Trump LOSING Republicans over lack of Iran plan; embarrassingly simplistic briefings exposed

[0:00] And today, there was new reporting from NBC News detailing how White House advisors managed Trump's delicate information bubble, briefing him about the war. [0:08] Here's what it says, quote, [0:09] Each day since the start of the war in Iran, U.S. military officials compile a video update for Donald Trump [0:15] that shows video of the biggest, most successful strikes on Iranian targets over the previous 48 hours. [0:21] And that's according to three current U.S. officials and one former official who spoke to NBC News. [0:26] The daily montage typically runs for about two minutes, sometimes longer. [0:30] One official described each daily video as a series of clips of stuff blowing up, stuff blowing, blowing up. [0:38] So just to, I mean, just to put a fine point on this, [0:41] Trump's national security advisor's approach to briefing the president on this war [0:45] is basically the same way a busy parent might approach entertaining a cranky little toddler. [0:50] Just give the baby an iPad with lots of flashing lights and big booms and hope it keeps his attention. [0:58] Now, this is especially galling given the presidential daily briefing or the PDB [1:02] is typically under every other president the time when they are presented with nonpolitical, [1:06] unbiased intelligence information that is put together overnight by a team of experts from across the government. [1:13] Literally the best in the government are assigned to put this together. [1:17] And it is typically a time when the president can press his top advisors on his national security team, [1:22] including about the most difficult global issues of the day, like, say, a war he may have started. [1:28] Is that interesting? [1:28] Is that interesting? [1:29] Is that interesting? [1:29] That is clearly not happening here. [1:31] Now, NBC News notes that this daily highlight reel isn't the only briefing Trump gets about the war, OK? [1:36] But we also know that getting Trump to actually absorb and comprehend critical intelligence [1:40] has been a longstanding challenge for almost a decade now. [1:44] This is not a new thing. [1:46] I mean, in his first administration, Trump regularly skipped his daily intelligence briefing, [1:50] one of the most important updates, of course, a president receives each day. [1:53] And Trump's aides had to essentially trick him into reading other important briefings. [1:59] Dumbing things down into single-page memos with lots of pictures. [2:03] At one point, the National Security Council even started strategically including Trump's name [2:07] in as many paragraphs as possible because he would only keep reading if the documents talked about him. [2:14] When Trump's second administration began, [2:16] Trump's advisors even reportedly floated the idea of creating a video version of his daily intelligence brief [2:21] that was, quote, made to look and feel like a Fox News broadcast. [2:25] So now the president's briefing has been dumbed down so much [2:30] that he's reportedly getting updates on his most consequential military decision [2:34] using what is essentially a highlight reel of stuff blowing up. [2:39] That's where we are. [2:40] That's the information that he's getting. [2:43] And we don't know exactly what those videos show. [2:45] We do have a window into this administration's visual sensibilities [2:48] because, after all, this is the same administration that has been littering the Internet [2:53] with absolutely insane propaganda videos. [2:56] You can see a bunch of them on your screen there. [2:58] It's placing the other footage of U.S. military strikes, [3:01] sports, video games, and movies featuring everything from Call of Duty to SpongeBob SquarePants. [3:06] Videos that a White House spokesperson once referred to as banger memes. [3:13] But it's not just the format of Trump's briefing videos that is so concerning. [3:17] It's what Trump is and is not getting out of them. [3:20] I mean, the officials who spoke to NBC News say that Trump's video briefing, quote, [3:24] is fueling concerns about some of Trump's allies, among some of Trump's allies, [3:28] that he may not be receiving or absorbing the complete picture of the war. [3:33] And they have good reason to think that. [3:36] Because since this war began, there have been multiple occasions [3:38] that Trump has seemed totally oblivious about what is happening and why it's happening. [3:44] I mean, Trump repeatedly insisted that nobody knew Iran would respond to American strikes [3:49] by attacking their neighbors in the region. [3:51] A claim so baffling that everyone from congressional Democrats to Fox News hosts [3:56] have been wondering how the president could possibly have been so uninformed. [4:00] So they hit Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE. [4:07] Bahrain, Kuwait. [4:10] Nobody expected that. [4:12] We were shocked. [4:13] And yet the president says nobody knew. [4:15] And my question is, did you tell him? [4:18] Anybody want to answer that question? [4:20] They weren't supposed to go after all these other countries in the Middle East. [4:24] Are you surprised that nobody briefed you ahead of time that that might be their retaliation? [4:28] Nobody, nobody, no, no, no. [4:30] The greatest experts, nobody thought they were going to hit. [4:33] The fact that Iran is going to strike other countries in the region, [4:37] we spent a lot on this. [4:39] Why? [4:39] Why? [4:39] Why? [4:39] Why? [4:39] Why? [4:39] Why? [4:39] Why? [4:39] Why? [4:39] Why? [4:39] Why? [4:39] Why? [4:40] Why? [4:40] Why? [4:40] Why? [4:40] Why? [4:41] Because they anticipate this and inform the president of those facts. [4:43] Unexpectedly, they started sending missiles to UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, [4:52] and elsewhere. [4:54] And nobody thought they were going to—were you equally surprised by that, Pete? [4:58] Were you equally surprised by