Morning Joe - TRUMP URGES UK TO SEND WARSHIPS TO HORMUZ STRAIT

Episode Date: March 16, 2026

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President Trump said, quote, hopefully China, France, Japan, South Korea, the UK, and others will send ships to the area, unquote. Is he hoping that those countries are going to send ships or have they committed to sending ships? And how soon will those naval escorts be ready? Well, I'll leave those, you know, those conversations to him. The conversations are ongoing. I think there's an important point that's getting, you know, kind of missed in the conversation, and that 80% of the oil coming out of the Gulf heads to Asia. President Trump is calling upon the world, saying the entire world is affected. Iran can't hold your

economies hostage. And we certainly welcome, encourage, and even demand their participation to help their own economies. It's fascinating. That was obviously the ambassador to the United Nations. You know, Ed Luce had an interview, had a interview with Donald Trump over the weekend. And Donald Trump's even talking about possibly canceling his meeting with President Xi if President Xi doesn't also help the U.S. with their efforts to get the straights open up. Because, you know, the world, you have the world who actually benefits from this. But this is what, again, one of the reasons why Donald Trump ran and was elected is here we are finding ourselves in a position where we're being policemen to the world again, something that, of course, so many people, especially. on the right have complained about for years and the left that the United States shouldn't be policing of the world. So right now, how much of a disproportionate burden is the military

going to be taking if other countries aren't helping to keep the straits open? That's what the president and his cabinet are going to be sorting through this week. And right now, of course, the demand the ambassador of the United Nations, along with President Trump demanding NATO allies and others join the effort to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. It comes as there were more widespread attacks in the Middle East over the weekend. We're going to bring you the very latest on that, as well as new reporting on Israel, possibly expanding its strikes deeper into Lebanon. With us this Monday morning, we have the co-host of our 9-am hour,

staff writer at the Atlantic, Jonathan Lemire, co-hosts of the Restis Politics podcast, the BBC's Caddy Kay and columnist. editor at the Washington Post. David Ignatius starts off the week with us this morning. We're going to get to the news. I have a couple really quick questions. We'll do a lightning round right off the top. Kadeh, I want to start with you and talk about how impossible it is for Kier Starrmer

to do much more than he's doing right now, just politically in Britain. Donald Trump obviously wants Kier Starrmer, the Prime Minister of the UK, to get much more active. That would be asking, like, Donald Trump to, you know, go to. mosque services for three months in the United States. I mean, his base doesn't want him to help the United States out any more than, you know, Donald Trump would be going to mosque services for his base. It's an imperfect parallel there, but you get the point. Yeah. Look, Kelly, Kirstama's kind of relationship with Donald Trump has been complicated and during this war it's been even more complicated. But what we have seen is that the more he resists Donald Trump, the more he says

no, as he did at the beginning anyway, to using the bases, the more he's deliberating on the request for things like Navy ships in the Straits of Hormuz. Actually, that is helping him with his poll numbers at home. Kirstama went into this with a growth problem and economics problem back in the UK with low approval ratings. He's gone up, we're told by British officials, something like six approval points just in the course of the last couple of weeks. So he's annoying some people in the kind of more right of American media, British media circles, but his team anyway are happy with how this is playing with the British public. Yeah, and while I broach the subject, I might as well talk about it.

We haven't talked about it on the show yet, which is absolutely disgusting, deplorable what a lot of Republicans have been saying about Muslim Americans who, I mean, obviously these people who have been attacking Muslim Americans haven't read the First Amendment yet. should. It's not that hard. A couple of sentences. We'll help you with your day. David Ignatius, I want to ask you, I'll just say, I don't understand the continued excursion into Lebanon. I don't understand the scale of the attacks into Lebanon. I don't understand why it continues to widen. Help me and help everybody else understand why is Netanyahu taking such an expansive approach to warfare in Lebanon?

Joe, it's a tough one to answer. Israelis have bitter memories of Lebanon. I watched as they roll all the way to Beirut in 1982 and live to regret it deeply for several decades. An essayist who writes for the Atlantic magazine last weekend wrote an essay on victory disease, the ways in which leaders and armies can become so stoked by one victory that they keep going beyond the limits of good sense.

Certainly Donald Trump had victory disease after his stunning success in Venezuela. I think the Israelis, after the amazing successes of the last two years against Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, have thought they just have to keep going, go all the way. Lebanon has been a real quagmire for Israel, and I would expect that in the next few days, you'll hear growing criticism of the idea of a big ground invasion of Lebanon again, because people have seen where that leads. Why does it happen?

It happens because leaders get intoxicated by their own power. Yeah, and Jonathan Lemire, we entered into the third week, and Donald Trump faces really difficult choices. Any way you turn, it reminds me of what Kissinger always said about difficult choices. You know, are about choices. It's never a choice between a good thing to do and a bad thing to do, a hard thing to do and an easy thing to do. Often it's just the choice between two bad options. That seems to be where the president is right now just because can't really come home with the situation where it is.

