'The blockade has been a tremendous success': Trump weighs in on Iran

[0:00] Uncertainty surrounding a second round of potential talks between Iran and the United [0:04] States this morning as the end of a two-week ceasefire looms. Vice President J.D. Vance is [0:09] expected to take part in the talks being held again in Pakistan. A foreign diplomat inside Tehran [0:15] close to those talks tells MSNOW an Iranian delegation led by the country's parliamentary [0:21] speaker and foreign minister will travel to Islamabad today for those negotiations, [0:26] but only if Vance is present. This morning, President Trump weighed in, posting on social [0:31] media Iran has violated the ceasefire numerous times. This comes as the Defense Department said [0:38] just moments ago U.S. forces have boarded an oil tanker previously sanctioned for smuggling Iranian [0:44] crude oil in Asia. Also just moments ago, President Trump was asked about the potential peace talks [0:50] during an interview on CNBC. Let's take a listen. Well, as I said two days ago when they said they [0:56] won't send them, I said they'll be sending them. They have no choice but to send them. [1:01] What I think is that we're going to end up with a great deal. I think it's got, I think they have [1:05] no choice. We've taken out their Navy. We've taken out their Air Force. We've taken out their leaders, [1:10] frankly, which does complicate things in one way, but these leaders are much more rational. It's a, [1:16] it is regime change, no matter what you want to call it, which is not something I said I was going [1:20] to do, but I've done it indirectly maybe, but I've done it. And I think we're in a very strong [1:26] negotiating position to do what other presidents should have done during a 47-year period. [1:33] The blockade has been a tremendous success. They said two days ago, we will open the strait. I said, [1:38] no, we're not going to open the strait until we have a final deal. No, no, we want to open the [1:43] strait. They said, we're not opening. We totally control the strait, just so you understand, [1:47] for all the fake news out there. The deadline for the ceasefire is tomorrow. If it looks like [1:53] things are progressing, will you not necessarily extend it to a definitive amount of time, [1:59] but will you let it keep going if there's progress in the talks before taking? [2:05] Well, I don't want to do that. We don't have that much time because by the time both parties get [2:10] there, as you know, they just got the okay to go forward, which I knew they were going to do anyway. [2:14] I mean, I don't think they had a choice. They have to negotiate. And, you know, [2:18] the one thing I'll say is this, Iran can get themselves at a very good footing if they make [2:22] a deal. They can make themselves into a strong nation again, a wonderful nation again. They [2:28] have incredible people, but they seem to be, you know, bloodthirsty. They're led by some very, [2:36] very unfortunately tough people. And I don't mean tough in a good way. I think it's very negative [2:40] for the country because we're much tougher than they are, like not even close, but they have to use [2:46] reason and they have to use common sense and they can get themselves into a great position. [2:50] to make themselves into a great country, but a legitimate country, not a country based on [2:55] death and aura. [2:57] I think regimes only respond to certain things. And I understand your threats to bomb the bridges [3:04] in the electric grid, but I don't think the regime cares about the people of Iran. And if you did that, [3:12] I'm sure it's the last thing you'd probably want to do, but it would hurt at least some of the people [3:18] that we care about and why we embarked on this in the first place. So that would be, I'm sure, [3:24] a last resort for you. [3:26] It's not my choice, but it will also hurt them. It'll hurt them militarily. They use the bridges [3:31] for their weapons, for their missile movements. [3:34] You're saying that you need at least the prospects for a signed deal today and tomorrow, [3:40] or else you would resume bombing Iran? [3:48] Well, I expect to be bombing because I think that's a better attitude to go in with. But [3:52] we're ready to go. I mean, the military is raring to go. We've totally won the war. You know, [3:59] if you read the New York Times, you think, oh, gee, what are we surrendering? We have totally beat [4:03] them militarily and otherwise. And otherwise. I mean, I wish I could, I wish you could hear the [4:08] conversations we have with him, with them. We are victorious. If we left right now, [4:15] it would take them 20 years to rebuild. And they can't get the nuclear dust because [4:19] it was obliterated by the B-2 bombers that went in. [4:23] A lot to fact check there from President Trump's interview that just wrapped up with CNBC. [4:28] First of all, it's saying that the Iran's new leaders are more reasonable or moderate. [4:32] Actually, U.S. intelligence assessed they're actually far more hardline than those who were [4:37] in power before. Also suggesting that the U.S. controls the Strait of Hormuz. I mean, [4:42] certainly there is that U.S. naval blockade, but Iran is shown that they have extraordinary [4:47] influence over the Strait of Hormuz, firing upon vessels over the weekend that did try to cross it [4:51] after Tehran announced it would be closed again. Trump also, in that interview, though we didn't hear [4:56] the sound, suggested that had he been president, he would have won the Vietnam War. So add that to [5:02] his list of accomplishments, perhaps. So let's bring in now a White House correspondent from [5:06] Bloomberg, Jeff Mason, who had his own interview of President Trump yesterday. Jeff, good to see [5:11] you. Tell us a little bit about what Trump told you. Yeah, good fact-checking there, Jonathan. A lot of [5:17] what you just played from his interview with CNBC echoed what he said to me yesterday, including the fact [5:24] that he had he had some optimistic tone regarding negotiations. He thought that negotiations could [5:31] go well for both parties, he said to me. But