Trump agenda faces challenges as DOJ drops ‘anti-weaponization’ fund and Iran talks appear to stall

[0:00] Hi there, welcome to Meet the Press Now. I'm Ryan Nobles in Washington and we start today with [0:04] breaking news from the White House. Sources telling NBC News that President Trump is dropping [0:09] the Justice Department's so-called anti-weaponization fund amid the backlash he was [0:14] facing from members of his own party and after a federal judge blocked the administration from [0:19] distributing any money from the fund. We'll have more on this breaking news in a moment, [0:23] but it also comes as the high-stakes peace negotiations between the U.S. and Iran, [0:27] which President Trump last week said were close to producing a deal, [0:32] maybe on life support. Today, state media reporting that Iranian negotiators say they're [0:37] suspending talks with the U.S., citing Israel's expanding offensive into Lebanon against [0:42] Iran's proxy Hezbollah. It comes after the U.S. and Iran also exchanged fire overnight. [0:49] Tehran now threatening to once again close the Strait of Hormuz, [0:52] that turmoil sending oil prices back above $90 a barrel. In a phone call this morning with NBC's [0:59] Garrett Haake, the president says he was not informed of the latest decision by Iran to suspend [1:04] the talks, but going on to say, quote, I think it's fine if they're done talking. I would be very [1:09] happy with that. I think it's okay. That's a good thing for them to say because they're good [1:13] negotiators, but I don't really care. I really don't care. The president also saying, quote, [1:19] it doesn't mean we're going to go and start dropping bombs all over there. We'll just go [1:25] silent. We'll keep the blockade. Now that stands in stark contrast to what the president and the [1:30] secretary of defense said just a few days ago. Take a listen. They are starting to give us the [1:36] things that they have to give us. And if they do, that's great. And if they won't, then the man on [1:40] my left is going to finish him off. I know he means it when he looks in the camera in the cabinet room [1:45] and said they can either do this now through a deal and we think we're in a good place to make [1:50] that deal or they can deal with the war department. And we are prepared. We're postured even stronger [1:57] today than we were on day one to address it that way if we have to, but he'd prefer not to. [2:02] So Iran knows very, very clearly what our expectations are. Now this afternoon, the president [2:09] posting on social media that, quote, talks are continuing at a rapid pace with Iran. [2:14] The president also saying he spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and with Hezbollah, [2:19] claiming both sides have agreed to de-escalate. The whiplash in headlines comes as support for [2:24] the president continues to hemorrhage here at home due to the economic fallout of the war. [2:30] Joining me now, our team of reporters covering all the angles, NBC News Capitol Hill correspondent [2:34] Melanie Zanona, NBC News White House, of course, chief White House correspondent Garrett Haake, [2:39] NBC News chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel is in Tel Aviv. Also with me, our NBC News [2:43] senior national security correspondent Courtney Kuby and NBC News business and economic reporter [2:48] Ali Canal. Mel, I'm going to start with you because you have the breaking news about the [2:53] president's anti-weaponization fund. What more can you tell us about this? There seems to be [2:59] not a whole lot of clarity exactly how this is coming to an end, but how did we get to this point? [3:03] Yeah, that's exactly right. There had been so much backlash on Capitol Hill from Republicans. They [3:08] had been privately and publicly urging President Trump to either drop this fund or put some sort [3:14] of guardrails or restrictions on it. And Ryan, as you know, it had become such a political problem [3:19] for Republicans that they were even willing to blow up a completely unrelated immigration bill in [3:25] order to get some of these things done. So this is going to be a huge relief for both Senate GOP leader [3:30] John Thune, as well as Speaker Mike Johnson, who was meeting with President Trump at the White House [3:34] today. But that being said, Ryan, Democrats are still vowing to make this an issue for Republicans. [3:41] Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leader, said they're going to force votes this week on proposals [3:44] to restrict this fund or similar funds from coming back in the future. And to your point on the clarity [3:50] issue, Republicans might want some more ironclad commitments from the administration, that they're not [3:56] going to change their