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The President's Daily Brief
April 13th, 2026: Trump Announces BLOCKADE Of Hormuz & China Arms Iran
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Mike Baker
It's Monday the 13th of April. Welcome to the President's Daily Brief. I'm Mike Baker, your eyes and ears on the world stage. All right, let's get briefed. First up, President Trump announces the suspension of traffic through the Strait of Hormuz after direct negotiations with Iran come short in Pakistan. I'll have the details later in the show. New US Intelligence suggests that China may have already armed Iran with anti aircraft missiles, potentially putting American pilots at risk and raising the stakes in the conflict. Plus, an Easter truce collapses almost immediately with Ukraine and Russia reporting thousands of violations on both sides. And in today's Back of the Brief, the feel good story of the year. Artemis 2 makes a successful return to Earth, marking a major milestone in NASA's push to send astronauts back to the moon. But first, today's PDB Spotlight after marathon negotiations. Well, I'm not sure if it's marathon, to be fair. The talks reportedly took place over a period of 21 hours anyway, after the talks with Iran failed to produce a peace deal and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, President Trump says the US Will instead be blockade the strait, moving forward with a naval operation to enforce it. Now, Trump laid this out in two lengthy posts on Truth Social. The president said he's ordering American naval forces to block any ship from entering or leaving the strait, to seek out and interdict vessels that have paid illegal tolls to Iran to transit the waterway, some tolls reportedly in the range of $2 million and to begin addressing a mine threat that officials in Washington say Tehran created. As we've been tracking, Trump said that the Iranian regime's laying of mines in the strait is world extortion, effectively forcing vessels to coordinate with Tehran for safe passage. According to Trump, American minesweeping vessels are already in the waterway, working with support from the UK to begin clearing the shipping lanes. And he's warning that any bullet, bomb or missile fired by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the irgc, at US Allied or commercial vessels will be met with overwhelming force, saying what remains of the regime would be, quote, blown to hell. And he spelled that in all caps which is much worse than the lower caps version of hell. This is Washington moving to physically take control of access to the waterway, demine it and reopen the strait to the world. And the reason this is happening now stems directly from those talks. In Pakistan, Vice President J.D. vance led roughly 21 hours of negotiations with Iranian officials, including Foreign Minister Abbas Ragchi and Parliament Speaker Mohammed Baker Galba in Islamabad. Now I want to point out that these were the highest level face to face talks between the US and Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. But more importantly, by the end of the discussion, there was no deal. Which honestly couldn't have been much of a surprise to anyone. The negotiations reportedly centered on a few core issues. Iran's nuclear program, specifically its stockpile of highly enriched uranium, sanctions relief and control of the Strait of Hormuz itself. The US put forward what it described as its final terms and Iran chose not to accept them. Iranian officials on social media after the talks pushed back Khalibov said the U.S. had been, quote, unable to gain the trust of the delegation seriously. They have had their sense of irony and self awareness surgically removed. Military analysts in a New York Times report had already warned that the gaps between the two sides were deep and wide, particularly, particularly around Iran's nuclear program, making a breakthrough in a single round of talks unlikely. The talks themselves were part of a push supported by Pakistan's Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, who you remember, played a role in brokering the initial tenuous ceasefire. US Special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Trump's son in law, were by Vance's side in Islamabad over the weekend. But from Washington's perspective, this meeting failed to produce progress on the two key reopening the Strait of Hormuz without restrictions and the elimination of Iran's nuclear threat. The IRGC is making it clear that it still sees the Strait as firmly under its control, insisting it remains open to commercial and non American affiliated vessels, but warns that any U.S. military presence would be treated as a ceasefire violation and met with military force. The existing Iranian leadership is clearly signaling that control of the Strait remains its primary leverage point, something it is not prepared to give up, especially without concessions on sanctions and its nuclear program. And they're betting that US domestic politics will force Trump's hand and force the administration to make those concessions. So on one side, the US is reportedly moving to physically enforce open access to the strategic waterway. On the other, Iran is signaling that it will resist that effort and defend its position militarily. You'll recall that the ceasefire itself was tied directly to reopening the Strait. With that condition unmet and now a US Enforcement operation apparently underway, the foundation of that agreement is beginning to crack. Okay, well, frankly, it started cracking as soon as it was announced. In the history of ceasefires, this is the least ceasefire ish ceasefire of all. Try saying that three times fast. I honestly feel like I'm misreporting reality, frankly, by continuing to describe whatever this is as a ceasefire. Anyway, in this current environment where both sides have claimed victory and both sides seem to be describing the same elephant in completely different terms, there's still talk of possible diplomatic efforts. Pakistan's prime minister is indicating that the talks are, quote, not dead. And Trump is suggesting that Iran remains at the table under pressure, even though nobody is actually currently sitting at that table. It's like a staring contest. Both sides are waiting for the other to blink. Alright, coming up next, new intelligence suggests that China may have already armed Iran with anti aircraft missiles, while an Easter truce between Ukraine and Russia collapses almost immediately. Ceasefires just aren't what they used to be. I'll be right back. Hey, Mike Baker here. 