Morning Joe - Pakistani officials expect new Iran proposal this week

Episode Date: May 1, 2026

Pakistani officials expect new Iran proposal this week 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.

Pharisees, it's a problematic and historically weaponized term that cast Jewish communities as hypocritical or morally corrupt. Words matter. What you choose to say, how we choose to say it. How do you justify using this language as Secretary of Defense? Senator, I feel like it's a pretty accurate term for folks who don't see the plank in their own eye and always want to see what's wrong with an operation as opposed to the historic success of preventing Iran from getting a nuclear weapon. All right, Defense Secretary Pete Higgseth back on Capitol. Hill yesterday, grilled this time by the Senate Armed Services Committee. It comes as the Trump

administration is about to pass the deadline for congressional approval to sign off on the war in Iran, but now claims the ceasefire exempts the conflict from that timeline. We'll dig into that. Plus, Morning Joe, economic analyst Steve Ratner is here with his charts breaking down the Trump administration's ties to crypto. Also ahead, we'll dig into the redistricting chaos in Louisiana. After the state's governor said he intends to delay House primaries in response to the Supreme Court's ruling this week, good morning and welcome to Morning Joe. It is Friday, May 1st. Along with Joe Willie and me, we have the co-host of our 9 a.m. hour staff writer at the Atlantic, Jonathan Lemire, President Emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations,

Richard Haas, and co-host of The Weekend and Washington Reporter for MS Now, Jackie Alamane is with us this morning. I just want to say, and we made sure we passed a rule long ago that there would be no betting in prediction markets on the Morning Joe prediction market based on anything that any of us said about politics, war, sports. But if we in fact had you had that, everybody here could be very rich because, as you will remember, Willie, as I said, through long-suffering Giants fan Richard Haas when it was two to two between the Hawks and the Knicks, what did I say? Fear not, my child. I have been an Atlanta Hawks fan for 50 years. You will win four to two. And Willie, sure enough, that's exactly what have you.

And you know how I knew that? Because when it was two to two against the Knicks and all the Nix fans were saying they were losing, for a split second I started to hope. And I remembered that it's not the hope that kills you. It's the knowledge that is the hope that kills you, that kills you. As Jackson Lamb told Young River Cart Ride at the end. end of slow horses. And sure enough, sure enough, I thought for a split second, the Hawks might be a contender.

And Willie, just like that, poof. You were punished mightily last night for having any hope to them. This shocked even us Knicks fans. I mean, you hope you could close it out on the road. I think the line in the game was two and a half. The Knicks won last night by 51 points. You see the final score in the bottom of your screen there, 140 to 89, and I'm not sure it was that close.

They were up by 61 points at one point, just unheard of, certainly in a playoff game, but in any NBA game, they just dominated right from the beginning. A lot of us were at different places not able to watch the game. We were just talking about you look down at your phone or someone would bring you a score, and it was like 93 to 38 or something like that. So the Knicks win going away.

against the Hawks. They move on now to the next round and they await either the Sixers or the Celtics because the Celtics lost last night in Philly. They do, John, get game seven back home in Boston. But trust me, it's been 52 years, 53 since the Knicks won. We temper our own hopes, but the Knicks are playing very well right now. Knicks are playing great. The switch flipped. They had two one-point losses, games two and three against Atlanta, and then they figured out the Hawks and just a route after route in last night in historic fashion. Selvicks are in trouble.

They have lost two games in a row. They've been, and not fluky. They've been thoroughly outplayed. This Sixers team is really talented. The issue is they're rarely healthy. And right now, they are healthy. Now, we'll see with Joel and beat if it lasts. But they have throttled the Celtics

the last two games. Jason Tatum got hurt at the end of last night. We'll see if he's ready for Game 7 tomorrow. And yeah, that series is home. I mean, sorry, Game 7's a home in ball. Boston, but Philly's already won a game in Boston this series. The Sixers are hot, and Richard Haas, let's be clear, the Knicks right now couldn't be playing much better. Nick's fans, understood, with a half century of history, but have to feel pretty good about their

chances about whoever comes out of that Philly-Boston series. You guys beat the Celtics last year already. Yeah, and people look at Nick's offense. Nick's defense now is as good as it's ever been. It's distributed on offense. No, this, but look, we're in what year 53 of rebuilding. I see I don't want to let the enthusiasm get out in front. But last night was a... Oh, my Lord. I actually thought there was a mistake on my phone.

Totally. I thought I was looking at some wrong game or something because it couldn't be true. You just don't get those scores in the NBA, Joe. And again, certainly against the playoffs, too, than the Hawks. Well, you listen to Richard Hauss, and he's going, oh, my gosh, you know, the defense, they just have never played this well and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Richard, it's the hope that kills you. I suffer if we ever get to the first round.

You should know better than start talking about the greatness of the Knicks. Keep your head down. Say, I know they're going to lose. It's going to get swept. But it's been a wonderful run. And I love the Knicks. Just repeat that to yourself. And maybe you guys can do it.

But Richard, look at Richard. He's going, you beat the Hawks. Okay. That you beat the Hawks. Go allow me my moment. It's a Colour Catholic High JV basketball team. Come on. He's a Giants fan.

So, you know, we had a great draft, though. You got to get, you got to get slot wherever you can get. We had a good draft. All right. That is so sad. That is so sad. Guys, it's Friday. We're going to now move on to news.

We're going to behave at six minutes. Yeah, but he's pathetic. I'd like to go on. No, please. You know, Willie, I think one of the funny recurring jokes throughout curb has always been the desperation of the Jets fans. And Jets fans have suffered. And I really do. I said for him because Joe Willie, like, it's one of my all-time heroes.