minds and appeal this court ruling after this immigration bill is already signed. [4:01] So while there could be some relief today, these headaches not going away quite yet for Republicans on [4:06] Capitol Hill. [4:07] Yeah, I think that's safe to say. It also comes as we see the war with Iran becoming a political liability [4:12] for this president. We have the House back tomorrow. They're probably not going to vote for a couple of [4:17] days. They're going to have to vote on a war powers resolution that they pushed to after the recess. [4:22] We saw a war powers resolution advance in the Senate to curb the president's ability [4:26] to continue the war. Do we think there'll be similar movement in the House? [4:30] We are expecting similar movement in the House. In fact, before the recess break, [4:34] House GOP leaders had to pull a war powers resolution from the floor because they knew it [4:38] would have succeeded. So they're hoping this week that attendance will be better on their side, [4:42] but they can't put off this vote forever because of procedural reasons. And so it is going to come [4:47] to a floor vote. And it is very likely that it is going to succeed, even though this would be a [4:53] symbolic vote because it's not the exact same measure that the Senate passed. And Trump, of [4:56] course, could always veto it. This would be an embarrassing defeat for the president and one [5:01] that GOP leaders are very clearly trying to avoid here. [5:04] And finally, Congress also needs to pass this reconciliation bill, that immigration bill you [5:08] were talking about before. Is there a possibility that they can get it done now? [5:12] That's the hope, especially now that this DOJ fund apparently is being dropped. They think the [5:18] process will go much smoother in the Senate. They're hoping to kick off the so-called voterama, [5:23] which would be an unlimited number of amendments being offered throughout the night. On Wednesday [5:27] night, they would pass that Thursday, and then it would kick it over to the House, which still [5:31] needs to pass it themselves. And then it would put an end to what has become one of the longest [5:34] stalemates over immigration funding in our history, Ryan. [5:38] All right. Melanita Zonona with the breaking news. Mel, we appreciate that. Let's go to the [5:42] White House now. Garrett, you had a phone conversation with the president today. [5:47] He had doubled down on this fund. What's the latest from the White House? Are they explaining [5:51] exactly what the future of this fund is like? They're not, Ryan, and neither did the president [5:56] when I spoke to him earlier today, although I had some reporting that over the weekend, [6:00] the White House was looking for an exit strategy here, that it had started to become clear to them [6:05] the depth of their problem here, particularly with Senate Republicans as related to this fund, [6:09] and that they thought perhaps that the judge's initial ruling, kind of putting a delay on this [6:15] and punting further decisions a few weeks out, might have opened the door for that. And through [6:19] that open door today came this other DOJ statement, which essentially says that they will abide by the [6:25] judge's ruling and talks about the fund in the past tense. That's about as much clarity as we have on [6:31] this right now. Perhaps we'll hear more from the president on his social media later today. [6:35] But I do think this was a situation where the White House didn't realize exactly how deep the [6:41] water they were swimming in was around this fund until Congress had already left town, [6:47] and they needed to find something like a graceful exit. In this case, they may have gotten it from [6:52] the judges who have ruled on this case. All right, let's talk about your phone conversation with [6:57] the president. He said last week that he's not concerned about the impact this war could have on [7:02] the midterms. But with oil prices back up today, does he feel any pressure to resume talks and get [7:07] a deal with Iran? Well, let me put it this way, Ryan. I think lack of clarity is an emerging theme [7:12] across all of these storylines today, because the president wasn't totally clear on that between [7:17] what he told me and what he's posted on social media subsequently. But at least in our phone [7:21] conversation, he seemed to suggest that his patience is almost unlimited. I'll show you a quote when I [7:26] asked him about the idea of waiting out Iran. He said, I think I can wait as long as they want, [7:31] suggesting that Iran has sort of a harder economic hand to play here than he does, [7:35] the money they're losing because of the blockade, their inflation. He says if they don't want to [7:40] talk, it's