NEW Report EXPOSES Trump’s “Mini-War” as a FAILURE

Added: 2026-05-13

[00:00:00]So again, while the Pentagon is playing uh Persian golf tour guide, Trump is trying to spin this mess to the public.

[00:00:05]Here's a super cut of some of his attempts over the last couple of days.

[00:00:09]And we'll watch the the spin evolve a bit.

[00:00:11]>> I did something that was I don't know, foolish, brave, but it was smart. I would do it again, but I thought the numbers would be much worse. I thought the stock market would go down much more. I thought the oil prices would go up much more. I said, "But we have no choice whether it does or doesn't. I have to do what's right. we can't let them have a nuclear weapon. We hit all new highs and I said we have to take care of business because we can't let that happen. So, we did a little detour and it's working out very nicely. Our country is booming now despite the fact that we're in a I call it a mini war.

[00:00:42]Did a poll on the war with Iran and they said only 32% of the people like it.

[00:00:50]Well, I don't like it and I don't like war at all.

[00:00:52]>> It's a golden age for America. You know, we hit an all-time high stock market today. Despite that, we're in a little skirmish. Military, I call it a skirmish because Iran has no chance.

[00:01:03]>> So, to summarize, it's a mini war or a skirmish. The polls are fake. Uh but the stock market is up, so who cares? So, more importantly, Ben, um there was a report from Reuters on the impact of Epic Fury, the most recent round of fighting on Iran's nuclear program.

[00:01:17]Reuters reported that US intelligence believes that the time Iran would need to build a nuclear weapon has not changed since last summer uh when analysts determined that the previous strikes, Operation Midnight Hammer, had set them back uh it basically pushed the timeline back to a year. So in other words, like the latest round of fighting has not set Iran's nuclear timeline back any further. Before the war in June, US intelligence said Iran was 3 to 6 months away from having a enough highly enriched uranium to build a nuke. After the 12-day war, they said it was 9 to 12 months away. and now they're still about a year away. So, it's not clear that this has done anything on the nuclear front. Um, of course, we've taken out the US and Israel have taken out a lot of conventional military capacity, killed a lot of Iran's leaders, but um that's not this what this was supposed to be about. So, I mean, Ben, that again, we're not having nuclear talks that we know of, the US and Iran, but the state of positions remain very far apart. Again, earlier this week, Trump talked to neocon fanboy Hugh Hewitt. Uh he told him he wanted all of Iran's highlyenriched uranium out of the country. Iran refuses to do that. Trump has said repeatedly that Iran can't do any nuclear enrichment. Iran repeatedly has asserted its right to enrich. Uh Trump wants to cap their missile program. He wants to end their support for proxies. Seems unlikely that the IRGC is going to be down with that. Um so again, I'm trying to figure out an endgame, a path forward, some like common ground in these talks, but I'm just I I'm struggling to see it. I think that the the fundamental problem here is we had this debate back in uh 2015 when the Iran nuclear deal went into effect and having looked at the problem for years um and having gotten the same presentation or a version of it that Netanyahu gave Trump uh to to bomb Iran.

[00:03:05]When we looked at that, you know, and when we also looked at what was possible at the negotiating table, you know, what became very clear is number one, you cannot destroy a nuclear program by bombing it. You just can't. They know how to do this. They know how to do the nuclear fuel cycle. They have uranium.

[00:03:22]They have the capacity to build centrifuges that can enrich that uranium. They have the capacity to stockpile it. You can bomb buildings where that takes place, but you know, they can move it around. They can go underground. They've got lots of different scientists. that you cannot bomb that out of existence. You could invade the country and fully occupy it and hunt down every last scientist and you know piece of the the program, but we're obviously not going to do that either. So therefore, you can only resolve this issue diplomatically. If you resolve it diplomatically, there is absolutely no way that the Iranian government will ever agree that they do not have the capacity to enrich uranium.

[00:03:58]That that they're going to abandon that in perpetuity. They're just not going to do that. Like it's we'd like that to happen. They're not going to do that.