So I always, I've got a soft spot in my heart for the Jets. But I got to say, when I hear Richard talking about the Giants man, I'm thinking it may be even more pathetic. trust me there's a equal share of doom and gloom usually from richard but joe you didn't hear about that six round left guard we drafted the tide is turning at the metal end the tide is turning yeah exactly i'm telling you he was going to the playoffs he he was one of the best linemen at interior linemen at montana state over the past five years so it's going to be exciting don't know when you get your One of them. All right, gentlemen.

So let's get to the news. Yes, see at the playoffs. Yeah, the Falcons and the Giants for the NFC championship game. Okay, here we go. As the war with Iran appears to be at an impasse, Pakistani officials in Islamabad, with direct knowledge of the talks between the United States and Iran, tell MS now that they expect a revised proposal from Tehran to end the war

by the end of this week. The officials say they will then share the proposal with U.S. negotiators and push for an in-person meeting between the two sides early next week. They add that both warring parties are, quote, focused on diplomatic solutions to bring the conflict to an end. This comes, however, as Iran remains publicly defiant. In a statement read yesterday on the state TV, the country's new supreme leader, who has still not been seen since being named as father's successor, warned that the only place Americans belonged in the Persian Gulf is, quote, at the bottom of its waters.

The leader also seemed to signal Tehran would hold on to its nuclear and missile capabilities and maintain its control over the Strait of Hormuz, claiming that the country's, quote, legal rules and new management of the key waterway will benefit all the region's nations. That doesn't feel like a negotiation. Well, you see, but that's the thing, though. Feels like a threat. No, that's the thing, though, Richard Haas.

I mean, of course, Richard and I often will go to Giants Stadium. And when the Giants were losing my war with the 40 points, we'll start reading the art of war and talking about our favorite passages. One of my favorite passages, I remember when you guys were losing my 40 points a couple years ago, I turned to you and we were in Parkinson, and I said, Richard, one of my favorite lines from Lard of War, one of the great insights

from Sun Tsu is that when you are weak appears strong. And so when I heard this threat coming from somebody who may not even be alive, and I started thinking

about what the Wall Street Journal editorial page wrote yesterday, that yes, this does not look great right now for the Trump administration, but totalitarian regimes are in complete control. until the second they're not.

So I didn't see this saber rattling as actually a sign of strength from Iran, but maybe the fact that that blockade is starting to squeeze them. And by the way, it's the Richard Haas trademark blockade. I really get the sense from this sort of crazy saber rattling that maybe they're really starting to feel the economic pain from the Haas blockade. Well, they are. And I think the only question is, what is that going to motivate them to do at the negotiating table? What's interesting, Joe, the bluster, by the way, is in some ways their version of what President Trump puts out when he posts on social media. Each side is talking a bigger game, if you will, than they're actually fighting. Seasfire is still in place.

So I think this Pakistani report is interesting. Is Iran going to come forward with a new proposal? Is it for the straight only? Is it comprehensive? What are the actual details? It's something meant to be negotiated. Then the administration's going to have to decide whether they are, how confident are they that Iran is feeling so much pain that it's only a matter of days before Iran says uncle. So the administration can just sit back. But meanwhile, obviously, gasoline prices are going up and so forth. Right. So this is a bizarre game of posturing between the two sides. And it's almost, who's better at indebted? during the pain that the two blockades, first the Iranian blockade and then the blockade

we put on in response. Who's better at basically waiting this out? Yeah, you know that Willie, you look and you see what's happening. And yes, our gas prices are 425, 430. Maybe the president's sinking, though it may not be a day. It may not be a week. It may be a month or even two months, but we know this blockade is going to wear them down. He could be thinking that way.

But I'm going to say, and Richard brings up a great point, you know, whenever the president says, I'm going to destroy your civilization, or I'm going to sink your battleship, or whatever he says, and hubs and puffs in all caps, that's a sign of weakness. It's always shown that it's a sign of weakness, and he's trying to intimidate people. How fascinating that the Iranians up to this point have been masters at mocking him, mocking him with memes, mocking him with responses on Twitter that are open, like, you know, chiding him. Here yesterday, Iran resorts to their own version of truth social, which again, I just say, that's not something to be fearful of. That's something to look at and go,

wait a second. What's changing here? Suddenly, they're sounding as desperate as the president's tweets. And as you say, there's no real evidence he's even alive. We haven't seen the guy since This war began 60 days ago, and John, it is 60 days today, which was a matter that was brought up at Pete Higgs' appearance before the Senate Armed Services Committee yesterday, which is you have 60 days from the initiation of the war, which was February 28th today, marked 60 days, to get congressional approval for it. You don't have congressional approval for it. Secretary Hags has argued because of the ceasefire. That day it is on pause and it kicks down the road. The point is that Congress is getting antsy here about having a say in what happens next. And there was real pushback. There's no thing as a pause. That's not in the law.

Yes. The New Times had reporting a few days ago that the new Supreme Leader is alive, but grievously wounded. He's hidden away underheaval extreme medical care. He's going to need significant surgery. So it's unclear how active he really is in the day-to-day operations of the government there. But certainly hardliners are in charge with plenty of bluster.

But there are real consequences. The U.S. Navy blockade, I talked to some officials this week. They do believe it is working U.S. officials, but like it could be a long time. The president this week, sort of preparing energy executives to say this could be lasting for weeks or months. And I have a new piece in the Atlantic about the Strait of Hormuz and spoke to Richard Haas about it, in fact, for the piece. And what is clear is, no matter how this war ends or when it ends, Iran will have further control the Strait of Hormuz, either implicitly or explicitly. They're a part of a coalition. They'll make some tolls off of this.

