Economic Warfare and Regime Change

I like to remind people that war is politics by other means. So is the economic warfare that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced on Monday.

Operation Economic Outcast, Bessent’s term for what Trump called an Economic D-Day against Iran, goes way beyond any previous set of sanctions.

For starters, it explicitly targets the enablers of the Iranian regime. The sanctions evaders. The banks. The exchange houses. The shipping registries. Countries that allow ship to ship transfers.

Countries “that tether themselves [to Iran] can expect to share in the isolation of a withering regime,” Bessent said.

I loved the specificity of Scotty Bessent’s threats.

“Treasury has mapped every node, ever facilitator and every network that Iran has used to smuggle oil and evade sanctions… Beginning today… we are enforcing a zero leakage approach.”

If you thought you could sneak past the Treasury intelligence analysts, think again. The US was now targeting Iran’s “most vital lifelines,” namely digital assets, technology, gold, aviation, and shipping.

“These measures broaden secondary sanctions risk for anyone foolish enough to continue conducting business with this regime — and accelerate the speed with which we pursue them,” Bessent said.

World leaders faced a choice. “Between prosperity and isolation. Peace and terror. America and Iran.” The US campaign “will not end until this regime stands alone,” he said.

Strong words. And I believe they will be followed by strong — but sometimes quiet — actions.

For example, Russia. We learned on Tuesday that CIA Director John Ratcliff flew “secretly” to Moscow, reportedly to deliver a “warning” to Russia not to attack NATO. This, as usual with the national media, according to anonymous sources.

Still, it wasn’t much of a secret because his Ratcliff’s military jet was spotted leaving Latvia and arriving in Moscow on Tuesday, where it was greeted by a convoy of black Suburbans that whisked him to the Kremlin.

Trump acknowledged the Ratcliff mission on Wednesday in an interview with Glenn Beck, but denied Ratcliff delivered a warning to Putin not to test NATO’s resolve. Instead, he called the visit “semi-routine,” and hinted it might involve negotiations toward ending the Russian-Ukraine war.

I suspect — but this is just my gut speaking — that Ratcliff at the very least told his Russian counterpart (who acknowledged the meeting on Thursday) that Russia was also in Scotty Bessent’s cross-hairs if they didn’t cut off their military and intelligence support for Iran.

Perhaps he hinted that the US might lean on Zelensky to stop attacking Russian refineries if the Russians stopped aiding Iran?

Again, this is just me speculating. But Trump is a transactional guy. You give and you get.

But if Radcliff did issue a warning to Russia about NATO, as the media claims, it didn’t go over very well, because on Thursday a Russian foreign ministry spokesperson explicitly threatened the UK over its military support to Ukraine.

This came as Moscow accused Ukraine of firing British Storm Shadow air to surface missiles against a shopping center in the city of Donetsk in Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the UK was “one step away” from becoming legally complicit in “terrorism” against Russian civilians.

“We have repeatedly warned that any British military installations and equipment in Ukraine and beyond its borders could be targeted in response to Ukrainian strikes on Russian territory carried out using British weapons,” she said.

Following that warning, Poland sent tanks to the Russian border and Sweden deployed Grippen fighter jets to Finland to reinforce its air defenses along the 800 mile border with Russia.

And for the past two days, Kiev has been under intense bombardment by missiles and drones, with air raid sirens going off almost constantly for fifteen hours at a stretch.

Putin’s message to the Ukrainians was clear: continue attacking our oil refineries and oil depots and we will continue attacking Kiev.

Perhaps Ratcliff really was on a mission to find the terms for a lasting ceasefire, and both sides are jockeying to get the best terms.

In both Iran and Russia, economic warfare is proving itself just as powerful as bombs and missiles, if not more so.

Russia is hurting badly from the hits on its oil infrastructure. Only 27% of gasoline stations now have gas. Russians haven’t experienced this type of economic pain since the economic collapse of 1998, which ultimately forced Yeltsin to resign and brought Putin to power.

In Iran, protesters are back on the streets demanding economic relief from the regime. I’d like to hear them chant, No No Nuclear.

It’s pretty clear you can’t force regime change through air power alone. But when that is coupled with a naval blockade and an economic noose cutting the regime off from its foreign sources of support, I am increasingly confident we will see change in Iran.

What a surprise it would be to Democrats if their biggest ally — the IRGC in Tehran — were to fall just before the midterms.

I discuss these subjects and Europe’s drift into irrelevance on this week’s Prophecy Today Weekend. As always, you can listen live at 1 PM on Saturday on 104.9 FM or 550 AM in the Jacksonville, Florida, area, or by using the Jacksonville Way Radio app.

Yours in freedom.

©2026 Kenneth R. Timmerman. All rights reserved.

And if you are local, don’t miss me at these two upcoming events:

Monday, Sept 14, at We the People at Shuckers in Fernandina Beach (just across the bridge). Starts at 5:30, speaking at 6 pm.

Saturday, Sept. 19, starting at 5 PM, at America’s 250th Anniversary Gala organized by the We Can Be Heroes Foundation. Ticket sales end Sept 6!

Website: kentimmerman.com

Ken Timmerman’s 14th book of non-fiction, THE IRAN HOUSE: Tales of Revolution, Persecution, War, and Intrigue, can be ordered by clicking here or by viewing my author’s page, here. 

Raising Olives in Provence, can be ordered by clicking here.