Breaking News from Pod Save America - Trump Gets BAD NEWS as Joe Rogan Turns Against Him

Episode Date: July 11, 2026

Joe Rogan turns on Trump over his disastrous war in Iran. Tommy Vietor and Brian Tyler Cohen break down the fallout and how MAGA is handling it… not well. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Let's watch that. I mean, we might have fucked it up by going to Iran. I mean, this war is not something anybody that's conservative wanted. Most people don't want it except supporters of Israel. They're the only people that seem to be thinking. it's a good idea in this country. Most people are horrified by the idea because Trump was elected

one of the pillars that he stood for, apparently, was that he doesn't want any more wars. Yeah. Yeah, Joe, the only thing I disagree with there was when he said he might have fucked it up. He definitely fucked it up. Wow. It is amazing watching all of these new entrants

into the political process, these thought leaders in the political process, learn the hard-fought lesson that, yeah, Donald Trump fucking lies. It's a liar. About everything. He did it in his first term when he claimed that he would have an infrastructure law that never materialized, a health care plan that was cheaper and more comprehensive than never materialized, a middle class tax cut that never materialized. How's that health care plan going?

I mean, like, you know, and now that they have ushered in right-wing governance, which has just decimated our economy and destroyed the U.S. is standing in the eyes of the entire world. Now they're finally learning the most basic lessons in politics. It's also frustrating because, like, Trump has also been much more hawkish. on Iran. In 2020, he ordered the assassination of a prominent Iranian general named Qasem Soleimani and kicked off a war then. It's like, you guys, we knew this was going to happen. Let's tell people the substance here of the war, of the Iran issue recently. But let's tell people the substance of what's been happening with Iran recently. So on Friday, Brian, Trump posted about Iran, quote, the ceasefire is over. So that's great. Over the past couple of days,

the U.S. military has hit more than 170 targets in Iran. The New York Post reported that the White House is calling this latest conflict Operation Bichslap. It's the very sober, thoughtful way to talk about operations where men and women die. Iran has also been firing at U.S. military bases in the Gulf and its ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz. Now, Axios reported that the Trump administration has demanded that Iran issue a public statement by Saturday where they commit to stop firing at commercial ships. So, Brian, I noticed in the last couple days, Trump has called the Iranians, quote, crazy and sick.

But now, I guess, his administration wants Iran to put out a statement saying, we promise to be nice. And they think that will be sufficient to get these shipping companies to send their, like, $150 million tankers by their shore. Is that the plan here, anything? And that, Tommy, is the art of the day. That's how it works. Here's what I think is happening with Iran. I think Trump recognizes that he has no leverage. I think he recognizes that everything he's done

has been a failure, whether it's regime change. You went from Ayatollah Khomeini to Ayatollah Khomeini, whether it's trying to force Iran into reopening the strait. Now Iran has full control over what they do with the strait, and they can charge a toll, meaning they have the ability to earn money in perpetuity. Don and Eric, you said everything he's done. Yeah.

It's a failure. Yes, but that to the side. Oh, more recent stuff. This is more recent stuff. Yeah, by that. And also in terms of nuclear enrichment, obviously we've seen that every time he says we've obliterated their capacity to create a nuclear weapon, he's not been telling the truth about that. Then we have to bomb it again.

We have to bomb it again and again and again every six months. But what I think he recognizes is there is no way for him to win, especially given the fact that Iran has no midterms coming up. Ayatollah is in power in perpetuity, but we have midterms coming up in November. So all of those things together show that there is no path to success for that. Trump. So now what I think is going to happen is we're going to keep seeing memorandums of understanding and Iran deals get struck up and then they, somebody renegs and the piece, the ceasefire is over. And then they strike up a new deal and then the ceasefire is over.

And they strike up a new deal and the ceasefire is over because Trump just has to keep this going until after midterms because if and when he says that this thing, you know, is wrapped up, he's going to look like a failure. And he can't do that before midterms. They have to keep up this act that they've been successful. will come and go and then immediately thereafter, Trump can say, okay, I'm declaring victory, you know, mission accomplished and we will have nothing to show for it. But he doesn't want to do that until after midterms is over. So I think we're going to see four or five more months of just this nonsense ping ponging back and forth so Trump can have some plausible

deniability that he didn't outright lose this whole thing. Yeah, he can't accept taking a deal that would be worse than what Obama got with the JCPOA. But he can't, like, signal to the markets that he is ready to resume full-scale war because then gas prices will go up. So he's kind of just like spinning plays trying to figure out what to do. What happened in practice was the Omanis who were on the other side of the Strait of Hormuz from Iran.

