The Daily Blast: Trump Rages over Fresh Iran Humiliation as GOP Angst Grows: “Screwed”

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"With a lot of money." This is the daily blast from the new Republic, produced and presented by the DSR network. I'm your host, Greg Sargent. Donald Trump is furious over the news

that Iran has walked away from the talks with the US over the war. He unleashed some angry and strange quotes

“to CNBC that suggests he has no idea what to do.”

None at all. It's hard to escape the sense that we're in a new place with Trump's mental state. He seems caught in a loop, and he appears unable to think his way out of it.

All this comes as Republicans are mounting a genuine stand against Trump's corrupt slush front for insurrectionists because the politics of it are so terrible for them. As one plugged in reporter put it, Republicans are screwed.

It's very unnerving to imagine how we're going to get through the next two and a half years of this. Molly John fast, the host of the Fast Politics podcast has a great piece for the new Republic

with editor Michael Tmsky on just this topic, so we're talking to Molly about all of it today. Molly, really nice to have you on. "Thanks for having me." So on Monday, Iran announced

it was walking away from the talks with the US, sober Israeli attacks on Lebanon. Trump has lurched wildly back and forth over this.

First, he said he doesn't care at all

if the talks are on hold. Then he said he's personally intervened to get Israel to stop and the talks are suddenly back on track. He says, and proceeding rapidly.

Molly, before we get into the details here, do you believe Trump, when he says everything's back on track? Uh, no. I mean, I, you know,

“I don't know. I think that what's happened is”

one of the functions of Trump, of this second term of Trumpism is that Trump now has a world that fits his whatever he wants. So surrounded by sick of fans.

Uh, people don't tell him the truth. He also has people are not telling him what's actually happening. I mean, I think about, you know, we've been in this war for what, almost three months more.

You know, and when, you know, we doesn't get a PDV, the way a normal president would, so we get supposedly the reporting says he gets a video of things flowing out.

So he doesn't have a great sense of what's happening on the ground. He's like a Fox News grandpa except that he's running the country. Yeah, that's not ideal

when you put it that way. Let's talk about what Trump is saying now. He talked to CNBC on Monday, and he was plainly living it over Iran pulling out. Let's go through some of these quotes.

First, he says he doesn't care if the talks are done,

saying quote, "I don't care if they're over, honestly, I really don't care. I couldn't care less."

Close quote. Then he lurched into his usual stuff about how Iran can't get a nuke, and he said this quote, "If they want to try and have a new nuclear weapon,

I will blow them up to kingdom come." Close quote. Molly, he's been saying for weeks and weeks and weeks, that if Iran doesn't open the straight of our moves, on terms that are entirely favorable to him,

on terms that he dictates entirely, then he will obliterate Iran, he'll wipe it off the map, and now he'll blow it to kingdom come. It's just over and over, right?

It's really hard to escape the sense that he's just caught in this kind of weird mental loop. He just seems stuck to me. What do you think? Well, I mean, I think he's stuck.

I mean, the Iranians are in a position that's 10 times better than they were before this holds and started, because there have been the fear of them closing the straight, but no one actually thought, we hadn't seen how well it worked for them.

Gas prices are, you know,

Trump can't get the genie back in the bottle, so he wants gas prices to go down. He needs gas prices to go down. He has a midterm election spiraling towards him. He knows what happens when he loses the house

because he had that experience before. I mean, if you look at the, if the polls end up being right, he could lose the sanity by a lot, and he could, you know, the point you need a certain number of senators to remove.

I mean, there's like, it's unlikely, but it's not impossible. And when you're talking about places like Alaska and Texas, being in play, I mean, right now it's 53/43/47,

but you know, there are like seven, eight seats that are in play.

So there's a world where Trump, you know, where the lose the house, loses the Senate, gets impeached. Maybe gets removed. I mean, people are mad, and the polls are bad.

“What I think is the most, I want to say,”

soul crushing part of this whole experience of watching Republicans. And I mean, I think Democrats have had problems too, but it's a little more complicated, but Republicans have like really just sold the entire country out, or as Democrats have fought with each other.

But the thing that's the most upsetting about Republicans selling each other out is, and the country, is that this group of Republicans, the Yolo caucus from last week, right? That it was in the Wall Street Journal to yesterday.

Actually, you only live once caucus. The Republicans who have lost their seats, or given them up because of Trump and that's, that's Tom Tillis who decided not to run again. That's Bill Cassidy, who lost his primary.

That's John Kornan, who lost his primary. That's, you know, that in that is Mitch McConnell,

who's just not running again because he's a million years old.

