Latest / The President's Daily Brief / September 3rd, 2026: U.S. Launches “Tanker for Tanker” Strikes Against Iran

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September 3rd, 2026: U.S. Launches “Tanker for Tanker” Strikes Against Iran · The President's Daily Brief

0:12
It's Thursday,
0:13
the 3rd of September.
0:14
Welcome to the President's Daily Brief.
0:16
I'm Mike Baker,
0:17
your eyes and ears on the world stage.
0:20
Alright,
0:20
let's get briefed.
0:22
First up,
0:22
the Trump administration puts a new punitive tanker for
0:26
tanker policy in place in the Strait of Hormuz,
0:30
telling the Iranian regime,
0:31
every time you attack a vessel in the Strait,
0:34
the US will target a regime oil tanker,
0:37
and they've already put the new policy into action.
0:39
I'll have the details.
0:41
Later in the show,
0:42
two suspected sabotage attempts strike Germany's
0:45
electricity grid within 24 hours,
0:48
putting authorities on alert for a
0:49
coordinated attack against critical infrastructure.
0:53
Plus,
0:53
Ukraine puts international airlines on notice,
0:56
warning that its expanding drone campaign
0:59
is making Russian airspace unsafe.
1:02
And in today's back of the brief,
1:04
American authorities penetrate Hamas' cryptocurrency network,
1:08
seizing its money,
1:09
fundraising websites,
1:10
and information
1:12
about thousands of donors.
1:14
But first,
1:15
today's PDB spotlight.
1:17
Yesterday we told you that 2 super tankers carrying Saudi Arabian
1:21
oil had been attacked while leaving the Strait of Hormuz.
1:25
Well,
1:25
that attack turned out to be deadlier
1:27
and more consequential than initially reported.
1:30
Saudi Arabia now says Iran was responsible and two Filipino sailors
1:35
aboard the Saudi-owned tanker Sitter
1:38
were killed.
1:39
The Sitter was carrying approximately 2 million
1:42
barrels of crude oil when it was struck by an unidentified projectile
1:46
near the coast of Oman
1:47
late on Monday.
1:49
Another supertanker carrying roughly the same amount of
1:51
Saudi oil was hit only minutes later.
1:54
Initial reports indicated that the crews aboard both vessels were safe.
1:59
The sitter's operator though has now confirmed
2:01
those two deaths while the Saudi government
2:04
has publicly assigned responsibility to Tehran.
2:08
In response,
2:09
during Tuesday's major operation against approximately 100 targets inside Iran,
2:14
American forces also attacked two Iranian government tankers,
2:18
according to US officials who spoke with Axios.
2:21
The tankers were anchored off of Iran's coast
2:24
north of the American naval blockade line.
2:27
American drones reportedly fired missiles into their engine rooms.
2:31
We do not yet have complete damage assessments,
2:34
and there's been no confirmed information about casualties aboard either vessel.
2:38
But the target selection is obviously significant.
2:42
Previous American operations against Iranian tankers were intended
2:45
to prevent vessels from violating the US blockade.
2:49
These attacks were of course different.
2:51
Officials say they marked the first use of a new policy approved by President Trump
2:55
that they're calling
2:56
tanker for tanker.
2:58
The concept is relatively straightforward.
3:00
If Iran attacks a commercial tanker moving through the Strait of Hormuz,
3:04
the US will retaliate by attacking one of Iran's own tankers.
3:08
Washington is no longer limiting its response to intercepting weapons,
3:12
escorting commercial ships,
3:14
blockading ports,
3:14
or destroying the launchers and radar systems and maritime facilities
3:19
that Iran uses to threaten the waterway.
3:21
It's now placing Iran's own oil fleet
3:24
in the crosshairs,
3:26
and that matters because,
3:27
of course,
3:27
oil remains one of Tehran's most important sources of hard currency.
3:32
Iran needs tankers to move that crude well.
3:35
There is a statement of the obvious,
3:37
and replacing a disabled supertanker is considerably more difficult
3:40
than replacing a missile launcher or an attack drone.
3:44
The policy also gives the US a response that is proportional,
3:48
clearly understood,
3:49
and focused on the same economic pressure point
3:52
that Iran is targeting.