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But even the possibility that they have already been delivered is significant and obviously potentially dangerous. The weapons in question are referred to as manpads, Man Portable Air Defense Systems, shoulder fired heat seeking missiles that are lightweight, easy to control and designed to take down low flying aircraft. Now, earlier this month, a US F15E fighter jet was shot down over Iran and American forces scrambled to recover a missing airman. According to President Trump, that aircraft may have been brought down by a heat seeking missile, exactly the kind of system we're talking about here. U.S. intelligence officials also believe that if China is supplying these weapons, it's not doing so directly. Instead, the shipments may be routed through third countries, essentially using intermediaries to conceal the origin of the weapons and to provide Beijing with plausible deniability. And nobody is better at plausible deniability than the ccp, the Chinese Communist Party. If the reporting is correct, it points to a more deliberate effort to assist Iran while avoiding direct attribution and avoiding the consequences that might come with it. And it fits into a broader pattern that U.S. officials have been tracking throughout the conflict. China has already been accused of allowing companies to ship dual use use materials, things like fuel and chemicals and components that can be used in missile and drone production. Meanwhile, as we reported here on the pdb, Russia and China are likely providing satellite intelligence to Iranian forces, helping them track US ships and military positions across the region. So America's top geopolitical adversaries, each in their own way finding opportunities to raise the cost of this war for Washington and potentially bog down US forces in a prolonged conflict. Now, for its part, Beijing is denying all of it. I know you'll find that shocking. A spokesperson for China's embassy in Washington says Beijing has never provided weapons to any party in the conflict, calling the allegations untrue. Chinese officials also point to their role in supporting diplomatic efforts, including pushing for ceasefire and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. And to be fair, China has real economic incentives to keep this conflict contained. It relies heavily on energy flowing through that region and maintains deep ties not just with Iran, but with Gulf states that have also been caught in the crossfire. But behind the public messaging, the calculus may be more complicated because from Beijing's perspective, a prolonged US military entanglement in the Middle east could serve its broader strategic interests, tying down American resources and attention. Now, this has not gone unnoticed in Washington. President Trump has already issued a warning threatening severe economic consequences for any country found to be supplying weapons to Iran. He's floated tariffs as high as 50% on imports from those nations, saying they would pay a very high price. And when asked directly about China, he put it even more plainly. If Beijing moves forward with weapons transfers, it will face big problems. Okay, turning to the war in Ukraine, as recently mentioned here on the pdb, we had real doubts about whether the Orthodox Easter ceasefire announced by Vladimir Putin and agreed to by President Zelensky would actually hold. And as it turns out, that skepticism was well placed. Within hours, it collapsed as both Kyiv and Moscow traded accusations of thousands of violations. Now, this wasn't some long term agreement or any kind of serious step toward ending the war. It was meant to be a short, symbolic 32 hour pause tied to the Orthodox holiday, stretching from midday Saturday to one minute before midnight on Sunday. On paper, the idea was simple. A brief window where the fighting would stop, even temporarily, but almost immediately. That's not what happened. The morning of 12 April saw Ukraine's military command already reporting violations. And they were very specific about what that looked like. Like what they described as, quote, enemy assault activity, shelling, attack, drone strikes. Yeah, those do sound like violations. According to Ukraine's armed forces, Russia's military launched nearly 60 airstrikes in a single day, dropped over 180 guided aerial bombs, deployed just shy of 4,000 drones, and carried out roughly 2,500 shelling attacks, many of them striking what they called, quote, populated areas and positions of troops. Now, as you might suspect, Moscow is telling a different story. Russia's Defense ministry claims Ukraine was the one violating the truce, accusing KYIV of nearly 2,000 breaches during that same window. Those allegations include artillery and tank shelling, drone strikes, and what Russia described as various types of munitions dropped from the air. What we're seeing here is, well, something familiar. Even when both sides agree to pause, the fighting doesn't really stop. And just as importantly, the information war ramps up alongside it, with each side blaming the other in real time. An Easter truce last year struggled to stand for anything meaningful under the weight of thousands of reported violations. So when this latest pause was announced, there was already reason to be skeptical that it would hold. And that skepticism, again, was well founded. Now, at this point in the year, we're moving out of the winter months and into spring, which historically is when both sides ramp up