The State Department just told every American in 14 Middle Eastern countries to “DEPART NOW” — while simultaneously admitting it can’t actually help them leave. Hundreds of thousands of travelers are stranded across the region, 11,000 flights have been canceled since Saturday, and the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem flat-out told Americans it is “not in a position at this time to evacuate or directly assist Americans in departing Israel.”
Welcome to clown world. “Run for your lives, peasants! Also, we can’t get you a flight, but here’s a WhatsApp link. Namaste.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio says the department has launched a “24/7 task force” and a WhatsApp channel with over 15,000 subscribers. A WhatsApp channel. Germany is chartering planes to pull 30,000 of its citizens out. The UK is scrambling to evacuate 200,000 Brits. Even the Czech Republic is sending aircrafts to Egypt, Jordan, and Oman. And we — the most powerful nation on the planet — gave our people a group chat.
We spend $886 billion a year on defense and can’t scrape together a charter flight?!? Come on.
Here’s what happened. President Trump and Israel turned Iran’s military command structure into rubble starting Saturday. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei? Gone. As in, meeting-his-maker gone.
Iran started lobbing everything they had at anything with an American flag on it — Israel, Gulf states, U.S. military bases, even two drones at our embassy in Riyadh. Six American service members have been killed so far.
The State Department’s “depart now” list covers Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, the UAE, and Yemen. That’s basically every country between Greece and India.
But here’s the punchline — there’s nowhere to fly. Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv? Shut down. Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Doha — the region’s biggest hubs — barely operating. Over 9,500 flights scrubbed from seven airports alone. United killed its Dubai flights through Wednesday. Delta pulled out of Tel Aviv through Sunday.
So the State Department’s master plan is: “Depart now… on a plane that doesn’t exist.”
Americans who called the State Department hotline for help were told — we are not making this up — that representatives “do not have this information in their system” or that “there’s nothing they can do.” Chris Elliott, a dad from Lexington, North Carolina, traveled to Jerusalem on a religious pilgrimage with his 17-year-old daughter last week. Now they’re sheltering in a hotel room as missiles fly overhead.
“We’re begging for somebody in the States to help us out,” Elliott told NBC News. “And now we’re stuck here and we can’t find a way home.”
A group of 36 Americans touring Israel with a travel agency got caught in the crossfire too. Another stranded American, a content creator from Dallas named Oliver Sims, said the State Department “had so many emergency calls coming in so they had to hang up on me.”
They hung up on him. Your “faithful public servants” at the State Department, everybody.
President Trump says the Iran campaign is “moving along very well — ahead of schedule” and could last “four weeks or less.” He told Iranians to “take over your government” when the strikes end. Sounds great. But did anybody at the Pentagon or Foggy Bottom think to ask, “Hey, what about the Americans already over there?” before we kicked the hornet’s nest?
We all wanted Iran dealt with — most of us have been screaming about their nuclear program for twenty years. But you don’t start raining cruise missiles on a region full of American tourists, church groups, and business travelers without chartering a few planes first. That’s not politics. That’s just not being an idiot.
Speaking of Democrats — Chuck Schumer is out there doing his best concerned-grandpa routine, whining that “the administration has not provided Congress and the American people with critical details.” Some of them are pushing a War Powers Act vote. You know what? Broken clock, twice a day. They’re asking the right question for the wrong reasons. Their real concern isn’t stranded Christians on a pilgrimage in Jerusalem. It’s midterm campaign ads.
The State Department needs to put down the WhatsApp and start chartering planes. The Germans figured it out. The Czechs figured it out. We can land a hypersonic missile on a mailbox in Tehran but we can’t organize a bus to the airport in Amman?
Here’s a message for the State Department’s WhatsApp channel: charter the planes or resign. Chris Elliott and his 17-year-old daughter aren’t interested in your read receipts.