The authoritarian presidency cannot sustain itself

**David Pakman** (0:00)
Donald Trump promised a short war five months later. His own administration is refusing to say whether it might continue for years or how many more Americans might die. Trump then freezes when directly confronted about whether his threats to destroy Iranian civilian infrastructure could be war crimes. And as his political position deteriorates, he's demanding new voting restrictions before these midterms that are just months away. While Caroline Leavitt desperately blames Joe Biden for everything bad happening under Trump. We'll also look at the president's disturbing six hour explosion of bizarre AI fantasies and the new push to question Barron Trump about his alleged connection to the Tate brothers who have been arrested and Mitch McConnell's six weeks, six week disappearance.
What's the latest with it? Plus, the White House Correspondents Dinner Redux treated Trump's authoritarian threats like comedy, disgusting, all of that and more today.
I want to start with a reminder, which is that we were told this Iran war would be two to three weeks. It's now been five months. We are in week 22 and Donald Trump's own administration is openly preparing Americans to be ready. The war could be starting to be in the range of years. Forget about weeks, but not even months, years. And it could kill even more American troops. Remember that this is the peace president, the self proclaimed peace president, the proclaimed by Tulsi Gabbard peace president. And he criticized exactly these types of open ended forever wars. He said only stupid presidents get us into this crap. Well, Kristen Welker on NBC confronted Trump's ambassador to the UN., Mike Waltz, with a very simple question, which was Trump said this would last weeks. It's been five months. Will it at least be over by the end of the year?
We'll take a look at this.

**Kristen Welker** (2:16)
Iran right now, Mr. Ambassador, a lot of people are very interested in the timeline of this because President Trump had initially said that this conflict would last for a matter of weeks, five to six weeks. He said we are now at the five month mark. Will this war be over by the new year?

**David Pakman** (2:36)
Listen to whether there's a yes or a no here.

**Mike Waltz** (2:39)
This war has been going on for 47 years.

**David Pakman** (2:43)
Incorrect. The regime has been in power 47 years, but the United States has not been at war with Iran for that period of time. Not to mention we were obviously not at war with Iran while the Obama Iran nuclear deal was in place. So he's starting. It's a yes or no question. He starts with a lie that is neither a yes nor a no.

**Mike Waltz** (3:01)
This these attacks on Americans. Not not in this, of course, not necessarily this intensity, but at some level, Iran has been at war with the United States. I was just.

**David Pakman** (3:12)
So the question was, is it conceivable? Is it possible that this might not be over by the end of 2026?
And Waltz certainly doesn't disabuse Kristen Welker of that notion. Now, notice the scam that Mike Waltz is running here. The question was about Trump's war, the military conflict that Trump chose to launch on February 28th. After repeatedly promising Americans, there are not going to be we're going to get out of wars and certainly not going to get into any new ones. Waltz answer is, well, there have been tensions with Iran for 47 years. Now by that logic, the administration could keep this war going forever and go. This was a 47 year old war. Trump was just president for a little bit. Trump has nothing to do with it. And of course, we all recognize how absurd and completely deranged that is. Now Kristen Welker continued to press him and said, can Americans expect Trump's war to be over by the end of the year? Let's listen to his next answer.

**Mike Waltz** (4:14)
Session of strength.

**Kristen Welker** (4:15)
But very quickly, do you anticipate this conflict will be concluded by the new year?

**Mike Waltz** (4:20)
Oh, I'm not going to put some kind of timeline on it. The president has all options on the table and he is exercising both diplomatic, economic and military to achieve a very clear strategic aim. And that's what's different. The wars of my generation. We had policy drift here. The president is very focused.

**Kristen Welker** (4:39)
This was an art.

**David Pakman** (4:41)
I hope people are realizing what's going on here. There is no timeline. There's no definition of a victory. There's no forget about an exit strategy. It's all options are on the table. I'm not going to get ahead of the president on timeline. These are all Washington phrases that are used when they want maximum freedom to keep escalating and escalating, but never telling you what they are actually planning. Now, remember how this was sold. We would have decisive action for a few weeks. America would win. Everybody's weak. Everybody's incompetent. But Trump is strong and he knows how to impose peace through strength.