Saagar Enjeti

So they merely want to, quote, save face.

People approached me four days ago saying, sir, Iran wants to open up the Strait immediately.

But if we do that, there can never be a deal with Iran unless we blow up the rest of their country, their leaders included, exclamation point, President Donald J. Trump.

All right, so let's bring in Jeremy Scahill to unpack what on earth President Donald J. Trump is talking about here.

Our 2026 iHeart Country Festival presented by Capital One.

Saturday, May 2nd at the Moody Center in Austin.

Stream live on Disney Plus and Hulu.

Okay, so Jeremy, what is going on here?

Let's start with kind of from the kind of MAGA perspective, from the Trump perspective.

How are they explaining this series of posts and this kind of about face?

And so that's, you know, that's significant news right there.

And as you reported yesterday, too, that the Iranians were ready to come to the table, the

Meetings would happen tomorrow.

The Pakistanis told them, the Pakistanis and the mediators, that Trump was going to make X gesture and the gesture was going to be on lifting the blockade and extending the ceasefire.

And then that didn't happen.

There's a major trust gap right here because multiple negotiations have ended with U.S.

surprise attacks.

It seems like the U.S.

is not doing much to try to regain the trust of their kind of Iranian interlocutors.

So what is the Iranian thinking at this point about whether – are we back at war?