The American Conservative Morning Briefing

The American Conservative
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A short morning synopsis of TAC's coverage

  1. 17h ago

    September 16, 2026

    Good morning! Today is Wednesday, September 16th 2026, and this is The American Conservative's Morning Brief. Zelensky grows increasingly isolated as anti-corruption probes close in on his inner circle, prompting a purge of top generals, sanctions against a former press secretary turned peace advocate, and the theatrical ouster of a scandal-tainted prosecutor general. The Iran War hits day two hundred with Foreign Minister Araghchi heading to Beijing, a Pentagon inspector general report flagging munitions shortfalls, and diesel hitting a record six dollars and twenty-seven cents a gallon. Congressman Thomas Massie forces a House vote on articles of impeachment against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over unauthorized military operations in Iran, putting vulnerable Republicans in a political bind. and now for the details. We begin in Ukraine, where President Volodymyr Zelensky is increasingly isolated as corruption scandals close in around his government, and Western support shows signs of cracking. In recent weeks Zelensky has sacked his defense minister, his commander-in-chief, and the chief of his general staff. This past Sunday, he slapped sanctions on his own former press secretary, Iulia Mendel, who had become a prominent voice calling for peace. And on Monday, he publicly ousted his prosecutor general, Ruslan Kravchenko, who was already under scrutiny after anti-corruption investigators raided his office and uncovered a scheme involving racketeering and money laundering. As Andrew Day reports for The American Conservative, the anti-corruption inquiries are creeping closer and closer to Zelensky himself. Day spoke with analyst Balazs Jarabik of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, who suspects Zelensky orchestrated Kravchenko's departure as political theater—allowing him to leave the country in an official car in exchange for signing a last-minute notice of suspicion against the head of one of the very anti-corruption watchdogs investigating him. Meanwhile, President Trump has publicly told Zelensky to stop striking Russian oil refineries, envoy Jared Kushner has blamed Kyiv for the lack of diplomatic progress, and the European Union has postponed a deadline for extending sanctions against Russia. Ukraine also faces a twenty-seven billion dollar budget shortfall heading into what promises to be a brutal winter of Russian air attacks. As Jarabik told Day, "This is the tragedy of Zelensky, in the end. He remains alone, he has no team left." Turning to the Iran War, which today marks its two-hundredth day. Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi travels to Beijing on Wednesday, after Chinese President Xi Jinping offered over the weekend to help mediate the conflict. But as Jude Russo reports, a diplomatic resolution still looks distant. Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran's National Security Council, dismissed President Trump's suggestion that talks could be imminent, writing that there would be "no talks until Iran's conditions are met." The Pentagon's inspector general has released its first report to Congress on the war, covering April through June. The report found that munitions expenditure in Operation Epic Fury has, in its words, "resulted in strategic inventory shortfalls and revealed industrial base bottlenecks for munitions resupply." It also flagged difficulties in securing naval basing in the Persian Gulf and the strain of relying on Diego Garcia for logistics. Bloomberg reports the UK government is weighing intervention to help Saudi Arabia against Yemen's Houthis, who have made significant gains on the Red Sea coast. Combined with pro-Iran Iraqi militia strikes on the Saudi East-West Pipeline, energy markets are feeling the pressure. Brent crude opened Tuesday at one hundred six dollars a barrel. AAA reports the national average at four dollars and thirty-three cents for regular gasoline and a new all-time record of six dollars and twenty-seven cents for diesel. On Capitol Hill, Republican Congressman Thomas Massie of Kentucky introduced articles of impeachment Tuesday against Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, accusing him of high crimes and misdemeanors over the continued military operations in Iran without congressional authorization. As Spencer Neale reports, Massie introduced the measure as privileged, meaning the House will be forced to take up the resolution—though it is unlikely to pass in the Trump-controlled chamber. The maneuver will put Republican lawmakers on the record over Hegseth's handling of the war. Neale notes the vote could pose a difficult political choice for Republicans such as Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania and Tom Barrett of Michigan, both of whom have joined Democrats and Massie in voting for recent measures to curb the president's war powers, and both of whom face competitive reelection contests in November. Massie himself lost his Republican primary in May to a Trump-backed challenger for whom Hegseth had campaigned. Those are today's highlights. For the full st

