Trump Honors Dead Friend, Restarts War

**Jon Lovett** (0:00)
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**Jon Lovett** (0:48)
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**Jon Favreau** (1:30)
Welcome to Pod Save America. I'm Jon Favreau.

**Jon Lovett** (1:32)
I'm Jon Lovett. I'm Tommy Vietor.

**Jon Favreau** (1:34)
I'm back, guys.

**Jon Lovett** (1:34)
Welcome back.

**Jon Favreau** (1:35)
It's good to be back.

**Jon Lovett** (1:36)
We missed you.

**Jon Favreau** (1:37)
I missed you guys.

**Tommy Vietor** (1:38)
And you were gone.

**Jon Favreau** (1:39)
I was gone. I was gone. You guys did a great job. Great job holding up the fort here.
On today's show, Lindsey Graham is dead and Mitch McConnell is alive. We'll talk about Graham's legacy and McConnell's proof of life photo and how the absence of both men is affecting Republicans' agenda in Congress. We'll also get into Trump's latest war on the press. After the White House and Cash Patel subpoenaed four New York Times journalists over their reporting on Qatari Force One, and whether RFK Jr. has a lid on what's become an explosive outbreak of diarrhea.

**Tommy Vietor** (2:14)
Sounds like that's not about your vacation. It's sort of more of a personal thing to bring up.

**Jon Favreau** (2:19)
Yeah, I was going to say.
See if you can help me out. Then Lovett talks to our pal Brian Tyler Cohen about his brand new book, The Day After, How to Wield Power in a Post-Trump World. Fun to fantasize, I guess.

**Tommy Vietor** (2:32)
Yeah, champagne bottle.

**Jon Favreau** (2:34)
Okay, Brian.
All right, but first, let's get to the top story this week. It appears as though the ceasefire with Iran fell apart last week while I was gone. And now we're back to full scale war. RIP, the MOU of Versailles. Trump officially notified Congress that military action has resumed. He also says he's reinstating the naval blockade of the Iranian ports and that, quote, the USA will be, from this point forward, known as the guardian of the Hormuz Strait. Really rolls off the tongue.

**Tommy Vietor** (3:05)
Just say, let's.

**Jon Lovett** (3:05)
Guardian of the Hormuz Strait.

**Jon Favreau** (3:07)
That's what we've always wanted to be. USA was kind of boring. We want to be called the guardian of the Hormuz Strait.

**Tommy Vietor** (3:14)
Not the first time an agreement signed at Versailles after a war ended poorly. Hopefully not as badly as the last time.

**Jon Favreau** (3:22)
Good job, JD. Vance, good job.

**Jon Lovett** (3:25)
Yeah, I really nailed it.

**Jon Favreau** (3:27)
We're also apparently going to start charging a 20% toll on all cargo that goes through the strait according to Trump, which seems like it's a violation of international law. That's according to Marco Rubio last month.

**Jon Lovett** (3:39)
Yeah. Ticketmaster is like, why so little?

**Tommy Vietor** (3:43)
They're just trying to get their beaks wet. But yeah, and the Rubio isn't just like, oh, this is illegal. It would be a contagion that would spread across the globe.

**Jon Favreau** (3:52)
Yeah. Looking forward to him talking about that now. Meanwhile, Iran continues to fire off rockets at US targets across the Middle East and openly threaten revenge on America.
Not to worry, Trump's got this whole thing under control. Here he is calling into Fox and Friends this morning.

**Donald Trump** (4:06)
We're going to keep the strait and we'll probably run it. We'll become the guardian of the strait. Maybe we'll call it the guardian angel of the strait.
And we should be reimbursed for that. Obama was the worst of all because Obama actually went to their side. Obama, because he's a, well, let's not say, let's not say, let's leave that for another time.