Transcript: Trump Cornered as Damning Leaks Expose Fresh War Blunders

As fresh revelations shed glaring light on Trump’s Iran miscalculations, a writer who tracks Trump’s policy failures argues that Trump badly sabotaged himself and the GOP for the upcoming midterms.

The following is a lightly edited transcript of the May 8 episode of The Daily Blast podcast. Listen to it here.

Greg Sargent: This is The Daily Blast from The New Republic, produced and presented by the DSR Network. I’m your host, Greg Sargent.

The Washington Post is reporting that internal intelligence findings indicate that Iran can survive Donald Trump’s naval blockade for at least three more months before economic hardship really bites. That means the war could go on longer than we expect. If so, that’s a political catastrophe for Trump and the GOP. Trump’s advisors are reportedly worried right now that the political blowback over the war is worsening for them, and there are signs Trump’s allies are turning on him at this moment. Fox News hit Trump with a crushing graphic that demonstrated soaring gas prices, with one Fox anchor declaring that those prices are giving Americans heartburn. We think the political fallout from all this could last much longer than people expect. So we’re digging through all of it with New Republic staff writer Timothy Noah, who’s been writing well about how Trump’s policies are screwing working people. Tim, good to have you back on.

Tim Noah: Thanks for having me, Greg.

Sargent: Let’s start with this Fox News segment, which was flagged by the tireless Aaron Rupar. In huge numbers on the screen, it had the latest national average prices at $4.55 per gallon, showing that this is up from $3.15 a year ago. Now listen to this exchange between a Fox anchor and Energy Secretary Chris Wright.

Reporter (voiceover): And what about people’s concern about gas prices? They’re seeing numbers that give them some heartburn and some heartache and it’s hard for a lot of people to figure out how they’re going to stomach this for much longer.

Chris Wright (voiceover): It is. And of course, it’s been tough for our administration as well. This is an administration—the first Trump term and the second Trump term—all about lowering energy prices and an incredibly successful record in doing that. So when President Trump looked at the tradeoffs of going into Iran right now, he knew—his sort of beautiful record of just constantly pushing down energy prices, gasoline headline prices as well. But Iran has roughly a thousand pounds of uranium enriched to 60 percent.

Sargent: Tim, that stuff about Trump’s great energy record is just made up. But that aside, that’s terrible spin. Wright admits this is hard for people and says, well, Trump knew this would undo his great achievement. Your thoughts?

Noah: Yeah. I mean, this is, I think, the first time Donald Trump has called for sacrifice, and Republicans in general don’t do well with calls for sacrifice, particularly in the context of a war that’s already quite unpopular—was unpopular on the day it began. Yes, terrible politics, but they are caught between a rock and a hard place. They can’t win this war overnight on the one hand and they can’t endure an elevation of gas prices.

Sargent: We are going to be in a situation where these prices are going to persist in a major way for weeks, if not months, right?

Noah: Yes. I mean, once you’re talking about all sorts of shortages—you’re not just talking about auto fuel, you’re talking also about jet fuel. And suddenly the administration is very worried about that. You’re also talking about agricultural products. You’re talking about all sorts of things.

To undo the damage of that, it’s not going to happen overnight. And that’s........

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