"A Beautiful Thing": Trump Wants Hormuz Tolls As A "Joint Venture" With Iran

04/08/26 8:26 PM

Trump said, "We're thinking of doing it as a joint venture. It's a way of securing it - also securing it from lots of other people."

"Hardest War To Solve": JD Vance On Russia-Ukraine Conflict

04/08/26 6:31 PM

Kyiv on Wednesday called on the United States to pressure Russia into ending its invasion of Ukraine.

"No Tolls Can Be Imposed For Crossing Hormuz": Oman Contradicts Iran's Demand

04/08/26 6:25 PM

Iran-US Ceasefire - "No Tolls Can Be Imposed For Crossing Hormuz": Oman Contradicts Iran's Demand

'Cannot be excused away': Republicans break ranks to bash Trump's 'rhetoric' on Iran

04/07/26 10:26 PM

A pair of Republican lawmakers broke ranks on Tuesday to bash President Donald Trump's latest threat to Iran. Trump threatened to destroy the entire Iranian "civilization" in a Truth Social post on Tuesday morning if the Iranian regime did not agree to a deal to end the war by the 8:00 p.m. ET deadline that Trump set. Trump has said negotiations are ongoing, and sources told CNN that a deal seems likely to be approved before the deadline. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Rep. Nathaniel Moran (R-TX) lashed out at Trump's statement in separate social media posts. "The President’s threat that 'a whole civilization will die tonight' cannot be excused away as an attempt to gain leverage in negotiations with Iran," Murkowski wrote on X. "This type of rhetoric is an affront to the ideals our nation has sought to uphold and promote around the world for nearly 250 years. It undermines our long-standing role as a global beacon of freedom and directly endangers Americans both abroad and at home."Moran added that he "does not support" Trump's threat. "I have and will continue to support a strong national defense—one that is focused, disciplined, and firmly rooted in protecting the safety and security of the American people," Moran wrote on X. "But, how we protect the lives of the innocent is just as important as how we engage the enemy. America is great because America is good."

'Dude is insane': Trump reamed for suggesting US could take cut of Iran's shipping tolls

04/08/26 12:44 PM

President Donald Trump's two-week "ceasefire" agreement with Iran was quickly flagged by experts as being lopsidedly in favor of Iran — with one of the most notable aspects being the United States being open to negotiating Iran's right to collect shipping tolls in the Strait of Hormuz, a massive concession.But in conversation with ABC correspondent Jonathan Karl on Wednesday, Trump tried to spin it as a good thing — because maybe America could get in on the action and help Iran enforce the toll in exchange for a cut of the revenue.“We’re thinking of doing it as a joint venture. It’s a way of securing it — also securing it from lots of other people,” Trump told Karl. “It’s a beautiful thing.”Commenters on social media largely did not agree with the president on that."Counterpoint: It’s not a beautiful thing," wrote columnist Michael A. Cohen."Dude is insane. 25th amendment," wrote former MS NOW host and Zeteo News chief Mehdi Hasan."Are we gonna do joint ventures for tollbooths at all the major global straits — Malacca, Gibraltar, etc — or are joint ventures possible only if we have a costly war first with the littoral states?" wrote SUNY Albany political science professor Christopher Clary. "Trump went from 'we’re going to wipe Iran off the map' to 'maybe we’re going into business with them' literally overnight," wrote anti-Trump GOP focus grouper and Bulwark founder Sarah Longwell."The truly amazing thing is that there are people in the world who will believe this line of [expletive]. There truly is a sucker born every minute," wrote Penn political science lecturer and Niskanen Center senior fellow Damon Linker.

'Fiasco': Alex Jones in disbelief as Trump's 'ceasefire falling apart'

04/08/26 6:33 PM

Right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones declared President Donald Trump's war in Iran to be a "fiasco" after concluding that a ceasefire was "falling apart."During a Wednesday interview with conservative author Michael Savage, Jones noted that Trump's approval ratings were plunging amid the war in Iran."But admitting this is a big defeat so far for the U.S. The problem is we keep staying in there, in my view, it only gets worse," Jones noted. "And they've got thousands of people that are related to Muhammad that can be the mullah. And each one you get worse than the next. And Trump keeps saying, oh, I've got people I can work with now.""And then, of course, he can't. And now the ceasefire is falling apart. And so this is a disaster in my view," he added. "Now they've closed this [Strait of Hormuz] again. As I predicted this morning, it's all off, and just — this is a fiasco. It's like watching a Three Stooges movie, but they got nuclear weapons. So that's my take."

