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PDB Afternoon Bulletin | March 19th, 2026: The Fight With Iran Just Got More Dangerous & FBI Probe Into Former Trump Official
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It's Thursday, the 19th of March. Welcome to the PDB Afternoon Bulletin. I'm Mike Baker, your eyes and ears on the world stage. All right, let's get briefed. First up, the war with Iran is entering a new phase with strikes on critical energy targets pushing oil prices higher and threatening global supply. Later in the show, former senior Trump intelligence official Joe Kent is now under FBI investigation for alleged leaks just days after stepping down in protest over the Iran war. But first, today's afternoon spotlight. The conflict in Iran has now expanded. Energy infrastructure, once considered essentially off limits by all sides, is now apparently fair game. And the repercussions for the global energy markets and the global economy could be severe. A day after Israel targeted the South Pars gas field in Iran, it's one of the largest natural gas fields in the world and a critical piece of energy infrastructure that's shared between Iran and Qatar. Iran has launched retaliatory strikes on energy infrastructure in neighboring Gulf states. Tehran has now begun targeting energy facilities that it says are tied to US Interests. One of the first Iranian strikes was on Qatar's liquefied natural gas infrastructure. Specifically, they hit Qatar's Ras Lafan industrial city. Now, it's the world's largest liquefied natural gas facility and the center of Qatar's LNG operations. It accounts for roughly a fifth of the global supply of lng. At the same time, Iranian officials are issuing very explicit warnings if their energy sector continues to be targeted, the they will escalate until the energy infrastructure of the US and its allies is, in their words, quote, completely destroyed. Now, the White House appears to be trying to walk a very fine line here. On Wednesday evening, President Trump tried to distance the US from the South Pars strike. Trump said on social media posts, quote, the U.S. knew nothing about this particular attack and the country of Qatar was in no way, shape or form involved with it, nor did it have any idea that it was going to happen. Trump also tried to put a cap on further escalation, saying there should be no additional tax on that field unless Iran strikes Qatar again. Meanwhile, all of this is playing out at the same time, of course, as the ongoing disruption around the Strait of Hormuz and all of that turmoil is having a significant impact on pricing, as you might suspect. Brent crude, the international benchmark, briefly surged above $119 a barrel before settling back around $110 a barrel. Now that's still up more than 3% on the day. US benchmark crude also moved higher, climbing to about $96 a barrel. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessant says that the US is looking at several options to try to keep prices under control, at least in the short term. One of those options is to effectively release Iranian oil that's already sitting on tankers at sea. That's about 140 million barrels, by temporarily easing or waiving sanctions so those shipments can actually be delivered and sold on the open market. So, yes, one option being considered is easing sanctions on Iranian oil. There is irony in there somewhere if you look for it. Right now, much of that oil is essentially stranded, floating storage, basically because sanctions make it difficult to insure, finance or legally purchase those cargoes. What the administration is considering is flipping that switch, allowing buyers and shippers and insurers to move that oil without penalty. And because that oil is already sitting on the water, well, it can reach the market much faster than new production. That's the thinking anyway. At the same time, the US could tap its own Strategic Petroleum Reserve again, releasing emergency stockpiles of crude to keep prices from surging. It's a familiar move, but it is, of course, a short term temporary fix. And on the domestic side, the White House has issued a 60 day waiver of what's called the Jones Act. That's a century old law that requires goods shipped between US Ports to travel on American built and operated vessels, therefore loosening restrictions so oil, natural gas and other resources could move more freely. The problem is that all these options are designed to manage symptoms of the problem, not the cause. If the Iranian regime decides to continue hitting energy infrastructure around the Gulf and continues to effectively blockade shipments through the Strait of Hormuz, now releasing emergency oil reserves or easing sanctions or other temporary measures, essentially just putting a band aid on a sucking chest wound. The Trump administration is going to have to figure out a way to calm the markets to guarantee that refineries and other infrastructure are safe from further targeting and the tankers can once again move freely through the strait. All right, coming up next, former top condo terrorism official Joe Kent, who just resigned over the Iran war, is now reportedly under investigation by the FBI over alleged leaks. I'll be right back. Hey, Mike Baker here. Let me take a moment to talk about personal finances and the importance of diversifying your assets. So here's the question. Do you own physical gold? Well, in today's world, with its ups and downs and general instability, and you may have noticed some general instability out there in the world right now, owning gold is something that everyone should consider. And here's a top tip. Acre Gold makes it Simple. That's Acre. Acre. 