Chapter 1: What is discussed at the start of this section?
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I'm Dan Pfeiffer.
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Chapter 2: What are the key points about Trump's recent threats and Iran?
And the piece says that first was decapitation, killing the Ayatollah. Second was crippling Iran's capacity to project power and threaten its neighbors. Third was a popular uprising inside Iran. And fourth was regime change with a secular leader installed to govern the country. And basically the military, Kaine tells Trump, he thinks the military does have the capacity.
He wasn't even saying he was for it. But he said the military does have the capacity to do one and two, killing the Ayatollah and crippling Iran's capacity to project power.
And then basically everyone in the room, except for, this was after Bibi Netanyahu left and the Israelis left, but all of his staff was like, all the rest of the senior officials in the White House were basically said that three and four, the popular uprising and installing a secular leader were crazy. Ratcliffe, the CIA director, called it a farcical.
And then Rubio interjected, that means it's bullshit. I assume because Trump didn't know what farcical meant. But even as General Keynes said he believes the military could achieve one and two, he also warned about the Strait of Hormuz and how it would be very difficult to reopen and how the Iranians could gain control of it, which has happened.
Trump seemed to dismiss that because he thought, oh, the regime will have fallen by then. And warned about depleting munitions, that we are going to use a lot of our weapons and defensive weapons, offensive weapons by doing this. And Trump didn't seem to care about that.
And then there was even an anecdote in that story how Tucker Carlson, who had been calling Trump and warning him not to do this and pleading with him not to do this, he basically said he had a call with the president right before Trump said go. And Trump said to Carlson, I know you're worried about it, but it's going to be OK. And then Tucker said, well, how do you know?
And Trump said, because it always is.
I think there's, that is a very, very telling anecdote. Me too. Me too.
Right. Everything's going to go great.
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Chapter 3: How do the hosts assess Trump's diplomatic skills?
And we are just in this is a circular argument that Trump cannot figure out how to get out of because he does not have the guts, the courage, the strategic sense to figure out how to get Netanyahu to do the thing he wants, even though Net Israel is dependent on the U.S. for so much, particularly in this moment.
And, you know, he also doesn't understand or maybe doesn't care like what Netanyahu's thought process is on this, which is not dissimilar to his thought process in Gaza, which is they're not just like taking out senior Hezbollah commanders. They are taking out like mid-level Hezbollah, you know, operatives who are embedding themselves in civilian populations. The Israelis don't seem to care.
They're bombing the civilian populations anyway. They are basically occupying
southern Lebanon at this point and they may not have and it doesn't seem like they want to give it up just like they are occupying Gaza and basically their view is we're just going to keep pushing the boundaries outward from Israel and we're going to keep calling them buffer zones but what they really are is just taking land and occupying more land thinking that somehow this is going to be enough to eradicate Hezbollah or Hamas or any of the other terrorist groups they think are threats.
and it continues to be proven wrong over and over and over again. And I wouldn't expect Trump to understand that, but maybe someone in the government might. So in the last few days, Trump has turned his attention toward another sworn enemy of the United States, NATO.
The Wall Street Journal reports that the White House is considering a plan to punish NATO for not going along with Trump and Netanyahu's war by removing US troops from NATO countries. Trump has also been ranting about NATO, posting, quote, NATO wasn't there when we needed them, and they won't be there if we need them again. Remember Greenland, that big, poorly run piece of ice, okay?
You would think all this might have made for an awkward meeting between Trump and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte on Wednesday, but not so, according to Rutte. Is the world safer today?
than it was before the war was started? Absolutely. Because, and this is thanks to President Trump's leadership. Do you still consider him daddy after yesterday? I was not calling him my daddy, but saying. But of course, daddy has also a special connotation. And I now have to live as this the rest of my life.
Dan, do you still consider Trump daddy?
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Chapter 4: What insights do the hosts provide on the implications of Trump's actions?
You can tell he's really giving it thought and definitely not sort of just making it up on the fly.
He is such a pedantic, obnoxious high school debater.
Actually, I think the misunderstanding, it couldn't be us. I think the misunderstanding is you not speaking English very well. Does he think their translators don't exist? What does he think this is?
He's like, actually, it really depends on what you mean by right.
Like, I have an idea. I have a way to get out of this, because I was really thinking about Usha and skydiving.
Like, do they have it? Is the agreement that she won't skydive, or do they have a mutual non-skydiving pact?
If I was her, I'd be like, yeah, sure, I won't do it, but if you want to jump out of a plane, any time.
I'm sure she probably wants to jump out of almost any moving vehicle that she's in with JD Vance.
I will fly you myself. So... If Vance does get a primary challenge in 2028, how far do you think he'll go in trying to communicate that he was always against this war and will it work? Because they are out there, someone from his camp, if not Vance himself, did some real leaking to the New York Times about him in that meeting. They have to Politico before.