3:54
American officials believe Tuesday's broader strikes
3:56
also damaged enough of Iran's radar,
3:58
missile,
3:59
and drone infrastructure
4:01
to reduce the threat to commercial shipping for at least 1 month.
4:05
But Iran,
4:06
the regime is showing no indication
4:08
that it intends to abandon its effort
4:11
to control shipping through the waterway.
4:13
Tehran has added another 11 vessels to its blacklist
4:17
of ships accused of violating Iranian navigation rules,
4:20
bringing the total on its blacklist to 56.
4:24
Now that list includes crude oil tankers,
4:26
natural gas carriers,
4:28
and vessels transporting
4:29
refined petroleum products.
4:32
Iran says blacklisted ships could be fined,
4:34
detained,
4:35
or have their cargoes confiscated
4:37
if they attempt to pass through Hormuz.
4:40
The Iranian regime is also threatening to blacklist vessels that
4:43
cooperate with them through ship to ship transfers.
4:47
Oil companies and refiners are already avoiding some of the affected vessels,
4:51
demonstrating that the regime can disrupt shipping
4:53
without firing missiles or launching drones.
4:57
And despite President Trump's insistence
4:59
that the US controls the strait,
5:01
well,
5:01
visible traffic remains extremely limited.
5:04
Preliminary ship tracking data recorded only 4 commodity
5:08
vessels crossing the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday,
5:11
down from 10 the previous day
5:13
and well below the recent daily average.
5:16
Now some ships may have crossed with their location transponders turned off,
5:20
so those figures likely don't capture
5:23
everything that's moving through the waterway.
5:26
But they do show that commercial operators are still treating the Strait of Hormuz
5:30
as an active conflict zone.
5:32
And that brings us back to the tanker for tanker policy.
5:36
The Trump administration is betting that
5:37
Iran will reconsider attacking foreign shipping
5:41
once its own oil fleet becomes a target.
5:44
For the Iranian regime,
5:45
every disabled tanker of course means less crude reaching foreign buyers
5:49
and less money flowing into an economy
5:52
already being squeezed by sanctions and the American blockade.
5:56
For Washington,
5:57
the policy offers a way to punish Iran at sea
6:00
without automatically committing the US to another prolonged bombing campaign.
6:05
Coming up next,
6:06
Germany investigates back to back attacks on its power grid
6:10
while Ukraine warns civilian airlines to reconsider flying in Russian airspace.
6:16
I'll be right back.
6:19
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Welcome back to the BDB.
7:25
Yesterday I told you about an apparent attempt to sabotage Germany's power grid.
7:30
Well,
7:31
German authorities are now investigating a second attack against the
7:34
country's electricity network carried out on the same day,
7:37
hundreds of miles away and using remarkably similar equipment.
7:42
The first attack occurred Tuesday morning at a
7:44
substation in the eastern state of Brandenburg.
7:46
Investigators say someone used homemade launching devices to
7:50
fire conductive material into extra high voltage power lines,
7:54
creating
7:55
two short circuits.
7:57
One generating unit at the nearby Jenschwalde
8:00
power plant was temporarily disconnected,
8:03
although the broader electricity supply remained stable.
8:06
Then,
8:06
roughly 12 hours later,
8:08
authorities discovered a second operation in Burgen-Rich,
8:12
that's west of Cologne
8:13
and on the opposite side of Germany.
8:16
The equipment was hidden inside a cornfield near another major substation.
8:20
Once again,
8:21
investigators say pyrotechnic launching devices were used
8:24
to propel conductive material onto overhead power lines,
8:27
deliberately causing short circuits.
8:30
Witnesses reported seeing flashes and hearing several loud explosions,
8:34
and this time,
8:35
well,
8:35
the disruption was considerably larger.
8:37
Five generating units at two major power plants were knocked off the grid,
8:41
and together
8:42
those units have a maximum capacity of approximately 4200 megawatts
8:47
and were supplying roughly 3000 megawatts when the attack occurred.
8:52
Germany's grid absorbed the loss without widespread outages,
8:56
but restoring all five units is expected to take several days.
9:00
That incident
9:01
demonstrates something important.
9:03
The devices may have been relatively crude,
9:05
but they temporarily knocked a substantial
9:07
amount of generating capacity offline.
