higher oil prices for longer, he knows that the damage that the Iranians can do in response to the United States actually following throughon the big threats that he has made are unacceptable. Unacceptable in terms of the casualties to American soldiers and
I think Trump really does Look, his ego is preventing him from letting the Iranians say that they won.And uh that that is what brought us back to a blockade.
Patriot interceptors or Tomahawk missiles and that would give the Iranians an advantage to holding on. I I not believe that the commander-in-chief should be straightforward with theAmerican people about that at that time.
and negotiate with you and give up their nuclear weapons and everything else. So, I imagine there's an element of an Iranians now going, if we buckle here, then for the rest of time, America are going to repeat this playbook.I I hear what you're saying. I I would put it slightly differently. I I think that after the 12-day war last June, the
I I hear what you're saying. I I would put it slightly differently. I I think that after the 12-day war last June, the Iranians understood that their deterrent capacity had failed. They were incapableof preventing the Americans and the Israelis from hitting them and their proxies whenever they wanted. We've
them that are very clearly visible and above ground. This is true of the Navy ships as well. Well, guess what? The Iranians knew that was always going to be vulnerable. So what they've been doing is they have been not just deeplyuh burying their industrial enrichment facilities, they've been deeply burying
that happened in the middle of the 12-day war. Donald Trump said he was going to negotiate with a certain set of Iranians and literally the next day uh36 hours later Israeli air power killed them
mind on things constantly to keep going with the Iran example. One day he says he has great relationship with the Iranians . The other day he says he hates them. They're terrible people. He can't talk to them. And it doesn't everyone just goes along with it. Like, oh yeah,this is what Trump is saying right now.
of bombing. Uh that they want the pressure taken off the global economy and they will go go back in and hammer them. So, the Iranians are preparing for the next round of the war. They don't trust the Americans 1 in. And and you can't blamethem. Because in the course of the last well, just over a year, when they've been negotiating on two separate occasions, America has bombed them.
solution will help you only if you have already decided to do it. You -- The reason -- The Iranians started this program around 2000. They stopped it temporarily when we invadedIraq, because they were afraid they were next on the list. They resumed it when they realized
And that is really, really cooling, and that's why you have it with that meal. Iranians have a very specific philosophy about healthy eating that, again, goes back thousands of years, just like ayurvedic cooking and dietaryrules. And just like traditional Chinese medicine, Iranians have this theory that goes back, and you always want to stay balanced.
much. I need to back away, and I need to ensure stability. The Iranians have hit Trump back pretty hard, hit the Americans back. They've hit them back in blocking the strait, and they've hit them back in attacking targets across the Gulf, both infrastructure targets and American
We'll talk about the details of that. The Iranians reject that offer, and we're now into the sixth round, which is supposed to take place on a Sunday. On the Thursday before the Sunday the Israelis strike.
The current director of National Intelligence who issued her threat assessment, Trump's Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, who issued her threat assessment in February, The Iranians had announced to the IAEA, that we have built a new facility here and we are going to introduce nuclear material
They can't take it." He keeps saying, "Straits, not my problem. Straits, let them take care of it." I hear that I'm the Iranians . Great. He can't take this economic pain. He knows he doesn't have a military solution. So, it's not that the Iranians are only hearing for Trump, I'm going to destroy your civilization.
the Iranians . Great. He can't take this economic pain. He knows he doesn't have a military solution. So, it's not that the Iranians are only hearing for Trump, I'm going to destroy your civilization. They're seeing what he's actually doing.
Meanwhile, Iranians , we have a hard time with our Ws and Vs. And Westwood becomes Vestvood. No Iranians are going to get in. So it's been interesting.
They didn't know that. And Iranians are really proud of being Iranian.
of evil with its enemies being, I quote, "All the wicked men of the world, whether abroad or at home. And the root cause of their hatred," he told the Iranians , "was their loathing. The root cause of the opponent's hatred was a loathing of whomsoever should serve the glory of God.” And he goes through all George Bush's atrocities. And then he tells the cheering MPs, "Truly, your great enemy is the American. Through that enmity that is in him against
given the clear costs to everyone involved in the United States, around the world, and to the Iranians . Um and and the second is uh how might we think about the potential for a resolution. So, first, why is it
Now, the other thing we need to talk about is the fact that despite the war still going on, the Americans and the Iranians continue to act with a lot of restraint. Yes, the strait is closed, but the
Sure, they bombed Fordo, but they didn't destroy every last centrifuge in that place. And the Iranians are already announcing that they're already begun construction on another facility under a taller mountain buried even deeper. And you know, they figured out how to enrich uranium hexafluoride gas, you know, what, 20 years ago now.