But if you stay there much longer with oil going up, you know, maybe we're at 160. right now a barrel, then obviously they're going to be real economic shocks around the United States and the world. So what is the president looking at this week as we begin the week this Monday morning? Yeah, it's a very tough landscape for him, both in the Middle East, but also at home here politically. Yes, you know, the poll show Americans are not in favor of this war. They see the rising gas prices, pain that's only going to grow. It would appear in the days and weeks ahead. Most Republicans still stand with Trump, but there's a small but loud group of his base that says this needs to stop. But certainly those in the GOP worry about the impact that this war and those

gas prices could have on November's midterms. And he does have a really difficult decisions ahead about the state of the conflict in Iran. We as making mention at the top of the show, pushing, really badgering allies to help with the Strait of Hormuz to try to help clear that and allow oil to come through, but even acknowledging members of administration say it still could be a couple of weeks before the U.S. efforts could really ramp up there, which means indeed higher prices. And even though the Iranian Navy has been wiped out in most respects, it only takes a drone or a speedboat or someone with a rocket launcher from land to do real damage on an oil tanker or a U.S. military vessel. So there's real issues there for President Trump.

And we're seeing him, Joe and Mika, react yesterday. And a couple of angry social media posts, an angry gaggle on Air Force One, you know, suggesting even members of the media who are reporting about this war should be tried for treason or the FCC. Chairman suggesting they're going to provoke their licenses. This is a crucial week for president who would love to find an off ramp, but simply doesn't have one yet. Yeah, I just want to say really quickly. David Ignatius, we, you and I are old enough to remember. say wise enough to remember how long it took in the Pentagon to recover from the lies, the constant lies that General Westmoreland and the spokespeople and the Pentagon gave to the American

people throughout the Vietnam War. It took two decades to recover from that. And the beating up of the press, I mean, almost takes you back to the middle of Vietnam where things aren't going well. The press reports on it. People call them communists. And then a decade later, everybody's yelling, why didn't the press report about this more? Why did it take so long? When I hear this from Pete Hegseth, and I know we act like a child, that's me, not you, but when I hear this from Pete Heggzith or anybody else in the administration, they obviously don't remember the severe, lasting, generational damage to all the lies coming from the Pentagon during the Vietnam War, how long it took our United States military.

to recover for that. I'm not suggesting that we're getting the same amount of lies from this Pentagon or are from this administration. I'm just saying the ignorance, even of people like Ari Fleischer to go out and say, how dare anybody write anything bad about our military? You're almost rooting against America. All of those people know better. The press is doing its job. End of story. So, Joe, there can't be anything tougher than to be a president trying to command a war that's not going the way you want. That's been true through our history, and it's true now for President Trump. This is a tough time for him. The performance of the U.S. military itself has been extraordinarily good through this war.

They made some terrible mistakes, as evidently they did in hitting the school in southern Iran. but in general, the military has been outstanding, as President Trump says. The problem is when these tactical successes are matched with what appears to be very little good strategic planning about how you terminate the conflict on terms that are advantageous. It just doesn't seem to be done, have been done. And I think that's what's really worrying Washington. As I talk to people through the weekend, Joe and Mika, I just kept hearing the same things.

There's a deep sense of foreboding. The one shoe that hasn't dropped in this conflict yet is terrorism. That's something the Iranians are very good at, and they're backed into a corner, but they have not played anything like their last card yet. So as I made my rounds talking to people, I heard concern about that and other things over and over again. So, you know, blaming the press is it happens in every war.

It's happening now. Our job, more clearly than ever before, is to be honest and to warn of dangers we see ahead and question assumptions that policymakers are making. This is not a time to say, yes, sir, absolutely. That's great. It's a time to be skeptical, and that's how we can be helpful. And if people don't realize that in the way, they're making a mistake. Well, and by asking the tough questions, who are we helping?

People say, oh, you're helping? No, we're not helping the enemy. We're helping our men and women in uniform. We're making sure. We're holding their leaders to account, holding them to account that they're telling the American people the truth. They're being transparent about what our long-term objectives are. They're being transparent about where we are in the middle of this one. I just say to Brendan Carr, Brandon, I've never met you before, but just please.

You're only hurting yourself when you're talking about punishing TV stations or networks because of a Wall Street Journal article. And I mean this, I'm not even, I'm not being sarcastic. Just please stop. There will be a time when this administration is over. And you don't want all of this following you the rest of your life. It's just embarrassing. So do your job. All right.