fine, and insisted to me that the U.S. could just keep this blockade up indefinitely, [7:45] and that when Iran was good and ready, they'd come to the table. He also said he's not interested [7:49] in resuming bombing. That works in June politically, but probably doesn't work as well in September or [7:55] October. I think the White House thinks they still have a little bit of time to try to sort this out. [8:00] And they understand that it takes time. Just even getting messages back and forth to the [8:04] Iranian decision makers is a multi-day process. So I think they've pretty much given up on the [8:09] idea that there's going to be some swift solution to this, even if those rumors and reports pop up [8:14] every few days or so. And of course, there's the Lebanon of all of this as well. That's an ongoing [8:19] problem. Iran said that they had paused the talks because of Israel's operation there. We know the [8:24] president talked with Prime Minister Netanyahu today. What more do we know about that call? [8:28] Yeah. Lack of clarity, part three. Here, President Trump, in his readout of the call, [8:32] says that he talked to Netanyahu and that there would be no IDF forces in Beirut, that any such [8:39] efforts would be turned around. And that he even, through representatives, spoke with Hezbollah and [8:44] that things would be calming down. Prime Minister Netanyahu subsequently put out a statement that says [8:48] Israel is going to keep defending itself. And if they have to strike Beirut, because that's where [8:52] the terrorists, as he describes them, are operating, then that's what they're going to do. [8:56] Tell me what the truth is in between there, and you'll have quite the story. [9:00] I do think the call itself is interesting, regardless of what was discussed, because [9:04] it does suggest that despite what the president told me about not really caring about Iran's [9:09] concerns here, he wanted to at least feel out Israel to see what, if anything, could be done [9:16] to address those concerns. [9:17] Okay, Garrett Haig, from what appears to be a very opaque White House North Lawn today. [9:22] Not much clarity on a number of topics, but we appreciate you trying to get to the bottom [9:25] of it, Garrett. Let's move overseas now and bring Richard Engel in. Richard, as we mentioned, [9:31] Iran's signaling it is suspending talks because of the Israeli military operations in Lebanon. [9:37] It was Israel's deepest incursion into Lebanon in 26 years. How significant of an escalation was that? [9:43] So Israel has been steadily increasing its military activity in southern Lebanon in particular over [9:52] the last week or so, ordering new evacuation orders almost daily, telling Lebanese civilians that they [10:00] should leave their homes, leave their towns, head north, get out of the south for their own safety, [10:06] because the Israeli military is operating there, fighting there against Hezbollah. [10:11] And Israel is continuing to advance to the north, capturing a castle that you showed on the screen [10:18] a short while ago, taking a very strategic piece of territory, keeping the pressure on Hezbollah, [10:25] which is a militia group backed by Iran, a group the United States considers it a terrorist organization. [10:31] But things almost escalated much further this morning when Prime Minister Netanyahu said [10:36] that he was going to begin attacks in Beirut, starting to attack Hezbollah stronghold called [10:43] the neighborhood of Dahyeh, which is in south Lebanon. That call was likely what triggered Iran [10:52] to say enough is enough. As long as Israel is continuing its advance in Lebanon and now openly [10:58] attacking or openly planning to attack a large section of Beirut, then there was no point in having [11:05] conversations. This was put out by the Iranian state news agencies. It was also stressed by the [11:11] Iranian foreign minister. Over the last several days, Iran has increasingly been focused on [11:16] Lebanon, saying it must be part of an overall peace deal. Then before the strikes on the southern [11:24] suburb of Dahyeh began, because today there were not major strikes in Beirut, although many of us were [11:30] anticipating that they could come at any moment, we heard about this breakthrough. There was a call [11:36] between President Trump, Prime Minister Netanyahu, communications directly with Hezbollah. And [11:41] Hezbollah now, according to Hezbollah media, says it will abide by a ceasefire. It will stop shooting [11:49] as long as Israel stops shooting on Lebanese territory. And I'm emphasizing that because it's [11:55] important, because there's a distinction, there's a discrepancy. Prime Minister Netanyahu just put out [12:00] a statement a short while ago saying that