'Insulting!' Karoline Leavitt snaps as Trump's 'civilization' threat questioned

04/08/26 6:06 PM

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt pushed back after a reporter wondered how the U.S. could claim the moral high ground after President Donald Trump threatened to eliminate Iran's entire civilization."So, regarding the President's rhetoric, when the U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003, George W. Bush said in a message to the Iraqi people that the military campaign was directed, quote, against the lawless men who rule your country and not against you," the reporter noted during Wednesday's White House press briefing. "Yesterday, the President threatened to destroy Iran's civilization, the entire civilization, not the Iranian government, but the Iranian civilization, the Iranian people.""The U.S. has been a moral leader for most of its history by fighting wars against other governments, not against civilizations," he continued. "How can the president claim that America can ever have the moral high ground if he's threatening to destroy civilizations and not casting wars as fights against other governments?""I think you should take a look at the actions of this president," Leavitt replied without addressing Trump's threat. "A rogue Islamic regime that has chanted death to America for 47 years, that has killed and maimed thousands of American soldiers over the course of the last five decades.""The president absolutely has the moral high ground over the Iranian terrorist regime," she added. "And for you to even suggest otherwise is frankly insulting."With that, Leavitt cut the reporter off and moved on to the next question.

'Iran won' after they 'rope-a-doped' Trump: MS NOW analyst

04/08/26 12:55 PM

According to the panel on MS NOW’s “Morning Joe,” if Donald Trump’s ceasefire agreement with Iran holds, the US still came out as a loser after the US launched the unprovoked war.According to “Morning Joe” regular Mike Barnicle, there should be no doubt that Iran may have lost militarily, but now holds a stronger hand than before the war began.Before letting former Council on Foreign Relations president Richard Haass expound on the long-term implications of the paused war, Barnicle bluntly stated, “Did not Iran, though, just play rope-a-dope with the United States? They won. Iran won.”“Look, so that's a larger question,” Haass replied, “Are we better off than we were five weeks ago? Absolutely not. Straight question, we'll see what happens with the nuclear, our standing in the world is worse off. Russia's better off. NATO's worse off. We can go around the horn and see who it is — but yeah.”“And Iran, actually, the regime is stronger than it was. It's military, in the immediate sense, weaker; it's ballistic missiles and all that. But it is stronger politically inside. Our attacks on Persian civilization may have actually helped the regime, because they can stand up and say, we have protected Persian-ness. I also think they're stronger in the region. They have now become much more of a force to be reckoned with and around the world.”“So Iran, yes, we hurt them in the classic sense, but in the strategic sense, they are, they are much better off. And I would say we are worse off for all of it,” he added. - YouTube youtu.be

'Not good for Republicans': MAGA host warns of 'early indicator' after Trump-district loss

04/08/26 3:03 PM

MAGA host Gina Loudon said she found it "very upsetting" after Democrat Emily Gregory defeated a Trump-endorsed candidate in the district where the president's Mar-a-Lago home is located.During a discussion about a special election to fill former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's (R-GA) seat in Georgia, Loudon said she couldn't shake off Gregory's win in Florida."Don't forget, too, the race that just happened in Florida, where the Trump-endorsed candidate did not win," Loudon recalled. "The race was seen as an early indicator heading into the midterms, highlighting both Republican strength and conservative strongholds and signs of Democrat momentum in areas where they have traditionally struggled.""Donald Trump is never going to retreat from doing presidential things," she said of Trump endorsements. "And I think even beyond his death, this man will somehow be doing presidential things."Co-host David Brody observed that Trump's influence could be waning because the Democratic candidate performed well in Georgia."A little bit of a warning signal here for Republicans," he said. "That's a tea leaf that is not good for Republicans."Loudon insisted she couldn't get over Jon Maples' loss in Trump's home district."John Maples, an amazing black conservative," she remarked. "And I hate using that, but I'm just saying he was very marketable in many ways to, let's just say, independents, right? More moderate voters. And he was Trump-endorsed, and he lost here in Florida.""But very upsetting to those like me who think, this is Trump's home district, this is where I live, and this is where President Trump's house is, his home is," she added. "Very upsetting to me that we lost this race. We really thought we had it won."

'TACO Tuesday': Internet erupts at Trump's announcement of two-week Iran ceasefire

04/07/26 11:14 PM

President Donald Trump announced a ceasefire "deal" with Iran with just hours to go before his threatened deadline to wipe the country off the map, essentially proclaiming a set of conditions proposed by Pakistan that Iran had already largely rejected, in exchange for two weeks of paused hostilities to allow shipping traffic to move through the Strait of Hormuz.It is unclear whether the ceasefire will have any actual effect on the Iranian side, but the upshot appears to be that Trump will not launch his carpet-bombing campaign at least for the time being. And this prompted an immediate reaction on social media.Many people immediately went live with "TACO" memes — an acronym for "Trump Always Chickens Out.""The best TACO Tuesday yet," wrote Kevin Rothrock, the managing editor of Russia watchdog site Meduza.io."Imagine if we still had diplomats. We'd have so many more options, including DIPLOMACY," wrote Noel Dickover of George Mason University, posting a GIF of a dancing taco."So Iran would have to agree to a complete reopening of the Straight, and elimination of their biggest source of global leverage, in exchange for a two-week ceasefire with an untrustworthy enemy?" wrote Toronto Star columnist Bruce Arthur."Two weeks, of course, just like tariffs," wrote University of Wisconsin political science professor Mark Copelovich.