Morning Joe - David Ignatius: Trump is stuck somewhere between war and peace

Episode Date: May 4, 2026

David Ignatius: Trump is stuck somewhere between war and peace To listen to this show and other MS podcasts without ads, sign up for MS NOW Premium on Apple Podcasts. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The U.S. State Department is introducing a special edition passport that features an image of Donald Trump. So you'll always carry your reminder of why you fled the country. Also, I love that the picture of Trump is apparently burning a hole in the declaration of independent. The timing, right? Anyway, good morning and welcome to morning, Joe. It's Monday. May the 4th, Star Wars Day. May the 4th be with you, of course.

Yesterday, a celebration all over the world for Willie Geist's Day. It was Willie's birthday on Sunday and Nika's on Saturday. We went to see some horses race somewhere in the South. With us today we have on May the 4th, co-hosts of our 9 a.m. hour, staff writer at the Atlantic John Thulm. columnist and associate editor at the Washington Post, David Ignatius. We had senior writer at the dispatch and columnist at Bloomberg Opinion, David Drucker, and co-host of The Rest is Politics podcast on the BBC or the BBC's Katty Kay. Everybody thanks so much for being with us.

John Lemire, the Force, definitely not with our Red Sox. And, oh, my, I didn't. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I forgot. I forgot about the Celtics. I should not have even brought up sports. We should have gone straight to horses. I did not do that on purpose. But once the door was opened and I saw you crumble, let's just go there. First of all, really the worst Red Sox team I can remember. They fired the wrong person and the people in the organization. Then of course last night, heartbreak for the Celtics. Take us through what it's like this wanting to be a Boston fan. This moment in Boston sports, the Red Sox are on May the 4th, basically seasons over. The popular World Series winning manager has been fired.

They dump the hitting coach and proceed to hit about 100 since then. They lose a series to the Jays, the Astros. We have the Boston Celtics blow a 3-1 series lead and lose game 7 at home. to the Sixers, Jason Tate and their star, Hurt, not playing a wonderful regular season, quickly cast aside. And we'll add, the Boston Bruins, the hockey team, their season

also ended over the weekend, getting knocked out in the first round of the playoffs, and you might have heard the New England Patriots, our football team, having some off-the-field issues at the moment. So it is just a spectacular, a spectacular time right now for Boston sports fans. But yeah, Joe, our Red Sox are pathetic.

I was at the game on Saturday. Oh, my God. And it's just terrible. at Fenway, and it's just terrible how lifeless they are and how this fan base has already sort of given up on the season, and there's so much anger at the general manager and at ownership. You know, so many times, what are we going to do?

Watch the, oh, no, there's Durant. Hey, there's a That was one hit. There it is. There you go. That is offensive highlights with the Boston Red Sox over the past week. We hope you enjoyed it. Brought you by the Lemire Bitters. Put it in whatever old-fashioned you would like,

Lamere Bitters now sold all over Boston in the Greater New England area. They're terrible. I mean, really, you actually had Bregman who would sit and coach during the entire game. So they should have brought him back. We're hurting on hitting because of that. I've heard so many stories of these computer nerds

in one case going up. to a Hall of Fame or telling them not to actually talk to players about hitting because it's all about the computers. But I hate to mention names, so I won't mention names. I know you probably will. But really, if you look at the people that are middle relievers, they have to go to first, they're the worst. I mean, they're not even AAA. They're just absolutely heinous. Yeah, I'm sure Greg Weissert's a lovely man. I'd rather him not be on my baseball team anymore. I mean, it's just it's up and down.

I think that's Kelly also a lovely man. Yeah, no doubt. I'm sure he's a, you know, his parents and communities are very proud of him. But again, I'd rather he'd ply his trade elsewhere. But it seems like relievers who throw

98 miles an hour in this day and age of baseball grow on trees and yet we seem to have none of them. Yeah, Chadman at the end of the game, sure, but we have no, it just, it's a nice, you're right, Joe, it's a It's a symbol as to just how deficient this roster is. All of our starting pitchers supposed to be a strength of this team are hurt. The lineup is inept.