They'll make more money so they can use that to rebuild what's happening in Iran. They may try to assert complete control. But here's the thing, though. I understand what you're saying. But if this blockade is really causing the damage that we think it's causing, that White House officials, I say we, I'm talking about myself and, you know, Richard and others, then it won't look that way. I mean, that's the whole thing.

And the question is, and it is a good question to ask, is two months of pain at the pump worth having the straits open and an Iran that is not nuclear? I think that's the calculation that we should be making here. And that's a calculation that politicians in Washington will make. I will say most, foreign policy experts, and I'm sure Richard feel the same way, would say, if we have to pay 450, if Americans have to pay 450 at the pump over the next two months, and we're guaranteed

a negotiation that means there's not a nuclear Iran, I think foreign policy leaders would say, and the world would say, and our allies would say, that's worth it. I think that's the calculation we have here. I think it's a yes but, because I always, Also, first of all, it may still be months. That's absolutely right. And we'll get to the political ramifications of that in a moment. But I think even what could happen here, and as Richard points out in the piece, and others do as well, even if the blockade deal is reached, the blockade is lifted, Iran, the straight is open.

They have shown they can close it again. And that's something that could, this is something that will be wield as a weapon or as a threat going forward. And as the piece notes, energy executives are already planning alternate routes. We can't depend on the straight-outremoose like we had before. This is going to be a late, time-consuming and expensive process. And Jackie Allimani, to the politics piece of this, and maybe that's right. Foreign policy experts will say the pain is worth it. 4.50 at the pump or higher for months ahead, it is worth it.

But the issue is Republicans right now running for re-election or running for offices in November, maybe staring at months of these higher prices. So yes, maybe the long-term goals will be achieved. They haven't yet. maybe they will be achieved long term, but in the short term, it's adding to a GOP sense they could be staring at a wipeout this man. Yeah, John, I mean, so there's a few things here. Publicly, White House officials were actually in the middle of some reporting that we're going to get later out this morning about the posture and the feelings inside the White House and what they're saying publicly and what they're saying privately about their electoral prospects in November. there's sort of this feeling that anything can change in a moment's notice.

If there's any takeaway from 2024, it's that voters have short memories, things move quickly, and not to underestimate the power of President Trump to buckle down, focus, and maybe implement some message discipline, go out on the trail consistently, and do the work in battleground states. That being said, a lot of people who are saying privately on back, ground anonymously that if the election were held tomorrow, Republicans would almost certainly lose the House and now have diminishing prospects in the Senate. Notably, you have a few Republicans who are now voting to curtail presidents, war powers. Rand Paul, Susan Collins, broke, voted with Democrats that was yesterday. There's now also, obviously, this deadline that

lawmakers argue Trump is blowing past today. Republicans are sort of saying that Trump could ask for a 30-day extension. But that seems to be the final limit that the president has, the last of the runway, when it comes to the war with Iran. But there are a lot of moving contingent factors here, right? What all of these, a lot of these strategists are saying is that, you know, Republicans could turn things around if the war end and if oil prices come down and the economic repercussions, the aftershocks that have been incurred here as a result of this war

ultimately subside. And they've seen some promising signs here, for example, when you're looking at the stock market and oil prices that have sort of temporarily dipped when there are signs of breakthrough when it comes to a negotiation. But the large majority of economists say that the repercussions here are going to be longer lasting. And I have to tell you, when we are talking to White House officials about potential breakthroughs, when it comes to negotiating a longer-term deal, we're not hearing the most promising signs privately. You even had Kevin Hassett yesterday. I asked him about what his message. He's the NEC director. I asked him what his message was to midterm voters.

And instead of going with what the White House has been publicly saying that, you know, this is transitory. It's going to pass soon. Prices are going to dip back down to normal. And at the end of the day, it's all better than what you had under Joe Biden. What he said was actually really interesting. He said, our voters need to understand that this decision to go to war with Iran was made out of an effort to keep them safer, to protect them from terrorists, moving back to full. circle to this imminent threat argument that the president made right off the bat when we went to the when we decided to go to war with Iran, something that has not been believable by a lot of

Democrats and even some Republicans when they're looking at the evidence presented to them. And I think an implicit concession that this is going to go on a lot longer than the White House was anticipating. Well, and I don't think the White House has any other choice. Republicans really doubt even though they may be, you're right, Jackie. obviously very concerned. But Mika, what we have here is a situation where the Republicans can push the president to cut and run, to leave Iran. So if he cuts and runs and listens to the Republicans, and what that means is that you're going to have the straight owned by Iran,

and you're going to have a nuclear Iran. Republicans will get hammered even worse in the fall than that. It's May. The election is in November. They have time to play this out of little bit because again, they can try to get it past this short-term pain that Americans are feeling. And if they do that, they will get crushed at the polls, especially if they come back and there's still a nuclear Iran and the strait is still owned by Iran. So they have no choice, but to keep this blockade up and bring Iran either this government or the next government to the negotiating table and negotiate on their terms. Anyone with knowledge of the geopolitical, geostrategic landscape and of Iran could tell you this is exactly where we'd end up and that there would be consequences and that this would not end as quickly as Donald Trump had initially said so and as quickly as he likes things to end.

Well, and I think that's the important thing. This is self-inflicted. This is an important thing. What Kevin Hassett said yesterday, according to Jackie's reporting, is very important. Yep. He said, hey, this is going to be tough. You look at what Winston Churchill always did with the British, he let them know. Things are going to be tough.