  2. 1d ago

    September 15, 2026

    Good morning! Today is Tuesday, September 15th 2026, and this is The American Conservative's Morning Brief. President Trump's recent broadsides against British sovereignty over the Falklands and Northern Ireland have alienated even his staunchest allies on the British right, with Nigel Farage, Kemi Badenoch, and Rupert Lowe all publicly breaking with him. Charlie Nash argues there is a profound irony in a supposedly nationalist administration failing to understand the nationalism of its closest ally, risking permanent damage to a partnership no transactional alliance can replace. On day 199 of the Iran War, Trump floated a permanent American claim on Iranian oil while signaling openness to negotiations, as Brent crude opened at 108 dollars a barrel and diesel hit a record 6 dollars and 23 cents per gallon. and now for the details. We begin this morning across the Atlantic, where the special relationship between Britain and the United States is under significant strain. In recent weeks, President Trump has issued a series of statements that have alienated even his staunchest British allies. The president suggested the United States would not necessarily come to Britain's aid should Argentina again move on the Falkland Islands, a remark that emboldened Argentine President Javier Milei to escalate Buenos Aires's sovereignty campaign and threaten sanctions against companies operating in the islands. Days later, Trump said he would like to see Northern Ireland severed from the United Kingdom and unified with the Republic of Ireland, calling it something that would be, in his words, a great feather in everybody's cap. The response from Britain's right was swift. Restore Britain leader Rupert Lowe called the remarks unacceptable and insulting. Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch declared the Falklands British regardless of what Trump says. Reform UK's Nigel Farage, who campaigned onstage for Trump in both 2016 and 2020, publicly broke with the president, saying the people of Northern Ireland neither want a referendum nor unification. Tensions rose further after reports that the Trump administration used U.S. Marines to remove an alleged pedophile diplomat from the London embassy, and news that Washington plans to sell Black Hawk helicopters to Argentina. As Charlie Nash writes in The American Conservative, there is a profound irony in a supposedly nationalist administration failing to understand the nationalism of its closest ally. Nash argues that just as Britain is rediscovering the importance of national sovereignty, the Trump administration risks permanent damage to a partnership that no transactional alliance can replace, a relationship rooted in shared institutions, language, military tradition, and cultural inheritance. Turning to the Iran War, now in its 199th day. President Trump told reporters during his visit to Ireland on Sunday that the United States would consider a permanent interest in Iran's oil industry. In his words, we'll ultimately get out unless we decide to stay and keep the oil, like Venezuela. The president again predicted the war would wind down after the American midterm elections, at which point, he said, oil prices would come tumbling down. Trump also reiterated that he would not intervene in the conflict between Saudi Arabia and Yemen's Houthis, who made significant territorial gains against the internationally recognized Yemeni government last week, increasing their ability to threaten Red Sea shipping. On Tuesday morning, Trump said in a social media post that he was open to the concept of negotiating with what he called the failing Nation of Iran. Meanwhile, a planned meeting on the future of the Strait of Hormuz between the Gulf nations and Iran was postponed. Jude Russo reports that Brent crude opened Monday at 108 dollars per barrel, with AAA reporting a national average of 4 dollars and 32 cents for regular gasoline, and a new all-time record of 6 dollars and 23 cents per gallon of diesel. Those are today's highlights. For the full stories and more, visit theamericanconservative.com. Thank you for starting your morning with us.

