Letters from an American
· collected 2026-09-12 · by Heather Cox Richardson
commentary
Last night was the second night of the Republican midterm convention Trump staged to fire up his base.
asserted
Trump → stag → base
Such a midterm convention is rare—the purpose of national conventions is to pick a president and write a platform—but Trump has turned the Republican Party into a vehicle for his own power and apparently thinks putting himself at the center of the midterms can overcome the headwinds the Republicans are battling.
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Republicans → pick → headwinds
Or perhaps, with his approval ratings hitting a new low, he just wanted to stand in front of cheering crowds again.
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he → hit → crowds
The audience at the American Airlines Center in Dallas was sparse, and according to Kara Voght of the Wall Street Journal, many who were there had received their tickets for free from state parties or right-wing groups like Moms for Liberty.
uncertain
who → accord → Liberty
But, she wrote, “everyone wanted to watch another episode of the Trump show.
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everyone → write → show
Although the crowd was small enough that it did not fill the arena, Trump got the absolute loyalty he demanded from those who had turned out.
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who → fill → those
At the event, he led the crowd in an oath.
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he → lead → oath
“Please raise your right hand,” he shouted.
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he → raise → hand
“I pledge to the greatest president in the history of the United States.
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I → pledge → States
That loves us so much he can’t even breathe.”
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he → love → us
The crowd chanted dutifully after him.
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crowd → chant → him
“That I will go out with my family, my friends, I’ll do it any way—I don’t care if I’m registered or not, I’m going to try and cheat like hell like they do, they’d never, there’s never been bigger cheaters, they don’t care.
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they → go → hell
I am gonna go out and I’m gonna get my friends, my family, and we are going to vote on November third or we are going to vote before that!”
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we → go → that
The crowd erupted in applause.
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crowd → erupt → applause
Once again, he promised that if the Republicans held control of the House and Senate after the midterms, he would distribute a $5,000 check to all adult U.S. citizens, a plan that would cost more than a trillion dollars even if it were legal for him to do so (which it is not).
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it → promise → dollars
But while the Trump show in Dallas was being broadcast to the president’s fans, reality was very much on the minds of those watching events in the Middle East.
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reality → broadcast → East
There are two main shipping routes for oil and other products out of the region, and both have strategic chokepoints.
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both → be → chokepoints
The Strait of Hormuz sits on the eastern side of the Arabian Peninsula where the Persian Gulf empties into the Arabian Sea.
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Gulf → sit → Sea
The Bab el-Mandeb strait sits on the western side of the Arabian Peninsula.
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strait → sit → Peninsula
It pinches the outlet of the Red Sea on its way to the Arabian Sea and from there to the Indian Ocean and world markets.
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It → pinch → Ocean
When Trump struck Iran in February 2026, Iranian forces took control of the Strait of Hormuz, largely stopping traffic of oil through the outlet.
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forces → strike → outlet
And so Saudi Arabia, which is the world’s largest oil exporter and a close ally of the United States, relied on sending exports via the Red Sea route, passing through the Bab el-Mandeb strait.
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which → rely → strait
It did so by moving oil across the Arabian Peninsula from the Persian Gulf to the Red Sea through the East-West oil pipeline, which runs about 750 miles (1,200 kilometers) across Saudi Arabia.
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which → do → Arabia
It can move about 7 million barrels of crude oil per day and has been sending about 5 million a day since the outbreak of the war on Iran.
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It → move → Iran
From there, oil can be loaded onto tankers and shipped down the Red Sea, through the Bab el-Mandeb, and on to global markets.
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oil → load → markets
Yesterday Iran-backed Houthi militants swept along the shoreline of the Red Sea toward the Bab el-Mandeb.
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militants → back → Mandeb
They captured the seaport and city of Mocha, which is about 50 miles (80 kilometers) from the strait, from Saudi-backed Yemeni forces.
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which → capture → forces
Today Yemeni government officials told Mohammed Ghobari, Eman Abouhassira, and Yasmine Ghania of Reuters that the Houthis have taken the coastal town of Dhubab, which sits on the Yemen mainland at the point of the strait.
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which → tell → strait
The sources said Yemeni forces had also evacuated the island of Perim, which sits about a third of the way between the mainland and the Djibouti shore to the west.
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which → say → west
Later this afternoon, sources said the Houthis had captured the island.
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Houthis → say → island
Although the Houthis do not control the Djiboutian side of the strait, they now threaten shipping through the passage.
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they → control → passage
Saudi Arabia’s East-West pipeline has also come under attack.
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pipeline → come → attack
Spencer Kimball of CNBC reports that the Saudi Energy Ministry announced the pipeline had been shut down as a precautionary measure after it had sustained a number of attacks.
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it → report → attacks
Kylie Atwood, Katie Bo Lillis, Thomas Bordeaux, and Zachary Cohen of CNN added that the attacks apparently originated in Iraq, that U.S. officials had told them that pumping stations had been hit, and satellite imagery showed smoke coming from one of them and fire damage at another.
The price of oil briefly jumped to about $110 a barrel on Friday.
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price → add → Friday
Diesel prices moved to $6.06 a gallon, up 60% since the U.S. and Israel first attacked Iran in February.
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U.S. → move → February
Trump and his advisors have said they plan to strangle Iran economically through their blockade of Iranian ports.
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they → say → ports
Now it appears Iran is retaliating with a plan to strangle the U.S. economy by slowing the transport of oil even further.
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Iran → appear → oil
Today is the twenty-fifth anniversary of 9/11, the day terrorists from the al-Qaeda network used four civilian airplanes as weapons against the United States.
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terrorists → use → States
President Donald Trump did not attend the commemoration at Ground Zero, now the National September 11 Memorial, in downtown Manhattan because, according to New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman, Zolan Kanno-Youngs, Dana Rubinstein, and Sally Goldenberg, he wanted to deliver a speech but the event organizers don’t allow speeches, focusing on nonpartisanship and honoring the victims.
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organizers → attend → victims
Trump responded to the story with a personal attack on Haberman, calling her “Maggot.”
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Trump → respond → her
…and 19 more, not listed.
