Nancy Youssef

I think that you're hearing relief.

I mean, throughout those statements, it was notable to me.

Yes, the Republicans that spoke up, but the silence that happened throughout, particularly after the president threatened to destroy a country civilization, the silence after Hegseth and one of those press conferences talked about no quarter and then days later.

U.S.

service members were flying an F-15E over Iran and had to escape because the Iranians shot it down.

There was a lot of really bombastic language that happened throughout this war.

And again...

I think Tom's right in terms of the audience that often Hegseth is speaking to, but it is heard around the world.

And it was striking to me that we didn't hear the kind of pushback, I think, that maybe some would have expected given the impact on the battlefield.

You could feel the discomfort in that silence, but it wasn't enough to sort of challenge the president's assertions, and that was striking to me.

I should also note that...

There is a willingness to kind of support funding the war, which at the time the president was asking for $200 billion.

I think the question going forward will be whether they continue to support the military in terms of the budget.

The president's asking for $1.5 trillion.

Much of that will go towards rebuilding some of the damage that happened to ships.

We saw the USS Gerald IV, the newest aircraft carrier,

caught on fire during this conflict, the restocking of munitions, particularly those air defenses, there is a cost.

And I think the Republicans will be confronted with sort of whether they're willing to pay for it literally.

And then in terms of political costs, given that the president had campaigned on the promise to not go into these kinds of wars in this region specifically.

I think on a global scale, what we saw from this war is another region that is sort of reconsidering its relationship with the United States from a security perspective.