operations, weather conditions improve, mobility increases, and both militaries start positioning for potential offensives. From a strategic standpoint, neither side has much incentive to slow things down right now, even if it is supposedly for Jesus. At the same time, the diplomatic track isn't offering much support either. As our regular PDB listeners are aware, U. S backed peace efforts have largely stalled, with both Ukrainian President Zelenskyy and Russian president Putin holding firm on positions at the other side sees as unacceptable. When you take all of this together, the takeaway is fairly clear. If even a short symbolic ceasefire tied to a major religious holiday can't hold for more than a few hours, it's hard to imagine that a longer agreement stands a better chance, at least under current conditions. All right, coming up in the back of the brief, the best story of the year. Artemis 2 returns safely to earth, capping off a historic mission around the moon. This is a complete bright spot in an otherwise series of stories about crappy ceasefires. We'll have the details next. Hey, Mike Baker here. Now, if you're like me, you have probably tried and tossed out a number of wallets in the past, right? Either they don't hold up or they don't hold enough, or they, well, frankly, hold too much. 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Mike Baker
the brief, the Artemis 2 crew has splashed down after a 10 day mission around the moon, bringing NASA back into human deep space flight for the first time in decades. At 8:07pm Eastern time on Friday, the Orion capsule carrying NASA astronauts Reed Weissman, Christina Koch, Victor Glover and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen came down in the Pacific Ocean just off the coast of San Diego, closing out NASA's first lunar mission in more than 50 years, taking humans farther into space than ever before. As the capsule made its way back to Earth, it had to punch through the atmosphere at extreme speeds, approximately 25,000 miles an hour, with temperatures climbing to around 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Now that is about half the temperature of the Sun's surface. At that point during the RE entry, there was a six minute communications blackout. It's the point where mission control is essentially holding their breath, waiting to re establish comms and know that splashdown is Imminent. And over the radio, the world heard. Houston, integrity, we have you loud and clear from Commander Wiseman. Using the crew's name for their spacecraft now. Once the parachutes deployed and the capsule hit the water, US Navy recovery teams moved in to secure the area. The astronauts were then helped out one by one and flown via helicopter to the USS John Murtaugh. From there, they underwent initial medical checks before beginning the trip back to NASA's Johnson Space center in Houston. And that's how the mission ended. But to really understand what this mission means for NASA and for humanity and for future space exploration, I want to revisit what the four member crew accomplished. As Artemis 2 looped around the moon, his crew pushed farther into space than any humans in history, reaching a distance of over 252,000 miles from Earth.
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Mike Baker
That distance shatters the record set by Apollo 13 back in 1970. And it's worth remembering that 1970 mission hit that distance during an emergency return. This time, it was planned. They also did something no human crew had ever done before. The astronauts observed the entire far side of the moon with their own eyes. That's significant, because the far side of the Moon permanently faces away from Earth. Even during the Apollo era, astronauts never had a view like this due to how those missions were flown. So what they saw up there in Artemis 2 is something we're only now beginning to understand fully. During the flyby, the crew captured detailed imagery of deep impact basins formed billions, not millions, billions of years ago. Jagged mountain ridges and ancient lava plains stretching across the surface. They also saw the picnic blanket, of course, left by Wallace and Gromit during their adventure to the mountain moon. In addition, the Artemis crew studied features along what's known as the lunar terminator. That's the dividing line between the illuminated side of the Moon and the side that's cloaked in darkness. So this mission was about proving that the US can once again send astronauts deep into space, operate beyond Earth's orbit, and bring them home safely. And now, with that box checked, the focus shifts to what comes next. NASA is targeting Artemis 3 as early as 2027 to carry out technical demonstrations in low Earth orbit, followed by Artemis4 in 2028, which is expected to put astronauts back on the lunar surface. And if that timeline holds well, it's the beginning of NASA's sustained return to deep space and the potential establishment of a moon base. Now, I'm not a clever science guy. I have a hard time naming all the planets. And. And by the way, they did completely screw the pooch by claiming Pluto is not a planet, but Artemis 2 effortlessly allowed me to time travel back to the Apollo era and the wonder and pride that we all felt as we built rocket ships and went to the moon. In a finer world, well, we'd be spending our time talking about this story and not the conflicts that currently shape our news feed. And that, my friends, is the President's Daily brief from Monday 13th April. If you have any questions or comments, please reach out to me at vdb@the first tv.com and I hope you had a chance to catch this weekend's episode of our occasionally highly acclaimed weekend show, the PDB Situation Report. If not, don't fret. You can find it and past episodes on our YouTube channel. Just wander on over to YouTube and search up at President's Daily Brief and of course on our podcast platforms everywhere. I'm Mike Baker and I'll be back later today with the PDB Afternoon Bulletin in. Until then, stay informed, stay safe, stay cool.