They're going to be terrible. As FDR said, things are going to get much worse before they get much better. It would help for the president to say, this may be a few months. We're going to sit back and wait and see. We're not firing missiles. We have a blockade. And by midsummer, hopefully, we'll be in a much better position. and we will make the Iranians negotiate on our terms, not on theirs.

Jackie, thank you very much. We'll be watching the weekend at 7 a.m. Eastern right here on MS now. We appreciate it. And President Trump has signed bipartisan legislation to fund much of the Department of Homeland Security after the House yesterday finally approved a Senate-passed bill ending the record 75-day shutdown of the agency. Following a four-week standoff between House and Senate leaders, lawmakers, passed the measure by voice vote. The bill funds all of DHS, except ICE and customs and border patrol.

Republican plans to address those budgets later through a reconciliation bill. Republican Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry intends to postpone the six congressional primaries scheduled for May 16th, so the state legislature can implement a new congressional map. Four sources with knowledge of the matter tell MS now that Landry could have announced the decision as early as this week. It's worth noting that Louisiana election officials sent ballots to overseas voters weeks ago, and early voting was set to begin tomorrow. The move follows a Supreme Court ruling Wednesday that Louisiana's sixth congressional district unlawfully discriminated by race when it formed a second black congressional district, which critics say

guts the Voting Rights Act. And the first direct commercial flight between the United States and Venezuela arrived yesterday in Caraca seven years after the Department of Homeland Security suspended such flights due to security concerns. An American Airlines jet painted with a special 250th anniversary logo flew from Miami to the Venezuelan capital yesterday. The first such route since 2019 officials called the move a key step toward restoring travel and boosting economic ties with more flights expected later this month. The restart comes after the U.S. operation that removed former leader Nicholas Maduro. And still ahead on morning, Joe, we'll get to the latest on the Justice Department's renewed push to prosecute

former FBI director James Comey. Plus, since returning to the White House, President Trump continues to grow his wealth. Steve Ratner joins us with charts on the Trump administration's relationship with crypto currency. And as we go to break, a quick look at the Travelers' Forecast this morning for this weekend from Ackyweather's Bernie Rayno. Bernie, how's it looking? Mika, it's Friday. Thank goodness.

All right, we're tracking some rain across the Ohio Valley into the northeast, Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Harrisburg, some rain, couple of showers in Portland, Boston, New York City, and Philadelphia. Tonight, you'll have some sunshine this morning. Now, across the south, problems here, especially around Houston, Austin, San Antonio, some heavy rain, a little bit of rain in Atlanta. Later tonight, it's still warm in the Florida Peninsula. Travel delays along the East Coast, no, but watch yourself in Texas. To help you make the best decisions and be more in the know, download the Acuether app today. Enjoy your weekend and the view.

In the 12, or inside 30 seconds, the Eagles have no timeouts. Wait a minute. Here's a free foot. I don't believe it. The Eagles pick it up, and Herman Edwards runs it in for a touchdown. It's not, Richard, the hope that kills you. It's just me. It's the knowledge that it's the hope that kills you.

Do we have this in slow motion? Do we have a leap? No, here we go. Because all they have to do is nail on the ball and the game is over. That's really all they have to do. Yeah. Joe. And you could

pretend to be a man of faith. Yeah, it is. You're trying to be a good Christian. And you do this at what? 6.30 in the morning. Also, how did we have six quick at this? Yeah. You've been sitting on the state for years.

We're sitting on the tape. I ask, I ask, T.J. Always, if I say Biff-Poker, I have a button to push. And, yeah, so we have buttons to push. Oh, there's Bif-Poker-Robo scene just like that. And TJ, what's the other one that you always have handy? Is it Obama bowling? I'm not sure.

But that was a good one in a state. Oh, that's right. Let me Dawson at the Super Bowl. Smoking. I love that. Super Bowl 4, baby. I mean, seriously, how are you going to face the Vikings in the second half? If you don't have a smooth, mintol, taste, marlborough a taste.

Gross. Exactly. That's also, what we're looking for is we're looking for state championships in Massachusetts, Lemire's senior year. He actually, as he was going around the trial, this one too, I knew this is. This is before he put the cigarette in. But yeah, there you go. Hall of Fame are right there. I'll tell you what.

That's a way ahead. That's a lot of course. Oh, he's way ahead. Of course. The sad thing is, Lamar still could outrun everybody on the New York. today. That's a set dog. Come back to Iraq. We have one of three.

I remember two of them. Well, yeah. You're not getting enough sleep. Like the Falcons. Unlike the Falcons. No. So, Richard, let's talk time frame, because I was talking

about before that we were going to, you know, the president should hold firm and the blockade's much better than firing missiles and munitions that you don't have. And it hurts somewhere there. But as the Wall Street Journal editorial page noted yesterday, you never know when tyrannical government's going to fall.

I mean, look at the Soviet Union. Nobody predicted it. But here with Iran, it could be in six years. It could be in six months. It could be in six days. I think your point has always been we have to learn how to live with this being the new normal, regardless of who take. And I'm talking about the straight, regardless of who takes over that kind.

country. Yeah, you can't base American foreign policy on who's going to take over another country. It may be that this regime goes, it may be there for 10 years, 20 years, or longer. So regime change cannot be American foreign policy. That's a hope, not a strategy. Let's just assume that we're going to have a problematic Iran. And then the question is, you know, we're probably facing Joe a long and complicated negotiation over the nuclear.

