Letters from an American - Trump is Looking for a Lifeline

Episode Date: June 2, 2026

June 1, 2026Trump is caught between demands to deliver on promises to keep Iran from developing nuclear capacity and to open the Strait of Hormuz as oil reserves continue to drop and oil prices in the US continue to rise, Return of Congress raises possibility that a war powers resolution will pass, As soon as details for a framework for ending the war in Iran are leaked to the media, Trump’s base complains and the negotiations fall apart, Trump is attacking Democrats and the judges who have been deciding against him in legal cases, Acts that were lined up to perform at Trump’s Freedom 250 celebration are cancelling, Iran says they are suspending negotiations with the US until Israel stops strikes on Lebanon, warning that they will close the Strait of Hormuz entirely, Trump posts wildly on social media, Trump professes to be bored with the negotiations with Iran,The Pentagon restricts access to its press office to all journalists. Watch today's recording here: https://www.youtube.com/live/g9TUa1Rwd6U?si=T8_KKcHQZElhpnZ-Get full, free access to Letters from an American here: https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/subscribeYou can also find me:Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/hcrichardson.bsky.socialInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/heathercoxrichardson/?hl=enFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/heathercoxrichardson/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@heathercoxrichardson Get full access to Letters from an American at heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/subscribe

June 1st, 26. As we enter the summer months, we're hitting the ground running. There's so much news today, I'm going to have to let some of it splash over into tomorrow to do it justice. For today, Iran and its role in the president's deteriorating mental condition are going to take center stage. Over the weekend, there were what I'm going to have to call the usual reports of an imminent agreement between the U.S. and Iran to end hostilities, with the usual outcome. Last week, the U.S. and Iran appeared to be making headway on a 60-day memorandum of understanding to continue the ceasefire and to establish a framework for further talks about Iran's nuclear program. But President Donald J. Trump is caught between a rock and a hard place in these negotiations.

His base demands that he looks strong and, accomplish what, after the initial strikes failed, he claimed to have started the war for, to make sure Iran doesn't have the capacity to produce a nuclear weapon. He also needs to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, which was open before he began the strikes, and get oil flowing again from that region of the Middle East. Prices in the U.S. are rising, and the looming threat of oil reserves running out adds even more pressure to consumer prices. And Congress, returns to work tomorrow, raising the possibility that lawmakers will pass a war powers resolution requiring Trump to withdraw American forces from the region. House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican

of Louisiana, sent House members home a day early before the Memorial Day holiday out of concern such a measure would pass. But Iran is in no hurry to throw Trump a lifeline. Their negotiators now maintain they have a right to control the straightest. of Hormuz. They're demanding reparations for the damage inflicted in the country during the war, and they say they won't negotiate over the nuclear program until there is a ceasefire. But these conditions are all problematic for Trump's negotiators. Permitting Iran to control the strait is not just about oil, it's about the principle of freedom of the seas set out after World War II. Global trade depends on that concept.

The exchange of money is also a problem for Trump. He has spent much of his political life attacking the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action that China, France, Germany, Russia, the UK, the U.S., and the European Union negotiated with Iran during the Obama administration, claiming that former President Obama gave Iran $1.7 billion. In fact, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, action simply permitted the release of Iranian assets frozen overseas by sanctions, but much of Trump's base believes that Obama showed weakness by buying an agreement.

And then there is the nuclear issue. So what has tended to happen in negotiations is that the teams come up with a framework, details leaked to the media, and Trump's base hears that Trump has weakened on some of his maximalist demands. They complain, Trump, Trump, then posts something false about the talks or incendiary about Iran and the negotiations fall apart. And the cost of the war, in both lives and treasure, and the pressure on U.S. consumers and the economy, continue to mount. Last Friday, Trump and his advisors spent two hours discussing the latest round of negotiations in the Situation Room.

According to Erica Solomon and Farnas Fascihi of the New York Times, that agreement included the release of about $24 billion in frozen Iranian assets and a post-war investment fund to rebuild Iran, with one diplomat telling the journalists the number on the table was $300 billion. Talks about Iran's nuclear program would be deferred. On Friday morning, Trump posted once again that the strait would be opened and that Iran must never have a nuclear weapon. But then he emerged from the Situation Room without the final determination on the agreement he had promised. On Saturday, Mosin Rizai, one of the advisors to Iran's supreme leader, posted, as predicted, the President of the United States is betraying diplomacy for the third