The relievers are bad. But otherwise, things are going great. Everything's great in Boston. By the way, little known fact, three of Boston's relievers, they throw underhanded. Now, who thought that was going to work, Caddy, Kay? You don't even know baseball, you can't throw underhanded. Um, I mean, I had a birthday at the Derby. Uh, it was a wonderful, wonderful time had by all.

She loves, she loves horses, uh, so much and has her entire life, a bit skeptical of horse racing, but no more. Yeah. Did you win some money or win some mint juleks or something at least? No, no. I just, I just had my sweet tea and just sat there, you know, uh, taking it all in. And then, uh, yeah, like, And Caddy, have you been to the Derby with like the Queen or something?

I mean, of course you have. Because, tell us about that. It was a great day. She was in a box, a couple of boxes down from where we were, so I could actually see her. She really does love horses and really did love racing. So for her, it was a treat to go. And everybody was thrilled that she was there. I think she may have made a bob or two on some of the horses.

Who knows? Maybe she'd like to take a little flutter on the ponies. But I didn't see her. a sipping mint juleps, which was a bit disappointing. I thought it was a day for the tulips myself. Yeah. It was a very good thing. And you had, you had quite a few, I heard.

You had quite a few. So, well, so you went with a queen. That are not substantiated and there'll be no comment. Exactly. Okay. So you go with the queen. Meek and I went with John Morgan. So six of one, half dozen of the other.

So it was much fun. His royal highness. So his royal highness. That's right. King, Oregon. It's 606. Should we get to the news? We better.

Okay, let's do it. President Trump says that starting this morning, the United States will begin what he calls a humanitarian effort to guide stranded ships through the Strait of Hormuz. In a lengthy social media post yesterday, the president wrote that countries from all over the world have asked the U.S. if we could help free up their ships. Trump offered few details about how this process is going to work,

which he dubs Project Freedom, but he warned interference will be dealt with forcefully. U.S. Central Command added the operation will include guided missile destroyers, more than 100 land and sea-based aircraft, and 15,000 service members. Wall Street Journal cites two U.S. officials who say the plan is effectively a coordination cell to move traffic through the strait, involving countries, insurance companies, and shipping organizations, adding it doesn't currently involve U.S. Navy warships escorting vessels through the Strait. Iran's responding to the President's plan this morning with a top official warning interference in the walkway could be seen as a ceasefire violation,

and the country's military saying U.S. forces will be attacked if they enter the oil choke point. As the standoff over the strait intensifies, two ships were targeted there in the past 24 hours. that's according to a British maritime agency, the president's push to clear the key waterway comes as gas prices, continue to rise, hitting an average yesterday of $4.45. It also comes as negotiations appear to remain as an impasse with the two countries' trading peace proposals.

Amid the ongoing stalemate in the strait and the US blockade of Iranian ports, the White House is arguing that hostilities with Iran have, quote, terminated. That assertion comes as law. lawmakers from both sides of the aisle put pressure on the administration to seek congressional authorization for the conflict that has now stretched past the 60-day mark when it's required by the War Powers Act for a president to do so. In a letter to congressional leaders on Friday,

the day that the 60-day countdown expired, President Trump claimed the ceasefire had paused the clock, writing, quote, the hostilities that began on February the 28th of 2026 have, terminated. You went on to say the threat posed by Iran to the U.S. and its military, quote, remain significant, but that he will, quote, continue to direct U.S. armed forces consistent with my responsibilities and pursuant to my constitutional authority to conduct United States foreign relations as president and commander in chief. So, Joe, this is an odd situation. We seem to have, On the one hand, the promise that there's going to be massive amounts of military involved in this operation freedom in some way. But we've also paused or terminated actual military operations.