It's going to be somewhere between zero and a nuclear weapon. There's going to be ceilings and controls. It's going to be messy, like the older agreement, hopefully on terms we can live with and with inspections. I think the straight, we've got to get it open, but it's not going to exactly be what it was before. My hunch is explicitly or implicitly Iran's going to have more of a role. Is this perfect? No. But wars have implications.

Iran has discovered that it has more power and more influence than it thought. And this blockade we put on, which, yeah, I did advocate for. I did introduce the idea. But it's a means to an end, not an end in itself. The question is, can we use it to get Iran to come to a point where we can get, not perfect, but acceptable terms on the straight and maybe launch a long-term negotiation on nuclear? I think so, but we've got to be careful not to overplay our hand, because we somehow can assume Iran's going to capitulate.

I see nothing about the Iranian political culture that takes us there. And we've got to be realistic here because we're paying a price also for every day that goes by. And that's where we are right now. It's a messy place. I'm intrigued to see what the Iranians come up with in a few days. But again, we can't base our policy on either capitulation that we're going to get an agreement on quote unquote our terms. And we can't base it on regime.

There's going to be in a gray area. It's going to be messier. In between, it's got to be good enough. Sometimes good enough is a pretty good foreign policy goal rather than perfect. And I think good enough is what we've got to think hard about. Right. Good enough is not, though, a nuclear Iran. good enough is not an Iran that owns the straight. And it's so interesting. And Richard, you're so right.

We've got to rethink this. I mean, America is energy independent right now. You look at what the UAE's done by breaking off from OPEC. We ought to be able to figure out a way to not be dependent on oil that we just don't really use that much. And Richard Haas, before we go, we have a parting gift for you. I know you're a New York Giants fan. So nice. It's Friday. We'd like to play you a clip What a great moment in New York Giants history right now is Richard goes. Thank you, Richard. Could you cue it up again? So good to see you.

Hold on. Joe. Okay. Joe, when the Giants make the playoffs this season, I look forward to that morning on this show. And I want to see as many clips of Jackson Dart and the Giants making the playoffs as we're seeing of this. I want you to commit to that, Joe. And it's not Jackson Dart you should be thinking about. Again, it's Jackson Lamb.

It's not the hope that kills you. It's the knowledge that it's hope that kills you. That kills you. And trust me, Richard, the Giants are not going to win the Super Bowl this year any more than the Falcons are going to win the next five in a row. Richard, Osse, thank you. Have a great weekend. Coming up, Steve Ratner, standing by with charts.

Next on Morning Joe. What made you do? So what made you decide to go and attend this meme coin conference today? It's a big industry, and we want to beat China at the industry. We're leading with crypto. We're leading with AI. And I really feel I have an obligation from the same. As a president, I have to be able to make sure that all of our industries do well.

Crypto is a big industry. It's actually become somewhat mainstream. The banks have it. People have it. And I think as the leader of the country, we want to lead in AI. and we're leading China by a lot in AI, and we're also leading in crypto. President Trump, right before he hosted nearly 300 of the top buyers of his Trump meme coin at Mar-a-lago on Saturday. That event billed as the, quote, most exclusive crypto and business conference in the world.

But it comes at a time when the meme coin is facing significant headwinds, to put it mildly. Let's bring in former Treasury official Morning Joe economic analyst, Steve Ratner, with charts on the relationship between cryptocurrency. cryptocurrency and the Trump administration, and more specifically the Trump family. Steve, good morning. Great to see you. So let's start with the big picture about Donald Trump, his personal wealth, since he came back to office, how he's doing.

Exactly, Willie. I was going to suggest we start with the big picture, because if you look at Trump's net worth in the fullness of time, and Forbes, as you know, does a really great job of dissecting the wealth of many wealthy people, going all the way back to 2001, the family and Trump particularly was worth under $2 billion, and he gradually grew his net worth. Then you had the financial crisis. He took a hit like almost everybody else. He grew it back up.

But in Trump 1.0, his net worth actually went down pretty substantially. A bit of that was COVID, but a lot was the fact that he put guardrails around the kinds of things they would do. They wouldn't do international deals and so on and so forth. And he actually was acting like a normal president. Then he had his four years in the wilderness and not much happened. Now, two years into terms. term two, look what happens. His net worth goes from $2.3 billion, the $6.5 billion. All of this is

crypto in one form or another. He has become the crypto king, even though during 1.0, he was against crypto. He thought crypto was kind of a scam, which it kind of is, as we know. So where did the money come from? He had $4 billion, he and his family, of profits. Three billion of it came from crypto. And I will tell you, there are so many transactions here, so many structures. It made my head hurt even trying to understand it. But just to give you an example, he took Trump Media, which is the company he started to create truth social, and it raised a bunch of money from investors, and he went out and bought a whole bunch of crypto with that. He sold meme coins. I'm going to talk more about this in a minute, but remember the dollar Trump, dollar

a Melania coins, all that contributed profit. So crypto, crypto, crypto, crypto all the way. Made some money from finances. This is Jared raising all of his money from the Middle East and the profits that are anticipated from it. And then there were also some benefits he got. For example, he raised the admission fee at Mar-a-Lago from $100,000 to a million dollars. The money he took from the law firms and the other companies as part of his lawsuit campaign,

the Katari Jet. But crypto is really what dominates the $3 billion that he added to his net worth. So let's talk about that meme coin because so much of this money is coming from crypto. You're calling it here a rip-off. Can you explain exactly what the meme coin is and why you say it's a rip-off? Well, explaining exactly would probably take me most of the remaining four hours that you have this morning. Because it's really complicated. But generally speaking, what he did was you created something called the Dollar Trump coin,

And you'll also remember there was a dollar, Melania coin a little bit later. It is a coin that means nothing. It is like buying a pet rock, except you don't even get a rock. It has no value. It has no trading value. It's not used in commerce. Nothing. They sold them initially at $7 and went all the way up to $45.

