Trump makes explosive new announcement

**Brian Tyler Cohen** (0:01)
Donald Trump makes an explosive new announcement that signals bad news for opponents of forever wars. And I interview Pod Save America's Jon Lovett. I'm Brian Tyler Cohen, and you're listening to No Lie.
So Trump just shook up the world with a brand new announcement. He took to social writing, The Hormuz Strait is open and will remain open with or without Iran. We are instating the Iranian blockade, so named because it is only stopping Iran ships or customers from entering or leaving. All of the countries will have fair and open use of the strait. The USA will be from this point forward known as the guardian of the Hormuz Strait. Now, let me simplify this.
What would it mean in practice if the United States became the, quote, guardian of the Hormuz Strait? Would it mean that the US would need a permanent presence to guard that strait? And if we have a permanent presence in a hostile territory, then in effect, what Trump is announcing here is a forever war, the exact thing he campaigned against, the exact thing that his voters despise, which Trump basically confirmed when he said this. Mr. President, you noted the United States is bombing Iran again.

**Jon Lovett** (1:03)
I mean, you've been bombing Iran for months now.

**Brian Tyler Cohen** (1:05)
Is this just the new normal for the American people? Well, you know, we're in Vietnam for 19 years. We're here for four months. See? As long as we come in under 19 years, we're apparently fine. And then, of course, after Trump decided to vomit out the single least popular foreign policy proposition he could have cooked up, the rest of the party had to translate from Trump to English, because apparently this 80-year-old man, who just so happens to be the president of the United States of America, isn't capable of expressing a coherent thought, and we need other elected officials to tell us what he actually meant.
Yeah, it totally won't be a forever war. We're simply going to guard the Shrade of Hormuz forever against the country that we're at war with. See? Definitely not a forever war. And yet, what can we expect from a president who swore that prices would go down and instead he unilaterally raised them by launching a trade war? What can we expect from a president who swore that inflation would go down, only to see it rise by 30%? Who swore that the Epstein files would be released only to engage in a government-wide cover-up? Who swore that he would look out for the little guy and instead has immersed himself in gold and ballrooms and jets? There is not a single thing that Trump promised that's come to fruition. So of course he swore that he would avoid forever wars in the Middle East only to announce a policy that is in effect a brand new forever war in the Middle East. Par for the course for a president whose only consistent principle is his inability to deliver anything for anyone not named Donald Trump.
Next up is my interview with Pod Save America's Jon Lovett. But first, a big announcement. Today is the official launch of my new book, The Day After. I've been working on this book for a year. I'm very proud of how it turned out. I would really love if you could order a copy. The book demands that Democrats learn how to wield power so that when we control the House, the Senate and the White House, we don't waste a second of our precious time talking about it. We start doing it. And we don't let norms or traditions or processes stand in the way. And we deliver on health care, on voting rights, on climate, a fair economy, expanding the court and so much more. If you agree with that message and you want to support my work, want to support this podcast, you can click the link in the show notes of this episode or go to bryantylercohen.com.
There you can also grab tickets to my book tour. I'll be in DC, New York and Los Angeles. Tickets are still available. So again, the link to both order the book and grab book tour tickets is in the show notes of this episode or at bryantylercohen.com. Okay, here's my interview with Jon Lovett.
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