  3. 2d ago

    September 14, 2026

    Good morning! Today is Monday, September 14th 2026, and this is The American Conservative's Morning Brief. On day 198 of the Iran war, Xi Jinping offers Beijing's "due role" in Middle East peace at the BRICS summit, even as U.S. officials accuse Chinese entities of feeding Tehran satellite imagery used in a deadly strike on American troops in Jordan. A vessel struck in the Strait of Hormuz and today's Iran-Gulf talks in Oman underscore how fragile the world's most vital energy chokepoint has become ahead of the September 24 Trump-Xi meeting. From a Copenhagen coffee shop, Peter Van Buren contrasts the ghoulish arithmetic of American retirement with a Danish system whose modestly higher taxes buy something Americans rarely know: the absence of constant financial fear. and now for the details. We begin with the ongoing war with Iran, now in its 198th day, and growing signs that China is drawing closer to the conflict. Speaking at the BRICS summit in New Delhi over the weekend, Chinese President Xi Jinping said Beijing is willing to play what he called its "due role" in helping bring peace to the Middle East, warning that the war has caused serious losses across the region. Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian and Russia's Vladimir Putin were also in attendance, with the eleven-country bloc issuing a joint statement urging restraint and criticizing sanctions not authorized by the United Nations. But as Andrew Day reports, Washington is also seeing fresh evidence that Beijing has been quietly assisting Iran's war effort. Citing U.S. officials, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday that Chinese entities provided Tehran with high-resolution satellite imagery of an American Air Force base in Jordan ahead of a deadly attack that killed three American troops and wounded four more. Beijing denies the allegation. The revelations come just ahead of a scheduled White House meeting between Xi and President Trump on September 24. Meanwhile, an Iranian commercial vessel was struck in the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday, leaving one dead and four wounded. Iran and Gulf states are set to meet in Oman today to discuss the strait, a chokepoint for global energy trade that Tehran effectively closed at the outset of the war. Turning to matters closer to the American kitchen table, a dispatch from Copenhagen raises hard questions about the anxieties that shadow ordinary American life. Peter Van Buren writes from a Danish coffee shop, where he found himself calculating whether his retirement savings would outlast him, weighing nursing home costs, inflation, and the solvency of Social Security and Medicare. Looking around the room, he realized none of the Danes near him carried that same weight. Every Dane, he notes, receives universal healthcare, free public schools and universities, pensions, generous unemployment insurance, subsidized child care, and near cost-free elder care. Van Buren describes trying to explain the American healthcare maze, with its HMOs, PPOs, deductibles, IRMAA surcharges, and Medicare Parts A through D, to Danes who laughed in disbelief. He walks through the ghoulish calculations Americans make about when to claim Social Security or whether to leave a pension for a surviving spouse. According to OECD figures Van Buren cites, the average American tax wedge sits at about 30 percent; the Danish figure is 36 percent, but in exchange Danes receive comprehensive benefits and five or more weeks of paid vacation. Van Buren's argument is not a call to import Scandinavia wholesale, but a challenge to a system that, he writes, places so much emphasis on making the right private choices or personally suffering the consequences, while delivering comparatively little for what Americans already pay. What he envied in Copenhagen, he concludes, was not the architecture or the bicycles, but the absence of constant financial fear. Those are today's highlights. For the full stories and more, visit theamericanconservative.com. Thank you for starting your morning with us.