[00:04:04]And so therefore, all you can do is negotiate some restrictions on their program where they're shipping the nuclear material that they produce out of the country. They're operating less centrifuges and there are inspections.

[00:04:15]That's the Iran nuclear deal. That's the JCPOA. The only thing available to Trump as an off-ramp to this war potentially, because I don't know if the Iranians are even in the mood to do it, is basically the deal that Obama had that he tore up, >> right? and and and agreeing to that would reveal the absolute insanity of not just Trump but the entire Iran indust Iran war industrial complex you know all the Lindsey Grahams obviously the Israelis obviously the hack you know posters online who work at you know think tanks that have had no purpose for existing other than to cheerlead for a war with Iran they they they cannot admit that they were wrong. And the only way out of this war is for them to if not admit that they're wrong, tacitly admit they're wrong by essentially trying to pursue a version of what Obama's nuclear deal was. I mean, honestly, I think that's where it is. And Trump, you know, they've tried all these other metrics like we blew up some of their conventional military, we killed these leaders and and and everybody can see with their own eyes that the IRGC took our best punch and is still standing. that they control the straight of Formuz and that they actually have more enriched uranium in the stockpile than they had the day Trump pulled out of that nuclear deal.

[00:05:36]And and what was this all for? Not just this war, this whole last decade. What was it for? I the insanity of it is is just apparent. And Trump doesn't understand these things. But the I think that the core point here is absent something like that this war like literally there's accomplished precisely nothing and at unbelievable cost.

[00:06:01]>> Yeah. According to US intelligence it's just nothing different. It's nothing because the ballistic missiles they'll they'll rebuild the ballistic missile.

[00:06:09]They'll find a way to do it.

[00:06:10]>> They'll produce the ballistic missile drone technology.

[00:06:12]>> So like this is completely insane that this happened. Uh, and by the way, at that event with the kids, um, Trump talked about the power of nuclear weapons. He talked about killing Iranians. He did his whole riff about like trans athletes and then he said to them, "Back Hussein Obama, have you heard of him?" Uh, again, to a bunch of kids. Do you think that uh set of remarks is going to wind up in your forthcoming book about great speeches? I will say having spent four years writing a book to try to tell the history of the United States through 15 uh consequential speeches, >> that's got to make it in there, >> including speeches I don't agree with, you know, the vice president of the Confederacy is in there, Reagan's in there. Um the the degree to which the bar has lowered here uh in Trump. I will say to people though, book is out three weeks from today. Okay, >> so now's we're in that sweet pre-order window. If you are planning to buy the book, buying it now helps a lot because if you get some pre-orders, they ship more books to the bookstores and it all works out better.

[00:07:07]>> Um, >> get them on that list.

[00:07:09]>> Where do they go? Just go to >> hit the list when But the reason that that's >> Wait, wait, give them a way to buy it.

[00:07:15]>> I mean, you go to Amazon. You go to bookshop. Oh, I I refined my plug.

[00:07:19]Always say the battle for American identity. Um, and actually, don't go to Amazon. Go to bookshop because of the Met Gala. Go to bookshop. That's supports independent bookstores. Uh, and then I'm going to be hitting the road.

[00:07:29]I'll be on a book tour. Um, I'm going to be going to like, I don't know, 15 places. So, uh, we'll make that available. I I will have to say to the San Francisco World, too, uh, in particular, though, because tickets are on sale now, I'll be at City Arts, Arts, and Lectures, uh, on June 9th with Galani Cobb. I'm excited about that event. I know we got some San Francisco listeners.

[00:07:47]>> Got a lot of sublisters. Great city. Um, okay. So, the politics of this are, uh, becoming quite clear. I mean, it's a political disaster for Trump. The Washington Post had a poll out over the weekend. Uh, some numbers for you, Ben.

