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

Episode Date: March 24, 2026

In this episode of The President’s Daily Brief: First up—the White House moves to release Iranian oil onto global markets, a decision that could send billions to Tehran at a moment of maximum pressure, raising serious questions about the strategy behind it. Later in the show—as the fight with Iran intensifies, the U.S. is now battling on another front, launching strikes against Iran-backed militias in Iraq and widening the scope of the conflict. To listen to the show ad-free, become a premium member of The President’s Daily Brief by visiting https://PDBPremium.com. Please remember to subscribe if you enjoyed this episode of The President's Daily Brief. YouTube: youtube.com/@presidentsdailybrief Sundays for Dogs: Upgrade your dog’s food without the hassle—try Sundays for Dogs and get 50% off your first order at https://sundaysfordogs.com/PDB50or use code PDB50 at checkout. QUO: Make this the season where no opportunity slips away. Try QUO for free PLUS get 20% off your first 6 months when you go to https://Quo.com/PDB Superpower: Stop guessing about your health—get $20 off Superpower at https://superpower.com/pdb with code PDB. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Before we get started, a quick reminder. Okay, well, fair enough. Not so much a reminder as a bit of shameless marketing. Now, if you've ever said to yourself, golly, I really love the president's daily brief, but I wonder if I could listen to it ad free, well, the answer is yes, you can. Just become a premium member by visiting pdb premium.com. In addition to the morning and afternoon briefs, you'll also get access to our regular Ask Me Anything episodes, the weekly PDB intelligence checklist, and other subscriber-only shows. Again, head on over to PDB Premium.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 U.S. 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 U.S. is now battling on another front, launching strikes against Iran-backed militias

in Iraq. But first, 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 Tehran at a time when the U.S. 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, sitting in a lot 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 U.S., 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 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 U.S. forces and allies are, of course, actively engaged in a fight against them. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent 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-see Iranian oil into the market won't significantly drive down the price of oil. Prices are rising because the Strait 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. economy. Years of 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, 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, 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. Hey, Mike Baker here with a message for dog lovers. Now, if you're like me, dogs are an important part of family life, right? We've got two ourselves. Our golden retriever Hendricks, he's a good old boy, about 14 years old now, and Monty are very cute but somewhat dim-witted King Charles Spaniel. As you probably know, when you're a dog lover, well, it comes to dog food.

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Try Quo for free. Plus, get 20% off your first six months when you go to quo.com slash PDB. Again, that's Quo, QUO, quo.com slash PDB. Quo, no missed calls, no missed opportunities. Welcome back to the PDB afternoon bulletin. We've been watching the war in Iran move beyond the rest of the rest of the result. regime's borders, and now it's pushing further into Iraq, where U.S. airstrikes 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 Anbar 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 Habanilla, which is between Baghdad and Ramadi, with social media posts claiming a Shiite 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, Sard 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. had 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 Shiite 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-backed militias that the U.S. has designated as terrorist organizations, groups that have helped entrench 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, their

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 air strike, 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 remains central to ongoing counterterrorism operations, as well as economic development. On the other, he's dealing with powerful Iran-aligned factions that are formerly 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 ad-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. Hey, Mike Baker here. Let me ask you a question. Have you ever left the doctor's office feeling like you, well, like you'd got nothing out of it? You know what I'm talking about, right? Just got some standard instructions maybe to eat right and exercise. Oh, well, thanks for that. That's why I want to tell you about superpower. It's a tremendous app that can help you stay on top of your

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