Not surprisingly, it crashed. This was the first dinner. The one that you mentioned was the second dinner. But the first dinner he did for his biggest, his biggest, buyers of the crypto back here in the spring of 2025. And the one he just did, which was coincidentally at Marilago a few hours before the White House correspondence dinner, and we know what happened there, actually had no effect on the value of crypto, and so of this crypto. And so the world was kind of onto them. But look what else has happened here. So there have been found to be 45 would

are called whale wallets, huge buyers of this stuff early on in the process. Then as crypto went up, these whales, and it could include Trump, but we don't even know who it includes, it could include a lot of foreigners, people who were tipped off. They made $1.2 billion. Trump, we know, made about $600 million in trading fees and so forth on this. But who lost? Who lost were two million innocent Americans who bought this thing because they thought Trump was great or whatever. They lost. They lost. lost $4.3 billion by buying up here and now owning something that is worth less than $3. And it isn't even something. It's not even, as I said before, you get nothing when you buy this thing except a little digital

something. So, Steve, I want you to further explain the scam here because what happens is these insiders, they know. Point to where, let's go on on Steve's chart, point all the way to the left, Steve's, Steve to the bottom. All right. So this is the point where all of these insiders know, these whales, know that Trump's about to put a coin out. Okay. So what do they do? They buy it up. They buy it up. They buy it up. And it skyrockets go to the top. Yeah. Steve. So they go up. That's the profit that the billionaires and the insiders make. And then the public goes, oh, wait, look, it's going up.

Well, they sell theirs, make all of their money, and then where all those other poor suckers left, Steve? Down here, all the way down here. And they're out of pocket $4.3 billion for the privilege of doing that. Now, explain to Steve, if you could, if you caught people doing this and with stocks, they would go to jail the rest of their lives. but in crypto, it's okay to say, I'm about to put out a coin. You guys are going to make a billion dollars off of this, invest. They invest, it goes straight up, then they sell when it's at its peak. They make their money, and everybody else loses.

How much money did Americans lose on this? $4.3 billion estimated being lost by two million different Americans who did this. And again, Joe, let me just emphasize, it's not like they got anything. All they got it, in effect, was like a little email or something saying, congratulations, you own 10 Trump meme coins. But there's nothing you can do with it. They were buying nothing. They were buying air.

Yeah, well, speaking of air, let's talk about crypto in general. It's not attached to anything. Thousands of years of history have shown us that when something's not attached to anything, gold, whatever, it's going to fall apart. like tulips. Talk about how unpoliced crypto is right now and all the things that would be so illegal in any other monetary trade. Yeah. And by the way, Trump has contributed to that because when you look at enforcement, we did try to have enforcement against all the grifters and the people who are trying to create a coin or trying to do this or try and do that. And a bunch of them did

get convicted, but under Trump, enforcement has dropped all the way down here. He's also pardoned a number of people who got convicted of crypto abuses and set them free. And this is all his belief that crypto, as you saw in that opening clip, crypto was great for America. But remember one of the state. Steve, let me say something really quickly here. When you talk about people, when you talk about people that broke laws, I think what's important, and you just explained it, but let's explain it again. It's not just that some people got rich off of coins that just don't mean anything. It's that more people got scammed. Working Americans got scammed. Middle class people got scammed. Small businesses got scammed. Like these billionaires, it's an inside deal. They get richer.

And middle class Americans are the ones that get pounded by this, right? Right. That's a exactly what that chart that we looked at a second ago shows, that basically the insiders knew when to buy, and they sold in time, and they sold to two million ordinary Americans who then are left with something that I said is not only gone down in value so much, but it's nothing. They bought nothing. But let's talk about one other piece of this thing, which are the foreigners. A lot of what I showed you before involves all kinds of foreign entanglements. The The Emirates bought into one of Trump's companies for $2 billion. 76% of the people who buy, who bought the dollar Trump coins are believed to be foreigners.

72%. This is another Trump coin, which also doesn't really do anything. 72% of them are foreigners. And so everything you see here is entangled with foreigners. They're still doing real estate. Steve, do we know what foreigners? Do we know? Is it going to be somebody the communist Chinese port?

Could it be Saudi? Like, do we know who all of those people are who are buying in for Russians? Are the Russian oligards that are trying to buy influence? Do we know who bought these, who gave Trump all of this money for this crypto? We don't know. And that's exactly your point and exactly the point that we don't know exactly who they are. We don't even know what properly. So you're saying that Vladimir Putin himself could have.

have directed Russian oligarchs to invest billions of dollars in Trump crypto? Or members of the Communist Chinese Party could have done it. Or members of North Korea is that we don't know who the foreigners are that have invested billions and billions of dollars into these coins that accrue to the President of the United States benefit? We do not know. And as I said at the beginning, one of the features of Trump 2.0 is the guardrails all came off on his own personal activities. He basically said, and he was known to have said, nobody really care in the first term that I put these guardrails on. So now, no holes barred. I'm just going to do whatever I can do to make money. And I feel like Trump 1.0 costs me a lot of

money. And it's not going to happen in Trump 2.0. And so we're off to the races with every kind of crypto deal you can imagine, every kind of foreign deal you can imagine. And we do know that some of the investors and his companies were exactly some of the people who are involved in the Iranian war at the moment, particularly the Emirates. All right, morning Joe, economic analyst, Steve Ratner. Thank you very much for bringing out those charts this morning, incredibly revealing and disturbing. Still ahead, it's a Senate state that seems impossible for a Republican to lose.