he also said he was not in a rush to get a deal. And [5:37] that was a bit of a shift from last week when a lot of the sentiment coming out of the president and [5:42] the White House was around basically the idea that a deal was nearly done. And that, of course, [5:49] is another thing that requires fact-checking. That's just not the case. [5:51] So he said yesterday that he was to me that he's not in a rush to make a deal. He doesn't want to [5:57] be pushed into a bad deal. And he also said what he repeated on CNBC, that he's not going to open [6:03] the strait, which is his way of saying he's not going to lift the blockade. [6:07] Let's bring in the conversation. MSNOW senior national security reporter David Rode here in [6:13] studio with us. David, good morning. So it's a little bit head spinning for people who wake up every [6:17] morning trying to figure out where we are in this war. On the one hand, President Trump [6:21] says it's basically over. We've already won the war militarily. It's just a matter of [6:25] crossing the T's and dotting the I's. On the other hand, you have Iran in control of the [6:31] strait of Hormuz. Still, the regime has not changed, as John accurately fact-checked. It's [6:36] just different guys with perhaps more extreme views than the people who were in there. So [6:40] as these negotiations perhaps take place in Pakistan with the vice president there, [6:46] what is on the table? What are they negotiating right now? [6:49] The key thing is just extending this ceasefire that will end on Wednesday. But this is maybe a rare [6:55] moment in Donald Trump's career where his false statements are rebutted by facts on the ground, [7:02] i.e. gas prices. How many tankers are actually making their way out of the strait of Hormuz? And so [7:08] the problem is that his rhetoric is, you know, not matching reality. And then I don't know, [7:14] and I keep looking at both of you, Jonathan, too, but he's under enormous pressure right now. [7:19] The Wall Street Journal piece yesterday that talked about his fears of being seen as Jimmy Carter. [7:24] So his extraordinary, and it's a gift he has for messaging and just saying something and [7:29] people believing it's true if you say it enough times, is putting, you know, [7:34] is being put to the test in a new way by war. Yeah, and that's, I mean, you're right. That's one of [7:38] his superpowers. He just sort of says something, he asserts his own reality, and often he can create it, [7:42] and he has people go along with it. Iran's not doing that. They have fact-checked him in real [7:46] time. They've put up animated Lego videos that mock him, whatever it might be. And then this [7:50] morning, you know, as the vice president is, we assume, set to depart from Islamabad. He has not [7:56] yet. So it's unclear whether these talks will happen, mixed messaging from Iran, whether they'll [8:00] be there or not. We have President Trump taking it to social, saying that Iran has violated the [8:05] ceasefire several times. It doesn't seem like, I know he's, his one speed is to go bigger, [8:10] to go stronger, to go tougher. He's trying to intimidate Iran, but every day in this conflict [8:15] so far, that simply hasn't worked. No, it hasn't worked. And that's, you know, that's the approach [8:21] that worked in New York real estate and worked in American politics, but it's not working so well [8:26] here. And it's, and the question is, you know, how Americans will view it, obviously, as this [8:30] continues. But I think there will be a ceasefire extension. I think that helps Iran. But I don't, [8:38] at this point, given all the signals, I don't see a long-term deal. [8:42] So, Jeff, the president, obviously, in your conversation, or never publicly, or perhaps [8:46] even privately, will betray any nerves about, or doubts about what's happening in the war right [8:52] now. But we have so much reporting around him that perhaps this has not gone the way he imagined [8:56] it would go, that it's been more difficult to institute regime change, that he didn't fully expect [9:01] or anticipate that the Strait of Hormuz would be locked down by Iran the way it has been. So, [9:06] as you talk to people, perhaps not the president himself, but around the administration, [9:11] where are they feeling right now? How are they about the state of the war? [9:16] Well, what I will tell you, Willie, is in our conversation yesterday, when I asked the [9:20] president about whether or not he thought Iran had leverage because of the Strait of Hormuz, [9:25] that question really got under his skin. And he kind of went after me, which he's done before, [9:31] so I'm used to that. But it was telling to me that any suggestion, and in this case, [9:36] it was just a straightforward question, that the other party may have more leverage than he does, [9:41] or than the United States does, is something that sets him off. And it did. So, to your broader [9:47] question, I think that people around him are concerned about the political impacts of this. [9:53] Certainly, the White House is keeping an eye on polls and is looking towards the midterm elections, [9:58] as I don't need to tell you or your viewers. There's a lot of political risk from this war [10:02] for President Trump because of the high gasoline prices that David was just referring to, [10:07] and because of the impact that that could have on Republicans in the midterm elections. So, [10:11] the president, then this was showing last week, is eager to end the war. And yet, as he said to me, [10:17] and is repeating again, he doesn't want to have a bad deal, because that's also a good, [10:21] a huge part of his identity, right? He's a dealmaker. And he doesn't want a legacy of having [10:26] started this war and then coming out with a deal that is not something that he can point to and [10:31] be proud of in some way. And he does occasionally betray his concerns. Like when Chris Wright, [10:36] his energy secretary, said, well, we're not going to have gas prices at $3 for another year or so. [10:40] He quickly said, that's not true. It'll come down as soon as I end this war. [10:44] We're going to-