The current director of National Intelligence who issued her threat assessment, Trump's Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, who issued her threat assessment in February, When it was the Iranians themselves who had admitted to it in going along with their obligations under their safeguards agreement.
Second thing that Trump got got wrong is how vulnerable the global economy is. Because the Iranians can control something called the Strait of Hormuz. Okay? And as you can see on this map, the Strait of Hormuz is a very
So, you think the United States is going to put ground troops in, Iran are going to resist, and then chaos is going to break out in the United Because what the Iranians did was they responded by attacking US bases
the central Iranian government to do that. They're not operating by themselves. So in that regard, the fact that the Iranians showed up in Islamabad in Pakistan with significant leadership with the foreign minister, also the speaker of the parliament, but also a team of experts who had briefs on
importance to the Americans and the Iranians . Trump did not get the outcome he wanted. Ultimately, I'm not super surprised because the Iranians feel like they have more leverage right now than the United States thinks they do. And this frustrates Trump immensely. And so at the end, remember he's he's calling and talking with Vance more than 10
I said, "Well, we're going to shut down your critical minerals." Suddenly CEOs are going to Mara Lago. They say you got to deal with the Iranians or or we're going to shut down our factory lines. In red states, Trump has to back down. Right? So they've we've already seen that when a country has leverage over Trump and they can hit him, he has the
So, you know, saying he's going to bomb Oman, um an absolutely key and core US ally in the region that has mediated between the Americans and the Iranians . Uh saying that he's going to or he now says that he's claimed the Strait of Hormuz as US territory, something that he simply legally has no authority or right to do um in an international waterway and for
prevent is them agreeing with the Omanis that there will be tolling of the Strait of Hormuz that ships will be forced to pay by the Iranians to to pass that waterway. And Tom, to what extent is this war influencing the latest approval ratings
period is now ended when it came to what the Americans had hoped would be uh the moment they would clinch a an overall nuclear deal with the Iranians . Of course, absolutely nowhere near that. They've gone backwards. The straight of Hormuz is still a critical problem for the president. His hope here is that
extent given their backing to that process I think Mr. Trump's concern is that if Oman agrees to something which involves the Iranians charging a lot of money um in the form of a toll for ships to cross the straight up that is going to be very humiliating for Mr. Trump because it shows that not only has he failed to get anywhere on the nuclear
part of Trump's approach is to say outlandish things like that with the aim of intimidating the Iranians and trying to make them believe that their strategy of not coming to the table and making more concessions to Washington is
And it's been really touching, really fulfilling, and we're really touched by the response. Especially by young Iranians , young female, first generation immigrants, that feel like they can connect to this story with their own emotional associations. You know, even like, I've had so many Mexican Americans, Ethiopians, who are in cross-cultural relationships, and who are like, that's just like my Ethiopian dad,
And so I would do jokes about how some Iranians actually voted for Trump. I know some Iranians , some immigrants in general that voted for Trump because they want fewer taxes. They ended up with fewer relatives.
He was staying at the Plaza Hotel in New York. And a lot of Iranians have a similar story, the ones that came around that time. None of us thought that a revolution was going to happen.
But we'll see what happens. But most of the Iranians I meet are good people. Most of the immigrants I meet are good people.
They didn't know that. And then Iranians would come.
I talk to many Iranians , and they had the same experience.
They consider Iranian-Americans Iranians .
although the Iranians did try and involve other people, but really nobody wanted to know about truthfully.
But it's not. There's marshy areas and meadows and mountain ranges and very, very diverse geography. But the ancient Iranians figured out a way to bring the melted snow water from the mountains into vast desert areas and have these lush gardens growing in the desert. And the irrigation systems are something that's known historically, that they've been able to develop
Which has deferred the Iranians ' progress somewhat.
It would unite the Iranians under whatever type of leadership happened to be at the moment.
And then the Iranians would come and we'd say, we've got a group of Canadians here, that's all.
Very thoughtful of the Iranians .
force the Iranians to the negotiating table.
Because the Iranians say, look, we've been taken over by countries over centuries.
I think Iranians need to understand that.
And the Iranians , it seems to me, are not very wise in identifying the Persian Gulf as something they may target to close because certainly would make military targeters, if