'Disaster': U.S.-Iran ceasefire stands, despite escalating violence

0:02 and tensions in the region remain high, high, high.

0:05 Today, the UAE reported a new wave of attacks from Tehran and the U .S.

0:09 disabled two more Iranian tankers trying to break the blockade.

0:13 Despite the burst of violence,

0:14 the president still insists that the ceasefire is holding,

0:19 but Iran has yet to respond to a one-page U .S.

0:22 proposal for the U .S.

0:23 and decides to reopen the street and cease hostilities for 30 days.

0:28 Like, what in the world does a ceasefire mean is my question tonight.

0:31 Meanwhile, the conflict is taking a toll on how voters feel about the economy.

0:35 Consumers sentiment fell to its lowest level on record,

0:39 according to the University of Michigan's latest report.

0:41 Yet there is the president earlier this week

0:44 telling us consumer confidence is way up.

0:46 Well, let me just tell you again, like Michigan, it is a little bump is back.

1:03 Senior data editor and columnist for CT Insider, Mary Harris,

1:08 host and managing editor of Slate's daily news

1:09 podcast that you must listen to what's next.

1:12 Political content creator, social media commentator.

1:15 Young superstar, Harry Sisson.

1:17 And a man who we devoted our last thing to earlier this week.

1:22 A man who at this point needs no introduction.

1:25 Newly minted Pulitzer Prize winner Pablo Torre.

1:28 He has an ESPN analyst and host

1:30 of Meadowlark Media's Pablo Torre finds out podcast,

1:33 which just won the award for their audio

1:35 reporting of the LA Clippers salary cap scandal.

1:38 Which means I am thrilled for Pablo and NBA.

1:42 I'm looking at you.

1:46 Let's start, let's start, let's start all of you.

1:49 There's a lot going on.

1:50 You know, I almost say jump ball in honor of Pablo in one word,

1:55 describe the situation in the Gulf.

1:58 Philippe?

2:02 I can do it in like 200.

2:06 Poor is what I'd say.

2:08 I mean, look, I mean, there's no way to describe it succinctly

2:10 because it's a complex situation because it

2:13 was entered into as though it wasn't going to be a complex situation, right?

2:16 The president, the administration said, oh,

2:18 look what happened in when we tried to get Nicolas Maduro.

2:20 We went and went out, we did it.

2:21 It was perfect.

2:22 Let's do the same thing in Iran.

2:23 And it has not worked out that way.

2:25 And so what we have is we have not a ceasefire but a stalemate.

2:28 And the stalemate is going on indefinitely.

2:30 And it doesn't seem as though the administration

2:31 has a plan to get out of the stalemate

2:33 because it doesn't seem as though they had a plan to get into the conflict.

2:36 OK, so I've been using this word, turbo quagmire.

2:40 I mean, I just feel like we have speedrun the worst things here.

2:50 Can you spell turbo quagmire?

2:54 We've speedrun the worst consequences, right?

3:00 And everyone can see it.

3:01 Everyone is looking at their prices going up.

3:03 And the thing that I think is going to be

3:07 a challenge for the Trump administration is the fact that what

3:12 voters THE BALL ROOM IS THEY SEE VANITY PROJECTS AND THEY

3:20 DON'T LIKE IT BECAUSE THEY HIRED HIM TO LOWER THEIR PRICES.

3:24 IF YOU ASK A LOT OF THEM, RIGHT?

3:28 What they see when they look at the war is the ultimate vanity project, right?

3:33 It just━it is a war for no reason that they see.

3:37 It's never been articulated.

3:38 The goals have never been articulated and it is having a material

3:41 cost in their lives even when they even when someone says finish

3:44 the job the question they have not answered is what exactly was

3:49 the job yeah in one word I think disaster I I mean,

3:52 if you start in the Middle East, you are looking at a situation which

3:57 Trump is actively describing as a ceasefire.

3:59 He said that yesterday while standing in the reflecting

4:01 pool for some reason he was in there.

4:03 He said there was a ceasefire yet we're actively bombing Iranian ships.

4:06 There is no ceasefire.

4:08 He also said yesterday in the reflecting pool that we're days away from a deal.

4:11 He's been saying that for how many weeks now?

4:13 That we're days away from the deal.

4:14 You come back home here in the United States prices are up.

4:17 I mean I have friends who are in college who are just getting out of college.

4:20 They want a job and Gen Z has been beaten up for so

4:23 many years now and on top of all that housing prices are going up,

4:26 gas prices are still going up,

4:27 grocery prices are still going up and the administration

4:29 is kicking people off of health care.

4:31 So in my one word I just go disaster across the board.

4:34 You're getting a two-parter but start with your word.

4:36 So my word, I'm going to do something clever here.

4:40 It's Pulitzer.

4:41 First off, hold on.

4:44 I like how Harry was like, I have friends in college.

4:47 Dude is in college, okay?

4:48 I don't know.

4:50 You have a Pulitzer.

4:51 I am staring at my own mortality sitting next to him and it's disturbing.

4:56 My word, my attempt to cleverness is going

4:58 to be self own because it is totally self inflicted.

5:02 Yeah, and also with my young friend here, cell phone as in self, cell phone.

5:08 Oh God, you're so clever.

5:09 Right?

5:10 Look at what Trump is talking about online, they did the aliens thing today.

5:15 That's right.

5:15 I mean, how bad is it going?

5:17 They're doing the aliens now.

5:18 The notion that this was something that was further eroding...

5:21 Oh, oh, the aliens thing.