But the pastor of the nation's largest United Methodist Church is looking to be the first Democrat to serve Kansas since 1932. Reverend Adam Hamilton joins us next on Morning Joe. Welcome back. A few minutes before the top of the hour, Republicans have not lost a U.S. Senate race in Kansas since 1932. But the pastor of the nation's largest United Methodist Church is looking to change that after announcing that he's entering the 2026 race as a Democrat. Take a look at Reverend Adam Hamilton's opening message. Hi, I'm Adam Hamilton, and today I'm announcing I'm running as a Democrat for the United States Senate. Before I tell you why I've made this decision, I want to share with you a bit about who I am.

I'm a husband married to my high school sweetheart, Levin. I'm a father of two remarkable daughters, and I'm a grandfather to an amazing 12-year-old granddaughter. I'm the pastor of the largest United Methodist Church in the United States, which Levin and I started 36 years ago. And I'm a proud fifth-generation in Kansas. My great-great-grandparents moved to Dickinson County, Kansas 147 years ago. I love our state, and I love our people. And that's why I can't sit still and watch what's happening to Kansas and our country. Instead of fixing things, we have a government in Washington that's making life harder for Kansas.

Many people can't afford the basics, gasoline, food, medicine, a place to live, while our president spends billions on foreign wars with no end in sight. And Roger Marshall, he helps him do it. I believe we can and must do better. So why me? Well, let me share this. In a world that feels more and more divided, our congregation has managed to bring all sorts of people together. We're roughly equal parts Republican, Democrat, and independent, and we've learned to love and appreciate each other precisely because of our differences. We are passionate about serving people outside the walls of our church, particularly people and communities that are struggling or vulnerable.

In the last 36 years, we've devoted hundreds of thousands of volunteer hours serving people. We're constantly asking how we can close the gap between the world as it is and the world as it should be. I'm not naive. Kindness and compassion alone will not turn around what ails us. We must have the courage to stand up and write wrongs, fight for freedoms, and restore a functional government to this American experiment. We feel moved to bring a meal to a neighbor. Shouldn't we also fight against cuts to food for hungry children in our communities?

If we can drive a friend of the doctor's appointment, can't we also fight to protect people across Kansas from cuts to health care access or seeing our rural hospitals closed? Now here's the challenge. We must be able to imagine a future where Republicans, Democrats, and independents work together to actually solve problems, where our mutual respect is our common language and hope is our shared anthem. Is it easy? No. But I'm a man of faith, and sometimes that means believing in something others find unbelievable,

inspiring other people to do the same. If you agree that what's going on today is unacceptable, that it doesn't have to be this way, please consider joining our campaign. Up to see you down the road. Oh, and one more thing, we're in it to win it. That is Pastor Hamilton, and he joins us right now. Pastor, a very, very inspiring. Welcome to the campaign there. I must say if you look at the electoral history of Kansas, it may be as likely for you to march around the walls of Jericho for seven days and hear the trumpets blast and have it fall. This is a long shot, but you're in it to win it. And tell us why you think this year will be different than any other year since 1932 in Kansas. Okay, well, let me just say this too.

I'm a huge Kansas City Chiefs fan. We went 50 years without a Super Bowl. And I was so excited when we won. And I'm thinking, okay, we're 92 years. There's a long drought. It's time. But in addition to just hope. A little bit of time.

First of all, I want to say, hey, thank you for having me on this morning. I really appreciate it. I appreciate you sharing. So I think this is a year where there's a lot of frustration across the country, but certainly in Kansas. There are people who voted for Roger Marshall who have said, I voted for him. I thought he was a moderate, but that's not where he ended up. And disappointed because it doesn't feel like he's listening to Kansas. And so we see so many of the policies that are coming out of Washington, D.C. are harming ordinary Kansas people.

And I think people recognize that. There are Republicans who are saying, look, this is not okay. Farmers who are struggling, you know, the cost of inputs, the loss of markets, cattle ranchers. I went to 18 towns across Kansas, just asking all the way out to Western Kansas, you know, Tell me what you're feeling. What's going on before I ever decided to run. What I was hearing was, we're frustrated by the fact that we felt like what was going to happen in Washington has been just the opposite. It's actually, we're worse off today than we were before. A lot of people are asking questions about health care.

I mean, it's like, I met a woman in Kansas, out western, central western Kansas, and she said, you know, we make $80,000 a year and we're paying over $2,000 a month for health insurance. Like, I can't afford that. How can we afford that? And I'm thinking, we can send astronauts to the dark side of the moon, which I think is awesome. Really cool. But we can't figure out how to solve for health care. But the problem is, of course, we have Republicans and Democrats on each side, and they're going into their corners and, you know, looking for political wins as opposed to saying, wait, this is about winning

for the American people. We have to come together and work on this. And so those are some of the things that I think lead to a chance this year, this time around. I think people are frustrated. I think I'm a different kind of candidate than maybe they've seen before. And I'm hoping to build bridges and bring people together. I thought about running as an independent because I thought, what's the best way to bring people together, but I really think you have to be in a party, and I'm proud to be in the Democratic Party, but I'm an independent-leaning Democrat who's committed to working across the line and bringing Republicans and Democrats together to some problems.

