Trump's Failure Hits a BREAKING POINT

0:00 All right, it is week eight of the Iran war, almost week nine,

0:03 and I regret to inform you all,

0:05 this administration does not know what they're doing.

0:07 I'm not claiming that I have all

0:09 of the answers or some strategy that Sentcom doesn't,

0:12 but I am confidently claiming that the president of the United

0:15 States is not handling this in a mature or steady-handed manner.

0:20 Watch this clip of Donald Trump getting asked about why

0:23 the Sententcom leader visited and what the plan or strategy is.

0:27 And let me know after this clip if you have confidence in our leadership.

0:31 Take a listen.

0:32 Commander come in here yesterday.

0:34 Was debriefing you on a different approach.

0:37 Options.

0:38 What kind of options?

0:38 How would it look?

0:40 What are options?

0:40 I mean, do we want to go and just blast the hell out of them

0:43 and finish him forever or do we want to try and make a deal?

0:47 I mean, those are the options.

0:48 Do you want to go blast the hell out of him?

0:50 I'd prefer not.

0:52 On a human basis, I'd prefer not.

0:54 But that's the opposite.

0:55 Do we want to go in there heavy and just

0:57 blast them away or do we want to do something?

1:01 They're a very disjointed ownership,

1:03 as you can understand, Peter, very disjointed.

1:05 Amen.

1:06 What Trump is basically saying is that the only

1:08 ways out of the situation right now

1:10 are a a dramatic escalation where he essentially

1:14 commits war crimes on their infrastructure or b

1:17 a a humiliating climb down in which Donald

1:19 Trump uh doesn't get any concessions from them

1:23 or gets minimal concessions at best and we

1:25 have to make a lot of concessions as well.

1:27 Meaning we spent $50 billion in endless money for nothing.

1:31 I actually laid out the cost of this war

1:33 on MS Now a few nights back with Stephanie Rule.

1:36 Watch.

1:36 So, Republicans are successfully digging a ditch for themselves,

1:40 but are Democrats making a good case for themselves,

1:43 especially as it relates to young voters

1:45 because young voters can happily not show up.

1:48 They've got other things to do.

1:49 They're not necessarily dependable voters.

1:51 And while Donald Trump may be disappointing the electorate,

1:54 are Democrats making a case for why you should vote for them come November?

1:58 This is a great question because for the past decade

2:00 and that is how you get invited back here.

2:02 That's a great question because for the past decade,

2:04 Democrats have been unified by our opposition to Donald Trump.

2:07 Rightfully so, but that's not enough.

2:09 It's not enough.

2:09 You got to have your own forward-looking exciting vision.

2:12 So, I think Democrats seem to be putting side by side

2:15 the cost of this war versus what we could be spending it on.

2:18 I actually have some good stats here.

2:19 So, in New York, they did free school lunches for $300 million a year.

2:23 Put that against the $50 billion, which is a conservative estimate for this war.

2:27 We could have funded this across the country.

2:29 How about in Connecticut?

2:30 They have paid family leave.

2:31 It was $450 million a year and it is $5 million to start up.

2:37 Put that against the $50 billion.

2:39 It is a no-brainer.

2:40 What about one more?

2:41 In New Mexico, it costs $1.5 billion for free college.

2:44 We could do that 20 times over with the $50 billion that we've spent to achieve.

2:49 I don't know, you made a really good

2:50 point that Americans are willing to make national security.

2:53 They're willing to make sacrifices for national security.

2:56 You can explain this to Americans in a rational way,

2:58 but what Trump said is no new wars and we're going to end inflation.

3:01 Now, he started a new war that has spiked inflation so

3:04 much so that Americans are scratching their head with no solid explanation.

3:08 More than that, in the beginning, he said,

3:09 "We have to launch this war because Iran

3:11 is two weeks away from producing their own

3:13 nuclear weapon and they're going to use it

3:15 and there's no evidence to back it up."

3:17 It was really, really funny because that was the night after that viral

3:20 clip of me on CNN and watch how they introduced me on MS Now.

3:24 Jason Johnson, politics and journalism professor at Morgan State University.

3:28 He is also lucky you an MS now political contributor and Adam Mockler.

3:33 Making his debut visit to the 11th hour,

3:35 progressive commentator and might as such journalist.

3:37 And I warn you before you begin, keep those hands on the table station.

3:42 This war is already I have more MS now clips in one moment,

3:45 but I want to return to Donald Trump at the White House yesterday

3:48 giving an interview on the lawn laying out how he doesn't actually need

3:52 authorization from Congress to continue this war

3:55 past the 60-day mark even though

3:57 the War Powers Resolution very specifically says that at the 60 days mark,

4:01 Congress has to invoke it and, you know,

4:04 take control of this war rather than letting the president continue to spend,

4:09 make it endless and dig us into a deeper and deeper hole.

4:12 You know what I've realized is that when I'm on CNN doing these debates,

4:15 these conservatives keep using the same line.

4:17 They say Iran has been at war with us for 47 years.

4:21 For 47 years, we've been at war with this country and Trump is ending it.

4:24 Right?

4:25 But then they say that it's actually not a quagmire.

4:28 It's not an endless war and it's not a war that's going to take a while.

4:32 But you can't have both.

4:33 It can't be not an endless war and it can't

4:35 also be a war that's been going on for 47 years.