5:22 They're releasing...

5:24 The Department of War has released the alien files.

5:26 Correct.

5:27 You be the judge.

5:30 But let's not be sassy I'm being dead serious.

5:31 How can anyone with a straight with a straight face say yes we're in a ceasefire

5:37 like when they even had to put the ceasefire in place several weeks ago.

5:41 The whole thing was ceasefire they're going to open the straight of Hormuz.

5:45 I think that lasted one hour and 32 minutes.

5:48 It was just a love tap.

5:49 I was going to say love taps.

5:51 So by the vocabulary here has been quite relevant to the proceedings.

5:54 What Trump is doing, though, beyond losing yet another core demo,

6:00 people who did not want new foreign wars,

6:03 he's also getting actively trolled by Iran.

6:06 Like, the cell phone thing is real.

6:08 Like, I don't think he fully appreciated how intractable Iran's foreign

6:14 ministry historically is and how unbelievably

6:18 effective they are at trolling him.

6:21 It makes him look weak.

6:22 It makes him look lost.

6:24 It actually does shed voters.

6:27 And so in terms of how does a ceasefire

6:29 proceed when it's not really as a ceasefire, none of this has a good exit plan.

6:35 I don't know what you do here.

6:37 I mean, if you're an advisor to him, Steph, frankly,

6:39 I don't think there are good moves to make anywhere left on the I

6:44 THINK IT'S IMPORTANT TO RECOGNIZE THE CONTEXT IN WHICH DONALD TRUMP OPERATES,

6:51 WHICH IS THAT HE COULDN'T CARE LESS WHAT ANY OF THE FIVE OF US THINK.

6:54 HE COULDN'T CARE LESS WHAT ANY OF THE FIVE OF US He cares what his base thinks,

6:57 and his base doesn't hear a lot of this discussion.

7:00 They see what's airing on Fox News.

7:01 They see the gas prices.

7:03 The gas prices are a problem,

7:05 and the gas prices are going to peel away support or soften support.

7:07 But what they hear about Iran is cease-fire.

7:09 Yeah, there's a little bit, but they're still fighting and yada, yada, yada.

7:11 They take him at his word.

7:13 And his base has been consistently loyal.

7:15 And that's always been the issue for Democrats and opponents of Donald

7:18 Trump is how do you get those people to peel away from him?

7:21 And the thing that he's done it so far is that gas prices are up.

7:23 And I think we should all recognize that if there is a resolution,

7:27 which is enough that Donald Trump can save enough

7:29 face and gas prices start to go back down,

7:31 his numbers are going to go back up as a result of that.

7:33 Okay, well, let's just say Iran looks

7:36 at his one-page proposal and says, mm, yeah, no.

7:39 Then what?

7:40 Like, for real, where do we go?

7:42 I mean, I don't know.

7:42 I don't think any of us know.

7:45 And let's look here.

7:46 We hope this gets resolved and hopes it gets I hope it gets resolved soon.

7:49 But I guess I want to talk to Philip about what you just said.

7:52 OK.

7:52 Because I'm not sure that the entire base

7:54 isn't noticing what's happening and is completely loyal, right?

8:00 Like, I feel like to become a president in this country,

8:02 you have to assemble a coalition

8:05 of people who don't quite make sense altogether.

8:07 And so there are certainly peelable people.

8:11 And I do think you are seeing some of those people begin to appeal now.

8:14 Now, I mean, does that hold?

8:15 We have two more years here, right?

8:17 I don't know.

8:18 But the thing that's remarkable to me

8:20 looking at this moment is how little Donald Trump seems to care about the fact

8:24 that his approval ratings are approaching George W.

8:27 Bush heading out of office levels.

8:29 But he doesn't pay attention to that.

8:31 And you're right that you need a coalition to win,

8:33 but you need that coalition in November 2024.

8:35 Right.

8:35 You don't need that coalition today.

8:36 And he doesn't pay attention to that coalition today,

8:38 which is why he enters Iran and why he doesn't worry about gas prices.

8:40 And what he says to them is, hey,

8:42 CNN had this poll where I have 100 percent approval,

8:44 which of course is a total misreading on everything.

8:46 JUDY WOODRUFF Yeah, exactly, the self-identified MAGA voters.

8:48 And that's what he pays attention to, and that's what all of us...

8:50 He's surrounded by cronies and allies,

8:51 people who agree with him and tell him what

8:53 he wants to hear because he weeded out everyone else,

8:55 yeah, and this is where he is.

8:56 But it's interesting, right?

8:57 So admittedly, when Joe Rogan gets face-to-face with him at a UFC event,

9:01 Joe Rogan is not pushing back on the whole no new foreign wars thing that he's

9:06 otherwise Trumpet it right but I do think

9:08 it's interesting if you're online enough You know

9:10 that a big bunch of Trump supporters

9:13 on the internet among the men Traffic and conspiracy sure

9:16 and one of the theories that has something

9:19 resembling actual grounding is Israel's role in this war.

9:24 And so the notion that Trump is now shedding that part,

9:27 the part that is saying, wait a minute, what about this?

9:30 This is speaking now to a conspiracy, I also believe.

9:33 I don't know electorally, to Philip's point,

9:35 whether this will hold in two years,

9:38 but I think we're seeing a coalition falling apart in ways

9:42 that reflect an incoherence of what Trump's vision was supposed to be.

9:46 It was never about this, and now he just kind of seems bored on the internet.

9:51 Like, he's not even really campaigning on this war anymore.

9:53 Yeah, I mean, I think you're seeing the