for now there won't be operations against Dahyeh, there [12:07] won't be these bombings against Beirut, but that Israeli troops would continue to act in southern [12:16] Lebanon, would continue their offensive there as normal. That was not what Hezbollah agreed to. So it [12:22] is very possible that this, I don't know if you want to call it a ceasefire, that word is being overused [12:27] these days if this temporary agreement even survives the night. Prime Minister Netanyahu also said that [12:34] if Hezbollah fires over the border into Israel at civilians living in northern Israel, then he would [12:42] resume his intended plan and carry out a bombing campaign in Beirut itself. And you mentioned that [12:49] phone call between the president and the prime minister. Does it seem as though President Trump [12:54] is able to exact any sort of leverage over Prime Minister Netanyahu? Or does it appear that Netanyahu is [13:02] more worried about his own political standing in Israel? How much influence does President Trump have? [13:07] I think yes and both. The president has a lot of influence over Israel, has a lot of influence over [13:16] Prime Minister Netanyahu. Netanyahu does face elections in the fall. Israeli politics are an aggressive [13:24] sport. Netanyahu is an expert at it, who's managed to keep himself at the forefront of Israeli politics [13:29] for several decades now. Some people have counted him out. Many Israelis are not. They call him the [13:35] magician here because of his ability to form coalitions and stay in power. But the war in Lebanon [13:43] is proving to be a sensitive point. The people in this country remember their long history in Lebanon. [13:50] Israel occupied southern Lebanon for many years. I was on hand when Israeli troops ultimately decided [13:57] that holding south Lebanon wasn't worth it and pulled out. Now Israeli forces are back in southern [14:04] Lebanon. And because of the fact that they're setting up new positions on mountaintops where old [14:10] strategic castles are positioned, it looks like they are going to be there for some time. So President [14:17] Trump has enormous amount of influence over Prime Minister Netanyahu, but he operates according to [14:22] his own agenda. And he does face this election coming up in the fall. Okay, Richard Engel, thanks [14:27] for being on top of it. We appreciate it. Stay safe. Let's now turn to Courtney QB, who if there's a [14:32] reporter that has whiplash the most, it may be Courtney QB as she goes back and forth thinking that we've got [14:37] a deal and maybe not. Let's talk first about what the U.S. military is actually doing, because sometimes [14:42] that's more important than what the president says. And they launched more strikes on Iranian targets [14:47] over the weekend. Talk to me about what was targeted. And can we officially say that the [14:51] ceasefire no longer exists? So this was another case where the U.S. military claims that they were [14:57] getting, they were having threatening actions from, in this case, Iranian drones. They were launching [15:01] them out of this little island sort of at the beginning of the Strait of Hormuz and from the Persian Gulf [15:06] known as Kashm Island. And then they were also launching from a place called Garouk, which is on the other [15:10] side of the Strait of Hormuz, almost to the Gulf of Oman. Because of that, the U.S. hit these radar [15:14] sites, command and control sites. So basically the places where they would launch these drones out of. [15:19] Now, the U.S. is calling these self-defense. But as you mentioned, this has been going on, [15:24] this back and forth between what is primarily the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the IRGC, [15:29] and the U.S. military for several weeks now. This back and forth, this continued escalation, [15:35] which gets to the question about the ceasefire. The reality is there is no ceasefire. Both sides, [15:40] the militaries are continuing to fire at one another, whether it is self-defense as they [15:43] claim or whatever it is. This is really more at this point of a pause in major combat operations [15:51] and hostilities. But as these two sides continue to operate in such close proximity to one another, [15:56] there are these continued tit-for-tat escalations that seem to blow up every few days into the kinds [16:02] of strikes we saw the U.S. military take over the weekend. And then in some other great reporting that [16:06] you had over the weekend, it's that the Pentagon has not confirmed that Iran placed mines in the [16:12] Strait of Hormuz, despite what the administration officials, including a top general, have said. [16:16] What have you learned about this? [16:17] So we've been hearing from early on, frankly, for