I'm a little confused. I'm a little confused this Monday morning. From the very beginning, and David Ignatius, of course, the president then went on Friday to talk about the reason why we are at war is because those crazy Iranians can never have a nuclear well. and take a look at this. You know, we're in a war because I think you would agree, we cannot let lunatics have a nuclear weapon. Do you agree? So this works, David Ignatius in American politics for Donald Trump,

throw so much stuff at the wall and have so many different statements going in so many different directions that Democrats just stand around looking confused, scratching their heads and losing elections. It doesn't work that way in international relations and certainly not working with Iran right now, is it? So Donald Trump, as of this Monday, is stuck. Somewhere between war and peace, he has nominally a ceasefire,

but it's accompanied by continuing threats from him and this morning, a threat from a senior Iranian commander. And this new project freedom, as President Trump called it on Sunday, attempt it appears, to help ships move through the Straits of Formals without actually formally providing a military escort. It's a rescue effort, but I was thinking, reading about it last night, it's really an effort to rescue President Trump's policy, find a way to transition from this neither war or peace situation

to something that's more stable. He's not getting much help from anybody. We'll have to see whether the Chinese, who he seems to be making a nod to at his statement announcing desire to help all countries who depend on the strait for their real. opening. We'll see if he gets some aid from them or from the British or French down the road. But for the moment, this war, which every week seems to drive his approval ratings down,

can be moved from this kind of netherworld into something more stable. The president expressed a hope about what he said were very positive discussions with Iranian representatives, but when you look at what's been leaked about their latest 14-point peace plan, there's not much in it for the United States. So, Joe, it's one of those situations that the president having jumped into is having real trouble getting back on it. Yeah, we should know the Wall Street Journal in their story about this new plan puts it this way.

They talked to European diplomats and ship owners who've recalled previous failed efforts by the president to get shipping moving, saying, without, warship escorts, a coordination cell is unlikely to really change anything in the strait. So there's a sense here. There are. Indeed, they're trying new things, but the president is stuck. The Strait of Hormuz remains under Iranian control. A British tanker ship came under attack over the weekend.

And Iran simply has more and more leverage over one of the most vital waterways in the land. And to David Ignatius's point, as the war drags on, the president's poll numbers keep slipping. The number of people who disapprove of the way that Trump is handling his job has climbed to the highest in his presidency. That's according to the new Washington Post ABC News Ipsis poll. 62% say they disapprove of the way Trump has handled his job in the Oval Office. That's compared to 37% to approve, which is down two points from February. Meanwhile, 65% disapprove of the way Trump is handling the overall economy,

which is down seven points from three months ago. 70% of those polled who disapprove of how the president is handling inflation and the rising cost of living. Trump's ratings and other issues also remain low with more than 60% disapproving of his handling of the war in Iran, relations with American U.S. allies, and also taxes. When it comes to the midterms, on a generic U.S. House ballot, those polled were leaning toward picking a Democrat over Republican by five points. And David Drucker, the politics of this or crystal clear, at least for the moment. Sure, November is still many months off,

but there is a sense that a lot of voters start kind of baking in their decisions by early to midsummer. That's not so far off. And the president is stuck with Iran. It is consumed every other part of his presidency and driving down his overall numbers, including on what's supposed to be a strength,

his handling of the economy. Yeah, it really has, Jonathan. And look, I mean, I think, you know, part of the pickle that the president's in is it's hard to ask the American people to support something or to earn their support when they don't know what the policy is in why we're fighting. And the president's constantly shifting explanations

for why we're at war, how long it's going to last. Is it even happening at all? I mean, you know, the crazy thing about this 60-day, you know, termination or we're at a pause, therefore we don't have to ask for congressional authorization, is the president continues to talk about, gas prices going down once the war is over, meaning the war's not over,

except he just told Congress, the war is kind of over, right? And it goes to Caddy's report here this morning where she was reading about this plan to help shifts navigate the Strait of Hormuz. You wake up in the morning and you're like, hey, that's a really good idea. Don't like that we're in this situation,

