Turmoil in Tehran: President Trump's announcement that he was launching an "Economic D-Day" on Iran has been met with a combination of bluster and panic in Tehran.

American Thinker ^ | 08/21/26 | Kenneth Timmerman

[SeekAndFind]

President Trump's announcement on Wednesday that he was launching an "Economic D-Day" on Iran has been met with a combination of bluster and panic in Tehran.

The IRGC is huffing and puffing as usual, claiming they will cut undersea cables and isolate the Arab Gulf states from the Internet, shutting down the banking system in the region.

One wag even suggested that brave Revolutionary Guards soldiers, whose claim to battlefield glory is to slaughter innocent children in the streets of Iranian cities, would invade Kuwait to seize U.S. bases there.

I know a few former specops guys who are licking their chops. Count me in!

On Friday, Iran's lead negotiator, former IRGC Air Force Commander Mohammad Baqr Qalibaf, told an audience at the Iranian embassy in Baghdad that the regime would go down if it couldn't get the economy back on its feet. “No matter how much military power we have, if people are hungry and we don't have financial circulation, economic growth, and domestic production, we will not endure,” he said.

The economic desperation is hard to hide. Ordinary Iranians gave up meat months ago, now they are also giving up poultry and eggs, which are up 130%. Inflation reached 66% for month of July.

The semi-official Iran Labor News Agency (ILNA), calls it a "survival economy," with people renting out their laptops and even selling their hair and personal belongings to make ends meet.

The U.S. naval blockade is working. No new Iranian oil is exiting the Strait of Hormuz to international markets, leading the regime to cut back production to just above domestic consumption.

As I have remarked before, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has turned out to be the Trump Administration's secret weapon. He has unleashed Treasury's vast but little-known intelligence networks to identify Iranian regime money-laundering…

---

TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Iran; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: blusterandpanic; irgc

[SeekAndFind]

Here’s an unreported tidbit… read it here:

https://www.axios.com/2026/08/16/iran-backchannel-trump-gabbard-barzani-war

The IRGC loves to talk tough. And to brutalize unarmed Iranian civilians. But when you go after their money, they take notice.

So in late May, when the Steve Witkoff-Jared Kushner negotiations with the Iranians were going squirrely, Tulsi Gabbard — still Director of National Intelligence — called in a chit from Iraqi Kurdistan President Nichervan Barzani.

“Hey Nichervan,” she said. “Can you get me Ahmad Vahidi on the line?”

Vahidi being, of course, the commander of the Revolutionary Guards, who was telling everyone how the IRGC would never negotiate with the United States.

Nichervan makes a call. Vahidi sends a gopher with an encrypted phone, and the two talk. So Ahmad, my friend, are you really serious when you say you will sabotage these negotiations being led by Qalibaf? And Vahidi says — get this – No. We are fully behind the negotiations with the Americans. We just can’t say it publicly.

Well, that story came out this week, and it only added to the turmoil in Tehran. The commander of the IRGC had secret back-channel talks with the Director of National Intelligence in Washington?

Soon, the spotlight will shift to China for Trump’s state visit at the end of September.

[Libloather]

Take out Big Mo’s other arm. Autopen for him...

[Raycpa]

So Trump does have a clue after all?

[ckilmer]

Vahidi says — get this – No. We are fully behind the negotiations with the Americans. We just can’t say it publicly.
////////
This caused me a problem with this story. We are told that the IRGC are the hard cases in Iran responsible for choking the negotiations and the negotiators.

But this suggests the IRGC was not behind stonewalling the negotiations.

If not the IRGC, then who? and what organization?

[Jeff Vader]

it’s always the same from the msm.
Drumpf is stupid
Drumpf is an idiot
Drumpf is going to get us all killed
OMG, how did he manage to win that one?

[Jeff Vader]

IIRC there are 31 IRGC cells operating independently, the “mosaic” organization. Some are reasonable, some are not. We must have been talking to the reasonable ones and the unreasonable ones don’t want to go along with it. Ultimately the Iranians are going to have to sort this one out for themselves

[norsky]

good and accurate info, thanx

[SeekAndFind]

RE: if not the IRGC, then who? and what organization?

General Blaine Holt ( ret ) said in a radio program that the IRGC itself is split into various units that controls its own turf and weapons.

[SeekAndFind]

RE: So Trump does have a clue after all?

Can you explain to us how you gleaned that from the article?

[sistergoldenhair]

I don’t know why we can’t get this. The culture and history is one of tribes/families, local power. Theres no such thing as central control. The next war lord will just pop up

[Paul R.]

The problem is, Ahmad Vahidi has nowhere near full control of the IRGC, in large part due to Iran’s “mosaic” strategy, and also simply because much of the IRGC really are totally committed religious fanatics, indoctrinated for decades. That’s one reason why he told Gabbard he backed negotiations, but “We just can’t say it publicly.”

Of course not. He’d probably be dead in a few days.

The 2nd reason is that he’s likely simply buying more time, a tactic the Gabbard wing of the Administration can’t seem to resist falling for, over and over and over.

As it stands NOW, Vahidi can point to having successfully warded off further US strikes, and will probably get away with it.

[Paul R.]

Do some research on Iran’s and the IRGC’s “mosaic strategy”. They are not organized the way “in the box” thinking* comprehends. Get outside the box into the various methods of revolutionary groups’ organization, and how they can survive seemingly overwhelming efforts to put them down, and all will become much clearer.

*I don’t mean that in an insulting way, I’m just trying to say that you need to understand methods of organization of humans that are outside your own prior observations.

Also consider the hydra as a model to help understand how and why terrorist groups are so hard to defeat, and never forget the IRGC most certainly IS a terrorist group.

A somewhat similar organization applied to, say, the Biden Administration. Biden would not need to order spying on Trump, etc. He could depend on underlings and TDS’ers to do it on their own initiative, knowing what Biden would want, and depend on the media to tamp down any wrongdoing turned up on his “troops”.

[Paul R.]

Yes. See my posts #12 and #13, this page.

[Paul R.]

Also see my post #12. The regime is excellent at deception.

[Paul R.]

I agree Bessent is a “bad ass”, but, IMO the most determined of the IRGC have the advantage inside Iran, and will take the population down to below North Korean levels (before Kimmy started selling lots of weapons to Russia).

I further think the situation for the population of Iran could well get worse, than if we took out a critical logistic. (My much repeated suggestion is to focus on and destroy Iran’s refined products supply, which is VERY vulnerable at present. The country would quickly become unsustainable without refined products. Anti-missile and anti-drone efforts must be maintained and even expanded, of course.)

POSSIBLY we could get a couple of Iran’s 31 “ostān” (provinces) to break away, leading to a cascade failure. Unfortunately, even that might take considerable time, but sometimes such things can progress fairly quickly. I can offer no predictions in that regard.

[Paul R.]

There is national overlay, but the Iranian system IS set up to survive destruction at the national level. Also, I’m not sure the entire “mosaic” is laid out around the provinces. If I was doing it, I’d have the “mosaic” and a sort of “shadow” mosaic.

I’ve not put in serious study for decades, but the theories and history of revolutionary organization(s), and counter-revolutionary theories and practice, is really fascinating stuff...