Stop posing for the president. You know, that's not going to help you in the long term either. It's just an embarrassment. Some even Republicans are feeling that they agree with you on that. Here are the latest developments before we get to our first break this morning. Overnight, flights were temporarily suspended at Dubai International Airport after a fuel tank nearby caught fire in a drone-related incident. In Iraq, security officials say a missile struck a helipad inside the U.S. Embassy compound in Baghdad on Saturday.

That's one of the largest U.S. diplomatic facilities in the world. Meanwhile, Israel's military said overnight, it was targeting government infrastructure in Tehran with a broad wave of attacks. U.S. forces bombed military targets on Iran's Karg Island on Friday. The island is the primary terminal for the country's oil exports. But President Trump wrote on social media that the attack spared oil infrastructure for reasons of decency. This comes as Iran's effective shutdown of the Strait of Hormuz

continues to severely disrupt global markets with oil prices hovering around $100 a barrel this morning. Let's bring in Decorated Combat Veteran, Former Commander of the U.S. Army Europe, retired Army Lieutenant General Mark Hurling. He's author of the new book. It's just a must read. It's called If I Don't Return, a Father's War Time,

Journal, and it's more timely now than ever before. General, thanks for being with us. David Ignatius has the first question for you. David. General, we're heading into the third week of this war, and I think we'd all be grateful for your assessment of where we are and what your concerns as a longtime commander of forces in this region are about where we are going forward. Well, you were discussing it a minute ago with Joe, David, and it's a great question because it harkens back to the very start of the war when many of us were saying, what are the strategic objectives? If you do not have strategic objectives, it's very hard to build a military campaign plan. And I'll even add to that, it's hard to build a diplomacy end state.

It's hard to build an economic end state on what you're looking for. So if you're only worried about conducting air campaigns to bomb things, it's not going to reach what a strategic ability. objective is other than destroying what you're aiming at. How do you get out of that? What is the end state? What are the strategic objectives? Those are my biggest concerns. And as we've seen, over the last three weeks, is more and more elements of combat and wars are emanating out of this entire operation. You were just talking about, you know, the president and others denigrating the press. That's truly unfortunate because, as a soldier over 40 years, I'd realize that the press could be, while they were sometimes a pain,

they were my friends because they informed the American public. The American public is not informed about what the accomplishments or what we're trying to do in this war other than what's given from Secretary Hegseth and the president, which we, truthfully, are not trusting all that much. So it's concerning. This will expand. the region's already expanding. We've seen this morning, Dubai International Airport, which is the largest airport in the area

and is a hub for so many other countries, is shut down. That's certainly going to affect the economy. Different oil locations within Iran and other places have been struck. And we've seen the economic impact of that. Our alliances have refused to help us across the board. And even the president pleading with alliances and part, and in some cases, foes like China to help us out as he did in his posting over the weekend just seems to me to be a reflection of what this administration has done to our allies and

partners in terms of pushing them away as opposed to building trust and pulling them together. Truthfully, I believe we're in dire straits and there's more to come. General, there's many observers told me over the weekend. They thought the president's post there had some discipline. to them trying to get allies to help out here because he knows how difficult this situation now is. So let's talk about that indeed. So two places many Americans probably couldn't have ever heard of and certainly couldn't find on a map a few weeks ago. Carg Island and the Strait of Hormuz Carg Island, the president said there was a massive strike there on Friday hitting military

installations, but spared the oil facilities, at least for now. He says clearly a threat that he may do more. So talk about the strategic import of that place, but also, Just again, if you could reiterate, how difficult it is going to be to guarantee safe passage for these oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz because Iranians don't have to have a massive Navy in order to do some real damage. Yeah, I heard you say that earlier, Jonathan, and you were spot on. First of all, Karg Island, a very small island offshore. It's about 25 miles offshore of Iran. And it's an oil transfer point and storage point. And the reason it's important is because Iran doesn't have a whole lot of deep water ports

where huge oil tankers can pull in and fill up. So they do it on Karg Island. So that's the strategic significance of it. It's one of the few places, and it's the largest in Iran, for oil storage and transfer. So it is an island about seven miles in circumference, not very big, not with a great population. but it has a lot of military elements to it as well. I remember doing a war game, I date myself, but when I was a young major in Fort Leavenworth, we did a war game against Iran.

Karg Island was a strategic center of gravity or a decisive point, as we call it, in the military, that we focused on. And even in that war game, as a young major, we all came away from that exercise, realizing how tough it would be to go to some type of land war or even an amphibis. operation within Iran because it is such a big country with small little decisive points like Karg Island. When you're talking about alliances, I think that was your second question, how do you spend the years pulling together people? How do you get other countries to trust what you're doing? So in the event of something like this where you really need allies to help you out, are they there

for you. That's truthfully what I spent a lifetime in my career doing in Europe and the Middle East. And now we see so many countries who are just refusing to contribute to this because they've lost trust in our administration. And it's not just helping in terms of providing forces or ships. It's also providing intelligence and the kind of support, overflight, those kind of things that the military depends upon. So all of those factors play a part. And they all should have been part of the war gaming before deciding to go in and just bomb things. Certainly, you can say, and all of us have, that the military campaign in this war has been significant and effective. But then to what end?

