Leavitt to Depart White House Press Secretary Role; Trump Says U.S. Has Total Control of Hormuz Strait | NTD Good Morning (Aug 13)

President Donald Trump announced on Aug. 12 that White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt will leave her role at the briefing podium at the end of the month. Trump said she is not going far and that she will serve as one of his top outside advisers ahead of the midterm elections.

Trump says the United States has total control of the Strait of Hormuz. “Our Naval Blockade is being called, by everyone, ‘A WALL OF STEEL,’ and there is nothing Iran can do about it,” the president said in an Aug. 12 post on Truth Social. U.S. Central Command says that as of Aug. 12, the United States has redirected 59 commercial vessels, disabled three, and boarded two since the naval blockade was re-launched. The president says Iran’s military has been severely degraded, its navy and air force largely grounded, while the country’s economy struggles under 300 percent inflation.

Federal prosecutors charged a former financial officer of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) on Aug. 11 with three felony conspiracy counts for allegedly using donor money to pay Ku Klux Klan members and other extremist groups to commit state and federal crimes. Heidi Beirich, 59, of Palm Springs, California, was charged in a superseding indictment by a federal grand jury in Montgomery, Alabama.