They figured out a deal with like the U.S. and the Gulf of Mexico to open a shipping channel closer to their shore. Apparently that pissed off the Iranians because they were trying to control shipping through the straight going forward. And they started firing at the ships who were in that channel. The Wall Street Journal reported that the root of the problem

is a paragraph in the memorandum of understanding that Trump and the Iranian signed last month, which said that Iran will make arrangements to restore shipping through the strait and ensure safe passage of ships, which Iran has taken to mean that they can essentially dictate who passes through the strait and how and when. And what I'd like to say about all of this is who could have predicted that sending J.D. Vance, your son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and your golf buddy, Steve Whitkoff to negotiate a nuclear deal with Iran would turn out badly and that they didn't, you know, cross all the T's and dot all the eyes. Yeah, one of life's great mysteries who could have possibly imagined that they would cobble together a worse version of the JCPOA.

But alas, here we are. But, you know, if I can, I think it's worth noting that the fact that we're here is, as we said in large part, owed to the fact that, like, you know, these thought leaders on the right who elevated Trump into the position he's in right now, you know, there was a lot of trepidation about even going on those shows. It was like Joe Rogan, and that allowed the right wing to dominate this media ecosystem. And so Democrats need to be in a position where we can actually learn how to fight. I have a book coming out in just a couple of days. What's it called? It's called The Day After. It's available for pre-order right now.

It comes out officially on July 14th. But in there, I basically argue that Republicans have wielded power, aggressively abused their power for as long as I can remember, while Democrats have failed to wield it at all. And so there's this massive asymmetry that exists. and whether that means embracing the full media ecosystem and being as aggressive as you can be with presenting what Democrats are going to do or even being in government and not allowing institutions and processes and norms

and the filibuster and the parliamentarian to always get in your way. We have to basically move into this next iteration of democratic governance with a mind toward actually wielding power aggressively. And you can do it in a virtuous way. It doesn't have to be done like Donald Trump did, where it's just for self-enrichment. When voters vote for you, they want you to do stuff.

Right. Do things for them. Right. It's not enough to get caught trying. It's not enough to etch symbolic victories. Moral victories. Moral victories, yes. Messaging wins.

It's to get caught. It's to make sure that you actually deliver on your promises for people. And we have a rare instance to be able to do that, I believe, in the aftermath of the 26 and 2028 elections where I think Democrats are going to take control. But if we don't wield. power effectively, I think we're going to leave a lot of people disillusion with the political process writ large. The book is called The Day After, and that is not a film starring Jake Gyllenhaal and sort of a

post-climate apocalypse. But Jake Gyllenhaal, I would love for him to, when we option the book. Yeah, yeah, yeah. When we take the movie that then turned into a book that then turns into a movie, I'd love for Jake Gyllenhaal to come back. I'm, I will be there. I'll be in theaters for opening day if that happens. Yeah.

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Get your free 30-second personalized assessment today at PDSdebt.com slash rank. Speaking of Iran, speaking of Jake Jol-Nal, who looks like Ahmadinejad, who is the former president of Iran, folks may have seen this weird story about Trump and the new Air Force One. The quick backstory for those who have in his Trump flew. The new Air Force won to Turkey for the NATO Summit. This is the Qatari-Brib plane. Then on the way home, he sent the new plane ahead. And then he himself flew on the old Air Force one. back to the UK where they like refueled.

