Trump says he expects ‘to be bombing’ if no Iran deal is reached

[0:00] U.S. President Donald Trump says he expects to continue bombing Iran if the U.S. cannot reach a [0:06] deal to extend the ceasefire by Wednesday evening deadline. Well, I expect to be bombing because I [0:14] think that's a better attitude to go in with. But we're ready to go. I mean, the military is [0:19] raring to go. U.S. President Donald Trump is speaking to CNBC, the vice president, [0:29] due to leave for Pakistan soon, where extreme uncertainty awaits. Preliminary talks have been [0:38] happening for days, but Iran still has no clear indication if its negotiating team will sit down [0:43] with the Americans. Let's get you to Washington and to Kevin Liptak. What do we know at this point? [0:52] Yeah, we still expect J.D. Vance, the vice president, to depart sometime relatively soon from Washington [0:58] to head from Islamabad. Our understanding is that he has not left just yet. But that interview that [1:04] the president is still doing right now on CNBC, quite revealing in terms of his approach and attitude [1:12] to these negotiations, he's feeling very bullish in terms of a deal. But at the same time, [1:19] making clear that he doesn't plan to extend that ceasefire, which he says will expire tomorrow [1:25] evening and essentially says he has his finger on the trigger in terms of resuming this conflict [1:31] if a deal cannot be reached. Listen to a little bit more of how he characterized the state of these [1:37] talks. What I think is that we're going to end up with a great deal. I think it's got I think they [1:43] have no choice. It is regime change, no matter what you want to call it, which is not something I said [1:49] I was going to do, but I've done it indirectly, maybe, but I've done it. And I think we're in a very [1:55] strong negotiating position to do what other presidents should have done during a 47 year [2:01] period. Now, the president in this interview said that he would be not rushed into a deal, [2:08] essentially suggesting that he's not looking for something quick and dirty. He wants something [2:13] that he can come out and proclaim as a good deal for the United States. I think all of that sort of [2:18] belies the president's political positioning here. You know, he recognizes that this war is unpopular [2:25] in the United States. It's a war that he said would have been finished by now. And when you talk to [2:30] officials here at the White House, they make clear that the president recognizes that this war is [2:36] politically damaging for him. And there, despite what he's saying here, not a lot of attitude [2:41] for resuming it. And so as the vice president prepares to depart here for Pakistan, of course, [2:48] the question is what exactly this deal that the president thinks he can secure looks like? What is the [2:54] concession on nuclear enrichment? What happens to the nuclear stockpile of highly enriched uranium? [3:01] All of these questions that were sticking points during the first round of talks led to no deal [3:06] being produced there and remain sticking points now. Of course, President Trump, very confident that he [3:13] was able to come up with something that doesn't resemble the Obama-era deal that he withdrew from, [3:18] that he continues to decry. But I think very interestingly, the president really putting a lot of [3:23] stake into his own negotiating prowess, saying, you know, somewhat preposterously that he would have [3:30] won the Vietnam War very quickly if he was president. So altogether, a portrait of a president quite [3:37] confident in his ability to bring this war to an end, quite confident in his ability to secure a deal [3:42] that's good for the United States, but also one who continues to threaten a resumption of this war if [3:48] these talks don't produce a deal. We are still expecting Vice President J.D. Vance to leave for [3:54] Pakistan for peace talks with Iran. Right now, he is still in Washington, set to take part in White House [4:00] meetings. When or if he's going to leave is still unclear. If there's no deal, a fragile ceasefire [4:07] will expire tomorrow night. And yet this morning on CNBC, President Trump said the war has already won. [4:13] We've totally won the war. We have totally beat them militarily and otherwise. [4:22] And then he said this. I want to make I want to make a good deal. I'm not going to be rushed. [4:27] I have all the time in the world. I want to make it not a good deal. I want to make a great deal. [4:33] Josh Dossie, the war is won. And yet he wants to make a good deal. Translate. [4:39] I don't know that I can translate other than the president's truly been frustrated in recent weeks [4:48] that he's not getting in the military and getting enough credit for how much they've done to dismantle [4:53] the Iranian military and the Navy and what they've done. But this war, according to