, one Turkish. (And none of the stories included Al videos.) The president had strongly suggested he was talking about US media when he said outlets that spread the Lincoln story should be charged with "TREASON." Trump claimed Monday that he spoke with a former president who secretly supported his bombing Iran. Bush says no, Clinton says no, Obama says no. Trump’s people now claim it was Biden. Sure. Trump called Biden for advice. And Biden says he wished he’d gotten us into a never-ending war in Iran? And GOP House speaker Mike Johnson gave another convoluted justification for the war in Iran: "There was clearly an imminent threat that Iran was very close to the enrichment of nuclear capability and they were building missiles at a pace that no one in the region could keep up with... And we knew that their plan was to fire them upon Americans."