Welcome to Rabbit Hole, a breaking-news analysis that helps you get smart on the one story everyone’s obsessing over—for Beast Inside members only.
The Trump administration wants to cut Iran’s supreme leader and his generals off from their stashes of illicit cash, but there’s just one problem: They’re already sanctioned to kingdom come and have been for years.
With so many sanctions already in effect, Monday’s announcement of new sanctions against the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei are basically the financial equivalent of making the rubble bounce. So why did the Treasury Department do it? And what does it say about the Trump administration’s evolving response to Iran’s campaign of harassment in the Gulf?