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Welcome back to the PDB Afternoon Bulletin. After stepping down in protest from the Trump administration over the war with Iran, former National Counterterrorism Center Director Joe Kent finds himself under FBI investigation for allegedly leaking classified information in a probe that apparently was long underway before he resigned. The Washington based outlet Semaphore, citing four individuals with direct knowledge of the investigation, first reported this story. Kent is notably the first senior official to lead the Trump administration over the U. S. Israel war with Iran. The former NCTC director is a longtime ally of President Trump. Well, that's not going to last much longer. And a retired Green Beret who had built a reputation inside the national security world, serving 11 combat deployments over a 20 year Army Special Forces career before spending a year or so with the CIA as a paramilitary contractor. He then began commentating for various news outlets before making two unsuccessful runs for Congress. He then went to work for Tulsi Gabbard before being appointed to the national counterterrorism center in 2025. In the lead up to his resignation, he publicly broke with the administration's justification for the war, arguing that Iran did not pose what he described as a, quote, immin imminent threat to the US Such as the White House had reported. And that's where the situation obviously begins to shift, as Kent's standing inside the administration had already begun to erode. A senior administration official who spoke anonymously with Fox News described him as a, quote, known leaker, saying Kent had been cut out of key intelligence briefings months before his departure, raising questions about how much trust remained well before he ultimately stepped down. Now the FBI has yet to comment on the specifics of the leaks. Kent had been serving under Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who pushed back on his claims, emphasizing that the president, not individual intelligence officials, is responsible for determining what constitutes an imminent threat. When pressed on the issue during a congressional hearing, Gabbard declined to say whether she personally believed Iran's nuclear program met that threat threshold. Kent, however, took a very different view in his resignation letter. In his letter, NBC News reports that Kent criticized the decision to go to war, arguing that the US Was being pulled into a conflict that did not serve American interests. He said that while he supported Trump's values in his first term, he believed the president had been wrongly swayed by Israel. He went on to claim the attack on Iran was, quote, due to pressure from Israel's powerful American lobby and said he could not support, quote, sending the next generation off to fight and die in a war that serves no benefit to the American people, end quote. Now that naturally drew a swift response from the White House. Press Secretary Caroline Levitt said President Trump had, quote, strong and compelling evidence that Iran was going to attack the US first, defending the administration's decision that the threat assessment came from the highest levels of American intelligence, not Jerusalem. And that, my friends, is the PDB afternoon bulletin for Thursday 19th March. Now if you have any questions or comments, and I hope you do, please reach out to me at pdb@the first tv.com and to listen to the show ad free. Well, that is very simple to do. Just become a premium member of the President's Daily brief by visiting PDB premium.com I'm Mike Baker and I'll be back tomorrow. Until then, stay informed, stay safe, stay cool. Hey Mike Baker here with an important message about improving your personal finances. Now a lot of folks have had experiences with bad credit unfortunately at some point in their lives. And if you're in that boat now, I want to tell you about Ava. Ava. Ava Ava is an incredible credit building app designed to work fast so your credit score can start climbing with almost zero effort. AVA reports all your on time payments including rent and utilities up to 24 months back. So you build positive history. In fact, members improve their scores by an average of 30 points in 30 days. Take control of your credit today. Download the AVA app. That's AVA. And when you join using my promo code Baker, well you'll get 20% off your first year, monthly or annual, your choice. Again, grab the AVA app and use my promo code Baker and you'll get 20 off any plan for up to a year. That's promo code Baker. Thanks to ava. Now go get yourself good credit.