9:10
North Rhine-Westphalia Interior Minister Herbert Ruhl
9:13
was blunt about what happened,
9:14
saying,
9:15
quote,
9:15
That was no broken switch.
9:17
That was intentional.
9:18
That was a crime,
9:19
end quote.
9:20
Investigators are now examining whether the two attacks were connected.
9:25
The timing is suspicious,
9:26
and so is,
9:27
of course,
9:27
the
9:28
similar apparent method.
9:29
Both operations targeted extra high voltage infrastructure.
9:32
Both relied on pyrotechnic launchers and conductive material,
9:36
and both appear to have been designed
9:38
to create short circuits without requiring anyone
9:40
to physically enter a heavily secured substation.
9:44
Well,
9:45
if only we had clues as to whether the two incidents were somehow related,
9:49
but German authorities have not yet established
9:52
that the attacks were coordinated,
9:54
and they have not yet blamed Russia.
9:57
Investigators are reportedly considering several possibilities,
9:59
including
10:00
an operation directed by a foreign government or
10:03
attacks carried out by domestic extremists.
10:06
Germany's radical left has previously targeted power infrastructure,
10:10
meaning that Moscow is
10:12
not the only plausible suspect,
10:14
although that is the point of hybrid warfare to cast doubt on
10:18
who is responsible,
10:19
plausible deniability.
10:21
These attacks came just as Berlin formally
10:23
blamed Moscow for last month's explosive drone incursion
10:27
at Leipzig Halle Airport,
10:28
which appeared to target a Ukrainian cargo aircraft.
10:32
Russia,
10:33
you might be surprised to learn,
10:34
denies responsibility for that incident,
10:37
but one of the Kremlin's most prominent officials
10:40
is now openly threatening Germany.
10:43
Dmitry Medvedev,
10:44
you remember him,
10:45
Russia's former president,
10:46
current deputy chairman of its Security Council,
10:49
and
10:49
Vladimir Putin's chief nuclear saber rattling minion,
10:53
he responded to Berlin's accusation by saying Germany deserves
10:57
a direct strike on all German military equipment production facilities.
11:03
Well,
11:03
he was referring to
11:04
factories that are supplying Ukraine,
11:06
and he suggested
11:07
that other locations in Berlin could also be attacked.
11:10
Again,
11:11
Medvedev's signature move is,
11:13
to be fair,
11:14
issuing extreme threats.
11:16
He's like the schoolyard bully's little buddy
11:19
who stands behind him saying things like,
11:21
Yeah,
11:21
you tell him,
11:22
boss.
11:23
But still,
11:24
it is a senior Russian security official
11:26
publicly discussing attacks against the factories and
11:29
possibly the capital.
11:30
Of a key NATO member,
11:32
Moscow has also summoned Germany's top remaining diplomat,
11:35
accused Berlin of fabricating the Leipzig incident,
11:38
and promised an unspecified response to Germany's retaliatory measures.
11:45
Turning now to another growing danger this time in the skies over Russia,
11:49
Ukrainian President Zelensky is warning civilian
11:51
airlines that Kiev's expanding drone campaign
11:54
is creating an increasingly serious risk in the skies over Russia.
11:59
Now,
11:59
while neither side has achieved a decisive breakthrough along much of the front,
12:04
the war in the skies has been accelerating.
12:07
And we've talked quite a bit on the PDB
12:09
about Russia's escalating drone and missile campaign against Ukraine.
12:12
Those attacks are intensifying
12:14
at a time when Kiev is already struggling with severe shortages
12:18
of the air defense interceptors that it needs to stop them.
12:22
Ukraine meanwhile is answering that Russian escalation by
12:26
taking the war much deeper into Russian territory.
12:29
Kiev has dramatically expanded its long-range campaign,
12:32
using drones and missiles to
12:33
target military bases and energy facilities and logistics networks,
12:37
helping keep Vladimir Putin's war machine running.
12:41
And that's where Zelensky's warning to civilian airlines comes in.
12:44
He's telling airlines that the growing
12:45
number of Ukrainian drones penetrating Russian airspace
12:48
has fundamentally changed the risk of operating there.
