When the consequences are impossible to escape

**David Pakman** (0:00)
Today, the supposedly quick Iran war has become an endless disaster. And Maga Mike Johnson, the Speaker of the House, seems to realize voters are going to be punishing the entire Republican Party for it in November. We are going to look at the intense devotion of Natalie Harp as an aid to Trump, who treats his words like scripture. Yet everything Trump does is actually hurting Republicans. And Donald Trump's incredible inability to answer simple questions about her says so much. Trump also attacking yet another female reporter demanding personal loyalty from Americans and getting caught using the exact same kind of cheat sheet that Republicans claimed proved Joe Biden had dementia and then mail in voting, which this president has said is inherently fraudulent, is used once again by this very president and he is losing it as lawsuits are reaching his own family. We are going to look at failure. Sure, we're going to look at hypocrisy. We're going to look at sick of fancy, but also panic on the behalf of Republicans. Just about every single one of these problems, self inflicted, an unforced error, and they are all closing in as we approach the midterms, which, by the way, I hope every single one of you is voting.
It is now week six of Donald Trump's two to three week war with Iran. That is not a typo. Go back and count the weeks. This war starting on February 28th, pull up a calendar and start counting. And you will see that we have completed 25 weeks and we are now in week number 26 Now you might be wondering about another timeline, which is that Donald Trump gave himself and gave Iran and gave negotiators 60 days to end the war with Iran and negotiate this new nuclear agreement, which was going to be so strong and powerful. And yet all of that has come and gone. Sixty days are over. I remember I'm old enough to remember the beginning of this 60 day period, during which we said, yikes, if there is no deal at the end of that, it will be the second half of August. It will be getting very close to the midterm elections. We will be close to mail in ballots going out. And it would be a real problem for Republicans if the war continues and if gas prices are high and all of that. And that's exactly where we are right now. We have a war that isn't over. We have a Strait of Vermouth that is not open. We have detailed nuclear negotiations that still have not even actually started. And the United States and Iran are probably further apart right now than when Donald Trump signed the supposed peace agreement in June. Remember how this started? We had a beautiful letter signed at the beginning of June saying it's basically done. We basically have a deal, but we're going to give ourselves 60 days to negotiate it. And then after two days in Switzerland, not even 42 hours or something like that, Vice President JD. Vance just flew back to the United States. And at that point, many of us realized this is not looking good. We go all the way back to February 28th when the war started. A month later, Trump said, It's basically done. We just need two to three more weeks. And he said that the United States is going to finish the job and leave as heroes. And then the two to three week war became 20 to 22 weeks and then 24 and then 25 And we have no clear exit. And we are roughly at the six month mark. Now that MOU, that memorandum of understanding that Donald Trump signed under much fan fan air and pomp and even some circumstance, not a lot, mostly pomp, but some circumstance, it was signed at Versailles and it was supposed to stop military operations and put in place the 60 day period just to finalize a permanent agreement. The Strait of Hormuz will be open. That carries about a fifth of the world's traded oil and gas. None of this stuff has happened. It is just it's a growing list of promises that have been broken.
A week after the beautiful letter was signed, Iran fired on ships using a route near Oman and the United States responded and struck Iran and Iran retaliated again against countries hosting American forces. And Trump put the blockade back on and both sides said it's the other side that is not acting in good faith here. Iranian officials say there really have been no negotiations since June. Now Donald Trump every few days claims the talks are progressing and we're speaking to people and it's all really good. But now we have a firm date. The deadline on the 60 days has come and gone. As we all know, we have no permanent peace agreement. The Strait is not fully open and free and clear. And we don't even forget about a nuclear deal. We don't even have substantive negotiations going on. So what has been accomplished here is now something that every single voter needs to be asking themselves. Trump campaigned as the president who would end wars and certainly not start any new ones. And he went after the Biden administration. He went after the Obama administration for endless foreign conflicts. But then he started another one. And I guess he thought Iran was just going to surrender quickly. They didn't. And every available option at this point is pretty terrible. If Donald Trump accepts Iran's demands, that would let Tehran claim control over one of the most important waterways, the Strait of Hormuz, and it would allow them to charge shipping fees and it would allow them to demand American reparations. So that would look as though Trump started a war to leave with Iran having greater leverage than before. That seems like you lost the war. Now Trump could just escalate. He could throw another one of these. We're in danger. We must scale up. And I would have loved to have ended this war, but I've got to do more bombing. Well, that would cost more American lives. It would consume more American missiles. It would further destabilize the global economy. It would drive gas prices even higher right before the midterms when affordability is clearly going to be one of the biggest elements of referenda for this election.