Did you hear the excuse he gave? Yeah, he wanted the troops to go visit it in London. The troops to visit his plane. Yeah, the troops want to see my plane. This is a new toy. The troops really wanted to play with my new toy. So full of shit. On Friday, the Wall Street Journal reported that Trump switched planes

because the new Air Force One lacks defensive capabilities designed to keep the president of the United States safe. And also because Israel provided the U.S. officials like with new intelligence about a possible Iranian plot. to kill Donald Trump. The story says the threat was, quote, deemed not to be entirely credible, but that Trump switched planes anyway. Brian, don't you hate it when you get a bribe from a foreign country? And then it turns out it could accidentally get you killed or shot down. Was none of this brought up when we spent a billion dollars? All of this was brought up

extensively. And they did like hundreds of millions dollars for the renovations on the plane, but apparently none of the things you actually needed to do to make it safe for the president to fly. Like the real Air Force One is like countermeasures for missile defense and laser beams and chaffed. But the point was never to have this actually be Air Force One. This was just an excuse so that Donald Trump would get a brand new plane. It's like a doggie bag for the presidency. You take this home. I mean, this was his way of getting taxpayers to foot the bill for a billion dollar retrofit,

recognizing the whole time that it was never going to be adequate for Air Force One. And what's almost worse than Trump doing all of this is the fact that Republicans. Republicans had the ability to hold him to account, had the ability to block him from being able to take this aircraft after he left office, and they refused to do so because they are a bunch of little bitches. And so now taxpayers had to foot the bill for that plane, which clearly there is no justification, no national security justification for allowing him to have or for us to have paid for. But they wanted him to have a billion dollar present paid for by us. Here we go. Someone's already claiming this is our year. Someone else said that like. last year too. A round of Jameson, Ginger, and Lime arrives at a table.

Smooth enough for kickoff, smooth enough for extra time. New friends pulling up a stool. Debates about whether that was a handball. Cheers rising like a roar around the room. Because match days are about the shared moments. How did Jameson to your match day lineup? Jameson, it's what you bring. Please enjoy our products responsibly.

It's just so crazy that he accepted a massive 747, 8 or something like that. bribe, Boeing jet bribe from the Katari government, and the Republican Party was like, yeah, you know, I mean, let them fly it. You know, it's cheaper for us. The whole thing is just so outrageous. I mean, they have a lot on their plate. They got to still, there's a lot of Burisma Hunter Biden paintings looking into to be looked into.

We do need to relitigate the 2020 election a little more. I'm speaking of which. So Mitch McConnell. Everyone is trying to figure out what's going on with him, Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell. McConnell was admitted to a hospital on June 14th, but his office will not say why, it will not release credible information about his health. An independent journalist named Desiree Townsend published EMS audio where the dispatcher that was sending like EMTs to his house

said the call was for quote cardiac arrest and that quote CPR in progress. So that would be a very big deal for a guy who's like what, 84. Yeah. McConnell's wife. I mean it's a big deal for anybody. Like even I mean I was like a kid working as a lifeguard and like when you get to the point where you're administering CPR, it's it's a it's a toss up as to whether that person's yeah. And also you're breaking their ribs. Like, it's a very, it's not a small thing. McConnell's wife, Elaine Chow, was in China when he was admitted to the hospital, but didn't return from her trip early, which is just an odd part of this story. As one does.

Yeah, as one does when you're in a long-term, loveless marriage, I guess. Sad. There's some right-wing figures. They claim McConnell was brain dead that the White House told them he was brain dead. McConnell's allies in office say, no, he's fine. on Friday, CNN published a video taken by one of McConnell's neighbors showing someone right on McConnell's street being loaded into an ambulance on the day he was admitted to the hospital. Here's that video.

Let's watch. That's what we're seeing here. There's someone on a gurney, a couple EMTs pushing an individual into the car. Apparently this was taken by a neighbor. And the video ends here. And then there you can see, it's like weird because his feet aren't covered. There's a bunch of strange parts about this video, Brian. I don't know what to make of it.

So, Brian, it feels weird to do like Zabruder or video film style coverage of like that. But, like, we are left trying to piece this and out, like, mystery together because his office just refuses to provide any credible information. They're doing, like, fake call readouts from Scott Jennings. Yeah. Jerk on CNN. The best is, I think Aaron Rupar quote tweeted Scott Jennings when Scott Jennings said that he spent 20 minutes talking to Mitch McConnell and Aaron Rupar asked, did he respond?

Like, just got 20 minutes talking to him. Did he say anything back? Here's what I think is the great irony here is that for four years, Republicans would not stop wailing about the cognitive state of Joe Biden, that he was too old to serve, that that we couldn't be sure that he was up to the task because of his mental state. And now when you have Mitch McConnell who may or may not be dead in a hospital somewhere, there's no comment. No comment.