So, Pastor, what's so fascinating is there obviously has been a break toward the Republican Party in rural America for 10, 15, 20 years now. But you look at what's happened, especially over the past year and a half. look at how tariffs have just crushed farmers. You can look at how the farm bill is crushed farmers. You can look at rural health care. Now, even before Donald Trump became president, there was a growing crisis in rural health care. It was terrible. Hospitals were shutting down. Urgent care centers were shutting down. You look at Medicaid cuts, and there's this idea from the 1990s that most people in Medicaid are in like inner cities across America. That's just.

just a lie. Disproportionately, rural health care is impacted more by Medicaid cuts, something like 40% of all children get their pediatric care from Medicaid. Same thing with retirement home, assisted facility. Talk about, non-political way. I mean, we don't have to talk in a political way. Just talk the facts of how brutal the past year and a half has been in all of the cuts by the richest man in the world, all of the cuts by these billionaires, all of the things that the billionaire commerce secretary has done, all of the thing. Talk about how these billionaire cuts have really hurt people that live in rural America. That's exactly right. Rural America, urban, suburban America, across the board, people who are the lower income levels are struggling. And I think about

this. So my family, when I was in high school for two years, lived below the poverty level. And I I think what it, and my wife and I did, the first year we got married, I think about just gasoline prices alone. So all of those things you named are exactly right. But I think about just common things, like gas prices up 35 to 40 percent in the last year, actually the last few months. If you're living paycheck to paycheck, which is where many Americans are living, and all of a sudden your gas prices are up 35, 40 percent, for a war, you're not really sure why it's being fought, you've got to ask, I'm having to decide if I'm living there. How do I, you know, how do I pay the bills? What am I going to pay this month? What am I not going to pay this month? Then,

when you start having medical crises that come into your family, and you're having to opt out of health insurance, I mean, across the board, you know, what I think people thought they were voting for that was going to help them has actually hurt them. And, you know, in the scriptures, there's there's several passages that guide me. One is in, well, hundreds, thousands, but the book of proverbs says, speak up for those who can't speak up for themselves. And this last year, I've been thinking about that a lot. I've been thinking about Jesus saying, you know, I'm concerned for the, you know, in as much as you've cared for the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, you know, the people in hospital or the people are sick,

the in prison, the stranger, you've done it for me. And yet, you know, we're fighting out of Washington. We sort of forgot those values. And those are Kansas values. Those are things Kansas believe in, doing unto others as you have them doing to you, caring for our neighbor. But government plays a role in that,

and it's dropping the ball right now. Reverend, good morning. You know you're picking up steam in an election when you're being attacked from both sides of the aisle. Republicans calling you a liberal Democrats who are running against you in the primary, saying, well, he used to be a registered Republican. He's not one of us.

You are drawing comparisons to James Tolariko, who's doing very well in that Senate race. So he's a Presbyterian minister in Texas. So how would you describe for the voters of Kansas your personal ideology? How do you see the world? First of all, I want to say I have your dad's book on my table, my coffee table at the Lake of the Ozarks. Oh, wow. I've enjoyed reading it. So anyway, great to see it today.

Oh, thanks. You too. So here's what I'd say, first of all, United Methodists and Methodists as a whole have been known as people of the Via Media, the Middle Way. And when you're in the middle way, you stand there. And people ask me like, I can't figure you out. Are you liberal or conservative? And I'm like, yes, of course. And they're like, no, wait, which are you?

And I'm like, well, those are both good ideas. To be liberal means to be generous of spirit. It means to be open to reform and seeing new ideas. And to be conservative means you're holding onto values from the past. And I think we have to be both of those things. And so when you're standing in that place, not in a mushy middle or a milk-toasty middle, but firmly saying, look, there's truth on both of these sides. We've got to work together.

And when you do that, you're going to be. attacked by both sides. But that's been true for 36 years of my minister, 38 years of ministry. And I'm, you know, I'm like, you know, you enter this race and you know there's going to be people who are going to be attacking. And I'm okay with that. That's all right. I believe most of us, and I think all of us on this program, you know, would be able to say, look, I'm conservative compared to some people and I'm liberal compared to other people. And I believe somehow, if we can listen, we can find, you know, we can bring people together and we can work for solutions. What's happening now is we are not working for solutions,

instead we point fingers of people and we call them names as opposed to we're going to bring people together. Yeah, Reverend Hamilton, what are you hearing about women in Kansas and their access to OBGYN care, life-saving procedures connected to that, difficulty getting prenatal care or even finding a place to have a baby? Is that an issue you're hearing about from women in your state? And how does it connect to your campaign message, which is based a lot on scripture? Yeah. So first of all, yes, everywhere I went, so in these 18 towns, rural, you know, central, southern, western Kansas, one of the first questions people raised was about access to health

care for women. And of course, in Kansas several years ago, 2022, there was an amendment that was proposed for the Constitution that was aimed at giving the state legislature control over at least the ability to speak over the courts on this. And Kansas rejected that, 60-40. a large number of women, more 80% of women, I think, in Kansas said that's not who we are. And I've assured people, I voted against that amendment myself, and I'm hearing people say, and, you know, I think, again, when it comes to abortion, this is a, you know, this is an issue

that people are deeply divided on. And yet we find in Kansas, people are saying, look, we need to make sure that women are safe. We need to make sure that women are cared for. And I think that's very important. Yeah, Democratic U.S. Senate candidate from Kansas, Reverend Adam Hemel, Thank you so much for coming on the show this morning. We really appreciate it. I'm going to say, oh, go ahead.

No, go ahead. No, no, no, no. You talk to me. We appreciate having you on. Well, I appreciate having you all. And thank you, sorry, you having me on. Thank you so much. I'm really excited about this campaign.

And we are in it to win it. And I believe we're going to have a huge impact for people in the state of Kansas. I want to be their champion. And I'm excited about having a chance to run for the United States Senate.