🇺🇸 🇨🇳 🇻🇪 Trump: "As far as China's concerned, China can send their ships to us, China can send their ships to Venezuela... we have a lot of overcapacity, and we'll probably sell [oil] for even less money."

📎 Rapid Response 47

🇺🇸 🇯🇵 🇰🇷 Trump:

The Strait is critical for Japan — they get about 93% of their oil through it. South Korea gets roughly 45%. Yet these countries haven’t really helped us.

I ask them: are you going to help?

We have about 45,000 U.S. troops in Japan and about 50,000 in South Korea. We guard them and protect them.

But when we ask for a little help in return, they don’t help us.

📎 Clash Report

📝 🇸🇦 🇮🇱 "And now, somewhere in Riyadh, the Crown Prince is staring at a charred THAAD radar, a half-empty interceptor magazine, and a $142 billion receipt, and he is doing the math Rubio did on television: 100 missiles a month versus six or seven interceptors. And he is realizing, perhaps for the first time, that the Abraham Accords were not a security guarantee. They were a customer acquisition strategy."

https://themiccheck.substack.com/p/the-abraham-accords-a-hilarious-grift

🇸🇦 🇶🇦 🇦🇪 Gulf Allies Turn Away From U.S. for Fresh Ammo

Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the U.A.E., some of America’s best customers for weapons systems, now are looking to South Korea, the U.K. and Ukraine to restock defenses against Iranian drones

📎 The Wall Street Journal

🇺🇸 🇮🇷 🇯🇵 The U.S. military has used around 850 Tomahawk missiles in operations against Iran, significantly reducing stockpiles, with replenishment expected to take at least three years. This has begun to affect allied supply, including Japan’s order for around 400 missiles.

Originally scheduled for delivery by March 2028, Washington has informed Tokyo that the timeline will likely be delayed as the U.S. prioritizes rebuilding its own inventory.

https://www.19fortyfive.com/2026/04/the-u-s-fired-850-tomahawk-missiles-at-iran-it-takes-3-years-to-replace-them-japans-order-just-got-delayed-china-is-watching/

📎 Arin Yuni

🇭🇺⚡️- For the first time in 16 years Hungary will have a new Prime Minister as Victor Orban and his party have been kicked out of power.

Orban's party had been one of the only pro-Israel/pro-Russia forces in mainstream European politics. They have now been replaced by the newly formed Tisza party running on a platform of anti immigration, anti corruption, pro EU conservatism.

The Tisza party is teetering on the edge of achieving a supermajority which will allow them to undo all of Orban's reforms.

🗳 🇨🇱 🇺🇸 Republicans Could Lose Control of Texas for First Time in 30 Years

For three decades, Texas has been the Republican Party's fortress, with no Democrat winning statewide since 1994. President Donald Trump carried the state by 14 points in the last presidential election, and the GOP holds overwhelming fundraising advantages and gerrymandered maps that should render the Lone Star State untouchable.

Yet on April 8, Dan Patrick, the fiercely pro-Trump lieutenant governor, delivered a warning that reframed everything at the Texas Public Policy Foundation conference. "We're going to have a tough time holding the Texas House," he said, urging the warring Republican Senate factions to "get over it and come together as one," explicitly linking the Senate runoff's destructiveness to down-ballot vulnerability.

The indicators are stacked. Democratic primary turnout surpassed Republican turnout for the first time since 2002. A special election in deep-red Tarrant County in January produced a 31-point swing toward Democrats. Trump's approval among Texas voters has plunged 20 net points since February 2025. Latino voters who broke historic records for Republicans just 16 months ago are abandoning the party in measurable numbers.

The single most significant data point came on January 31, when Democrat Taylor Rehmet won a special election for a state Senate district in Tarrant County by 57 percent to 43 percent. Trump carried the district by 17 points in 2024. The swing toward Democrats was roughly 31 points.

Rehmet is a 33-year-old Air Force veteran and machinist union president. He was outspent approximately 12-to-1. Trump personally endorsed his opponent. Yet he won an estimated 80 percent of Hispanic voters and nearly 30 percent of voters who had previously participated in Republican primaries.

Texas is now a majority-minority state. Hispanics are the largest ethnic group at 40.2 percent, surpassing non-Hispanic whites at 39.8 percent. Growth is concentrated in the Texas Triangle: Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston and Austin-San Antonio. Suburban counties cast 47 percent more ballots in 2024 than in 2016.

Latino support was instrumental for Trump's win in Texas, where he won an estimated 55 percent of Texas Latino voters in 2024. But the Latino vote has undergone a dramatic reversal in just 16 months. A University of Houston poll from September 2025 found only 41 percent of Trump's 2024 Latino voters would support him again.

Yet the current environment matters. Patton noted Republican enthusiasm has softened, adding, "The current political environment, marked by the start of a new war, is generating real frustration among some reliable MAGA and GOP voters. This softening could matter at the margins."

https://www.newsweek.com/republicans-may-lose-control-of-their-biggest-stronghold-11814048

—❗️🇺🇸/🇮🇷 BREAKING: U.S. Central Command announces that the naval blockade against Iran will start tomorrow at 10 AM Eastern Time

Notably, Central Command clarifies that it is a total naval blockade against ALL Iranian ports, not just the Strait of Hormuz.

It also clarified that vessels originating from / going to non-Iranian ports will not be affected.

@Middle_East_Spectator

📢 🇺🇸 🇮🇷 President Trump is looking at resuming limited military strikes in Iran, according to officials and people familiar with the situation. -WSJ

Trump could also resume a full-fledged bombing campaign

Trump's red lines include Iran opening the Strait of Hormuz free of tolls

Ending all uranium enrichment and dismantling enrichment facilities; handing over its highly enriched uranium

Ending funding for proxies such as Hezbollah the Houthi rebels.

📎 Faytuks News

What limited strikes? Just a week ago you bombed the entire country.

Any strike will lead to ALL-OUT WAR.

🇺🇸🇬🇧🇦🇺⚡️- The United Kingdom and Australia have both refused to join the U.S. blockade on Iran.