but good plan. And then we find out the plan doesn't include Navy warships. So how are we going to, escort ships that are stranded through a military minefield, right? So there's constant talking in one direction and then talking over here in another direction. And it leaves voters wondering what the heck is going on. I want to point out, too, in that Washington Post-Ipsos poll, when they asked people who were most certain to vote where they were leaning with their congressional vote in that generic ballot, the Democratic advantage goes up to nine points. And when they were talking to

voters and ask them, hey, is this midterm election more important than past midterm elections? Democrats said it was more important by an advantage of 21 points. And so look, you know, it's always easy to cherry pick a poll. But the point about this poll is it fits within the averages and it fits within the trend that has shown voters slowly but surely and now in some cases at a greater pace moving away from the Republican Party. So, David, you have this irresistible force of polling against an immovable object, which, of course, is the reality of this war with Iran. And it is a war with Iran still right now. If you look at what the New York Post is saying today, obviously a Murdoch paper, tabloid very close, Donald Trump, they're saying, the job.

Finish the job. The Wall Street Journal has said, finish the job. You and I hear from Gulf allies all the time. Those are the words, finish the job. And so these polls would suggest that a politician cut and run are allies, many of the president's allies are saying you can't cut and run. The president doesn't sound like he's going to do that right now. reality is, if he did cut and run, the situation would only be worse. There would be a nuclear Iran

that compared to the Obama era has much more atomic material, nuclear material. And then on the other side of it, you have the issue of the straight. It's just, again, the president's, you said, use the word, it's in a pickle. The poll numbers may be low, but the president's options are still limited because leaving leaves a nuclear Iran and a straight owned by the Revolutionary Guard. So, Joe, this has been a reminder to me of why presidents for 47 years have been so careful about starting a conflict with Iran.

Iran is a big, powerful country, and it's wily, it's smart. It doesn't give you easy options to get out. And President Trump is now confronting the reality of that we always talk about danger when you're thinking about military conflict of unanticipated consequences. It's obvious that the administration, the president himself, simply didn't anticipate the way that Iran can use the straight of hormones as leverage. I'm sure they were, he was briefed on it, but he seems to have blown through those briefings in the conviction that Iran would be

like Venezuela. How many times have you and I, Joe, talked about this idea he had coming out of that amazing mission that everything would be like Venezuela, blow into town, they'd capitulate, it'd be over. He obviously had a feeling like that about Iran. And now he's stuck and nobody really is rushing to help him, which is part of his problem. Europeans are going to have to think that their interests require them to be more active. But again, this is a lesson in why being careful with the use of military force is so important. And I'll bet it's one that even Donald Trump today is learning. He does not want to go back into a big war.

You can just see that, even with this announcement about sort of quasi-escorting ships, he does not want to be in a shooting war again. But the way things are going, if Iran doesn't budge, he may be. Yeah, he may be. And so that's one lesson. I mean, the lesson of why you haven't had presidents deciding to go into Iran for 47 years. It's another lesson and something we talked about endlessly during the nomination process, why he can't have somebody like Pete Hegzeth as a Secretary of Defense.

There are costs. That's when you need a Secretary of Defense that's been to war or that understands war and that they can actually give you good information to make the best decision. But instead, he had Pete Hegesith pushing him into this war. He had Lindsey Graham pushing him into this war. And he had Benjamin Netanyahu pushing him into this war. They got their way. And now Donald Trump should look to Pete at Hegesith and say, okay, smart guy, you wanted this?

What do I do now? I mean, if everything else, Higgs, I'm sorry, go ahead, David. Well, you know, Joe, as we always remember, there's this little invisible plaque that says the buck stops here. It does stop on the president's desk. And there's just no escaping that, and that's what the voters are seeing. And, you know, Heg says provocative, aggressive comments every time he speaks almost, almost make the situation worse. because there's such a mismatch between that kind of belligerent talk on the real situation in which the U.S. fight itself.

