THE DAILY BLAST with Greg Sargent

Officials are leaking to NBC News that Donald Trump gets updates on the Iran war in video compilations of successful strikes. One official describes these sanitized montages as “stuff blowing up,” and Trump allies fear he’s being misled. That’s humiliating. By contrast, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt is portraying him as a world-historical statesman: She just laughably claimed that he’s brilliant at uniting our allies behind him (the opposite of reality in this war). She asserted that the truth is whatever Trump says it is. And she obsequiously threatened that Trump will unleash “hell” on Iran, a juvenile and despicable way to inflate him into an imposing figure. We talked to Emily Horne, a veteran of the National Security Council and State Department who writes the Spin Class Substack. She explains why this isn’t how a president and White House should conduct themselves, reminds us what basic leadership should look like, and details why the Trump hagiography has boxed in the White House, making it harder to end the war by declaring victory.

Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Donald Trump’s tirades about Iran are getting uglier. He let out one rant that positively relished U.S. military domination of Iran and seethed about the media’s refusal to acknowledge his greatness. He unleashed a second tirade that dripped with bizarre triumphalism, angrily declaring the war “won,” which raises questions about why it’s continuing. And Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth delivered a rant that was drenched in bloodlust. This comes as a new Strength in Numbers/Verasight poll finds Trump’s approval at 37 percent and underwater on every issue, with majorities questioning the war’s most basic premises. That mirrors other new polls from CBS, Reuters, and NBC showing him in trouble and a recent Quinnipiac poll finding his coalition fracturing over the war. We talked to G. Elliott Morris, who runs the Strength in Numbers Substack. He explains why all the bloodlust is working against Trump, why public support for this war is so historically low, and why Democrats are leading comfortably in the battle for the House. 

Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Donald Trump’s war on Iran appears to be a fiasco, and speaking to reporters, he made a surprising claim: He insisted no one anticipated that Iran would attack other countries in an effort to widen the war. But this was widely expected, and amusingly, in saying that, Trump revealed that he didn’t anticipate it. That’s a striking admission about his own lack of foresight. Which captures something broader: On many fronts, Trump didn’t prepare for eventualities that most experts fully did anticipate. Now Trump is lurching in all directions: First he threatened to bomb Iranian electric plants, then backtracked while claiming that “very strong talks” were underway, but Iran then flatly denied that. We talked to foreign policy expert Matt Duss, author of a piece on the intellectual failings behind this debacle. He explains why the latest developments are unnerving, how Trump’s personal and ideological shortcomings are working against America, and what he really revealed with that odd admission of failure.

Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Donald Trump is furious over coverage of his Iran war. During a speech, he let out a rambling tirade at the media, and in a revealing turn, he talked about Federal Communications Commission chair Brendan Carr’s latest threats to revoke network licenses. Trump went off script, spewing unhinged falsehoods about the press’s 2024 coverage and strangely declaring Carr’s campaign a great success while urging him to keep it up. This essentially confirmed that Trump does expect Carr to ramp up the use of government power to punish news organizations whose war coverage displeases him—something the MAGA movement fully wants. We talked to New Republic staff writer Matt Ford, author of a great piece on the need for post-Trump accountability. He explains the flimsy legal basis for Carr’s efforts, why they’re mostly failing, what all this shows about Trump-MAGA contempt for the Constitutional order, and the prospects for post-Trump accountability for his subordinates.

Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Everything we’re learning now strongly suggests that Donald Trump’s war is about to get worse. First, officials leaked word to The Washington Post that the Pentagon and the White House are likely to demand $200 billion more from Congress. Trump sort of confirmed this in remarks to reporters while adding some unsettling additional threats of unspecified military action. Second, sources told Reuters that Trump is considering the deployment of thousands of troops on the ground. All this means that when Trump asks Congress for more money, the pressure on lawmakers to do something about this madness will intensify. We interviewed Congressman Adam Smith, the ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee. He illuminatingly explains why Trump’s war is going very badly and why these newly leaked plans are “frightening.” Smith also flatly declares that no Democrats should agree to fund another dime for Trump’s war, and vows that if Democrats win the majority, Trump's handling of the war will face vigorous investigations. 

Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices