Bulwark Takes - Breaking Down Trump's Moronic FOX Interview

Episode Date: April 12, 2026

Trump called into FOX News for an interview to explain the Iran war—and quickly fell apart. Will Saletan methodically breaks down how Trump contradicted himself on Iran’s nuclear program, claimed total victory while admitting ongoing threats, and shrugged off rising gas prices and the economic fallout.

Hey, it's Will Salatan from the Bullwork. So how are things going in Iran? Well, the United States has the world's most powerful military, and we've got the world's most powerful economy, right? So we have all the advantages except one thing. We have the world's dumbest president. And today, we got a really good look at just how dumb he is. So let me show you what happened.

Trump did a phone interview with Maria Bartaromo on Fox News. Now, Maria Bartaromo, in case you didn't know, is a total Trump suckup. So she is trying, she's trying her hardest to make him look good. But he keeps exposing himself as just a total fool. So let me start by showing you one of her suck up questions. Here she is. Can you explain to those people why it was critical? for the United States to go into Iran.

Can you articulate what was behind that move that was so important for the U.S. to go into Iran? Yeah, so easy. The easiest question you've asked me so far, they can't have nuclear weapons. They have nuclear. They want to enrich what they have. They want to enrich more.

As you know, we knocked out with the B-2 bombers. Had we not knocked that out, they would have had a nuclear weapon within one month after we knocked out. In other words, had the B-2, those beautiful B-2 bombers, totally obliterated there's three sites. Wait a minute.

We had to attack Iran this year, a month and a half ago, to stop them from getting nuclear weapons. But then he keeps talking and he says, we already obliterated their nuclear sites with the B-2 bombers, he says. That was last year. So we already wiped out their nuclear program. But now we had to go back in again and wreck the world's oil supply and double your gas prices and bill American taxpayers for another $200 billion for this war to stop Iran's nuclear program, which we had already obliterated. He can't even get his story straight.

Okay, next. Trump says we've already achieved regime change. Look at their leadership. We have had regime change because the people we dealt with yesterday were, frankly, very smart, very sharp, very good, very good. I think they were smarter than the people from before, Khomeini, in that group. Wait a minute. Did he just say Khomeini in that group?

I think they were smarter than the people from before, Khomeini and that group. Dude, the new supreme leader of Iran is literally, literally another Kamenei. He's the son of the previous Ayatollah Kamenei. This so-called new regime is the same damn regime we had before with all the revolutionary guards and the mullahs and the repression. It's just new faces. And if you think, if you think this new regime is different from the old regime, check out what Trump said in this interview about what we just got from talking to them. We had a very intensive negotiation, and toward the end it got very friendly, and we got just about every point we needed, except for the fact that they refused to give up their nuclear ambition.

Oh, yeah, they were super smart and sharp, and they were so friendly. The only thing was they wouldn't give up their nuclear program, just like the old regime. There is no new regime. There's just Donald Trump's bullshit. Okay, here's another one. Trump says we totally won the war, and the Iranians have nothing left to fight with, right? Except there's one little problem. The whole place is gone. They have one thing that they can do.

They can say, well, gee, we're going to put a mine someplace in the, just a mine. We'll drop one mine, two minds, ten mines. And that will, if you have a ship that costs a billion dollars, you'll say, well, you know, I'd prefer not getting whacked by a mine. my ship, or damaging it badly, at least. And so that's a little bit of a thing that they can do that it's military might and military power don't do it, but, you know, it's extortion, and they're extorting the world. Oh, really? Gee, it turns out that we have all the military power, and their whole military is gone. But they can still drop a mine into the

straight of Hormuz or just threatened a drop a mine. And that, that's enough to choke off all the shipping. Who could have imagined that? Well, every single military planner, that's who. They told him that. But this idiot, our president, seems totally surprised. I mean, you can hear his disbelief that he won the military fight, but he has no idea what to do about the mines. It's called asymmetric warfare. And he's just too dumb to understand it. So here's another one. On Friday, a reporter asked Trump about the Strait of Hormuz, which the Iranians had closed off. And here's what Trump said. Yeah, but that'll open up automatically. Yeah, the answer is yes, but the straight will open up. If we just left, the strait's going to, otherwise they make no money.

Oh, so it'll open automatically. See, they'll have to open it. and let all the ships through, because if they don't, they won't make any money, right? But then here's what Trump said today in the interview with Barteromo. We're putting on a complete blockade. We're not going to let Iran make money on selling oil to people that they like and not people that they don't like or whatever it is. It's going to be all or none. Oh, wait, huh.

It turns out that Iran doesn't have to open up the straight for everybody. they can just let some countries bring their ships through. And they can charge a toll for that. And that way, they can make money without opening it up for everybody. But our genius president was too dumb to figure that out. Oh, but he's a great, a great negotiator, right? I mean, he literally, he literally wrote the art of the deal, right? So let's see what he's saying about the talks with Iran.