Yeah, and the buck does stop with the president. He's the one who made the choice. He made the choice based on the opinions that he was getting and the people who's listening to. And there you have Pete Hagseth, who every time he speaks, makes the situation worse for the president. He is a reminder every day of this failed Iranian policy. Still ahead on morning Joe acting attorney general.

Todd Blanche says the indictment of a former FBI director, James Comey, isn't about seashells. That's interesting because they told us it was about seashells. We'll talk about that. And later, Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal is going to be our guest. We're going to show you just an extraordinary moment. The Senator God from Trump judicial nominees over conspiracies. theories. And as we go to break, a look at the travelers' forecast this morning from Acuethers Bernie Rayno. Bernie. How's it looking? Joe, we're going to make it short and sweet.

It is a marvelous Monday along eastern seaport. A little chilly this morning, but sunshine this afternoon. Acuethers says 71 in Boston, 72, New York City, 78, Washington, D.C., Detroit, Chicago, St. Louis, some gusty thunderstorms this afternoon. From Texas toward the Carolinas, it's dry and sunny, although there can be a shower and thunderstorm around Miami today. That's why we do have some delays there this afternoon. Other than that, we're A-O-K. To help you make the best decisions and be more in the note, download the Accu Weather app and enjoy your Monday.

David Ignatians, we're talking about what war, peace, ceasefires, a way forward. Right now, Iranian state media is saying that it has struck. A U.S. two missiles hit a U.S. Navy vessel near Jask. after it ignored warnings from the Revolutionary Guard to halt. Again, this is Iranian state media. They have, of course, been lying since 1979. That said, in this war, often what they've reported has ended up being confirmed by Western news sources. So if, in fact, that is the case that U.S. Navy ships have been hit after ignoring warnings

obviously we've reached a new level of escalation, David. So obviously we have to be careful with this first report, but yep, we're sure that there is a very precarious situation in the Gulf now in which the U.S. is announcing a desire to help facilitate transit through the Strait of Hormuz but isn't declaring an actual escort mission. And this morning, we didn't talk much about it. But an Iranian commander said early this morning that U.S. ships would be fired upon if they challenged the Gulf, challenged the Iranian presence.

So we may be seeing a follow-up. I'm thinking, as you are, as I'm sure all of our viewers are, what does President Trump do in response to this? When somebody shoots missiles at your ship, you then are almost obligated to take action. And so what was a precarious situation before now becomes even more so. I'm sure that the Pakistani mediators who've been active now for several weeks are on the phone right now. If this is a revolutionary guard vessel outside the normal Iranian chain of command, that's one thing. If it reflects the decision by the leadership in Tehran, that's another. So much we don't know right now, but I must say you can just see.

the black smoke rising from from the Gulf and worry that the next next stage can be another downturn. Yeah, David, let's spend another minute on this. We should, of course, reiterate it's from Iranian state media. It's not been independently verified. I've texted a few people in the Trump administration, no word yet. I mean, you just broke a few moments ago that this alleged event occurred. But if it is true, it is a marked escalation, that this is Iran suggesting that, you know, we do control the Strait of Hormuz, and this is a U.S. warship. You know, there have been a attacks on U.S. ships earlier in the war, largely defended. We have learned, though, that in recent reporting that Iran had more success hitting some U.S. military bases in the region in the

war's first days than was first known. But if indeed, there were some reports, Axios, over the weekend reporting that what the president settled upon, this coordination cell for the Strait of Hormuz, was a little bit of a wateredown version, that the original plan was to put U.S. warships, you know, as an escort. This, though, highlights the danger of that. And I agree. I think we all have to, we'll have to see what comes out of the White House and the President's Truth Social account in the next few minutes or hours. But this feels like it could be a step to resuming hostilities. It sure does. The idea that U.S. ships have been attacked and there's no response, it won't sit well with President Trump. And is not a way to demonstrate U.S.

in reopening the straight. Again, it's such a delicately balanced situation. And I'm struck Jonathan and Joe by the fact that the United States so clearly wants to get out of this conflict. And Iran pretty clearly doesn't want to yet. Iran has been dragging the negotiations out, has been offering pretty tepid peace plans. and you can sense the mounting frustration in the Trump White House as they look for an exit ramp and they keep finding the exits blocked this morning may be blocked with missiles being shot at one of our ships.

We don't know yet, but that could be a possibility. David, when you say that the U.S. clearly wants out, is that everyone in the administration? Are there still tensions within the administration and perhaps even at the Pentagon between those who would like to carry on a more robust military posture towards Iran and those who are saying, no, we can't have any more fighting and want to get out as quickly as possible, whatever that leaves behind. So in my experience, the military would be offering different contingency plans for different

policy choices that were made, but it's unlikely in the situation that the military itself would be strongly arguing for a course of action. We have some Gulf allies, in particular the United Arab Emirates. who have been saying, you cannot leave us stranded in this situation. As Joe said earlier, they've been saying, you have to finish this and kind of egging Trump on. There are others calling for restraint. I think Pakistan is trying very hard to find a little way.

But I think to the extent there are differences within the administration over the next day, if we do our reporting, we'll surface that a little bit more. So, David, speaking of reporting, I'm going to let you sort through this one for all of us. Barack Reveed, of course, with Axis, is saying that a senior U.S. official denied that a U.S. ship has been hit by Iranian missiles. It is obviously, we're in the early moments of this. So I certainly am not placing any sort of moral equivalency between government of Iran and the U.S. government. I will simply say we have two eyewitnesses saying that the ships were, in fact, hit, according to Al Jazeera. And we have one senior official right now on background telling Axis that no U.S. ship was.

hit. So hard to say, and we will need to wait at least a few hours before we get actionable information out of that area. But your thoughts on a U.S. official denying it to Axis and then other news agencies saying that, in fact, a ship has been hit according to two eyewitnesses. We speak of the fog of war, and here's an example. We're having trouble. We're having trouble. seeing just what happened, and that's not an unusual situation. I think it's appropriate when U.S. military commanders are careful in their descriptions of actions that are taking place until they've done a thorough examination of what's happened. And that may be some of what we're seeing. People don't want to come through with comments that almost require the president to take action

until they know exactly what the situation is and have sized it up. But, you know, the, this is a moment where every bit of the intelligence gathering, signals, monitoring capabilities that the United States government has, we should be glad they have because they're going to, they will find out exactly what's happened. And then hopefully we'll have a careful process to decide what to do. Exactly. and we will see what happens. It is a news in and of itself that Iranian state media wants the world to think they did strike two U.S. ships while President of the United States keeps

talking about how we're moving toward a deal, moving toward peace, moving toward a plan to move forward in the Strait of Hormuz. As you said, David, it does not appear the Iranians want peace. So the Washington Post, David Ignatius, I know you've got to leave pretty soon. If you can stay with us a little bit longer, that'd be great. Okay, well, we'll see David, and we'll continue also with a new polling and why this war in Iran is so unpopular and has been such a drag on the president and Republicans. We'll be right back.

We are following breaking news out of the Middle East that a U.S. warship has been fired on by Iranian missiles after the president. announced a plan to try to get ships out of that body of water. This comes from Iranian state media. We haven't had it confirmed yet, of course, as soon as we get more information on that, we will bring it to you. But in the meantime, let's switch gears. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche was on Meet the Press yesterday, where he argued the latest indictment of former FBI director James Comey does not rely solely on his since-delated Instagram post that read 86-47. Take a Every case requires an investigation. And what you just showed is one part of that investigation. What you just showed is the Instagram post. Rest assured that the career assistant United States attorneys in North Carolina,

the career FBI agents, the career secret service agents that investigated this case, didn't just look at the Instagram post to walk away. That's why you saw an indictment last week, notwithstanding the fact that it was last May that the post was made. So I am not permitted to get into the details of what the grand heard or found, as you know, but rest assured that it's not just the Instagram post that leads somebody to get indicted. Are you in fact saying that there are facts beyond this Instagram posts that clearly establish an intent to threaten the president's life? I've said repeatedly that this was an investigation that less said 11 months. If the only facts that existed was the posting of the Instagram, obviously that wouldn't have taken 11 months. The image, excuse me, is part of

what led to this indictment. It is worth noting that on Amazon.com, we look this up. There are dozens of products with the same terminology. We're showing it right here. 8647 being sold and purchased right now. Should individuals selling or buying 8647 merchandise

be concerned that they're going to be prosecuted by the DOJ? This isn't about a single incident. Okay, this isn't, I mean, of course not. That's posted constantly. That phrase is used constantly. There are constantly men and women who choose to make threatening statements against President Trump. Every one of those statements do not result in indictments, of course. There are facts, there are circumstances, there are investigations that have to take place.

Okay, joining us now, former state attorney Palm Beach County, Florida, Dave Aaronburg. Okay, Dave, I don't know if it's because it's Monday, but I'm confused about whether we're at war or not at war. That seems to depend on which definition you're choosing. And in this case, I'm really confused because I read that indictment, which our colleague Joyce Vance described as one of the most embarrassing paragraphs ever written in a DOJ indictment. It clearly says that he publicly posted a photograph on the internet social media site of Instagram, which depicted seashells arranged in a pattern making out 8647. So what's going on? Caddy, good to be with you. You know, Comey's defense lawyers must have loved that interview because it strengthens their imminent,

to dismiss based on selective prosecution and vindictive prosecution. So Todd Blanche admitted that there are many people who are doing the same thing as Comey, but they won't be prosecuted. And he said the difference is an 11-month investigation into Comey that turned up evidence of intent because you need some subjective intent to try to kill the president. And yet he won't provide any evidence that they supposedly uncovered in those 11 months, which means they don't have evidence that Comey wanted to kill the president. If they had it, they'd be. shouting it from the rooftops. Blanche said that he can't discuss the evidence of a pending prosecution,

but that didn't stop U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, Janine Piro, from being on the Sunday shows and talking about specific evidence in great detail about the shooter at the White House correspondence dinner. So you can see in one case they've got evidence, and the other case they do not. That's the difference. So what changed in those 11 months? I'm not so sure there was a meticulous investigation.

I think the difference is that in those 11 months, Pam Bondi was fired because she did not convict any of Trump's enemies, including James Comey. And now Todd Blanche is auditioning for that job. It's not that tough to connect the dots. You know Comey's defense lawyers certainly will. So David Drucker, we see poll after poll in which Americans, including increasingly some Republicans,

suggest that President Trump's focus is off, that he doesn't care about what matters. to them. And sometimes that's because of things like the ballroom or some of his legacy vanity projects. But it also is exactly this, this nonsensical in the eyes of many political prosecutions. You know, James Comey, seashells, this doesn't change anyone's life. And I think Americans just seem tired of it. Yeah, look, I mean, on the one hand, the president campaigned on this. So he's delivering. I think, you know, voters were willing to be willing to be able to to grant him some of his dalliances as long as he delivered on the economy.

I mean, that was part of the bargain that they made with him. We don't necessarily know that we're going to like the tariffs or the retribution or the lawsuits or all of the different things you're talking about doing. But we do think you delivered a really good economy pre-COVID in your first presidency. That's what we need right now because of inflation and the high cost of living. So go do that. We think you're a better choice than the alternative being presented to us. and when we look at everything the president's been doing,

I don't think it's, you know, as you suggest when we talk about focus, that it's necessarily about the retribution, which may be problematic and, you know, it's something we ought to be concerned about as a country. I think the reason people are upset about all of these things is because he's not doing also what they hired him to do. Deliver on the economy, lower the cost of living. People feel stretched.

and that's when voters get really upset at side projects, right? I just want to point out one thing here. When we look at 2010, Republicans gained 63 house seats. Voters were really unhappy with President Obama in his first term. One of the reasons related to the Affordable Care Act, which today is popular, but back then was not, was not necessarily just because they didn't like Obamacare as they saw it at the time. It's because we had high unemployment coming out of the Great Recession.

The economy felt stuck for people. And they were telling the president in their votes in that midterm election, healthcare reform is important. It's something we've talked about. But what's more important, what's singularly important to us right now, the reason we elected you over your Republican opponent, is to get the economy unstucked from the previous administration, and instead you're focused over here.

Every time president's news focus and don't pay it, attention to what the voters are telling them in terms of priority, they end up in this situation. All right, senior writer at the dispatch, David Drucker. Thank you so much. Greatly appreciated, as always. And Dave Ehrenberg, I'm going to talk to David Ignatius about Ukraine in a minute, but there are these other issues. We always talk about costs and corruption and chaos. You look at issues like Ukraine, the president's upside down on that. Most Americans don't want the president helping out Vladimir Putin the way he is. You look at corruption and chaos, these political prosecutions. And the weird thing is Donald Trump knows he got elected because of what he

considered, and Americans consider to be political prosecutions. Now they're doing it back, and it is hurting the president's numbers. And we can talk about the stupid, stupid indictment of Comey that's obviously going to get thrown out. Or we can talk about Janine Piro, who this week and said, oh, wait, I may bring charges against Jerome Powell in the future. I don't care what promises were made to senators

to get the new Fed chair in. You know, she might as well have said the president wants him out. So this threat is going to stay on the table. Though the guardrails are gone, John Kelly is gone, Rex Tillerson is gone. Bill Barr, who gave Trump everything he wanted, then resigned because he wouldn't go forward with the claims of massive election fraud. So what happens when you've got the grownups in the room all gone, Trump can go after his enemies. And he has a misunderstanding of the criminal justice system. He thinks he can push a button and then his enemies are wearing a orange jumpsuit and a pair of handcuffs, but that's not how it works. And I know there are people on the right who say, well, the weaponization of the Department of Justice happened under Merrick Garland. This is just a reminder. Merrick Garland passed on prosecuting MAGA influencers like Matt Gates and Jack Posobec for using the slogan 86-46, referring to President Biden.

So when you hear that, the Democrats did it too. No, they didn't. We've never seen this kind of weaponization before. Yeah, it's unbelievable. A former state attorney for Palm Beach County, Dave Ehrenberg, Thank you so much, greatly appreciated. And David Ignatius, you know, we're talking about Iran and Iran's ability to push back on the United States using asymmetrical warfare. And while we're talking about that, maybe historians are going to be looking at this war and Russia's war against Ukraine as really changing of the way military warfare is fought.

and the geopolitical calculations countries will make going into war, especially superpowers, because in Ukraine, my gosh, the pace is quickening, and Ukraine's ability to move forward without the United States seems to be growing by the day as well. It's fascinating, Joe. In both cases, Iran and Ukraine, you see what appears to be a completely outgunned country. smaller country facing an enormous army of a superpower that holds its own, that stays in the fight, and you just can't extinguish them. The Russians have tried everything they can. They're stuck. They're absolutely to a dead halt in Donetsk province. And you see the United States, under President Trump, trying to end this war in Iran. They've had overwhelming military dominance that they have pretty much freedom of will to bomb from the air. And yet even so, the Iranians keep going. It's a lesson of warfare about, even with the immense power of modern weapons, the inability

to use that military power to achieve political outcomes. Again and again, we see that lesson. Again and again, people don't seem to learn it. Meanwhile, we have, of course, Kirstama meeting with Zelensky today with a whole host of European leaders, so let's see if that can nudge things along in the direction that Zelensky would like. David Ignatius, Washington Post, David Ignatius, thank you very much for coming in.