Trump, Hegseth on the defensive as reports say U.S. is burning through missile supplies in Iran war

[0:00] New setbacks to President Trump's hope for a quick agreement to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. [0:05] MS now learning that negotiations are at a standstill and a tentative deal has not been [0:10] finalized. The IRGC says reopening depends on the U.S. accepting Iran's conditions. And according [0:17] to Iran's foreign minister, those include a 7 percent fee to ships passing near Iran and a 3 [0:23] percent fee for ships passing near Oman. Two Iranian government officials involved in talks [0:29] say questions also remain about whether Trump will pull back U.S. patrols in the Gulf of Oman. [0:35] The president has stuck to a pattern of saying a deal is imminent driving down oil prices and [0:40] driving markets up only for no deal to emerge. He normally declares that the war is about to be [0:49] over on Sunday night or Monday morning right before the markets open. We should not accept this level [0:56] of gaslighting. The word of the president has to matter over and over again. On 11 different [1:04] instances, Trump says a deal is about to happen. Don't worry. The war is about to be over. There's [1:10] no deal. We look like a laughingstock and we're running out of munitions. [1:18] Let's bring in retired Army Lieutenant General Mark Hartling, MS now military analyst and former [1:26] commanding general of U.S. Army Europe. Welcome in. We appreciate you being in. General, how does the rest [1:32] of the world view this negotiation? Well, it's getting tougher, Corey. What I'll say is there [1:37] was a recent report within the last hour or so from the New York Times saying that Mohammed Zadal-Gadar, [1:43] who's the secretary of the Iranian Supreme National Security Council, issued a much more dramatic [1:48] statement saying they demand the U.S. lift its naval blockade and the sanctions, withdraw all U.S. [1:56] military from around Iran, which in and of itself is a little bit bizarre because we have forces all [2:02] around that area, pay war reparations, release frozen assets, and end the attacks on Iran allies. [2:10] So you kind of see what has been going on for the last couple of months is there is a back and forth [2:16] between what the president's saying, what the Iranian foreign minister is saying, what the Iranian [2:21] IGRC is saying. And it just really goes back to giving the U.S. a choice to either conduct massive [2:29] escalation or try in some way to politically extract itself from the region, which will leave [2:35] Iran with significant control over the strait. The rest of the world is seeing it the same way. [2:40] They see this back and forth, especially those golf partners and golf allies. But even the ones in NATO [2:47] are seeing this. And there are some unfortunate repercussions coming from many nations about the [2:53] situation we've put ourselves in. Yeah. Unpacking that a little bit further, a new report in the [2:59] Wall Street Journal says that Iran sees an opening to kick the U.S. out of the Gulf. And the threat [3:04] highlights the rise of those hardliners who have long sought the ouster of American forces from the [3:09] region. How much stronger do you think Iran sees itself as now? Oh, gosh, a lot, Corey. What I'll tell [3:16] you, the Iranians are attempting to use this situation to institutionalize something they've [3:21] been seeking for decades, the de facto recognition of their authority over the strait, political [3:28] leverage over golf shipping, a mechanism to regulate global energy commerce. That's their new strength [3:36] without formally closing the strait. And that's part of the fee aspect that they propose. And it isn't [3:43] just about how ships are moving in and out of the strait of Hormuz. It's how Iran becomes the traffic cop, [3:50] basically, for one-fifths of the world's oil. And if you count the Houthis in Yemen controlling the [3:59] potential to control what is going in and out of the Suez Canal, you also have another 20 percent of [4:06] the world's oil in that area. So it is a significant action by both Iran and the Houthis and their [4:14] proxies. And it's also being threatened in Iraq with some of the proxy forces there as well. [4:22] Now, the Washington Post is citing two persons familiar that reported a clash between President [4:28] Trump and Defense Secretary Heggs at Camp David. Now, they say that Trump was venting, that he thought [4:33] that the U.S. munition supply issue was, quote, fixed. The White House denied any clash ever [4:39] happened, though. The president defended Heggseth on social media even. But here's what he said to [4:43] reporters later. More all the time. I mean, we need more. Look, we gave tremendous amount to Ukraine. [4:55] We have certain types of munitions that are very powerful, that we have unlimited, virtual unlimited [5:02] supply. We have others where it's a little bit tighter. How do you have unlimited and little tighter? [5:09] I mean, what's the reality here when it comes to the U.S. munitions and how Iran is using that to [5:14] its advantage? Yeah, well, when you take a cross section of all U.S. military ammunition, we do [5:21] have a lot. The president is right. The problem is what we are seeing the shortages in are what's called [5:28] high density or excuse me, high demand, low density. The ones you have up on the screen right now and a [5:34] few more. The Patriot and the THAAD missiles are interceptors. And in a war that we're facing now [5:39] with a lot of ballistic missiles and drones, you need those kind of weapons. A Tomahawk, along with [5:45] the Army Atacum and PRISM, the precision strike missiles, are also part of this precision weapon [5:54] system approach that you need in this type of contact, in combat. I'm sorry. And all of those are being [6:01] used in an extreme amount. Secretary Hegseth has said over the last couple of months that we've [6:07] conducted 14,000 and then he upped it to 15,000 precise strikes. Well, when you use those precision [6:15] missiles to do that kind of thing, it depletes the supply. And because they are precision missiles [6:21] that go a long way, there's not that many of them. They are usually reserved in combination with [6:27] other type of weapon systems. So, you know, I think we're sort of being snowed on this by both [6:34] the president and the secretary of defense, because there has been reporting, not just from the media, [6:39] but from those in the administration, that these precision weapons are being depleted and being [6:45] degraded. And the use of not only in this campaign over the last couple of months, but also the previous [6:51] campaign when we were partnering with Israel certainly put a bite into those precision [6:56] weapon systems. And that's not a good thing because they're hard to replace. [7:01] Lieutenant General Mark Hertling with us this afternoon. Thank you, [7:04] Lieutenant General. We appreciate your time and the insight.