I predict they come back and they give us everything we want. And I told my people, I want everything. I don't want 90%. I don't want 95%. I told them I want everything. Everything, huh? I mean, 95% he says is not good enough. I mean, if you wanted to make sure, make absolutely sure that you come out of a negotiation,

looking like the loser, the surest way to do that is to tell everybody up front that if you don't get 100%, literally 100% of what you wanted, that's not good enough. Trump is setting himself up for failure. Okay, but we're killing Iran in the war, right? I mean, we are absolutely smoking these dudes. I mean, just listen to Trump. And the maximum campaign, you can't do any more maximum. We've wiped out their whole country, essentially.

But when you talk about maximum, I think, you know, outside of those few things that are remaining, I think I pretty much maxed out. You are very, very violent and vicious. I don't want to have you against me, I'll tell you what you say. I think we've pretty much maxed out other than those few items. Oh, yeah, we are totally maxed out. I mean, we have done everything we could. We are done. So then if we've already done to Iran, everything we could do, what exactly is our leverage at this point. This moron president, this moron is so determined to brag about all the damage he's done that he's basically telling our adversary, we can't hit you any harder than we already have. And then he's surprised when the Iranian negotiators say, okay, well, if you're maxed out,

then we're not giving you what you want. Duh. But the dumbest thing about Trump, and the Iranians know this is he's completely obsessed with his ego and his domestic opposition. He can't focus on the war because he's got his own petty fights back home. Watch what happened in this interview when he started talking about the military and then his brain drifted over to the media. Our military is so good. Do you know our military is a 94% approval rating now? Well, Congress has a 14% The media has a 12%. When I started, the media had a 92% approval rating. Now they're down to 14%.

Wow. And I'm very proud of it because they're very dishonest. Oh, he's very proud of that. I mean, we're in a war, and now we're in a negotiation to end the war. But what he wants to talk about is the fight he really, really cares about, which is driving down the media's approval rating. And check out what happened when Bartaromo asked him, what's going to happen? with the global supply of oil.

Let's talk about that, Mr. President, because you referred to a post that hundreds of supertankers are headed to the Gulf of America to buy oil and gas from the U.S. What can you tell us about that, sir? Well, I can tell you that it used to be called the Gulf of Mexico.

That's what I can tell you. Now it's called the Gulf of America because of me, one of my little things that I did, you know, one of my little sidelines. And it's a great honor. People are so happy. You go to Louisiana, you go to Florida, you go to these states, Texas.

She's asking him a serious question about the global economy. And he's going off about changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico. And he goes on like this. I mean, look, I know some of you can't stand to watch this guy, and I'm there with you. But this is real dementia. There is a war and an economic crisis. And this guy, instead of doing his job, cannot stop talking about this. used to say why is that the Gulf of Mexico when we have 93% of the frontage and you know it fronts 93% in the United States I said I think I'm going to change it to the Gulf of America what a beautiful name and I did and I give a lot of credit to Google because once I filed the papers I did it and Google Map once Google Map changed you know did it it was it was a done deal but we had we had lawsuits we had lost we won everything

and it's now the Gulf of America, which I'm very, which I'm very honored by. Oh, well, that's great for your honor, sir. But what about the people you're supposed to be working for, you know? What about, say, I don't know, the skyrocketing price of gas? So do you believe the price of oil and gas will be lower before the midterm elections? I hope so. I mean, I think so. It could be.

Or the same or maybe a little bit higher, but it should be around the same. Around the same, huh? Or maybe it'll be a little higher, he says. Hey, it's just a little detour, a journey. This little military operation will be over soon, right? And we're going to get right back to normal life, except for the part where you're still going to be paying $4 or $5 or $6 for gas right through the midterms.

In fact, Trump says when he decided to do this, he thought the price would go up even more. So the stock market has not gone down very much at all, got down a little bit, much less than I thought. And frankly, the gas hasn't gone up as much as I thought. Oh, well, that's great. I mean, don't you feel so much better knowing that when Trump started this war, which we absolutely, we absolutely had to do

to wipe out the nuclear program that we already wiped out last, year, right? Doesn't it make you feel so much better knowing that he thought he thought he was going to drive your 401k even lower and he thought he was going to drive the price of gas even higher? And what did you get for it? Well, your gas prices double. Your mortgage rates are higher. Inflation's up and the Strait of Hormuz is still closed. But hey, hey, we sank a lot of ships, right? And have you noticed that the media's approval rating is way, way down? That's something, right? So, congratulations, Mr. President. You do, you do win the Nobel Prize in stupidity. See you next time.