4:37 It's inherently contradictory and I should have pointed that out in the moment.

4:41 But check out check out this clip of Trump

4:42 on the White House front lawn talking about war powers resolution.

4:46 Final excuse me uh Mr.

4:51 President's Day 60.

4:52 Are you going to seek congressional authorization for

4:55 No other country has ever uh done it.

4:58 It's never been in as you know most people consider it totally unconstitutional.

5:04 Also we had a ceasefire.

5:05 So that gives you the

5:07 Constitution literally lays out the fact that war powers lie within Congress.

5:12 It is explicitly laid out in article 2 of the Constitution.

5:15 Trump then tries to say that there's a ceasefire,

5:18 therefore we don't have to invoke it.

5:20 But a ceasefire is not the same thing as a peace deal.

5:22 A ceasefire is a temporary ceasing in hostilities.

5:25 There was a ceasefire during World War I.

5:28 That does not mean in any way that the war was over.

5:31 Totally unconstitutional.

5:33 Also, we had a ceasefire.

5:35 So that gives you additional time, but no other country's done it.

5:38 We're in the midst of a big victory.

5:41 This is a victory like we haven't had since Venezuela.

5:44 Okay, to be honest with you, we haven't had haven't had since Venezuela.

5:48 This exactly shows you his mindset.

5:50 Netanyahu sold him this war on the lie

5:52 that this would be exactly like Venezuela was in and out.

5:56 Now it is a quagmire.

5:58 Watch your next MS Now clip.

5:59 War explanation.

6:00 The young people you cover,

6:01 the young people you speak to, what do they say about the war?

6:04 because Donald Trump had a lot more enthusiasm

6:06 from young voters this time around than his first term.

6:10 Listen, the war is absolutely ruining the pockets of young people.

6:13 And you made a great point that they're

6:14 constantly shifting the objective of this war, but it's more than that.

6:17 They're lowering the threshold for what victory is considered as.

6:20 At first, it was regime change, then it was nuclear disarmament.

6:23 Now, they're saying that because we took out their 50 to 60-year-old navy,

6:27 this is some sort of victory.

6:28 Victory in a war is defined as using

6:30 force to get political concessions from your opponents.

6:33 We have gotten zero political concessions from Iran.

6:36 In fact, they won't even show up to the negotiating table.

6:39 The Strait is still closed.

6:40 We've gotten zero political concessions.

6:41 To answer your question, it's hurting young people a lot.

6:44 There's a stat that Americans have collectively spent $22 billion

6:48 out of their pocket just on gasoline since this war started.

6:51 That's money that could have been spent on healthare, on child care,

6:55 on a long list of things to reinvest into our economy.

6:57 But guess what?

6:58 We're spending it on gas.

7:00 So when you combine that with the tariffs, with the ACA subsidies slashing,

7:03 and with the fact that young people can't accumulate capital in the first place,

7:06 then as young people would say, we're cooked.

7:08 This war is cooking us right now.

7:10 Trump has no off-ramp, and it's not good.

7:12 But he says these one final clip of Donald Trump saying

7:15 that the naval blockade we currently have is friendly.

7:20 Also, it can't be a ceasefire while

7:22 we simultaneously have a naval blockade in place.

7:25 That is inherently an act of war.

7:28 Just inherently.

7:29 Let's take a listen to this clip.

7:30 Mr.

7:30 President, in your letter to Congress,

7:33 you said the hostilities in Iran have that started have been terminated.

7:37 How can you say that given

7:38 that the naval blockade is still being militarily influenced?

7:41 Well, it's a very friendly blockade.

7:42 Nobody's even challenging it.

7:44 Nobody at all is challenging.

7:45 Just so you understand, uh,

7:48 many presidents have been involved in things that are very big.

7:52 They never had to go through anything with respect to Congress.

7:55 They considered it to be totally unconstitutional.

7:59 And the Democrats in Congress that pushed

8:01 this and probably a couple of Republicans.

8:04 This is a flatout lie.

8:05 The War Powers Resolution has been invoked dozens and dozens of times

8:09 by presidents who were trying to do an act of war.

8:13 When it wasn't invoked, it was often times because like someone like Obama had

8:16 a authorized use of military force in certain airspaces in certain countries.

8:21 unauthorized use of military force can subvert the war powers resolution.

8:25 But Trump, 60 days into this war, still can't find an off-ramp.

8:28 And it's actually quite humiliating.

8:30 It is actually quite terrifying.

8:32 There are reports that if we don't find some way to reopen

8:35 the straight of Hormuz in the next 4 to 8 weeks,

8:38 then it could send the entire world into a recession.

8:41 So, we are now just trying to clean up this mess.

8:45 I mean, the best outcome that we can possibly get

8:47 is just to clean up the mess that we caused.

8:49 It's like taking one step forward and two steps backwards.

8:52 And then every time we take one step forward, Trump starts to celebrate.

8:56 But we're now taking two steps backwards.

8:57 And overall, it's regressive in nature.

9:00 It's hurting people's pockets in this war.

9:02 Is a failure.

9:03 I'm not saying that because I'm pro Iran or anti-America.

9:06 I'm saying that because I'm pro

9:07 good decision-making and I'm pro America winning.

9:10 I like when America wins.

9:12 Right now, we're not.

9:12 I love you all.

9:13 I'll see you in the next video.

9:14 Make sure you drop a like and subscribe.