time. Over the weekend, Trump's social media account posted repeated attacks on Democrats and on judges who have been deciding against him in legal cases. He posted long defenses of his alterations to monuments in Washington, D.C., and AI images of capital landmarks covered in trash and graffiti juxtaposed with one's gleaming and fresh, with captions that blame Democrats for the former and praised Trump for the latter. His posts seemed designed primarily to reassure himself. By Saturday, so many of the musical acts his team had lined up to play at his Freedom 250 Great American State Fair from late June through the beginning of July had bailed. The Trump posted that he was thinking about bringing the number one attraction anywhere in the world. The man who gets much larger

audiences than Elvis in his prime, and he does so without a guitar. The man who loves our country more than anyone else and the man who some say is the greatest president in history, the goat, Donald J. Trump, to take the place of these highly paid third-rate artists and give a major speech rallying the country forward like I have done ever since being president. He continued, two years ago the United States was dead. Now we have the hottest country anywhere in the world. I don't want so-called artists that get paid far too much money who aren't happy. I only want to be surrounded by happy people, smart people, successful people, and people that know how to win. So, by copy of this truth, I am ordering my representatives to look at the feasibility of doing an America is Back rally on Wednesday, Washington, D.C., same time, same location.

Only great patriots invited. It will be a wild and beautiful celebration of America, President Donald J. Trump. It was an odd echo of his December 19th, 2020 tweet calling his base to Washington, D.C., in which he wrote, Big protest in D.C. on January 6th, Be there, will be wild. Otter still was what followed.

image after image of Trump as a great leader. There were images of Trump alongside First President George Washington, one of them showing the two presidents riding horses together in colonial garb beside a race garb with Trump across the hood, the White House in the background, and the space shuttle overhead. In an AI image, Trump is dunking a basketball over an exhausted New York Governor Kathy Hockel, a Democrat. In another image, he and Patriots football player Tom Brady stand talking, backlit under a caption that reads, Goat. There were pictures of Trump kissing the American flag, Mount Rushmore with Trump's sculpture in line with those of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson,

Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln, who looked somewhat alarmed. Trump apparently as a superhero admiral with armor on his chest that bears an American eagle. Trump standing near King Charles, Trump with China's president Xi Jinping. A series of AI images in the style of the 1950s Dick and Jane readers show a town parade festooned with flags and patriotic bunting, little girls laughing together at an old-fashioned town fair, and little boys in a suburb playing ball. All of the images read, America is back, and in them all of the people are white. He posted an image of a white family from that era standing beside a Cadillac Coupe de Ville parked on a suburban street, with the caption,

billions were spent to convince you this is evil. Then Trump's account posted a series of images contrasting his vision of Biden's America versus his own. In his images, Biden's world was one of theft, illegal squatting, violence, and illegal immigration. The images of Trump's solutions to these problems showed people imprisoned, arrested, and deported. At 102 this morning, Trump posted, Iran really wants to make a deal, and it will be a good one for the USA and those that are with us. But don't the Democrats and various seemingly unpatriotic Republicans understand that it is much tougher for me to properly do my job and negotiate when political hacks keep negatively chirping at levels never seen before over and over again that I should move faster or move slower or go to war or not go to war or whatever? Just sit back and relax. It will all work out in the end.

it always does, President DJT. A minute later, his account posted, Has anyone ever seen a happy Democrat? Then, later this morning, Iranian officials said they were suspending negotiations with the U.S. until Israel, which entered the war alongside the U.S., stops its strikes on Lebanon, strikes they say violate the ceasefire agreement.

They warned they would close, the strait of Hormuz entirely. A few ships have been making the transit, and move against the Bob El Mandeb Strait at the outlet of the Red Sea as well. On CNBC, Trump told Eam and Javers that he doesn't care if peace negotiations with Iran end. I couldn't care less, he said. Negotiations were starting to get very boring. But oil prices jumped sharply with the announcement of the suspension and the threat to the Bob El Mandeb, and at 143 in the afternoon, Trump posted, talks are continuing at a rapid pace with the Islamic Republic of Iran. At 547, he posted on social media that he had spoken with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of

Israel and indirectly with Hezbollah and that they both agreed to stop striking each other. The Pentagon has been trying to try to. control information coming out about its actions for months now, but that effort is now ramping up. This afternoon, Scott Nover of the Washington Post reported that the Pentagon has designated its press office as a classified space, a sensitive compartmented information facility, or SCIF, and even those journalists who have not had their press badges rescinded, will require an appointment to to the press secretary. Letters from an American was written and read by Heather Cox Richardson.

It was produced at Soundscape Productions, Dead of Massachusetts. Recorded with music composed by Michael Moss.