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Chapter 1: What threats did Trump make regarding Iran's infrastructure?
We're giving them till tomorrow, 8 o'clock Eastern Time. And after that, they're going to have no bridges. They're going to have no power plants.
That was President Donald Trump's threat on Monday morning. By Tuesday, the rhetoric had escalated. On Truth Social, Trump posted, quote, end quote. But then as the deadline approached, Trump tried a different tack and announced a two-week ceasefire. Hello and welcome to USA Today's The Excerpt. I'm Cody Godwin in for Dana Taylor. Today is Thursday, April 9th, 2026.
Chapter 2: How did Trump's rhetoric escalate throughout the week?
Many questions are swirling in the wake of Trump's whipsaw strategy with Iran. Here to help us take a step back and take stock of what may be next, I'm now joined by USA Today White House correspondent Zach Anderson. Zach, it's great to have you back on the excerpt.
Great to be back.
There's a lot to dig into here. Let's start with some of the broad strokes. These are complicated negotiations. So who are the players here and what do we know about them so far?
Yeah, complicated is an understatement. This is a really complex geopolitical issue that the United States is trying to resolve here. Obviously, you have the U.S., you have Iran, you have Israel, but then you have players like Pakistan, the prime minister of Pakistan, who has brokered these negotiations.
You have a lot of other Middle Eastern countries who are very interested, who have been attacked by Iran in retaliation. You have China. who has played a role in this. U.S. negotiators include, obviously, President Trump at the top. And then you have his Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff. The vice president, J.D. Vance, has been involved.
His son-in-law, Jared Kushner, has been very involved in discussions surrounding Iran. You have Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. And then, you know, on the Iranian side, the foreign minister is the one who has been speaking for Iran publicly.
Has the ceasefire, in fact, been verified?
Here's what we know so far, that President Trump has announced the ceasefire, that Iranian foreign minister said that they had agreed to a ceasefire. We have still seen attacks throughout the Middle East, in Israel.
in other countries there are missiles that are still flying so it's a very tenuous situation right now vice president jd vance described this as a fragile truce it's not clear if maybe there's elements of the iranian regime who have not gotten the word about a ceasefire and then maybe this will die down here but a lot is going to play out over the next few days here and we'll see if this holds
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Chapter 3: Who are the key players involved in the Iran negotiations?
But this has become such a huge global issue. About 20 percent of the world's oil passes through this strait and Iran's ability to keep it closed has really roiled the global economy. And it's become a major concern for the U.S. here. And a key part of Trump's exit strategy for this is trying to get this strait reopened. That's what this ceasefire is conditioned on.
Trump has also suggested that the U.S. get in on any toll charges that Iran imposes on the strait. This is again from Monday's press conference. Let's give it a listen.
Us charging tolls? The President What about us charging tolls? The Press Is that something you're considering? The President I'd rather do that than let them have them running. Why shouldn't we? We're the winner. We won. Okay?
Has there been any further discussion of this possibility? Is there any precedent for it?
So Trump discussed this in an interview with ABC, and then White House Press Secretary Caroline Leavitt answered some questions about it in a press briefing. What Trump told ABC is that the U.S. was considering a joint venture with Iran over the Strait when he was asked about
tolling but then caroline levitt was asked about this and and she said that the u.s wants the straight to be reopened without any tolls that for there to be free passage through the straight which is what the the condition was before the war ships were able to pass freely through this so iran charging a toll to have ships pass through the straight seems very problematic you know that money
would go to Iran, which could then be used for them to potentially rebuild their military or other things. So the tolling issue is controversial, and it's going to be a major point of discussion going forward.
Trump has been claiming this week that we've won. All military objectives have been achieved. Has the U.S. met all of its objectives?
So the US, when this war started, they talked about destroying Iran's ballistic missile capacity. They talked about destroying Iran's Navy, basically completely leveling their military capabilities. They also talked about preventing Iran from getting a nuclear weapon. The first of those two things, there certainly has been some progress by the US on those And, you know, U.S.
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Chapter 4: Has the ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran been verified?
No, not at all.
No, no.
I hope I don't have to do it.
What are the experts saying here?
Well, Trump himself has really dismissed this or deflected on this. And the US military and US officials say that they don't target civilians.
But when you're talking about going after a country's bridges, its power plants, its infrastructure like that, there are a lot of concerns among international humanitarian groups, legal experts, that that could severely impact the civilian population in Iran and could be considered a war crime.
Trump's escalation in rhetoric got the notice of many world leaders this week, including Pope Leo, who called Trump's threats, quote, truly unacceptable, end quote. We also heard from some members of his own party who were calling for Trump to be removed from the presidency via the 25th Amendment. What happened there?
Yeah, so Trump really, really dialed up the intensity of what he's talking about here. You know, this is not something that we've heard from an American president in modern times where you're talking about wiping out an entire civilization. It was really stark and dire rhetoric that he used. And a lot of people across the aisle, Republicans and Democrats, raised concerns.
um really significant concerns about this you saw in the president's own party people like alaska senator lisa murkowski saying this is not how the us should be presenting itself we're losing moral standing by talking like this and wiping out an entire civilization you know she's a more moderate republican but you also saw people like
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