🇺🇸🇸🇦🇮🇷 Trump was "locked and loaded" to strike Iran's energy infrastructure last night, and MBS may have stopped him with a single implied threat.
Geopolitical Analyst Brandon Weichert has sources inside Saudi Arabia, and what he's hearing is alarming:
MBS reportedly implied to Trump that if U.S. strikes triggered Iranian retaliation against Aramco, Saudi would pay for the repairs by selling U.S. Treasuries.
And that warning set off alarm bells in Washington at a moment when the bond market is already under severe strain.
Saudi also reportedly threatened to deny U.S. access to bases inside the kingdom if Trump went ahead, the same restriction that turned Project Freedom into a leaky blockade earlier this year.
But Weichert isn't declaring the war over, he thinks Trump is trapped in the sunk cost fallacy, unable to accept a world that has already moved on from American primacy.
His prescription: Fortress America, western hemispheric defense, trade over military overstretch, the George Washington model, and a recognition that imperial overreach eventually collapses every empire that tries it.
"We can survive the multipolar age, but if we keep doing what we're doing, we will collapse not only as an empire, we will collapse as a country."
Great to have you on as always, @WeTheBrandon
