Wednesday, March 18th, 2026 - Top intel chief quits over Iran; Israel kills senior official; Trump wants Cuba; Pam Bondi subpoenaed

Morning Announcements

Betches

Daily News, News, News Commentary, Politics

4.7 • 1.7K Ratings

🗓️ 18 March 2026

⏱️ 10 minutes

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Summary

Today’s Headlines: The Iran war claimed a notable casualty on the home front: Joe Kent, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, resigned and posted his letter on Twitter, writing that Iran posed no imminent threat and the war was started due to pressure from Israel's lobby. He's no hero — Kent is a MAGA loyalist with his own troubling associations — but when someone who could defend virtually everything else this administration has done draws a line here, that says something about how broadly unpopular this war has become. Meanwhile, Israel killed two of Iran's most senior remaining officials overnight, including the secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, while continuing wide-scale strikes in Iran and southern Lebanon. Trump spent St. Patrick's Day in the Oval Office with Ireland's prime minister, alternating between insisting the U.S. doesn't need NATO's help and complaining it was "very unfair" that no one offered to send minesweepers. Cuba is now on the radar — Trump mused about "taking Cuba in some form" while his administration cut off the island's oil supply, triggering a nationwide blackout. He said he can do "anything he wants" with Cuba. Elsewhere in the circus: Trump appointed Erika Kirk — of Summer House — to the U.S. Air Force Academy's Board of Visitors, a formal congressional oversight body. In other news, Peter Thiel is in Rome giving private lectures warning about the Antichrist, and the Vatican is…not pleased. A former Kansas City pastor was suspended after it emerged she managed Epstein's private island in 2018-2019 and listed different employment on her resume. AG Pam Bondi was formally subpoenaed by the House Oversight Committee to testify about her handling of the Epstein files, with an appearance ordered for April 14th. And finally, the SEC is floating a proposal to cut public company earnings reports from quarterly to twice a year — still TBD, but worth watching and preliminary Illinois primary results. Resources/Articles mentioned in this episode: AP News: Top counterterrorism official Joe Kent resigns over Trump's Iran war NYT: Trump Appointee Pressed Analyst to Redo Intelligence on Venezuelan Gang The Independent: Trump rants US doesn’t need any help in Iran war and ‘never did’ AP News: Iran launches barrage of missiles after Israel kills 2 of its top officials CNN: Trump muses over ‘taking Cuba’ as island’s power grid collapses after weeks of US oil blockade Military: Erika Kirk And The Air Force Academy Board: What The Appointment Reveals About The Panel CNN: Peter Thiel’s secret lectures on Antichrist in Rome spark debate FOX 4: Former KC-area pastor suspended after church learns she managed Epstein’s private island AP News: Attorney General Pam Bondi subpoenaed to answer questions from Congress about the Epstein files WSJ: SEC Prepares Proposal to Eliminate Quarterly Reporting Requirement NBC: Illinois Senate Primary Election 2026 Live Results Subscribe to the Betches News Room and join the Morning Announcements group chat. Go to: ⁠⁠⁠betchesnews.substack.com Morning Announcements is produced by Sami Sage and edited by Grace Hernandez-Johnson Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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1:03.7	One of the Trump administration's top intelligence officers, the director of the National
1:08.1	Counterterrorism Center, Joe Kent, resigned yesterday because
1:11.8	he, quote, cannot in good conscience support the Iran more, which we know because he wrote
1:16.7	his resignation letter to Trump and then posted it on Twitter.
1:20.2	We can ignore how that implies he could support everything else in good conscience, because
1:24.1	I just can't go there right now.
1:26.1	In his resignation letter, Kent wrote that, quote,
1:28.9	Iran posed no imminent threat to the United States, and it is clear that we started this
1:33.1	war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby.
1:37.3	It's honestly kind of hard to argue with that when our own Secretary of State, little
1:41.2	Marco, essentially said that himself.
1:44.0	This guy, Joe Kent, is hardly
1:45.6	some hero, though. He is very much a longtime diehard Maga guy, a close friend of Tucker Carlson,
1:52.4	who also has his own set of fringe associations with proud boys and Nazi sympathizers and the
	...

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