Trump Slams Iran — and Its Financier, China
Iran is the puppet-master and the banker for all the terrorist groups trying to destroy Israel and, for that matter, the United States. And Beijing is Tehran’s biggest source of money.

President Trump just put the heavy wood to Iran. And, in so doing, just slammed Communist China, as well.
As far as I’m concerned, Mr. Trump is right, on both counts.
Just a couple of hours ago on Truth Social, the president announced: “All purchases of Iranian Oil, or Petrochemical products, must stop, NOW! Any Country or person who buys ANY AMOUNT of OIL or PETROCHEMICALS from Iran will be subject to, immediately, Secondary Sanctions. They will not be allowed to do business with the United States of America in any way, shape, or form.”
I think he’s completely right about this. Iran is the puppet-master and the banker for all the terrorist groups trying to destroy Israel and, for that matter, the United States.
In Mr. Trump’s first term, Iranian oil production fell to 400,000 barrels per day, in 2020.
Today, it has ramped back up all the way to 3.3 million per day. And oil is, of course, their only cash crop. And they use it to finance their war against civilization.
Even after the horrific Israeli massacre on October 7, 2023, President Biden did nothing about Iran’s oil terror financing machine. Actually, he lifted sanctions and eased the maximum pressure Mr. Trump put on Iran in his first term.
Mr. Biden never had the gumption to truly go after Iran. Yet Mr. Trump does.
However, the story gets more complicated. The biggest financier of Iran and its war against civilization is China.
China imports roughly 90 percent of Iran’s oil exports. It comes to about 1.8 million barrels per day, the recent all-time high just hit in March.
Some of the China oil imports from Iran are transshipped through Malasyia, but the Chinese Communist Party isn’t fooling anybody.
With some back-of-the-envelope calculations, Brent crude oil averaged $72 a barrel in March, multiplied by the 1.8 million barrels a day in March imported by China, gets Iran nearly $4 billion a month, or $48 billion a year.
That’s a lot of money.
There may be discounting along the way, but that’s still a lot of money to finance Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and Lord knows who else.
In effect, China is financing Iran’s war against Israel, the United States, and civilized people everywhere. Just like China is financing Russia’s war on Ukraine and by proxy their ally, America.
Now Mr. Trump has been saying he wants to do some trade and tariff business with China. No one knows for sure if he and Xi Jinping have actually spoken. Yet it seems pretty clear that bureaucrats from both sides are in contact over the tariff battle.
With Mr. Trump’s brave decision to slap secondary tariffs on anybody who buys Iranian oil — and exempt such countries from doing business with the United States — he is aiming squarely at China.
The Chinese won’t like this, not one bit. But that’s what they rightly get for financing terrorist killers and murderers.
Good for President Trump.
From Mr. Kudlow’s broadcast on Fox Business Network.