that, Pete? [5:01] I love how he just throws him under the bus at any opportunity. [5:06] Of course, two intelligence officials told Reuters that Trump was briefed on the risk [5:10] that Iran would attack Gulf countries. [5:12] But somehow, he doesn't know. [5:12] Somehow, that warning didn't seem to sink in. [5:15] Maybe it didn't make the highlight real. [5:17] Maybe that's where we have to blame. [5:19] Again, NBC News is reporting that those briefings are fueling concerns [5:22] that Trump is not getting a complete picture of this war, [5:25] which also may explain why he keeps saying things like this. [5:30] We've won. Let me tell you, we've won. [5:34] You know, you never like to say too early you won. [5:36] We won. We won the bet. In the first hour, it was over. [5:38] We've already won in many ways. [5:40] We've already won. [5:41] Oh, I think we've won. [5:42] You know, I don't like to say this. [5:43] We've won this. This war has been won. [5:46] I mean, you definitely like to say this. [5:48] That's clear. We just played you saying it a million times. [5:52] Trump says we've won. He said it over and over again. [5:54] The war is over. [5:55] Obviously, that's not true. [5:57] But that's an idea you might have [5:58] if your main source of information for this war [6:01] is effectively an Instagram reel. [6:04] There's so much evidence that Trump is out of touch [6:06] with the reality of the situation. [6:08] I mean, just yesterday, we learned that Trump reportedly sent the Iranians [6:10] a 15-point plan to end the war. [6:13] He's repeatedly said that the Iranians [6:15] are ready to make a deal. [6:16] And he even boasted that the Iranians had sent him [6:18] an expensive mystery present as a gesture of goodwill. [6:21] He really liked that present. [6:23] Talked about it a lot yesterday. [6:25] But today, not only did Iran reject that 15-point peace deal, [6:28] but they accused the U.S. of, quote, [6:30] negotiating with itself. [6:32] Sick burn there, Iranians, I guess. [6:34] And they said they had no intention [6:36] of holding talks with the U.S. [6:38] And then they laid out five of their own demands [6:40] for ending this war, demands that are diametrically opposed [6:43] to Trump's own terms for ending the war. [6:44] Things like, [6:45] full sanctions relief, compensation for war damages, [6:48] and total control of the Strait of Hormuz. [6:50] According to Trump, the negotiations are going great. [6:55] Now, we don't know if Iran will hold to those demands. [6:57] We don't know if they really are refusing [6:58] to negotiate through back channels. [7:00] We cannot take anything that the Iranian regime [7:02] says at face value. [7:04] But then again, we can't take anything [7:06] the president of this country says at face value either. [7:10] Not when he's stuck in his own fantasy [7:12] about how this war is going. [7:13] And when the internal process for navigating a war [7:16] appears to be editing together banger video montages [7:19] of things blowing up for the commander-in-chief [7:21] while he continues to operate in his own la-la land [7:24] about how things are going. [7:26] Put senior national security officials [7:28] in an incredibly awkward position [7:30] when they are still tasked with things like, say, [7:32] briefing members of Congress on the objectives for the war, [7:36] our strategy for achieving them, and a timeline [7:38] for how long it will take, and whether men and women are going [7:41] to be sent, more of them, to fight a war that has not [7:44] been explained. [7:46] And that all played out today when [7:47] Pentagon officials gave a closed-door briefing [7:49] on Operation Epic Fury to members of the House and Senate [7:52] Armed Services Committees. [7:53] That briefing was classified, but the reaction [7:55] we got from lawmakers kind of tells you [7:57] everything you need to know. [7:59] Because even Republicans came out of this Epic Fury briefing [8:02] with some epic passive aggression. [8:05] Here was Republican Congresswoman Nancy Mace's [8:07] reaction. [8:07] Here's what she said, quote, just [8:09] walked out of a House Armed Services briefing on Iran. [8:11] Let me repeat, I will not support troops [8:13] on the ground in Iran, even more so after this briefing. [8:17] And it wasn't just Republican. [8:18] GAD flies, like Nancy Mace, who walked out [8:20] of that meeting so upset. [8:22] Congressman Mike Rogers, the chair of the House Armed [8:24] Services Committee, is generally considered [8:26] one of the more serious national security [8:28] voices in the circus that is the Republican Party. [8:30] And here's what he said. [8:31] More about what's going on, and what the options are, [8:36] and why they're being considered. [8:38] And we're just not getting enough answers. [8:41] We just wanted them to tell us what's the plan, [8:44] and we didn't get any answers. [8:46] Repeatedly, we're having these folks [8:48] sent over here to basically tell us very little. [8:50] And we're just not getting enough answers. [8:50] We just wanted them to tell us what's the plan, and we didn't [8:51] get any answers. [8:52] And it's not OK. [8:54] We need them to be more forthcoming [8:56] about what's going on, because we're an essential partner [9:02] in this process. [9:04] Again, that wasn't a left-wing peacenik. [9:06] That was Mike Rogers, the top Republican on the House Armed [9:09] Services Committee. [9:10] Reporters then asked the top Republican [9:12] on the Senate Armed Services Committee, Roger Wicker, [9:14] if he agreed with those comments. [9:16] His response was, quote, let me put it this way. [9:19] I can see why he might have said that. [9:21] There we go. [9:22] Nobody has a real sense of it. [9:23] Nobody has a sense of where this war is going. [9:25] That's what you heard from his comments. [9:27] The winner of the inaugural America First Award [9:29] seems blissfully unaware of what is actually going on. [9:33] And now even Republicans in Congress [9:35] are losing their patience.