Tyler Pager

Yeah, I mean, this is getting right at the heart of what has been dividing much of Trump's base since the war began, which is those who think Trump should continue bombing Iran and in their parlance finish the job, and those who are...

opposed to the war and see the economic costs of it and worried about the politics of the war and want Trump to figure out a way out.

So for those who want the war to continue, those so-called Iran hawks... I think we hit a wall on deal-making.

...like Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a close ally of President Trump, are quite concerned about the contours of the deal.

He was quite worried that Iran was playing the United States and delaying negotiations over the most contentious issues in a way that would just kick the can down the road and be detrimental to the United States and to the region more broadly.

There were other Republicans similarly raising concerns.

There were Israelis who were raising concerns.

They fear that the outlines of this deal is problematic and that Trump should not let up on the military action until he gets more concessions.

Mm-hmm.

There are many in the president's coalition who do not think the war is won yet and any negotiated settlement is too soon.

Yeah, so the president is a voracious consumer of media and is clearly aware of the criticism from some of his own allies and supporters about the status of the negotiations and the progress toward a deal that they are not happy with.

And so on Sunday morning, the White House organizes a call with a senior U.S.

official to walk reporters through what's actually in the deal.

What's interesting is the official, who only spoke on the condition of background to discuss the negotiations, really just goes on a rant uninterrupted for quite some time, blaming the media.

They're saying that the media is reporting things that are inaccurate from various officials in Iran or in the Arab world who are trying to tank the deal for any number of reasons and saying that the U.S.

media is not reporting accurately on the progress the negotiators are making.

Got it.

Okay, so what happens next?

So then the official starts to walk through what's actually in the deal, and in fact, we learn...

That there's not a whole lot that's been agreed upon.