How Trump's focus on his legacy drives his decisions
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This is no secret, but President Trump is obsessed with his personal legacy. Today on the pod, we'll explore how that colors his entire decision-making, including on the war in Iran, where the president's thinking seems to have shifted again just in the past week. It is the NPR Politics Podcast. I'm Myles Parks. I cover voting.
I'm Frank Ordonez. I cover the White House.
And I'm Tamara Keith, senior political correspondent.
And Franco, let's start with the conflict with Iran. It feels like for weeks, for months now, we've been talking about being close to some sort of agreement that would reopen the Strait of Hormuz, but it is still closed. And over the weekend, there was reporting that indicated that Iran's list of demands for reopening it included some pretty harsh conditions in the United States, things like paying war reparations, for instance. Can you just get us up to speed on all this right now?
Yeah. I mean, it's such a moment of flux where things are just kind of up in the air. I mean, the Strait of Hormuz really has become or gotten to be the center of this conflict. Iran continues to make more demands about controlling the Strait. The White House has basically made a red line that it cannot control a Strait, that it needs to continue to be An international waterway open to all cargo traffic. But that's been kind of the crux of this challenge right now.
Why does Trump obsess over avoiding a Hoover‑type legacy?
That's what blew up the MOU that was signed in June to kind of have a ceasefire. Iran wanted control of the strait and the U.S. said no. Remember that Trump was saying all week that we're going to have a agreement to clear the Strait of Hormuz very soon. He said it multiple times at the beginning of last week. That obviously has fallen apart. And now he's talking about some kind of low keying of discussions. He talked to Axios on Sunday, gave a brief interview where he said they're looking at the economy. And waiting for Iran to kind of back down, saying that they're having so much inflation that he thinks basically economic efforts are going to do what the military has not so far.
Yeah. And he's talking about Iran's economy. The president was saying, oh, yeah, we're going to just low key this. You know, no more of this hyper focus on negotiations. We can just let this go on. Then. Just moments ago, he posted on Truth Social again, well, if the Iranians want reparations, we need reparations for all of the people that have been killed by Iran over all the many years of the Iranian regime.
It was interesting to me, though, the reporting about the potential agreement that was being drafted between Oman and Iran would potentially end up with Iran having more control over the Strait of Hormuz than they had pre-war, which to me, as somebody... Who hosts this podcast and every week I feel like we talk about how President Trump wants to, you know, claim wins every chance he gets. That feels like if that is the case, that could be a tough thing for Trump to sell, no?
Oh, absolutely. I mean, I've been talking with Republican strategists and Iranian experts who are very concerned that essentially the U.S. and President Trump is going to have to accept something that is below the status quo in order to I mean, just like I was saying earlier, the Strait is what this conflict is about. Every single demand that Iran makes is about control of the Strait. And this, again, is a red line for the Trump administration. But Iran is not backing down.
How is the Iran‑Strait of Hormuz conflict shaping Trump’s strategy?
I mean, Trump has thrown almost every single thing militarily at Iran. at Iran trying to get them to cave to his demands, and they have not entirely caved to their demands, and they continue to threaten ships that go across. And despite what the president says about the U.S.
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