12:52
As he put it in his Tuesday night address,
12:54
quote,
12:54
The Russian sky is becoming completely dangerous.
12:57
Drone infested skies are no place for civilian aviation.
13:01
And Ukraine isn't simply putting out a public warning and leaving it there.
13:05
Kiev has taken the issue directly
13:07
to the International Civil Aviation Organization.
13:09
Does that have an acronym?
13:11
Yes,
13:11
it does.
13:11
It's ICAO,
13:13
asking the world's aviation watchdog to encourage its members
13:16
to fully prohibit civilian aircraft from operating in Russian airspace.
13:21
And there's a reason
13:22
that Ukraine is taking that risk so seriously.
13:25
In 2014,
13:27
Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17.
13:30
was shot down over eastern Ukraine by a Russian-made
13:33
missile fired from territory controlled by Russian-backed separatists.
13:37
All 298 people aboard were killed.
13:40
Then in 2024,
13:42
another passenger aircraft found itself caught in the middle
13:44
of Russian air defenses responding to Ukrainian drones.
13:48
An Azerbaijan Airlines flight approaching the Russian city of Grozny was damaged
13:53
and forced to divert across the Caspian Sea.
13:56
Before crash landing in Kazakhstan killing 38 people,
14:00
Putin later acknowledged that two Russian
14:02
missiles had detonated near the aircraft after
14:05
Ukrainian drones entered Russian airspace.
14:08
So when Ukraine warns about the
14:09
possibility of another civilian aviation disaster,
14:12
well,
14:13
there is tragic precedent.
14:14
But there's also an important difference between the
14:16
skies above Ukraine and Russia right now.
14:19
Ukraine's airspace has effectively been closed to commercial aviation.
14:24
Ever since Putin launched his full-scale invasion in 2022,
14:28
Russia,
14:28
however,
14:29
continues to have civilian aircraft operating through its airspace
14:33
even as Ukrainian drones increasingly penetrate
14:35
hundreds of miles into the country.
14:37
Many American and European carriers already avoid Russian
14:41
airspace because of sanctions and security concerns,
14:44
but airlines from China,
14:46
Turkey,
14:46
and the Gulf,
14:47
they continue flying through it,
14:49
and those are the carriers that Kiev is now putting on notice.
14:52
Its message is that as Ukraine's long-range campaign grows,
14:56
so does the risk of flying through Russian airspace.
14:59
Putin,
14:59
unsurprisingly,
15:00
portrays Zelensky's warning very differently.
15:03
He accused the Ukrainian president again with
15:06
Putin's typical lack of irony or self-awareness
15:08
of engaging in
15:10
state terrorism.
15:11
Putin said Moscow would find a way to respond
15:14
if Kiev disrupted civilian aviation.
15:16
Russian officials insist that they are strengthening coordination
15:20
among the country's aviation,
15:21
defense,
15:22
and security agencies
15:23
to keep commercial flights operating safely.
15:26
Civilian aircraft could be threatened by Ukrainian drones,
15:29
falling debris,
15:30
electronic warfare,
15:31
or
15:32
Russian air defense systems attempting to intercept an incoming attack.
15:36
The danger may also force Russian authorities to
15:38
close airports or redirect flights with little warning.
15:42
So this is both a public safety warning
15:45
and another way,
15:45
frankly,
15:46
for Ukraine to increase the cost of Putin's war.
15:50
Kiev wants the international aviation industry.
15:52
To treat Russian airspace as part of an
15:54
active conflict zone and to further isolate the country
15:57
from global travel,
15:59
Zelensky's message is that Russia can't
16:01
continue escalating its attacks against Ukraine
16:04
while assuming the consequences will remain confined to Ukrainian territory.
16:09
All right.
16:10
Coming up in the back of the brief,
16:11
Hamas promised its supporters that cryptocurrency
16:15
donations were anonymous and untraceable.
16:17
Well,
16:18
the FBI
16:19
just proved otherwise.
16:21
More on that when we come back.
16:25
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In today's back of the brief,
18:32
the FBI has struck a blow against Hamas's online fundraising operation
18:37
and gained information on thousands of sympathizers who
18:39
tried to donate to the terrorist organization.
