Image by Don Hinchcliffe via Flickr Creative Commons https://www.flickr.com/photos/dionhinchcliffe/ License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/

Trump’s existence has driven the media absolutely insane.

We’ve now reached the point where Trump is being blamed for the attacks of a terrorist regime, not because he didn’t do enough or was negligent, but because he didn’t cave to their demands.

The background on this is that Iran attacked two tankers today, setting one ablaze and causing it’s crew to have to abandon ship. This is a further escalation of previous attacks over the last few weeks. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has confirmed the Iranian regime is behind the aggression and where it goes from here is still up in the air.

In a press conference Thursday afternoon, Pompeo said: “This assessment is based on intelligence, the weapons used, the level of expertise needed to execute the operation, recent similar Iranian attacks on shipping, and the fact that no proxy group operating in the area has the resources and proficiency to act with such a high degree of sophistication.”

He charged that Iran is working to disrupt the flow of oil through the Strait of Hormuz and this is a deliberate part of a campaign to escalate tension, adding that the U.S. will defend its forces and interests in the region, although he did not elaborate.

Upon hearing the news, this is how The Washington Post’s Beirut Bureau Chief, who covers the Middle East, described it.

Big escalation in the Persian Gulf. Two oil tankers struck and on fire in the Strait of Hormuz, focus of US-Iran tensions. Comes after Trump failed to heed the last tanker warning & imposed more sanctions https://t.co/zrEiVf5eIK

— Liz Sly (@LizSly) June 13, 2019

This is one of those tweets you have to read a few times to make sure it’s real. A mainstream press outlet is framing the attacks as Trump’s fault because he failed to “heed” the threats of the Mullahs. This would be akin to blaming Churchill for the Nazi invasion of France because he didn’t kowtow to Hitler’s demands upon taking office.

I guess it’d have been better if Trump sent pallets of cash to pay them off?

Honestly if we sent more pallets of cash things would be fine. Ransom is actually good.

— Comfortably Smug (@ComfortablySmug) June 13, 2019

The subversiveness of Iranian propaganda in our media environment is not healthy. We saw it under Obama, where Ben Rhodes admittedly to running an echo chamber and duping journalists in order to push an Iran friendly nuclear deal. Qatar, who serves as a proxy for Iranian interests, basically has their own office at The Washington Post at this point. Much of the outrage over Qatari agent Jamal Khashoggi’s death served mostly to bolster Iranian interests by trying to harm the budding Arab alliance.

While the media taking the side of adversaries isn’t completely new, it’s reached a new level of grossness under Donald Trump. There should be some things that just aren’t done and shilling for a terrorist regime is one of them.

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