3 SEP 26 STIREP

• Iran has been conducting ongoing attacks on commercial shipping vessels in the Strait of Hormuz; three months prior to today's White House briefing conducted by Vice President JD Vance, oil and gas flow through the Strait had dropped to virtually nothing under Iranian pressure, but last night 15 million barrels moved through the Strait due entirely to U.S. military action.
• Operation Midnight Hammer destroyed Iran's nuclear facilities, and Operation Epic Fury dismantled Iran's defense industrial base for weapons production along with much of its conventional military capacity; the administration stated Iran has not yet attempted to rebuild its nuclear enrichment program, but the U.S. is actively working to deny Iran the economic resources to do so.
• Secretary Bessent announced the Economic Outcast Operation last week to financially isolate Iran; UAE joined the effort, and Turkey, Azerbaijan, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar were identified as nations privately cooperating with the U.S., while the PRC has been responsive to some U.S. requests and has refrained from attacking commercial vessels.
• Iran's IRGC claimed a U.S. strike earlier this week hit a wedding celebration, killing several people and injuring dozens; CENTCOM confirmed it is investigating, the administration expressed strong skepticism toward Iranian state media's account, and Vance stated the U.S. does not target civilians and holds its military accountable when mistakes occur.

• Former Army Secretary Dan Driscoll and several Republican lawmakers raised concerns about the departure of large numbers of generals and senior officials from the Army; Vance said he agreed most strongly with War Secretary Pete Hegseth that a fundamental culture shift was needed at the Department of War, citing 40 years of military misadventures under both parties that produced almost no wins.
• Military recruitment under the Trump administration reached an all-time high, reversing serious shortfalls under the Biden administration, which Vance attributed to service members not wanting to join a military oriented toward a political narrative rather than toward defending American interests at the highest levels of professionalism.
• Under the Biden administration, service members were discharged for making their own health care decisions, a practice Vance said treated them like convicted criminals; the Trump administration ended that policy, and troops on the ground reported feeling more supported from Washington and prouder of their service than in years.
• Vance and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin sent a joint letter calling for a federal investigation into the Biden administration's handling of the East Palestine, Ohio train derailment, citing newly available evidence that the Biden EPA radically underestimated health risks to residents and was not honest about the consequences; Vance said he was considering but had not yet decided on whether to issue an emergency declaration for East Palestine residents while the investigation proceeds.

• ISM manufacturing PMI showed U.S. manufacturing activity expanded for eight consecutive months, reaching historic highs opposite to what Democratic politicians and left-of-center economists predicted; Vance attributed this to the working families tax cuts driving record capital equipment purchases and to tariffs penalizing corporations that shut down American factories and shipped jobs overseas.
• A Fox News poll found 70% of voters opposed having a data center built in their area; Vance argued the backlash is driven primarily by fear of rising power bills and proposed addressing it through rate payer protections requiring data centers to feed power back into the grid, easier permitting for nuclear plants adjacent to data centers, and regulatory reform, noting China now produces three times as much power as the United States.
• Vance stated that if Democrats took control of Congress after the midterms, the U.S. would very likely lose the AI race to China, and that Democrats had explicitly promised to raise taxes, reverse manufacturing protections, pack the U.S. Supreme Court beyond its current nine justices, and add heavily Democratic territories as new states to gain additional Democratic senators.
• ICE made more than 300,000 arrests since the start of the calendar year, with arrests surging through June, July, and August after dropping earlier in the year; the Deportation Data Project challenged the administration's worst-of-the-worst characterization of those arrested, and the deportation of Milo Yiannopoulos by DHS was confirmed, with Vance stating he learned of it publicly and did not know whether President Trump had prior knowledge.