18:42
The Justice Department announced on Tuesday that
18:45
agents confiscated more than $560,000 US dollars
18:49
in digital currency
18:51
intended for Hamas's military wing,
18:53
that would be the Al-Qassam Brigades,
18:55
but the money itself may not be the biggest part of this operation.
18:59
Federal officials also seized websites,
19:01
domains,
19:02
and communications platforms
19:03
that Hamas was using to raise money and recruit supporters
19:07
while obtaining information on thousands of people who contacted Hamas online
19:12
trying to donate to the terrorist organization.
19:15
The DOJ,
19:16
the Department of Justice,
19:17
of course,
19:18
says that information will now be used in future FBI counterterrorism efforts.
19:22
So you ask,
19:24
how did the FBI get its hands on all of this?
19:26
Well,
19:26
it's a good question to ask.
19:28
For that we have to go back to around
19:30
2019 when Hamas began experimenting with cryptocurrency fundraising.
19:35
The Al-Qassam Brigades initially
19:37
solicited cryptocurrency donations via telegram
19:41
before moving to direct fundraising on its own websites.
19:45
Hamas officials bragged that bitcoin donations would be untraceable.
19:49
They even provided supporters with instructions for
19:51
how to make those donations anonymously.
19:54
According to court filings,
19:55
a group chat claiming to be associated with Hamas
19:58
directed supporters to a fundraising website
20:01
where prospective donors
20:02
were given a rotating set of cryptocurrency addresses
20:06
to send their money.
20:07
There was just one problem for Hamas.
20:09
Those transactions
20:11
weren't actually invisible.
20:13
Cryptocurrency transactions leave records on the blockchain,
20:16
giving investigators a trail that
20:18
they can follow even as Hamas tries to
20:20
conceal its donors and the money's destination.
20:23
A major break for the FBI came last
20:25
year when investigators identified a cryptocurrency financing operation
20:30
soliciting donations for the Al-Qassam Brigades.
20:33
A confidential source inside the US also alerted law enforcement to a Telegram post
20:38
asking supporters to send contributions to
20:40
an email address associated with Hamas.
20:44
From there,
20:44
investigators worked with multiple human sources to identify
20:47
and trace the cryptocurrency moving through the network,
20:51
and investigators
20:52
didn't make just one seizure.
20:54
Court documents show investigators carried out three separate seizures in March,
20:59
June,
20:59
and October of last year.
21:01
By the end of those operations,
21:03
over half a million dollars intended for Hamas was in the hands of the US government.
21:08
The FBI's Albuquerque Field Office
21:10
also worked with sources to identify and seize domains and servers
21:15
controlled by the Al-Qassam Brigades,
21:17
including
21:17
infrastructure behind its main website.
21:20
And that gave the FBI something potentially more valuable
21:23
than the money.
21:24
By taking control of that infrastructure,
21:26
agents were able to intercept cryptocurrency donations
21:30
intended for Hamas.
21:32
Now the DOJ does not say that all of the
21:34
thousands of prospective donors identified by investigators were inside the US
21:39
FBI officials also say
21:41
that part of the operation
21:43
was designed to create distrust between Hamas and its donors.
21:47
Because anyone trying to send money to the terrorist group now has to wonder
21:51
whether the website,
21:52
the account,
21:53
or network they're using has already been penetrated by American law enforcement.
21:58
Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Eisenberg says
22:01
the operation deprives Hamas of resources it relies on to
22:05
recruit and radicalize individuals online and to finance attacks
22:09
like the October 7 massacres in Israel.
22:13
And that,
22:14
my friends,
22:14
is the President's Daily Brief for Thursday,
22:17
the 3rd of September.
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If you've got any questions or comments,
22:19
and I hope you do,
22:20
just reach out to me at PDB@tv.com.
22:24
And finally,
22:24
if you've been wondering
22:26
what it would be like to have an ad-free PDB.
22:28
Experience,
22:29
well,
22:30
wonder no more.
22:31
Just become a premium member
22:32
of the President's Daily Brief by visiting PDBpremium.com.
22:36
It really is just that simple.
22:38
I'm Mike Baker and I'll be back later today
22:40
with the PDB
22:42
afternoon bulletin.
22:43
Until then,
22:44
stay informed,
22:45
stay safe,
22:46
stay cool.