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Chapter 5: What do recent polls reveal about American views on Israel?
This is all on the heels of new Pew polling this week that shows roughly six in 10 Americans now have unfavorable views of Israel, including an all time high of roughly eight in 10 Democrats, which is up from 69 percent just last year and 53 percent in 2022. Interesting detail on the DNC thing.
In a Politico story before the vote, an anonymous DNC member said that they received direct calls from two, quote, presidential aspirants who would have to answer for the DNC's positions on Israel and AIPAC if they run. Now, I read it a couple times. I'm still curious if those presidential candidates wanted the resolution to pass or not pass. But they called about it.
Chapter 6: How are presidential candidates navigating the Israel issue?
What's your guess? And how do you think this issue of Israel plays out in the 2028 primary?
Maybe one on the other side of the issue?
Oh, maybe. Who knows?
But I just... If you were thinking of running for president in 2028... And in April of 2026, you were calling DNC members about a resolution, a non-binding DNC resolution. You are focused on the wrong things. Also, not for nothing, but I'd like to hear a compelling argument for why we need non-binding DNC resolutions.
It seems like it's the same reason for why we need questionnaires from interest groups that presidential candidates fill out.
Yeah, it's just that at least has it.
Let's all cause ourselves some trouble.
Well, that one at least has a purpose from the group's perspective, which is to get the group's perspective. Yes, from the group's perspective to get candidates to lay out a position on things. Because they're gonna make endorsements, and so you should have to answer some questions if you wanna make endorsements. We can go long on the role of groups. I know you have a lot of thoughts on it.
We don't agree on all of them, so it'll be a fun debate one day. But the, Here, I don't even know. It doesn't serve a purpose for anyone, the DNC or anyone else. So maybe we should just give it.
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Chapter 7: What challenges do Democrats face regarding Israel in the 2028 election?
I know. I know. But at least there you can say, yeah, that's a different thing. Like, what is the party stance on Israel party stance on any number of controversial issues? And then everyone can fight it out. It is like, what is the non-binding resolution of the DNC going to do right now?
It's going to give you politico stories like that is that's its sole purpose is for there to be political story political stories about it The other two resolutions by the way were wrecking one recognizing a Palestinian state and the other Conditioning military aid to Israel and I think the Middle East working group is a place where these resolution is supposed to go die Yeah, I think yeah you have you haven't heard a lot about the Middle East Middle East working group at the DNC.
I
No, I assume that, I mean, this is, it's like a, it's not an unclever solution to the problem of just like, this is a place to send, where you're not killing them. You're not enacting them. You're sending them to some other place, right? You're referring, they're just simply being referred. The whole thing is, the whole thing is dumb.
It builds a lot of trust with the voters in the party.
Yeah, well, also, the path to establishing a better Democratic Party policy on Israel is not through the DNC committee process.
That is correct.
It is through the candidates.
Who maybe should be coming up with the position as opposed to calling the DNC.
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Chapter 8: What does Rahm Emanuel propose for the future of U.S.-Iran relations?
I think – I imagine that most of them will get to ending aid to Israel.
Offensive aid or –
I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I mean, I think there's an argument to be made, right? Which is like, we should treat Israel from a perspective of the taxpayer funding that we are providing the same way we treat Any other ally, any other country.
And to me, it's a question whether it's a real alliance right now, because I think that the government there is a an authoritarian government, which, yeah, we have one, too.
But I think that the government there is is is not one that I certainly want to support with my tax dollars as they have did what they did to Gaza are still doing to Gaza are doing what they are to the West Bank or doing what they are to Lebanon right now. And so and it is a wealthy enough nation that they should be able to provide for their own defense.
And like, I don't I don't I think that to me and look, these are treated as like fringe lefty positions for some reason still. But, you know, over 60 percent of Americans support getting rid of all aid to Israel. And you just saw that it's 80% of Democrats at this point. You go to 18 to 49 year old Democrats, it's even higher. 18 to 49 year old Republicans, it's like 57, 60%.
I mean, I think that people who really care about Israel and who are much more pro-Israel should really think long and hard about why it is that they have lost the public battle over this, the public opinion war over this so badly and why it has shifted so dramatically over the last couple of years. And the answer is not because of TikTok, I was going to say, yes. You know, it's just not.
And at this point, it's insulting to tell people that. And I think if you really care about Israel, then you need to think long and hard about, like, why this has happened and whether fighting so hard to continue the U.S. relationship with Israel as it is right now with the aid that we're giving it is really worth what has happened to public opinion because of it.
One thing I'm confident of is that this is going to be a point of great discussion during the Democratic primary be a lot during the debates will be on this issue for sure. It's going to come up in town halls and interviews will come up on interviews on this podcast and everywhere else. So we're going to get to know how all the candidates feel about it.
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