Nobody has a word to say, All of these defenders of the virtue of protecting cognitive function among those who are in elected office conspicuously silent now that it's one of theirs. And the reason is, my understanding is that under Kentucky law, if there's a Senate vacancy before August 3rd, the state would have to hold a special election to fill the seat. Now, you know, back in the day, the governor would have been able to temporarily fill the seat. But the Republicans stripped that power away from Andy Bashir because he's a Democrat. So now there would be a different process. I think what's happening here is Republicans are worried about a special election that maybe Thomas Massey could win it. I've even heard the rumor that Andy Bashir himself could run for Senate and is very popular in Kentucky.

And so that might be, you know, a risk for them as well. That's interesting. But I think, I mean, short term, we should say. Because then there will be another election that would happen. Totally. But I think there is some benefit from the power of the incumbent. No doubt. I mean, a lot of these elections are just really a referendum on a name ID and already Andy

Bashir is popular. But I think you're right. And frankly, if that is correct, and this is so grim, but I think that there is not a world in which they announced that he, that if he passed away, that he did until after that amount of time is best, which really would be the biggest, the most appropriate thing for the life that Mitch McConnell has lived because he has lived a life where it's just, it's just just partisan maneuvering every single day, whatever he can do to extract the biggest political advantage

for himself and his party. And so it would just be the cherry on top if Mitch McConnell dies and they have to hide his death for a month and a half so that they can prevent either a Democrat or a non-Magre Republican from ascending to that seat. Yeah, you steal a Supreme Court justice from Barack Obama.

Now you steal a Senate seat of temporarily. He died the same way that he lived, which is just meddling and- Died doing what he loved, which. is just fucking everything up for democracy. When you love your job, you don't spend a day at work. So for what it's worth, Scott Jennings, again, he said he talked to McConnell for like 20 minutes.

He tweeted out, basically a read out of it saying they talked about like foreign policy and stuff. Yeah, I'll bet Mitch McConnell was really getting into the intricacies of foreign policy. Yeah, like, beep, beep, beep. Jesus. Senator John Thune did something similar. Senator John Barrasso did something similar. I don't know, man. I mean, look, it would be very weird if all these people were just like straight up.

up, Bullfay's lying about talking to McConnell. Would it be weird? I don't know. Look, put out a photo. Put out a video. Put any kind of statement. The fact that they haven't suggests that McConnell is in very dire straits. I think they're going to release it right around the same time.

They release the elusive vandals cutting a 350-foot gash in the reflecting poll later. Yeah. There's got to be a video of that, right? Sure. Any day now. I mean, look, they might just be saving it for the trial because they, if there's one thing we know about this administration, they exhibit a lot of discretion. That's right. Maybe that Olympic rower did it and took out McConnell's role. Finally, Brian, you may have noticed a bunch of Trump cabinet officials like putting out like workout videos.

We had Robert F. Kennedy at Kid Rock's house, I think in the sauna, like doing pushups and riding a bike and then chugging milk for some reason. We had Pete Heggseth benching doing all sorts of weird bullshit. Now we have Dr. Oz showing us how to do a squat. Let's watch that one. Oh, oh, good, okay. But you gotta do squats to the right way. Don't lean forward. You wanna sit back like your body

was about to touch the toilet seat. And you're about to go back like that, touch, practice it, it'll come natural. Elijah's back and he's been doing a lot of editing videos and making sound effects like that. I actually think that one was Ben. I didn't expect it. Yeah, no, he nailed that squat though.

It was good form, you know. When you're getting up in age, it's good to keep your mobility. You know what they say? Never trust a fart. Never trust a fart. I find that very funny. I do too. I was about to criticize it, but I'm glad that Dr. Ross shared that with us.

Yeah, I am too. And apparently his colon's doing well too. He's eating well. Everything's moving along. Kind of moving through. Yeah. I think that's it for our agenda. Yeah.

I think that's the perfect place to leave off. Yeah. That's how I feel about politics these days. Yeah, well. Thanks for watching. Thanks, everybody. Subscribe.