Trump’s Iranian Actions Speak Louder Than His Words – Top 3 Takeaways – March 11th, 2026
Takeaway #1: Talk is cheap
The phrase "actions speak louder than words" originated in the early 17th century, attributed to parliamentarian John Pym in 1628 during the English Civil War, emphasizing that a person's actions are a more accurate reflection of their intentions than their words. For that reason, it felt appropriate to break it out today in the context of the Iranian war. Love him or hate him none can deny that President Trump is a man of action. In fact, President Trump has already taken more action in 13+ months of his second term than President Biden and team autopen did during his entire term, and in fact more action than Trump himself during his first term. And it’s for that reason when President Trump said on Monday that the Iran war was a “short-term excursion”, the financial markets took note. A stock market that opened the week with massive selling reversed and turned positive on the day. Oil prices which had been bid up to $118 per barrel reversed and actually turned lower for the day during trading. President Trump’s words were enough to significantly move the needle. That follow through continued into Tuesday with stocks trading higher and oil considerably lower yet again. President Trump followed up his Monday remarks in Doral with this post on Truth Social: If Iran does anything that stops the flow of Oil within the Strait of Hormuz, they will be hit by the United States of America TWENTY TIMES HARDER than they have been hit thus far. Well, ok nobody believes that Iran will be hit 20x harder than they’d been hit. But the key is to back up the words with fast action, and that’s exactly what we did see. Pete Hegseth indicated on Tuesday that “Today will be, yet again, our most intense day of strikes inside of Iran”. And the reason that’s significant is due to something else he noted which was that over the prior 24 hours we’d seen:
Takeaway #2: Iran fire the lowest number of missiles they’ve been capable of firing yet.
That’s key. I’ve not just been tracking the news out of Iran but analyzing the deliverables too. As of Tuesday, Operation Epic Fury had produced: 8,400 targets struck in Iran, a total that was 2,000 more than the day before – meaning 31% of everything that’s been accomplished in terms of striking intended targets that happened within the prior day. And what has the effect of that been? In total, Iran had launched 2,820 attacks. How many more attacks did they initiate over the past day while the U.S. and Israel had what was by far the most effective day of attacks yet? 61. The Iran Revolutionary Guard, which had previously been averaging over 300 strikes per day only managed to fire off 61 attacks during a time when they took 2,000 incoming strikes. And btw, how many of those 61 attacks made it through Allied defenses? Zero. None, nada. You don’t have to be good at math to know how that goes. So the most effective day by the allied forces against Iran coincided with the least active and effective day by the Iranian military. And that’s significant for bringing and end to this thing rather quickly. On that note consider this. In my analysis on March 3rd, given the pace and trajectory of the war at that point I said that it appeared as though Iran only had the capacity to keep up their pace for approximately eight days. Today makes eight days. Talk is cheap and in life but especially in war actions speak louder than words and actions we’ve seen over the past day indicate that President Trump’s words were backed up by force. I don’t know what exactly is set to take place from here but Iran’s ability to fight militarily appears to be close to a breaking point.
Takeaway #3: Ever the same
It was a nice tune from Rob Thomas just over twenty years ago. It was largely the story of local election turnout in Palm Beach County yesterday. With 19 municipalities encompassing 43% of the county’s population, what we saw was that yet again voter apathy rather than action won the day. But while voter turnout remained typically low with only 17% of eligible voters turning out to vote...what didn’t end up the same were results. As I’ve recently highlighted, while Democrats once held a commanding 138,400 voter advantage in Palm Beach County, that edge was under 13,000 voters most recently. And while most local elections aren’t about traditional right-left politics, the reality is that partisan ideologically is part of all of us to at least some degree. This is especially true for those who run for elected offices. It’s also true of the voters who vote for non-partisan candidates and issues. And what we’re seeing is that as the county is on the verge of flipping, the page is turning too for many local candidates and issues.