PDB Afternoon Bulletin | March 24th, 2026: Trump’s Iran Oil Move Raises Big Questions & U.S. Strikes Militias in Iraq

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to PDB premium dot com to join it's Tuesday the 24th of March. Welcome to the PDB afternoon bulletin.

I'm Mike Baker. Your eyes and ears on the world stage. All right, let's get briefed.

And first up, the White House moves to release Iranian oil onto global markets. It's a decision

that could send billions of dollars to the Iranian regime. The same regime that the US is currently

at war with. Confused? Well, I'll have the details, but you'll still be confused. Later in the

show, as the fight with Iran intensifies, the US is now battling on another front, launching

strikes against Iran-backed militias in Iraq. But first, in today's afternoon spotlight.

We'll start things off today by taking a look at one of the more controversial and unusual,

possibly surreal efforts by the White House to ease the economic impact of the Iranian war

and minimize political damage at home. Specifically, the Trump administration is now facing

growing pushback over a decision that's raising eyebrows across Washington, D.C., temporarily

easing sanctions on Iranian oil, potentially unlocking up to $14 billion for Tecron,

at a time when the US is actively engaged in a conflict with the regime.

We briefly covered this in an earlier PDB. The move allows millions of barrels of Iranian oil,

currently sitting at sea, to be sold on global markets over the next month,

with the goal of increasing supply and bringing down rising energy prices,

with oil hovering near $100 a barrel and gas prices climbing at the pump in the US.

The White House is clearly looking for ways to stabilize the market and avoid voter

displeasure. But here's where things start to get a bit awkward. You'll recall that President Trump

once criticized repeatedly former President Obama over sending far smaller payments to Iran

in what was seen by many as a payment for the release of hostages. As an aside,

the Obama administration at the time refuted that allegation that they had paid a ransom.

But well, when Iran handed over hostages and the Obama White House handed over a pallets of fat

stacks, it was hard to see it as anything other than a ransom payment. But now, the Trump administration

finds itself defending a move that could deliver a far larger financial boost to the Iranian regime.

While US forces and allies are, of course, actively engaged in a fight against them.

Treasury Secretary Scott Besant tried to explain the strategy over the weekend,

describing it as kind of an economic jujitsu, flooding the market with Iranian oil to drive prices

down and, in theory, limit the regime's leverage. The concept, if limited to a theory on paper,

might make sense if the price of oil drops Iran makes less money. But here in the real world,

putting the currently in limbo at sea Iranian oil into the market won't significantly

drive down the price of oil. Prices are rising because the state of Hormuz is essentially closed,

and releasing Iranian oil does nothing to open the strait, nor does it ease the fears and

concerns of the global markets, given that the conflict continues. Now to be fair, a short-term

infusion of cash, even 10 billion, give or take a few billion, won't rescue Iran's economy.

Your sub-sanctions have taken a real toll, but that's not really the point. The issue isn't

whether this move saves the Iranian regime, it's whether it makes sense to provide any financial

relief at all to an adversary that you're currently bombing. And there's another problem here.

Much of Iran's oil trade already operates in the shadows, moved through a so-called shadow fleet,

often sold at a discount to China and a small group of countries willing to bust the existing

sanctions. It's not entirely clear how much of this stranded oil can actually be redirected

into legitimate markets, or whether the U.S. will be able to track and control or restrict where

the money ultimately ends up. The narrative used by the Obama administration back when they were

providing funds to the regime was that they would be able to track the flow of funds to ensure

the money did not end up fueling Iran's missile and nuclear programs or proxy network. It was

a nonsensical notion when said by Democrats at the time, and it would be equally nonsensical if

the Republicans try to argue that they can keep any oil revenues out of the hands of the Iranian

regime. Money heading to Iran will end up with the military and the IRGC and the same repressive

government structure that the U.S. is currently bombing. All right, coming up next, the U.S. takes

the fight to Iran's proxy network, striking militia leadership in Iraq. I'll be right back.

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Welcome back to the PDB afternoon bulletin. We've been watching the war in Iran move beyond

the regime's borders and now it's pushing further into Iraq, where U.S. Air strikes hit one

of Tehran's most important proxy networks. According to regional officials, one of the primary

targets was a popular mobilization forces or PMF headquarters in Iraq's on-bar province,

where senior commanders were reportedly set to meet today. On the ground, Reuters confirmed that

ambulances were seen in Ramadi as casualties mounted, with early estimates suggesting up to 30

fighters were killed or wounded, with the toll likely to rise. Now I want to point out that in

the early hours of the strike, there were also reports of a possible strike near a habania,

which is between Baghdad and Ramadi, with social media posts claiming a Shi'i militia base had

been hit. But at this point, it's not entirely clear whether this was a separate strike or part

of the same operation that targeted the PMF headquarters. The targeting suggests obviously an

effort by Washington to hit the Iran-backed group's leadership network rather than just rank and

file fighters. According to early reports, Saad al-Baiji, the PMF's operations commander in the

province was among the dead. His funeral quickly turned into a public show of anger just hours after

his death, with crowds shouting while carrying his coffin and portrait through the streets of Baghdad.

There are also reports circulating across social media that suggest his deputy may have also been

killed, though that hasn't been independently verified. Further reporting indicates that a separate

U.S. strike hit a residence in Mosul belonging to the leader of the PMF. He reportedly wasn't

on-site at the time, but the structure was destroyed. For background, the PMF is an umbrella

network, mostly of Shi'i militias that were formally folded into Iraq's state security forces.

So technically, they're part of the Iraqi government. But in practice, many of their most powerful

factions operate very differently. They mostly function as Iranian proxies, trained, funded,

and in many cases directed by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, the IRGC, forming a key part of

the regime's strategy to project power beyond its borders. And it goes even further than that,

while the PMF is officially part of Iraq's armed forces, many of its leaders are tied to Iran-back

militias that the U.S. has designated as terrorist organizations, groups that have helped and trench

Tehran's influence inside Iraq's security apparatus. Essentially, Iranian-directed militias

make up a powerful element of the Iraqi government. And that brings us to their role in the U.S.

Israeli war with Iran. Since Washington and Jerusalem began military operations against Iran

on the 28th of February, Iran-aligned factions operating within the PMF network have carried out

attacks, targeting the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad and other sites across Iraq and Syria.

So for weeks, these groups have been on the offensive. Now, they're taking direct hits.

PMF officials are describing today's strikes as, quote, treacherous. And notably, they blamed

both the U.S. and Israel, calling it a, quote, U.S. Zionist Airstrike, which brings us to the

political fallout. Iraq's Prime Minister finds himself in a delicate position. On one hand,

he needs to maintain Baghdad's relationship with Washington, which remained central to ongoing

counterterrorism operations, as well as economic development. On the other, he's dealing with powerful

Iran-aligned factions that are formally part of his country's security structure and exert

significant influence within the Iraqi government. It's another example of how this conflict

was never going to be just contained within Iran's borders. And that, my friends, is the PDB

afternoon bulletin for Tuesday the 24th of March. If you have any questions or comments,

please reach out to me at PDB at thefirsttv.com. And to listen to the show Add Free,

well, you can do it and just become a premium member of the president's daily brief

by visiting PDBpremium.com. I'm Mike Baker, and I'll be back tomorrow. Until then, stay informed,

stay safe, stay cool.

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