And also in that are Collins and Mercowski, who have their own set of rules. And this Yolo caucus is really, really mad,

“and that's why Trump, we just have this breaking news”

that Trump may stop this weaponization fund that this may be dead now. So that's because this crew is really mad, but this crew is not mad because Donald Trump is destroying our democracy.

And they're not mad because of the war and Iran that has no purpose and has not been sold to the American people. They're mad because Trump is hurting their careers and chances of getting reelected. And so is disappointing as that is to me.

So constructive because as we cruise into a midterm, where these people, the Trumpism becomes less and less tenable as he gets underwater and more and more states. You see a world where two months into, you know, two or three months into the 20,

between the sort of 28 cycle, people decide that they could impeach and remove him because they want to get reelected. And it comes back to this theory that we really, all these people care about is keeping their doubts.

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Yeah, it is interesting to center what's going to happen in the next cycle because for a lot of these Republicans, whoever ones are here after the midterms. Anyway, they've got to now start thinking to themselves, what's going to happen over the remaining two years of his term?

We're only a year and a half in here.

and things could get a lot worse,

particularly if he really spirals out of control with Democrats and control of one or both chambers. You and TNR editor, Michael Tmsky had this very good piece, looking at Trump's ongoing crackup from many angles, and you illustrated very well that not only is he on fit for the job,

there's very good reason, actual reason, to think his deterioration will accelerate, and you talked about the unknowns ahead, and this was unnerving, right? There's ice still getting enormously scaled up,

new prison camps coming into existence, FBI director Cash Patel promising new arrests, Trump wants to invade Cuba and Greenland, and that's just a partial list. You know, you don't paint a very reassuring picture

of what's in store for us, Molly. So Trump, I really do believe,

“and I think it's important when we cover this”

to realize that Trump is the reason that every state is not Minnesota at this moment, is not because Donald Trump has had an about face on immigration. It's because Donald Trump sees the midterm coming down the pike, and he doesn't, he knows this is not a popular,

and so he's, I mean, I think he's got certainly in inability to set to steady himself to prevent himself from doing things, to prevent himself from saying things it feels like his friend to lobe is not as, it's not firing on all four cylinders,

and so he is unable to not say stuff, like he called the journalist a piggy, you know, that kind of thing quiet piggy.

That kind of thing didn't happen in Trump's first term.

You know, he would fight with people better be a very calculated way. It loses temper, but he'd sort of figure out a way to spin it. So the question is, like, what does a Donald Trump that is not hemmed in

by the midterm's look like?

“And I think it looks a lot more like a country of Minnesota,”

a country like no lost her job because it was loud, and it looked very corrupt, and it was bad for business. But that doesn't mean that that kind of corruption couldn't come back after the midterms.

He just doesn't want to lose the house, because this is not going to be. Well, I want to go back to one other quote that Trump gave to CNBC, because it goes to the core of a lot of this. He was talking about whether or not NATO will help reopen the straight of our moves.

He said this quote, "We don't need them. We don't need NATO. They were a very, very weak and very sad." Close quote.

So Molly, like this is just wildly unhinged stuff. A few weeks ago he was raging at NATO

“and demanding that they held bail amount of the fiasco he created.”

But now everything is just all non-chalons. He doesn't really care how long it takes to reopen the straight. But the thing is, the straight remaining closed is absolutely crushing GOP chances in the midterms. There's a number where these people become brave.

And that number is because they realize that they can't win. And part of the calculus is that they're waiting until all of the primers over because they know that they know from the John Cornan story that you can't win a primary without Trump. So they're waiting for the primers to be over.

And then they'll make the calculus to be brave. And so some of this is just a electoral math. And then some of it is the polling. But I do think there's a temptation to want to see these people as like having a come to Jesus moment

or a moment of moral clarity. And that is not what's happening here. What's happening here is just the most craven calculus. Just to switch gears for a second here, you mentioned the weaponization fund, the slush fund,

which is Trump's billion dollar fund to dole out to allies,

including the January sixers. There are various reports saying that the White House may temporarily kill it. It's a little unclear exactly what's going on. But as of this moment, it looks like Senate Republicans are really unwilling to back it.

The Republicans might try to pass language as part of reconciliation that will prevent any fund from being set up. Little unclear, but reporter Jake Sherman of punchball news was quite unsparing about the situation Republicans are in. He said, quote, Senate Republicans are absolutely screwed.

And they really are, right? This is a very bad situation for Republicans. This thing is absolutely toxic. This was yet another example of Republicans really being forced to swallow

And it really looks like we've crossed a threshold

“where Republicans are experiencing a new level of frustration.”

