Donald Trump trying to 'change the narrative away from the Iran war' ahead of midterms • FRANCE 24

[0:00] Well, that was President Donald Trump addressing his officials and press at the Cabinet meeting that he's hosting at Camp David. [0:09] That's the presidential retreat in Maryland. [0:13] Well, listening into that with us was a correspondent, Fraser Jackson, who is in Washington. [0:18] Fraser, we heard President Trump there giving his comments from a number of topics ranging from the migrant crisis in Spain to Venezuela. [0:27] What were the main takeaways of some of the topics he addressed? [0:33] Well, Donald Trump, like every Cabinet meeting, took the opportunity to tout what he believes are some of his achievements in this second term of his, the first year and a half of this second term. [0:45] He obviously focused a lot on domestic policy, domestic issues, things that he wants the media to report on more widely. [0:54] But, of course, the headlines in America are being grabbed by the last topic that he spoke about, Iran. [1:01] That is really what people were listening out for. [1:04] We've seen a lot of developments in Iran over the course of the last couple of days and the wider region, as, of course, we saw those suspected drone strikes in Egypt and the ports as well. [1:13] And this conflict kind of burgeoning at the moment, especially after that surprise attack that Iran tried to launch against U.S. forces in Jordan a few days ago. [1:21] So, well, Donald Trump said much of the same thing, that Iran was basically defeated militarily, that the Navy was ruined, that it was at the bottom of the sea. [1:30] Again, he said these things many times before. [1:33] But, of course, that is belied by the fact that these missile strikes, these drone strikes keep continuing. [1:38] And even recently, we heard reports about dwindling stockpiles. [1:43] Donald Trump trying to counteract that by saying that he was building up the armed forces, that things were going well. [1:50] But at the moment, it's believed that there's only around 800 or so, certainly less than 1,000 interceptor missiles, interceptor patriot missiles, [1:58] that the U.S. has been using to shoot down these Iranian missiles and these Iranian drones as well. [2:05] And that is a kind of level of production which will take a long time to replenish. [2:10] Most analysts believe that even in the best-case scenario, pre-war levels won't be reached until mid-2029. [2:19] And, of course, this is even as defense companies step up their production to try to replace those missiles. [2:25] The U.S. government has tried to get ahead of this. [2:27] Certainly, we saw Mike Waltz on the Sunday shows last week saying that it was because of Joe Biden giving these missiles to Ukraine in the past that these levels are so low. [2:38] But, again, he was also saying that they do have enough to continue this war, despite the fact that those stockpiles are lower than they have been in the last few years. [2:46] Yeah, as you say, Fraser, we will have to wait and see if Donald Trump makes more comments on Iran, [2:52] because that's, of course, top of his agenda, no doubt, ahead of those November midterm elections. [2:58] But based on what we've just been hearing, Fraser, do we have a better idea of President Trump's priorities ahead of the midterms in November? [3:09] Well, Donald Trump, of course, domestically, he's been trying to focus certainly on his grip of the Congress [3:17] and what that's going to look like ahead of these elections. [3:21] Now, Democrats and Donald Trump's detractors say that's because he's trying to basically change the rules of engagement to help Republicans' chances in the midterms. [3:29] That's why he's trying to push forward this Save America Voting Act, for example, [3:33] which would significantly curtail the mail-in ballots, for example. [3:38] That is one thing that is really targeted by this act, because Donald Trump, of course, sees that as something that is very Democratic-leaning. [3:45] Most Democrats tend to vote by mail-in ballots in certainly a lot of states, [3:50] and Donald Trump is sick of what he sees as these kind of blue waves crushing out a red advantage in the very early reporting of these votes. [3:58] So Donald Trump is focusing on that. [4:00] He has been trying to get the Senate to put a vote on it on the floor. [4:05] But, of course, again, we've seen in the last few months that the Senate has been very hesitant to vote on that. [4:11] But Donald Trump ultimately trying to change the kind of narrative away from the war in Iran, [4:18] which is certainly very unpopular with voters, both on the Democratic side but also on the Republican side. [4:25] Donald Trump ran on a platform of no more forever wars, no more foreign interventions. [4:30] That was what he got elected on, and certainly that has not been the case, as we've seen. [4:34] Just a quick fact for you, there has now been more U.S. troops killed in this war in Iran in four months [4:41] than were killed in the entire four years of the Biden administration. [4:45] So this is the kind of fact that Donald Trump would rather not be kind of widely shared. [4:51] He prefers to focus on the length of engagement that this war in Iran has taken. [4:55] He keeps comparing it to the Vietnam War, the Korean War, and the like. [4:59] But it is a verifiable fact that more troops have been killed under his tenure than in the previous tenure.