  4. 3d ago

    September 13, 2026

    Good morning! Today is Sunday, September 13th 2026, and this is The American Conservative's Morning Brief. Amid record-low approval for President Trump's foreign policy, Luke Nicastro argues the administration has quietly succeeded in the Indo-Pacific, pursuing strategic stability with China through realism, rapprochement, and Elbridge Colby's balance of denial defense and active diplomacy. As the Iran War enters its 197th day, Trump has rebuffed Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's push for strikes on the Houthis, even as the Iran-backed group seizes strategic territory near the Bab al-Mandab Strait and gasoline prices climb to $4.31 a gallon. and now for the details. We begin with a look at one bright spot in an otherwise troubled foreign policy landscape. A Quinnipiac poll released last week found just 33 percent of Americans approve of President Trump's handling of foreign affairs, the worst figure of either term. More than six months of war with Iran, a spiraling trade fight with Canada, ongoing bloodshed in Ukraine, and a hardening posture in Latin America have all taken their toll. But writing for The American Conservative, Luke Nicastro argues there is one region where the administration has quietly succeeded, and that is the Indo-Pacific. Nicastro reports that the White House is pursuing what its National Defense Strategy calls a "decent peace" with China, deemphasizing security provocations, expanding military-to-military dialogue, and shifting the frame of the relationship toward economics. He credits Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby, a committed realist, with balancing diplomatic engagement against a strong denial defense along the first island chain. Jennifer Kavanagh of Defense Priorities told Nicastro that Trump has made "very positive moves" by prioritizing stability over confrontation. A tariff truce is holding, and Xi Jinping is expected to visit the United States later this month. Not everyone is satisfied. The New York Times editorial board has accused the president of going wobbly. And analysts Nicastro spoke with warn that 80,000 U.S. troops near China's shores may still preclude lasting stability, and that a future administration may reverse course on Taiwan. Still, Nicastro concludes, the approach marks a dramatic improvement, rooted in Trump's willingness to treat Beijing as a geopolitical peer with legitimate interests. Turning to the Middle East, the Iran War has entered its 197th day. Andrew Day reports that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, in two phone calls Thursday, urged President Trump to launch strikes against the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen. According to Axios, Trump declined, though the commander of U.S. Central Command traveled to Saudi Arabia for meetings. Speaking to reporters Saturday, Trump said the Houthis "called us, and they don't want to fight with us," and offered assurances that things will "work out fine and dandy." The stakes on the ground are rising. Day reports that the Houthis have seized strategic territory near the Bab al-Mandab Strait, a critical chokepoint for global trade and energy. With Iran already restricting traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, Houthi control of the Bab al-Mandab would give Tehran additional leverage. The Saudi Energy Ministry has also shut down its East-West oil pipeline after drone attacks launched from Iraq. Gulf Arab states are set to meet with Iran in Oman on Monday to discuss the Hormuz situation. Meanwhile, in a September 11th commemoration ceremony, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth linked the terror attacks to the ongoing war, vowing that "we will finish this fight." The cost at home is measurable at the pump. The average price of gasoline in America stood at $4.31 per gallon Saturday, up from $2.98 before the war began. Those are today's highlights. For the full stories and more, visit theamericanconservative.com. Thank you for starting your morning with us.

  5. 4d ago

    September 12, 2026

    Good morning! Today is Saturday, September 12th 2026, and this is The American Conservative's Morning Brief. Houthi forces seized Perim Island and the port of Mokha, giving the Iran-aligned militia effective control of Yemen's entire Red Sea coastline as the war with Iran enters its 196th day. U.S. diesel prices hit a record $6.06 a gallon and August inflation climbed to 3.4 percent, with energy costs from the Iran war rippling through farms, freight, and the Fed's next rate decision. Jude Russo argues a congressional commission on the Iran war could give both parties political cover to reopen the question of executive war powers and revive constitutional government. and now for the details. We begin with the war against Iran, now in its one hundred and ninety-sixth day. Yemen's Houthi rebels seized Perim Island in the Red Sea on Friday, expanding their control over the Bab el-Mandeb strait. That capture came a day after the Iran-aligned militia took the port city of Mokha from forces loyal to Yemen's internationally recognized government. According to reporting compiled by Luke Nicastro, the Houthis now hold functional control over Yemen's entire Red Sea coastline, raising fears they could throttle shipping through the waterway and drive oil prices higher still. The advance poses particular problems for Saudi Arabia, which exports much of its oil through the Red Sea. The Houthis have also struck Saudi oil infrastructure in recent days, including possible strikes that shut down the Kingdom's East-West pipeline on Friday. CNN reported that more than 100 U.S. military advisors are on the ground in Saudi Arabia providing intelligence and targeting support. Iran, for its part, called Friday for an end to the Saudi blockade of Houthi-held areas and a return to negotiations. Elsewhere, Israel demolished what it called a large Hezbollah facility in southern Lebanon, triggering a 4.1 magnitude earthquake. At home, President Trump attended a ceremony at the Pentagon marking the 25th anniversary of 9/11 and directly tied those attacks to the current war with Iran. Nicastro also notes that the New York Times reported Vice President J.D. Vance has independently sought out military commanders' unvarnished assessments of the war's goals, tactics, and likely trajectory. Brent crude closed Friday just above $100 a barrel. The costs of that war are showing up at the pump. U.S. diesel prices hit a record high Friday, reaching $6.06 a gallon, according to the motorist group AAA. That's up from $5.98 a day earlier and $5.85 a week ago. As Spencer Neale reports, the Iran war is the biggest factor in the surge, as crude oil traffic through the Strait of Hormuz remains limited. Energy analyst Rory Johnston told the Financial Times, quote, "This has been not a spike but a sustained grind higher. We don't really have anywhere near enough diesel on the market." Farmers and the broader agriculture sector are feeling the brunt of the increase—diesel powers combines, tractors, and irrigation equipment. Delivery-dependent businesses are also passing higher freight costs on to consumers. Speaking at the Republican midterm convention in Dallas on Wednesday, President Trump argued the pain is worth it, saying oil "will be going down as soon as we win the war with Iran." Those energy costs are bleeding through into the broader inflation picture. Spencer Neale also reports that the Consumer Price Index rose 0.4 percent in August, putting annual inflation at 3.4 percent, according to new figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Core prices, stripping out food and energy, rose 0.3 percent. Gasoline prices surged 3.9 percent for the month and accounted for more than a third of the overall increase, while the broader energy index climbed 2.1 percent as the Iran war continues to roil markets. Grocery prices held largely flat, and shelter costs rose 0.3 percent. The report is the last major inflation reading the Federal Reserve will see before its policy meeting next week, where officials will weigh whether to raise interest rates for the first time in three years. Despite the uncertainty, the Dow, S&P 500, and Nasdaq all opened higher on Friday. Those are today's highlights. For the full stories and more, visit theamericanconservative.com. Thank you for starting your morning with us.

  6. 5d ago

    September 11, 2026

    Good morning! Today is Friday, September 11th 2026, and this is The American Conservative's Morning Brief. On day 195 of the Iran War, Trump promises the fighting ends after the midterms while his own top advisors privately warn it could drag past Inauguration Day, even as Iranian strikes damage American aircraft in Jordan and the Houthis seize a strategic Red Sea port. At the first-ever midterm convention, Trump dangles a five-thousand-dollar dividend to voters, but Jude Russo argues the showmanship can't mask rising prices, tightening credit, and a president who may already sense the majority slipping away. Andrew Day reports from Germany, where the AfD's forty-four percent landslide in Saxony-Anhalt has shattered the postwar taboo that long capped the right, exposing a liberal establishment increasingly reliant on surveillance and coalition blockades to hold back the popular will. and now for the details. We begin with day one hundred ninety-five of the Iran War. President Trump told reporters Wednesday that the conflict will end right after November's midterm elections, saying the Iranians, quote, can't hold out any longer. He repeated the claim at the Republican convention in Dallas, arguing Tehran is hanging on hoping Democrats prevail. But on the same day, the Wall Street Journal reported that Vice President J.D. Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and other senior officials have warned the president privately that the war could drag on through the rest of his term, potentially past Inauguration Day in January 2029. As Luke Nicastro reports for The American Conservative, Iran's Tuesday strike on a U.S. airbase in Jordan appears to have damaged aircraft and possibly injured American troops. Officials confirmed no fatalities, but said some servicemembers may have suffered traumatic brain injuries. One A-10 reportedly had a wing blown off, and eight F-15s sustained lighter damage. Meanwhile, Yemen's Houthi militia has captured the strategic Red Sea port of Mokha, a development that could strengthen their ability to threaten energy shipments through the Bab el-Mandeb waterway. The average price of regular gasoline in the United States now stands at four dollars and twenty-eight cents a gallon. President Trump took the stage Wednesday night in Dallas at the first-ever midterm convention held by either major party. He was, by all accounts, in fine form: discursive, wisecracking, and good-humored. The centerpiece of the speech was a promise of a five thousand dollar Trump dividend for every American adult, should Republicans win both chambers in November. Jude Russo, writing for The American Conservative, argues the performance was a refreshing return to classic Trump, but raises harder questions beneath the showmanship. Russo notes that Trump leaned on real Republican strengths, the stock market, border enforcement, Democratic disarray on identity politics, but struggled to paper over serious headwinds. Selling the Iran War after Americans are already feeling the economic pain is difficult rhetoric. Mocking Democratic appeals to affordability rings hollow when prices are still rising and credit is tightening. As for the five thousand dollar dividend, Russo observes that such a payout would be stupendously expensive at a moment when Treasury yields are climbing into rarefied territory. The only reason to make such a promise, he suggests, is if you don't really expect to have to deliver on it. Russo's conclusion: Trump himself seemed to know Wednesday night that the midterms may already be slipping away, and chose instead to enjoy the adulation of the crowd. To Germany now, where the Alternative for Germany party, the AfD, has won a stunning victory in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt, taking forty-four percent of the vote. The center-right Christian Democrats finished a distant second at seventeen percent. Andrew Day, reporting for The American Conservative, spoke with Filip Gaspar, a political advisor and AfD member, who called it the most significant German election since the fall of the Berlin Wall. Day argues the result marks a genuine breakdown of postwar liberal mythology. For decades, invoking the memory of National Socialism has functioned as a ceiling on right-wing support in Germany. That ceiling appears to be cracking. Day notes the German domestic intelligence agency last year designated the AfD a right-wing extremist party, enabling surveillance and the placement of informants. Since then, the AfD has only grown more popular, becoming the leading party nationally. Chancellor Friedrich Merz reiterated on the eve of the vote that his CDU would never form a coalition with the AfD, invoking Germany's historical responsibility and denouncing the party's remigration policy as ethnic cleansing. Day's argument is that opposition to mass migration, not economic anxiety, is the true engine of the European right, and that voters in the former East, long accustomed to state-imposed ideology, are pr