[00:07:58]You tell me if these are good. Uh, overall approval rating for Trump is 37%. Approval of handling of Iran is 33%, 66% disapprove. Approval on inflation is 27%. Obviously, that's getting worse every day because of oil and gas prices. Cost of living, 23% approval. Uh, 61% think going to war with Iran was a mistake. 65% aren't confident that will prevent Iran from getting a nuke. 22% think that Trump's actions against Iran are consistent with his promises in the 2024 election. So, I mean, look, all these numbers suggest that they want to run screaming from this thing. I think it was the Wall Street Journal reported that Trump keeps like kind of toggling between wanting to severely punish Iran for not doing what he said, but also worrying about getting pulled deeper into the conflict. I think anyone who's gotten in one of these regime change wars over the last couple decades could have told him that military action was not going to drive political change in Iran. But here we are. Good luck getting yourself out of this one, big guy.

[00:08:56]>> He can't get out of it. And and because you can change prices, you can change how people are feeling and what they're seeing. I think the other thing from all these clips that stands out to me is that there's a convergence of the extent to which he's out of touch that I think is important and you're seeing some people on the MAGA right pick up on this uh including people like Tucker Carlson um which is that you know he now is pivoting to the stock market you know uh well you know the wars we had to do this detour it used to be an excursion now it's a detour but the stock market's at an all-time high I think actually that is the precisely wrong message because people are beginning to get, you know, wise to the fact that the stock market is completely juiced by an AI bubble.

[00:09:42]>> Oh yeah. And so basically Trump is up there boasting about the fact that a very small number of people are making a bunch of money on an AI bubble creating technologies that are going to come for your jobs while he's fighting a war that does nothing for you and makes your gas prices higher and is going to start to affect things like fertilizer and all these other things that people really depend upon in this country. Um, and so in a way the war itself, you know, it's pulled back the curtain that the emperor has no clothes. He has no idea what he's doing. He's broken his promises. He never probably believed them in the first place. But also like even his way to spin himself out of it is like compounding the error because telling people that they shouldn't be upset about high gas prices or a war or the >> or affordability is a myth made up a hoax from Democrats. like what >> the if your only play is to point to the the stock market. Um that would only make me more pissed.

[00:10:40]>> Oh, absolutely. Especially Yeah. You barely own stocks. I mean, most rich people own stocks. Um speaking of, we've also been trying to figure out what's going on in Iran, Ben. I mean, our our producers have been trying really hard to get in touch with people on the ground. Obviously, that's very hard.

[00:10:52]>> There's an internet blackout. There's all these threats from the regime. Um but just to give you a sense of what kind of conditions people are living under. So, one contact we did get in touch with through an intermediary, an intermediary received this text afterward. This is verbatim. Deared citizen, following a review of actions carried out in cyerspace in pursuant to articles of the Islamic Penal Code, your act of approving and publishing criminal content in cyerspace is currently under investigation by the cyber police.

[00:11:17]Obviously, that person didn't want to talk further.

[00:11:21]We though we were finally able to connect with another civilian in Iran, a teacher. We decided not to play the audio of that message because we just didn't want to create any risk for this person. We wanted to share some of what was said. Um they said their ability to teach has been severely disrupted by the ongoing blackout on internet access.

[00:11:38]They said even with the expensive uh VPN services, internet access is limited and unstable and that people have to spend a large part of their income just to stay connected. Um there's a type of government provided internet often referred to the national restricted internet that gives you some basic access but it comes with control and monitoring and all sorts of restrictions. Um and because of that people don't feel comfortable using it and overall just getting online is no longer simple. It's expensive. It's unstable and it comes with a bunch of trade-offs between access quality and privacy. And then they said on terms of fear of the government quote we do not have freedom. We do not have freedom of expression. Even basic forms of disscent can lead to serious serious consequences. People could be detained or face severe accusations. In my own experience, I've received threatening messages simply for liking a few posts on Instagram. It's not normal that a simple action like liking a post on Instagram can lead to intimidation and make you feel like your own safety could be at risk. So, Trump occasionally now will mention the protesters killed.

[00:12:35]Earlier this year, he did some weird thing today where he said that 40,000 people were killed by five snipers, which doesn't make a lot of sense. Um but it's worth noting that he's almost exclusively made their lives worse and and deepened the repression that they face from the regime.