years, actually, there's always been the sense that [16:21] one of Iran's main threats to the Strait of Hormuz would be potentially mines. There are several [16:25] different kinds of them that they can use. There have been multiple reports throughout the course of [16:30] the war. So these 90 days or so, including during the ceasefire, times where Iran was either seen [16:35] placing new mines or there were mines that were spotted somewhere in the waterways there, [16:41] all the way down towards the Gulf of Oman. At this point, the U.S. military on multiple occasions [16:46] has sent out underwater drones, robots, surveillance aircraft, all these different things. They have not [16:51] identified, positively identified any mines in any of these cases. President Trump went on True Social [16:57] the other day and said, look, we've been blowing up these mines. Officials explained, we don't know [17:01] if they're mines, actually. There have been occasions where they have blown up things that [17:06] could be mines. They look like it. But at this point, there's still no concrete evidence that [17:11] Iran has actually mined the Strait of Hormuz. Okay. That's an important detail. All right. Thank [17:16] you, Courtney. We appreciate it. Let's talk about how this is impacting your bottom line. We bring in [17:20] Ali Canal for more on that. Ali, first, let's talk about the oil markets. How are they reacting [17:24] to where things stand in these negotiations with Iran? Yeah. Well, obviously, Ryan, a lot of back [17:29] and forth when it comes to these negotiations. But if you just zero in on the oil market here, [17:34] these traders clearly don't expect a resolution anytime soon. U.S. crude oil briefly neared 95 [17:40] bucks a barrel today. It's since pulled back a bit. We're trading at just around that $92 a barrel range. [17:46] But prior to today, investors had actually been pricing in the possibility of some sort of a diplomatic [17:52] breakthrough here that helped oil drop below 90 bucks a barrel at certain points over the past [17:58] two weeks. Now we're back up again. And as a reminder here, this all centers on the Strait of [18:03] Hormuz, something that we've been talking about throughout the entire program. It's that critical [18:06] waterway essentially been shut down. We're lucky to see just one or two ships get through. And at one [18:12] point prior to this war, 20 percent of the world's oil supply moved through it every single day. So it [18:18] really is critical that we get the Strait reopened and operating again. You mentioned it reopening. [18:23] There's a chance now that Iran may actually move to completely close the Strait of Hormuz. If they [18:29] actually follow through on that, what could that mean for the price of gas? Yeah, it's likely that gas [18:33] prices are going to go higher. So oil and gas very closely correlated. A good rule of thumb is that for [18:39] every one dollar move in crude, that translates to about two to three cents a gallon at the pump here. [18:45] So if you take a look at the national average for gas, we're at four dollars and 32 cents a gallon. [18:49] Now, over the past few weeks, drivers actually saw a bit of relief at the pump due to the fact [18:55] that oil prices were falling on hopes of a breakthrough in these negotiations. But it's [18:59] also important to keep that relief in perspective. Despite these recent declines, gas, it's still up [19:05] around 45 percent from where we were pre-war when the national average was firmly below three bucks a [19:12] gallon. And then finally, we also saw Treasury yields go up. What does that mean for the average [19:18] consumer? It means your borrowing costs are going to go up. So the 10-year Treasury yield, it's a pretty [19:22] good benchmark when you look at things like mortgage rates, also affects other types of borrowing costs [19:27] like the loan you pay on your car, credit card debt, things like that. And it's also important when [19:32] we look ahead to inflation expectations. So traders essentially thinking, OK, if oil keeps going up, [19:38] that means inflation is going to go higher. And if inflation goes higher, it's going to be very [19:42] difficult for the Fed to cut interest rates. So it's all centers on those expectations. And it shows [19:48] that this isn't just an oil story. Everything is very interconnected when we think about the economy. [19:53] It affects inflation, interest rates, and ultimately what consumers are paying. [19:58] Just despite President Trump almost demanding that the Fed cut interest rates. Ali, thanks so much for that. [20:03] We thank you for watching. And remember, stay updated on breaking news and top stories on the NBC News app [20:08] or watch live on our YouTube channel.