  7. 6d ago

    September 10, 2026

    Good morning! Today is Thursday, September 10th 2026, and this is The American Conservative's Morning Brief. In Germany, the AfD's landslide 44 percent victory in Saxony-Anhalt has thrown Chancellor Friedrich Merz's Christian Democrats into crisis, with Phillip Linderman arguing the surge reflects the simple fact that Germany no longer has an authentically conservative party. As European capitals warn of Russian hybrid attacks on NATO soil and pundits urge tougher retaliation, Doug Bandow argues that deepening allied involvement in Ukraine would only push Putin to escalate, and that putting America first means steering clear of a wider war with Russia. and now for the details. We begin in Germany, where Sunday's state election in Saxony-Anhalt has delivered a political earthquake. The Alternative for Germany, or AfD, took a commanding 44 percent of the vote, doubling its share since Chancellor Friedrich Merz took office in 2025. The result has thrown Merz's Christian Democrats into crisis. Merz once boasted he would cut AfD support in half. Instead, it has surged, powered by voter concern over immigration, the economy, and education. Top campaign issues included the country's asylum system, the imposition of gender-identity curricula in state schools, and taxpayer funding for NGOs and public broadcasters. Writing for The American Conservative, Phillip Linderman argues that the AfD's rise is not, as Berlin elites claim, a sinister echo of Germany's authoritarian past. Rather, Linderman says, it reflects the simple fact that Germany no longer has an authentically conservative party. The CDU, he writes, has slow-walked its own supporters into a coalition with the Social Democrats, ratifying left-wing policies on energy, climate, taxation, and borders. Linderman highlights the AfD's rising star in Saxony-Anhalt, 35-year-old Ulrich Siegmund, whom he compares to a young Bill Clinton for his retail political skills. Because of Germany's coalition rules and the so-called firewall against the AfD, Siegmund may still be shut out of governing—but Linderman argues the results are likely to rock the federal system, and that this is a healthy and necessary development for both Germany and Europe. Turning to the war in Ukraine, European capitals are increasingly warning that the conflict is spilling over onto NATO territory. Germany has blamed Russia for last month's drone attack on Leipzig Airport, and the Financial Times describes it as a wake-up call about Moscow's hybrid campaign against Europe. The Washington Post's David Ignatius has called for a joint U.S.–European warning to Moscow, and even proposed that Washington and Europe quietly help Ukraine carry out proportional attacks inside Russia. Writing for The American Conservative, Doug Bandow argues that such an approach would make matters far worse. Bandow traces Vladimir Putin's evolution from a leader who once addressed the Bundestag about closer ties with Europe to a wartime president responding to what he views as an existential proxy war on Russia's border. Bandow does not excuse Moscow's invasion, which he calls criminal and unjustified. But he contends that Western policymakers have little moral standing to lecture, citing the Iraq War, the U.S.-backed Saudi campaign in Yemen, and the Trump administration's recent strikes on Iran. Bandow warns that escalating allied involvement will push Putin, under pressure from Russian hardliners, to double down rather than retreat. Putting America first, he concludes, means avoiding a wider war with Russia over Ukraine, and pressing European allies to step back from a proxy conflict that grows more dangerous by the week. Those are today's highlights. For the full stories and more, visit theamericanconservative.com. Thank you for starting your morning with us.