[00:12:49]>> Yeah. I and I talked to someone I know here, a friend of mine whose family is uh Iranian and they were describing, you know, the the securest way they have to get news like they can't really be in touch. They hear secondhand, somebody hears from somebody hears from somebody, they're okay. But, you know, it's it's just hellish. I'm I I I'm just going to say something to kind of introduce a new idea here, Tommy, which is uh in the regime has nothing to do with the IRGC, the Iranian regime, and how repressive they are. We we have a deeply up foreign policy because of how routinely we ignore the human cost of all the things that we're do around the world.

[00:13:31]And this war is case in point. The girl school we bombed in the first day is case in point. The other thing I would say though is that you know somebody asked me recently, well what what do you regret about the Iran deal? You know and and usually they that's like you know they want me to say like this sunset clauses should have been 12 years instead of 10 or something. I actually regret when I when I think and if I were to make a recommendation for what Trump should do, not that he'd listen to me. Let's lift the sanctions on Iran.

[00:14:01]And I know whatever intern listens to this podcast for. Yeah.

[00:14:05]>> But but like maybe not everything, not the sanctions on the IRGC or whatever, but like >> is this helping them? We've had that we've been sanctioning the out of this country for 20 years. That teacher's life is far more miserable because of it.

[00:14:19]>> Yeah.

[00:14:20]>> And she's getting repressed more because of our sanctions. Our sanctions empower the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps.

[00:14:28]Do not listen any longer to these hawks who tell you that the way that you care about human rights is by sanctioning countries and cutting off basic goods and collapsing currencies. You know what? If you Cuba >> Yeah. Yeah, if you lifted sanctions like and you know try to get something try to get the nuclear program do bigger sanctions relief because seriously try to solve because you know what that that teacher and all these people in Iran like are might still be dealing with like an intolerable amount of repression but their lives would be better and if we think that sanctioning this country or sanctioning this regime is somehow changing it is entrenched the the worst people in Iran deeper in power and so This is a bigger conversation we can have going forward. But one idea for Democrats looking for new ideas is and by the way cuz what sanctions are hurting people. They're also going to shoot us in the face because the Chinese are going around the world saying this is why you got to get out the dollars the world's reserve currency. And so what are we doing here? We're acting against human human interest and we're acting against America's long-term interests by pursuing these insane sanctions policies on Iran, on Cuba, and all these countries that that that things just get worse in those countries.

[00:15:39]>> Yeah. So yeah, and by the way, Trump's going to China next week on the May 14th and 15th. I think Iran's foreign minister is there >> this week to get ahead of that visit. Uh listeners probably remember that this China trip was supposed to happen in late March, early April, but Trump delayed it to deal with the Iran war.

[00:15:56]I'm sure this conversation you were just talking about about how the Chinese can help Iran and other countries get around US sanctions is front and center in that conversation. Um, but despite the delay, I mean, Trump was like, "Oh, look, we got to delay this trip because then the war will be over and then we could focus on the real things." Like, no, the the ch the Iran war has totally overtaken the trip. Trump kind of tried to low-key it today. Talk about how nice China has been to him during the war, how they haven't challenged us. Um, but, uh, Treasury Secretary Scott Besson had a slightly different take earlier this week on I think he was on Fox News or Fox Business. Let's watch. Let's see if you know chi China let's let's see them step up with some diplomacy and get the Iranians to open the street.

[00:16:37]>> You said that twice now. Do you expect Beijing and President Xi to do something with regard to Iran?

[00:16:43]>> Uh again all all I will say is Iran is the largest state sponsor of terrorism and China has been buying 90% of their energy. So they are funding the largest state sponsor of terrorism.

[00:16:55]>> That's quite a broadside in advance of Trump. Not quite on message there, Scotty.

[00:17:00]>> So, first of all, Trump says we control the street, >> right?

[00:17:04]>> So, why does China have to open it?

[00:17:06]>> I don't know.

