President Trump, on Truth Social this morning:

“With a little more time, we can easily OPEN THE HORMUZ STRAIT, TAKE THE OIL, & MAKE A FORTUNE. IT WOULD BE A ‘GUSHER’ FOR THE WORLD???”

Wall Street Journal: “It is a tone shift for Trump, who last week said he was willing to end the war without a reopened strait and also has urged allies to lead such a mission, including in a Wednesday-night address to the nation. Trump in that speech also signaled a possible escalation in the war, saying the U.S. would hit Iran “extremely hard” over the following two to three weeks.”

President Trump threatened to escalate U.S. military strikes on Iran to include infrastructure like bridges and electric power plants as he urged the regime to agree to a peace deal “FAST.”

Daily Beast: “The president is becoming increasingly frantic as he sinks deeper into a crisis of his own making.”

Axios: “NATO is a promise, and now it’s broken.”

“The alliance was built on the premise that an attack on one member is an attack on all. President Trump has made that conditional: if you won’t help me in my war, I might not show up for yours.”

“NATO’s mutual defensive framework doesn’t actually apply in the case of Iran, a war taking place far from the alliance’s territory. But it could be the death knell for the most powerful and consequential alliance of the past eight decades.”

Wall Street Journal: “Tehran’s ability to control this international waterway, through which one-fifth of the worldwide oil supply used to pass, has become Iran’s biggest leverage against the U.S., its Gulf neighbors and the global economy.”

“Whether the war ends in a success or defeat for Iran depends first and foremost on whether Tehran emerges from this conflict still holding the strait—and, with it, the keys to the worldwide energy markets.”

Semafor: “China has a better approval rating across the world than the US does, representing a shift since President Donald Trump took office.”

“According to new Gallup polling, a median of 36% of those polled across more than 130 countries approve of China’s leadership, while 31% approve of US leadership — the largest edge Beijing has had over Washington in almost two decades.”

“Regime change in Cuba has long been on President Donald Trump’s to-do list. But with Tehran dominating the agenda, Havana is getting a reprieve — for now,” Politico reports.

“Given the amount of resources and attention Iran is consuming, and the hassle a face off with Russia would cause, Trump and his aides decided it was worth letting Cuba’s regime have a longer lifeline for now.”

New York Times: “Russia is sending a second tanker of crude oil to Cuba, a government official said on Thursday, after one sent by the Kremlin reached Cuban territory earlier this week, ending a de facto U.S. oil blockade on the island.”

CBS News: Why is Trump talking about action on Cuba and what could that look like? 

“Iran is responding to the threat of a ground operation on its soil by stepping up defenses around its biggest oil port, while threatening to attack a wider array of targets around the Gulf and launching a mass recruitment drive reminiscent of its 1980s war with Iraq,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“Tehran is also mobilizing its population in ways that seek to harness the spirit of the 1980s war with Iraq. They include drives to recruit millions of Iranians, including children—a fixture of the tributes to martyrs via street signs and posters that are still a part of Iran’s daily life.”