public polls, [4:58] is not very popular. Right. And a lot of his advisers have been pushing him to look for a way out. We have [5:03] to have a way to get the straight open. We have to have gas prices to go down significantly because, [5:07] you know, the midterms are coming up. A lot of folks are feeling the heat on that. [5:12] And there's a lot of pressure you feel inside the White House when you talk to people about finding a way to get out. [5:17] So the president's never going to say, you know, this isn't going well publicly. He's going to say, [5:21] look at all we're doing and look at these stats and look at this and we've totally won. [5:25] But you're also seeing a lot, a lot of internal angst about, you know, how do they extricate themselves [5:32] from this prolonged conflict that's dominating the headlines, dominating everyone's attention. [5:37] causing some public erosion and support. I mean, they're looking for a way out. [5:43] We talked on the show about your terrific story over the weekend in the Wall Street Journal. [5:47] And we talked about your anecdote about why and how the president got to the point where he posted [5:53] something about Allah in Truth Social. But there's something else that I want to drill down on, [6:01] a great anecdote in here, and I'm going to read it. [6:03] This is during the capture while these two airmen were captured behind enemy lines. [6:10] Trump demanded that the military go get them immediately. But the U.S. hadn't been on the ground in Iran [6:15] since the government's overthrow that led to the hostage crisis. And they needed to figure out how to get [6:20] into treacherous Iranian terrain and avoid Tehran's own military. Aides kept the president out of the room [6:27] as they got minute-by-minute updates because they believed his impatience wouldn't be helpful, [6:32] instead updating him at meaningful moments. [6:35] Yeah, so what we're reporting there is that all day on Saturday, the day before Easter, [6:41] senior White House officials, military officials, everyone called into the Situation Room. [6:45] And the president was agitated about finding these guys. And he turned to his aides and said, [6:49] go get them, right? They're two troops. They're down in Iranian territory. But he's not in the [6:55] Situation Room, and he's not with them. And it's not, I think, that they, I've seen some folks on [6:59] Twitter and on the left say, oh, all of these different theories. It's more, the president's an [7:03] impatient guy when he wants something done immediately. When he is in the mood to have [7:08] something his way, he wants it done immediately. And so they left him out of the room because I think [7:12] they were trying to, you know, they knew this was going to take a long, long period of time, [7:16] that there were going to be fits and starts. Obviously, the planes went down at one point in [7:20] the sand and they couldn't get them, you know, up. They, you know, the guy crawled 7,000 feet up [7:24] in the mountain, the guy who they were looking for. I mean, there were all sorts of treacherous [7:28] things to do here. They didn't want to be distracted by his impatience. [7:31] And they wanted him to get sort of regular updates, but not to be in the room for every [7:36] single particular thing. It's a very telling anecdote. Let's go back to where we are right now, [7:40] which is, you know, a holding pattern still. But just talking about what the [7:46] president has said, maybe in the past, like, day or two, as he tries to continue to push the [7:53] narrative of the war is won and everything's going to be fine. These are statements that [7:59] the president of the United States has made that are just not accurate. Vance would not join the [8:04] second round of negotiations. Well, we'll see. Maybe they'll pull him, but that's not the plan [8:08] right now. Vance was heading over to Pakistan on Monday. It's Tuesday. He didn't go. Straight [8:13] of Hormuz is completely open and Hormuz straight situation is over. We all wish. Iran agreed to [8:19] turn over its enriched uranium. Iran's military is gone. Yeah. And listen, some of this is him [8:26] trying to make the markets respond and respond positively. And some of this is him trying to [8:35] move the negotiations along. I think, unfortunately, some of this has angered the Iranians, right? This [8:42] idea that, you know, they've turned over their enriched uranium, for instance, or agreed to do [8:47] that. That is a huge sticking point, as is the Strait of Hormuz. So this is a president. I mean, [8:53] some of this feels like deja vu all over again, like the days just run together of him trying to [8:58] bend the world and bend this war to the way that benefits him on social media and giving all of [9:05] these interviews. You know, he's on the phone with a reporter every other day making some of these [9:10] proclamations that turn out not to be true.