Trump’s Iran Ultimatum, Paxton vs. Talarico, Reflecting Pool Fight

Added: 2026-05-28

[00:00:06][music] [music] >> Hello America. It's Erick Erickson. It is May 27th. I am back in action thanks to all those of you who reached out yesterday. My wife's oncology scans were great. Her car decided to bite the dust in the parking garage of the hospital. I had to leave abruptly in the morning and drive up to Atlanta to meet her. I wasn't going to go to for her oncology visit this time. We knew everything was going to be okay this time. And well, she wound up getting a new car out of it. So, she got an Audi SQ5.

[00:00:42]Thank you Audi of Marietta and Jimellis for making that possible. Her old Infiniti just well, died died. The repairs would have cost more than the car was worth. And she got clean bill of health for the oncology scans. We'll be back in 3 months to do it all over again. Thanks to all of you who reached out to ask what was going on. Sorry for what I missed yesterday. And I'd like to thank all the new subscribers. My goodness.

[00:01:04]Ever since being on the Ruthless Podcast among others that this the subscriptions on YouTube have just skyrocketed here and on Substack as well. So, thank you very much for subscribing and taking some time to spend with me as we navigate the news and life together.

[00:01:19]Up first today, the president says he does not fear a prolonged war in the Middle East having a political fallout.

[00:01:25]He cares about put another way, he's not going to make political calculations based on the war in the Middle East and says he may prolong the war and not cut a deal with Iran if Saudi Arabia, Oman, and Qatar do not join the Abraham Accords that the UAE and other nations have joined. In fact, the president has suggested there could be more military action with Iran. The problem is that no one seems to know. What we do know is the Strait of Hormuz is still mostly closed. Not completely closed. Iran intends to charge tolls. We're hoping to collapse them with a siege of the Persian Gulf so Iran can't get anything out, and well, we can't get anything out either. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates are using pipelines to divert much of the flow, but it's still having a global impact right now, and there seems to be no signs of a letup. So, people are waiting for something to give, and the president has no clear answers other than he's not concerned about the political fallout, which at least is good, but there will be political fallout if he can't figure out a way to bring down gas prices. If you're new here and like what you're hearing, hit subscribe. I drop honest analysis every single day. The president says he opposes Russia and China taking Iran's uranium. Now, this obviously makes sense cuz they would just give it back secretly to Iran. They're the ones who gave it to him in the first place.

[00:02:37]The president wants the dust, as he calls it, all of their uranium to get out of Iran. The Iranians say they'll talk about it, but they want to get everything else back to normal first.

[00:02:45]You can't trust the Iranians, and the president, to his credit, says this is an ultimatum. He wants the uranium out of Iran. He wants them to have no bombs.

[00:02:53]Iran, of course, is balking, which is why we're at the problem we're at right now.

[00:02:58]Both sides wanted Paxton, the bases of the parties. The Democrats wanted Ken Paxton. The Republican base wanted Ken Paxton to oust John Cornyn. Both sides got what they wanted. The question is who now has the car uh that which one is the dog that caught the car? And it looks like it might be the Democrats, who are now more and more fretting about James Talarico. Even on CNN, uh they noted that, as I've been saying, the cost of this campaign to get Paxton across the finish line could cost Republicans other races, but David Axelrod said James Talarico is going to find out what a real carnivore is as the Republicans eating him alive for his past comments. Now, if you didn't see today's show notes, if you text Eric to 33777, click that first link. There is no paywall, and you can see all of the crazy comments James Talarico has made.

[00:03:47]And if you ask me, my gut is that the people who are comfortable with J.R.

[00:03:50]Ewing as a folk hero on TV will be comfortable with a guy like Ken Paxton over a creep like James Talarico.

[00:03:59]Lastly, there's been a lot of ink spilled about the color of the reflecting pool in Washington, D.C. You know, I was up there last week and you couldn't even really get around it as they painted and renovated. It had been leaking 7,000 gallons of water a day.

[00:04:13]Those leaks have been patched and it's being painted blue, a very dark navy blue like the American flag. And the Washington Post in a screed denouncing the president's renovations interviewed a pool color expert, a man who is used to installing pools and getting the colors right. And guess what?

[00:04:31]After you make it through the screed, it turns out that the navy blue color picked by the president will actually reflect the world around the reflecting pool better than the old gray color.

[00:04:43]In fact, the pool expert says that this particular shade of blue does a better job of accurately reproducing reflection of the water than the old color. So, credit to the president for getting it right despite all the outrage.

[00:04:55]Now, last week I asked about the quality of candidates and does it matter or is it issues?

[00:05:00]Uh Ferris said Republicans must have good quality candidates, focus on messaging. I do not believe Senator Ossoff is going to lose the common election. He's seen as a moderate Democrat and also a vice presidential pick. Donald Trump continued thin-skinned comments on Truth Social continue to hurt the Republican Party.

[00:05:15]Philip said, I vaguely recall once being told that all politics is local. I also recall once being told that people who actually follow and understand politics, aka the issues, are in a distinct minority. Everybody else could be presumed to be a be folks who in some way, shape, or form could be manipulated. However, most people don't think about their emotions or prejudices most of the time. And uh Pinball said, I I don't know which is worse, the leadership in the Georgia GOP or the GOP voters. I watched all the debates and did not see a single Republican candidate which I could bring myself to vote for in the primary, so I voted on the non-partisan ballot to vote for judges. Unfortunately, Douly's not very knowledgeable in the nuances of issues.

[00:05:52]That is a problem. And says, "I won't be voting for the Senate general election if Collins is the candidate." Now, for those of you who don't follow this stuff, Mike Collins is the Republican frontrunner for the runoff in Georgia.

[00:06:05]His campaign manager accused a man of being {quote} "Matt Lauer's sloppy seconds" because that man's wife, who's a consultant for Derek Douly, that man who's a consultant for Derek Douly, his wife alleged that Matt Lauer raped her before she attempted suicide. And so, that consultant was called Matt Lauer's sloppy seconds by Mike Collins' campaign manager. Now, who is the campaign manager? The guy had been Mike Collins' chief of staff in Congress until it turned out he had been paying his girlfriend to work, paying taxpayer dollars to his girlfriend to work, and the girlfriend never actually worked. Collins said he parted ways with the chief of staff, and by parting ways, he moved him to the campaign. Now, Mike Collins uses the same choice of words.

[00:06:47]He parted ways with this guy a second time. But has he really? Cuz he's using the same words. He didn't say fired, he parted ways with the guy. And did he actually part ways with the guy? Cuz the last time he said he parted ways with the guy, he moved him somewhere else. By the way, Mike Collins has not fired the outside meme consultant and social media consultant who actually posted some of the most vile stuff about this person's wife, who is a victim of rape.

[00:07:12]And now that outside meme consultant is demanding proof the woman was actually raped.

[00:07:18]And Mike Collins is standing by that guy.

[00:07:20]Mike Collins has a history of surrounding himself with unsavory people and pretending he didn't know and then moving those people to other locations without actually firing them. This should probably weigh on your vote as Republicans kind of get tired of these sorted candidates in politics. I'm Erick Erickson. These are the four things and the bonus on character. Here at the end of the day, you guys have a great day.

[00:07:39]I'll be back with you tomorrow.

[00:07:47]>> [music] [music] >> Mhm.