Their frustration with him and the White House really seems to have boiled over. Is that too optimistic? Look, again, the ideas are they so mad because it's morally reprehensible or they so mad because they see the polling that this is not popular.

My guess it's the latter, not the former. Because they, you know, they put RFK, the doctors, some of the senators are doctors, put RFK junior into health and human services.

And he is now basically trying to change

their vaccines. So these people don't give a fuck about the American people. And they want, you know, they want to get reelected. They want power. There's a whole alchemy here.

But none of it is good for anyone.

“So, but the good news about this standing up to him is that if they're standing up for this,”

it means it's easier for them to stand up for other things. And, you know, as disappointing as this is because it's, you know, they've had many in opportunities to hand up. Including, I mean, Mike Pence, you know, Mike Pence said, we don't, I don't want that they shouldn't fund the weaponization fund.

But they weren't trying to kill Mike Pence, okay? They were, they were hang like Pence was what they were chanting. So the idea that this, you know, that this is a bridge to far, whatever. But I do think it's good. It's good that there's some, uh,

be spine because Donald Trump is basically running rough shot over our government.

And it's another moment to point out that this not popular with the American people, like wildly unpopular, which is why these Republicans are standing up to him. And then the other thing is that American people are standing, you know, don't like this. I mean, it's not popular, but there are also much braver.

And the people who have really been atrocious and appalling, and just grotesque at every level have been our billionaire class, who have just been willing to do anything in order to get the regulatory approval they want. And so the people who used to pretend to be liberals, the Elon Musk and the Jeff Bezos, and the very, very, very wealthy have just

shown us that they are not, they are not only not good stewards of our mainstream media, but they are also just truly atrocious. People who should not have any say in anything that happens in our government. A hundred percent agree.

Just to spool this out from here.

So most likely Democrats win the house. Maybe they win the Senate. It's in play now, but who knows what things look like in five months. But there's an actual chance. It's most likely one or both chambers flip control.

And at that point, Molly Republicans are going to be even more frustrated

“in angry because Trump will have fucked them, right?”

He will have fucked them. We're at five dollar gas. We're seeing that the supply is starting to, you know, there's some supply that is keeping the prices down. Eventually, we're going to see another spike in gas prices.

And what is the number that kills the Republican parties? It's extra dollar gas. Is it seven dollar gas? I mean, that's really the question. These are people who voted for Trump on two things, right?

Trump said he's going to make things cheaper. He's going to stop having more for more. So he's had a foreign war that's made things more expensive. Like, there's no historical precedent for a guy who gets elected and just does exactly the opposite of what he's going to say. It's one thing to run for office and say, I'm going to do this and then not be able to do it.

But at least you're sort of trying. I mean, that was the Biden story, right? They wanted to bring back manufacturing. Was I heavy left? They tried.

They couldn't necessarily do. You know, they wanted to get Netanyahu under control. They couldn't, but you could see they were trying. This is like, I'm going to make things cheaper. Whoops now without.

I'm just doing whatever I want. So, you know, instead, I'm going to build a triumphal arch in the middle of Washington. You see, like, that this sort of Marie Antoinette style governing. It, well, your people are going to food banks and can afford to fill up their cars. Like, there's a number where that just becomes toxic politics for their public ends.

And on top of all, just sort of typifying what you're saying or capturing or saying perfectly. He's out there saying, I don't care.

Right.

And you know, Trump has had this thing where he can defy political gravity.

But he really wasn't defying. I mean, the one thing I would say is, like, he was defying his own gravity, right? Like, he got indicted. But he was still popular. But he wasn't defying, like, actual political gravity, like inflation.

“Or, and, and that's what we're seeing now is, like, the nuts and bolts of, like,”

wheat prices and beef prices and the prices from the tariff, the trade wars.

That stuff is real political gravity. And he doesn't have an answer for it. Even a really skilled politician would suffer with this. And what Trump has his charisma and ability to communicate. And I mean, the thing that I think is worth realizing is the reason he's building this

Ampitheater behind the White House is because he thinks that he can get in the culture. He can get the low frequency voters out. But what he doesn't realize is you get one bite of that apple. You don't get to say, like, yeah, gas is three times more expensive. But, you know, trust me, I'm doing a war that none of you want.

Exactly. I really don't think the fight's going to help him.

“I think it's going to only hurt him, because it just sort of smacks of this self-adulatory”

and this building of monuments to himself and the kind of Marie Antoinette vibe you're talking about. Molly John fast. So nice to have you on.

Finally, thanks for coming on.

Thank you. Have me back. It's really fun. And I'm happy to be here. Now there's cheese.

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