  8. Sep 9

    September 09, 2026

    Good morning! Today is Wednesday, September 9th 2026, and this is The American Conservative's Morning Brief. Joseph Addington warns that Trump's sweeping Venezuelan oil deal, which hands Washington functional control of 65 billion barrels through a single shady middleman, is a flashy gamble that could delegitimize the Rodriguez government and hand a future Venezuelan nationalist a ready-made grievance. Eldar Mamedov argues that Vice President Vance's dismissal of Iran's leaders as "crazy people" is a strategic dead end, pointing to Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei's subtle rebuke of hardliners as evidence Tehran's pragmatists remain open to diplomacy. Mamedov urges Vance to use the coming UN General Assembly to build a regional security framework with Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Pakistan, and Gulf mediators rather than pressing an open-ended war. and now for the details. We begin in Caracas, where President Trump's late-August deal with the government of Venezuela is drawing scrutiny. Under the agreement, the United States, acting through the Pentagon's Office of Strategic Capital, will take a thirty-five percent stake in a corporation called North American Blue Energy Partners, controlled by Venezuelan businessman Alejandro Betancourt. Washington will gain veto power over board appointments, a guaranteed twenty percent of production from seventeen oil fields, and the right of first refusal on the rest. All told, that amounts to functional control of about sixty-five billion barrels of crude—roughly one and a half times America's own proven reserves. The White House says the deal will refill the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and shore up energy security. Writing for The American Conservative, Joseph Addington calls it a big gamble dressed up as a foreign policy triumph. Addington argues the flashy, sweeping nature of the deal is precisely the problem. By transferring a major share of Venezuela's natural resources directly to a foreign government, Washington almost certainly weakens the Rodriguez government it has chosen to prop up, and hands a future Venezuelan nationalist—perhaps the next Hugo Chavez—a ready-made grievance. Addington also raises concerns about Betancourt himself, a so-called "Bolívar Boy" dogged for years by allegations of bribery, corruption, and money laundering, whom the administration has now effectively installed as the head of a quasi-governmental oil enterprise. Addington notes none of this risk was necessary. A series of smaller, diversified partnerships could have delivered comparable benefits without staking American credibility on one man and one megadeal. Turning to the ongoing war with Iran, Vice President J.D. Vance recently urged Tehran to "stop acting like crazy people," and claimed the United States does not target civilians. Those remarks come against the backdrop of credible reports of American strikes on a wedding party in Sirik County and on a girls' elementary school in Minab earlier this year. Writing for The American Conservative, Eldar Mamedov argues that dismissing Iran's leadership as irrational is a strategic dead end. Mamedov points to a recent message from Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, carried by the IRGC-linked Tasnim agency, which criticized the false choice between war and negotiation and publicly praised moderate President Masoud Pezeshkian. That, Mamedov writes, is a subtle rebuke of hardline voices like the editor of Kayhan newspaper, and a signal that Tehran's top leadership remains open to pragmatic solutions. From Iran's perspective, Mamedov notes, the tougher line since the collapse of the Islamabad Memorandum reflects a rational response to unmet American promises on sanctions relief. Mamedov urges Vance to use the upcoming UN General Assembly to engage regional stakeholders—including Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Pakistan, Egypt, Qatar, Oman, and the UAE—and, if possible, Iran itself, in pursuit of a durable regional security framework rather than an open-ended war. Those are today's highlights. For the full stories and more, visit theamericanconservative.com. Thank you for starting your morning with us.

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