President Trump has given the order for the next phase of operations against the Islamic Republic of Iran to begin.
A short time ago, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced what the administration is calling ‘economic D-Day’.
Touted as
the largest comprehensive financial assault against any nation, the plan is to completely cut off Iran from the global economy.
That’s a big goal, particularly considering that it means taking on China, Russia, and others who have historically backed the Iranian regime.
And who have consistently found ways AROUND sanctions and other financial pressures enacted against them by the United States.
And who —
China in particular — happens to rely heavily on Iranian oil to fuel their own economic and military growth.
Bessent seeded the news cycle with this written announcement on his X account just before today’s press briefing:
President Trump has dismantled Iran’s military capabilities, destroyed nearly 100 percent of its military factories, and buried its nuclear program.
We are now entering the endgame. At dawn begins an economic D-Day — the single greatest financial offensive ever marshaled against…
— Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent (@SecScottBessent)
August 23, 2026
You can read the full text of the Treasury Secretary’s X post below:
President Trump has dismantled Iran’s military capabilities, destroyed nearly 100 percent of its military factories, and buried its nuclear program.
We are now entering the endgame. At dawn begins an economic D-Day — the single greatest financial offensive ever marshaled against an adversary.
The Islamic Republic has subsisted by dressing extortion as security guarantees. It has drawn strength from a calculus that regards Iranian retaliation as certain and American enforcement as negotiable. Under President Trump, that era is over. And those who fear the danger of defying Tehran ought not to discount the cost of testing Washington.
The President has created the conditions to leverage every agency, every authority and action many assumed we would never summon. Our objective is to sever every economic lifeline that sustains the tyrannical regime until Tehran stands alone.
Bessent emphasized during the subsequent live press conference the ‘clear choice’ with which the Trump Administration is attempting to present Iran.
Here’s a short clip from the briefing in which the Treasury Secretary sums up the primary purpose of ‘Operation Economic Outcasts’:
The obvious giant purple elephant in the room, as I’ve already pointed out, is the direct economic implications for China and Russia.
But Bessent went all in during the briefing.
The official position of the Trump Administration is that this multipronged economic operation is about moving away from ‘managing’ Iran, and ending the threat posed by Iran once and for all — and that includes severing the ‘lifelines’ Iran has relied upon in the past.
Bessent articulated those aspects of the new operation in this longer clip from today’s press conference:
BREAKING: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent Announces Operation “Economic Outcast” on Iran
“Today, at President Trump’s direction, the United States Treasury has begun Operation Economic Outcast, an unprecedented campaign against the Islamic Republic of Iran and its enablers.”…
pic.twitter.com/n0kfwQvNze
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson)
August 24, 2026
Bessent boiled the new financial attack against Iran and its allies down to five key aspects being targeted by the US.
Together, they make up the ‘vital lifelines’ Iran has relied on to survive previous economic sanctions, as reported by
Fox News:
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says the new sanctions imposed on Iran target country’s five “most vital lifelines” financially.
Bessent says Iran exploits “digital assets, technology, gold, aviation and shipping” in other nations to prop up its economy.
“These measures broaden secondary sanctions risk for anyone foolish enough to continue conducting business with this regime,” Bessent said at a Monday press conference.
“This is economic asphyxiation of this regime,” he said of Iran.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says countries that violate new U.S. sanctions against Iran will be forced out of the global financial market backed by the U.S. dollar.
“If people do not want to meet our expectations than we expect, and they should expect that they will leave the dollar system,” Bessent said at a press conference. (Emphasis added.)
It’s one thing to pile up new economic measures against Iran.
It’s another thing entirely to threaten to CUT OUT the regime’s ‘enablers’ by means of cutting THEM out of the global dollar system.
The direct threat just leveled at those ‘enablers’ was highlighted by Glenn Beck after Bessent made today’s announcement.
He spoke about the ‘experiment’ nations like China and Russia have been running to see just how far we’ll let the proxy and asymmetrical attacks go… with only verbal complaints in response.
Here’s that very relevant discussion put out by Glenn Beck as this new operation is examined:
Are we still determined to remain free, or are we content to just watch it all slip away?
The entire Western world relies on America, whether we like it or not. Beijing knows it, Moscow knows it, and they're using Iran as an experiment to see how long we can last before we…
pic.twitter.com/c8aCfvPKBk
— Glenn Beck (@glennbeck)
August 24, 2026
Here’s the full screen clip of that video for convenience:
Are we still determined to remain free, or are we content to just watch it all slip away?
