NBC's Welker Straight-Up Asks Trump Energy Honcho 'If You Were Prepared' Why Is Strait Closed?

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: MEDIAite

Mar 15th, 2026, 5:42 pm


NBC News anchor Kristen Welker straight-up asked Secretary of Energy Chris Wright why the Strait of Hormuz is “effectively closed” if the Trump administration was “prepared,” and got a puzzling response.

As the Iran war enters its third week, 13 U.S. servicemembers have been killed, a preliminary military investigation has determined the US is responsible for the strike on an elementary school that killed at least 160 children, and attacks on oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz have exacerbated surging prices and roiled the stock market.

But Trump and his administration have kept up a steady drumbeat of attacks on the media for reporting on the full effect of the war. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth complained last week that reporting on troop deaths is intended to “make the president look bad,” and this week loudly demanded positive coverage from a “patriotic press corps.”

Trump has been especially sensitive about the attacks on oil tankers, which reporters like Maggie Haberman and others have noted do not appear to have been successfully prepared for.

Read more: https://www.mediaite.com/media/news/nbcs-welker-straight-up-asks-trump-energy-honcho-if-you-were-prepaered-why-is-strait-closed/

[progree]

1. Maybe we'll end up with 2 straits closed -- add the Bab el-Mandeb Strait

Another strait to get shut after Hormuz? Houthis ready to pull trigger in Iran war, India Today, 3/14/26
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/another-strait-to-get-shut-after-hormuz-houthis-ready-to-pull-trigger-in-iran-war/ar-AA1YDJWf

. . .
The Houthis, who were curiously staying out of the war on Iran, have just said that their "fingers are on the trigger". They said they were "ready to respond at any moment should developments warrant it". Experts have suggested Houthis to be part of "Iran's three-stage strategy" in the region.

Simultaneously, Iran's semi-official Fars News Agency reported that the Houthis and other "resistance groups" were on full alert and might join Tehran's ongoing fight, warning that it could lead to closure of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, the narrow passage at the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula that controls traffic for sea vessels accessing the Suez Canal via the Red Sea.

. . .
The Bab el-Mandeb links the Red Sea and effectively the Indian Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea, and further to the Atlantic Ocean. The route is key to the Asia-Europe trade. If the Houthis, who have long threatened and even tried to choke Bab el-Mandeb, move to block the route, the fallout could be as severe, especially at a time when the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf remains choked amid the war.
. . .

A journey of thousands of miles begins with a single rotation of a propeller - paraphrasing Tao Te Ching (Chapter 64),

[tanyev]

2. Hey! Pete Hegseth's meme team was prepared and ready.

Everybody knows that’s all you need for modern warfare.

[Blues Heron]

3. This will be Trumps Waterloo

[republianmushroom]

5. I've heard that many, many times in the last year.

I won't bet on it.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

4. MaddowBlog-Team Trump gives away the game with its crusade against media coverage of the Iran war

When wars are going well, administrations tend not to whine incessantly about media coverage and threaten independent news organizations.

When wars are going well, administrations tend not to whine incessantly about media coverage and threaten independent news organizations.

Someone ought to let Trump, Hegseth, and Carr know.
www.ms.now/rachel-maddo...

— Steve Benen (@stevebenen.com) 2026-03-16T12:12:00.037Z

https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/team-trump-gives-away-the-game-with-its-crusade-against-media-coverage-of-the-iran-war

But most important, Hegseth devoted much of his Friday briefing to chastising journalists for covering the war in Iran in ways the administration didn’t like — including whining about on-screen chyrons that used the same language and phrasing that the Defense Department had used in the preceding days.

A day later, a different controversial figure in the administration went considerably further. MS NOW reported:

President Donald Trump’s Federal Communications Commission chairman is threatening to revoke the licenses of news broadcasters over their coverage of the Iran war.

Brendan Carr, the head of the agency, warned broadcast news organizations on Saturday to ‘correct course,’ following the president’s rants over news coverage of his war with Iran, including stories about U.S. aircraft tankers sustaining damage in a strike.

In a social media message that neglected to refer to any specific media outlets or real-world examples, Carr wrote, “Broadcasters that are running hoaxes and news distortions — also known as the fake news — have a chance now to correct course before their license renewals come up. The law is clear. Broadcasters must operate in the public interest, and they will lose their licenses if they do not.”....

Soon after, during a brief Q-and-A with reporters on Air Force One, Trump went on to suggest that reporting on the war in Iran that he disapproved of deserves to be seen as “pretty criminal.”

Trump: "It's pretty criminal because our media companies who have no credibility whatsoever are putting out information that they know is false, and it's a very dangerous thing for the country. I think they could be in serious jeopardy."

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2026-03-16T01:07:50.450Z

It came on the heels of the president also promoting an online graphic in which he claimed credit for “reshaping” American journalism.

First Amendment something something

— Catherine Rampell (@crampell.bsky.social) 2026-03-14T19:57:02.245Z

In an online statement, the FCC’s lone Democratic commissioner, Anna Gomez, explained, “The FCC can issue threats all day long, but it is powerless to carry them out. Such threats violate the First Amendment and will go nowhere. Broadcasters should continue covering the news, fiercely and independently, without fear of government pressure.”....

But stepping back, there’s another element to this that’s worth keeping in mind as the third week of the war advances: When wars are going well, administrations tend not to find it necessary to whine incessantly about media coverage and threaten independent news organizations.

If Trump and his team were feeling confident and optimistic about the mission and its objectives, the president and his acolytes probably wouldn’t be engaged in the kind of hysterical press complaints we’re seeing now.