[00:17:06]>> I mean, first of all, there's a cognitive dissonance and and and and second of all, these guys talk like it's I don't know, 1992 or something like China. Do you think China gives two shits what Scott Besson says? Like that like he can order around Xihinping. Um, I mean, we're just living in there.

[00:17:24]There's a reality in the world and then there's like the Trump reality and and and increasingly people aren't even trying to kind of play along with it like they were at the beginning when they were a little afraid of tariffs and things like that. I look, Trump is is intimidated by Xiinping. You can tell.

[00:17:39]Yeah. You know, he's always praising him, doesn't want to piss him off. He's afraid he got his ass handed to him in a trade war. Um and and now he's created a huge problem for the Chinese and everybody else because they, you know, have supply lines that uh and and and energy needs that like run into Iran. Uh but like just hectoring them. I mean, if they were doing smart diplomacy, it's kind of like what I saying just so we can be constructive here. Like a smart diplomatic effort be like, "Look, we up. Let's try to solve this problem comprehensively. You, you know, you work on the Iranians to kind of open up the straight. we will lift some of these sanctions >> so that you can buy the oil more easily and in return though you got to get the stockpile of the nuclear material out and you got to convince them to have the IIE this is what diplomacy would be like and they're incapable of doing that >> but instead what's happening is the Wall Street Journal reported that China's commerce ministry told companies just not to comply with US sanctions over the purchase of Iranian oil they're actively telling their companies to ignore us >> there have been reports that China may be selling Iran weapons or other dual use materials I'm sure they are.

[00:18:41]>> And like and you know like Aliva who's an Iran expert who we've talked to on the show a bunch of times said he's seeing people affiliated with the IRGC saying that Iran has been way too shy about aligning itself with China and Russia. So that's you know likely to come. Uh we remember the Chinese facilitated this opening between Iran and Saudi Arabia in 2023. They're also getting very active with Pakistan on the diplomatic efforts to try to end this war currently. So they're the Chinese are like attempting to fill the void in some way. And it's just again like if this war wasn't happening, I'm sure the agenda would be trade deal, Taiwan, artificial intelligence, like all these big things. Instead, it's just going to be justice. Yeah. And the Chinese, by the way, you know, they see us like confirming all the arguments they've been making around the world, right, forever, that the Americans are reckless, that they can't be trusted, that they overuse sanctions, that they're militaristic. Like Trump is proving every Chinese argument that has been made in two months. And so they're going to reap a lot of geopolitical gains from this. Although they also have like economic concerns about, you know, the potential global recession that this war could bring about. Interestingly, you know, they have a stockpile of oil that that can they can ride out for I think something like six months or maybe nine months. Um they do have LG issues and so the Qatar cut off of LG like because that gas field is shut down because the Iranians bombed it is a problem for them but it's a problem with the solution which is in the long term they're going to want to pull Qatar and some of those Gulf states into their orbit. Right. And I I would be shocked if that's not one of the consequences of this war is that the Gulf states that usually looked in the direction of the US are going to be much more open to look the Chinese deals reliable. The terms are, you know, Beijing's favored, but we know what the terms are. Yeah.

[00:20:30]>> Whereas the Americans, we have no idea what the they're going to do dayto-day.

[00:20:33]>> Right. Exactly. That was an excerpt of POS Save the World, the show I do every week with Ben Rhodess. We talk about the biggest issues in national security and foreign policy. Please check out the rest of the show on the Pods Save the World YouTube page and subscribe to Pod Save the World. But also, please subscribe to Potsafe America. When you do, you help us push back on the right-wing crap that is all over YouTube, Fox News, pro-war propaganda, the Daily Wire, the worse than that. So, please subscribe. Pod Save the World is a crooked media production. Our show is produced by Alona Minkovsky, Michael Goldsmith, and Nisha Bonnery. Our team includes Matt Dro, Ben Heathcoat, Jordan Caner, Kenny Moffett, David Tols, and Ryan Young. Her staff is proudly unionized with the Writers Guild of America East.