The entire Western world relies on America, whether we like it or not. Beijing knows it, Moscow knows it, and they’re using Iran as an experiment to see how long we can last before we…
pic.twitter.com/c8aCfvPKBk
— Glenn Beck (@glennbeck)
August 24, 2026
And here’s the full text of Beck’s post, for easier reading:
Are we still determined to remain free, or are we content to just watch it all slip away?
The entire Western world relies on America, whether we like it or not. Beijing knows it, Moscow knows it, and they’re using Iran as an experiment to see how long we can last before we break.
Yet at home, we are paralyzed, arguing over social media nonsense, while the evil in the world grows right in front of us. Freedom isn’t automatic and peace isn’t free. It takes the unglamorous, expensive, and difficult work of standing by our promises, backing up our word with strength, and refusing to make deals with the very enemies trying to destroy us.
If we want to keep this country, we have to stop taking our freedom for granted and start living like a people determined to stay free.
At least one thing Beck pointed out is as self-evidently true as the sky is blue.
And President Trump has articulated this same fact time and time again.
The economic strength and freedom of global shipping rests on the back of one and only one Navy —
ours.
However, the Trump Administration says it has factored in the expected attempts to counter this ‘D-Day’ like economic attack on both Iran and its allies, according to this from the
New York Times:
The escalation of sanctions pressure comes as negotiations to end the military conflict between the United States and Iran continue to sputter.
And as it ratchets economic pressure higher, the United States must also weigh the potential for blowback in the form of higher energy prices or the risk of inflaming tensions with China, the world’s biggest buyer of Iranian oil.
Mr. Bessent, along with President Trump, has signaled that the new initiative will include greater coordination between the United States and its allies to cripple Iran’s economy. It could include so-called secondary sanctions on those who continue to do business with Iran.
“At dawn begins an economic D-Day — the single greatest financial offensive ever marshaled against an adversary,” Mr. Bessent wrote in a social media post on Sunday evening. “The President has created the conditions to leverage every agency, every authority and action many assumed we would never summon.”
He added, “Our objective is to sever every economic lifeline that sustains the tyrannical regime until Tehran stands alone.”
The Treasury secretary said last week that countries that maintain economic ties with Iran, including through money transfers and oil purchases, would face the “full might and force” of the U.S. government. Mr. Trump has also used the “economic D-Day” description, calling it a “crushing” operation.
“Iran will certainly use all multilateral capacities to counter economic sanctions,” he told reporters at a news conference. (Emphasis added.)
Here’s a clip of the full press conference as shared by Bessent on X:
In the Second World War, D-Day marked the historic beginning of a campaign with our allies to target and drive the enemy from its positions, including those in third countries. Today, in that same spirit, we are launching an economic onslaught against Iran’s financial connections…
pic.twitter.com/1fLyobUucu
— Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent (@SecScottBessent)
August 24, 2026
The big question now hanging in the air really isn’t about Iran.
The real question is how China and other adversarial nations aligned with Iran will respond?
Retired General Jack Keane appeared on Fox News in the wake of today’s announcement and attempted to answer some of those questions, as well as detailing what would set this economic assault apart from everything that has happened in the past.
And the difference, according to Keane, would be ‘tough’ consistency on the part of the administration to see this thing through ‘hour by hour’:
ECONOMIC D-DAY:
@gen_jackkeane reacts to the White House’s economic plan to force Iran to the negotiating table — with Treasury Secretary Bessent set to announce a blistering new round of sanctions later this afternoon.
pic.twitter.com/KiUSG0ic6B
— America’s Newsroom (@AmericaNewsroom)
August 24, 2026
Those expected ‘work arounds’ pointed out by Gen. Keane will likely follow the same playbooks China, Russia, and other nations have used in the past.
We’re talking ‘ghost’ ships, vessels operating under the cover of deceptive flagging techniques, and other sorts of cloak-and-dagger games on the high seas.
That means this new operation will never work without the teeth of the US Navy to back it up, and the intel capabilities of the US military.
I’m assuming when Bessent spoke of bringing the ‘full might and force’ of the US government down upon Iran and its allies who might attempt to evade this stranglehold…
He was including the US Navy in that calculation.
As the dust settles following the big announcement, I’ll be watching for the response —
both verbal and otherwise — from China.
As well as the response from those who claim to be our ‘friends’ in Europe, and elsewhere.
Continue reading...
[ H/T WLT Report ]