There's a great book called On Strategy by a guy from Vietnam who was talking to a Vietnamese colonel after the war. And the statement was, and I think this has been repeated on a lot of shows, for those of us in the military, it's damning when you hear this kind of thing. The U.S. colonel said, you know, you never beat us on the battlefield. And the Vietnamese colonel said, and that doesn't matter because you lost the war. Well, and that's really, that's what the question is. How are we going to, not win the war, how are we going to get back, survive the war without the economy crashing? But make no mistake.

of it. I think the general and many other people would say, if we could figure out a way to do that, destroy their military infrastructure to such a degree that they're set back three to five years and do it in a way that doesn't damage the economy for the long term. I think the White House would take that right now. The question is, how do you get there? One other thing really quickly about Carg Island. I was talking to Adelous last night about his interview with the president. He said, by the way, Mika's father had recommended to Jimmy Carter that they seized Cargillian. Island during the Iranian hostage crisis because that's 90% of the oil exports come from Karg Island.

So when you hear that island, it's been at the center of conversations for a very long time. I'm shocked. I'm shocked that your father was a hawk there. Absolutely not. He always surprised people. But that's like half a century. I mean, this. Yeah, that's how long this has been going.

50 years. So more with Kady Kay, David Ignatius and General Hurdling in just a moment. Also, we'll get a live report from Israel. from what's going on on the ground there. We'll be right back in just a moment. Yeah, after the conflict is over, you'll start to see prices come back down. It is a short-term disruption in the flow of energy. Americans are feeling it right now. Americans will feel it for a few more weeks. Are you suggesting this war could be over, will be over in a few more weeks? I think that's the likely time frame, yes. Energy Secretary, Chris Wright, telling NBC's meet the

press yesterday that Americans could soon see an ease to the financial pain at the pump. I mean, the prices are going up. What's your take on that? Well, I mean, if you're, how do you know? If you're in a war with Iran, the prices are going to go up. If you end the war with Iran, in a way to keep the straits open, the price of oil is going to come down. This is at 1974, the United States is the largest exporter of oil on the planet, we're going to be able to, again, if, and it's one of the reasons the president doesn't want, it's not because he's a nice guy, but it's one of the reasons why he doesn't want the infrastructure of the oil production in Iran destroyed. You want to keep that going. And yeah, if the war ends in the next

three to four weeks, the straits are open. We're back to generally where we were before. We're for the war? Yeah, the prices will go back down and will go down pretty quickly. The question now, though, is how do you win the war over the next two, three, four weeks and guarantee that the straits are open? That is really one of the, and that's one of the two most important questions President Trump's dealing with now. How to keep the streets open when you come home and how do you make sure that your allies in the region are protected? Hey, Katty-K, next question goes to you for General Hurdling. General, thanks for joining us this morning.

We've had a lot from the President over the course of the weekend about the enormous destructive capability of the American military over the last two weeks in Iran. We've seen those dramatic, maybe bizarre videos that the White House has been putting out in frequent numbers, interspersing attack videos with cartoon pictures. And yet we still see the Iranians managing to retaliate. have you been surprised by what the Iranians are still able to do two weeks into this bombing campaign and how much leverage they still seem to have? I've not been surprised, Katty, and here's why.

The Iranians have had multiple opportunities to learn from the attacks that have occurred against their country in the first place. And, you know, I have an article coming out today in the bulwark entitled, The Enemy Gets a Vote. that always happens in combat. You can't control the chaos which occurs in combat. You can only attempt to plan for it and adjust and adapt as it happens. You don't, no matter what side you're on, you don't say, I will predict the end of the war will be next week or in three weeks,

because it will always, always foil your projections. It's just a human dimension of what conflict is all about. about and it's so incredibly personal that you have to have really smart people planning for not only the original strategy, but also the branches and sequels of what's happened. I was reflecting, I don't think I answered Jonathan's question from earlier when he said, you know, is the military doing all the things that they should be doing? I'm paraphrasing there. But I think what we're talking about whenever you get into combat or before you enter combat, there's a term I'll introduce you to it's called troop to task when you know what you're asked to accomplish as a military force you assign

troops to that specific task you can't just wing it and do it on the fly when things start changing and say well we're going to we're going to have people escorting literally hundreds of ships huge cargo tankers through the straits and that's a last minute notice because you haven't planned for it I understand that there's a report in a paper this morning, the news report, saying that General Kane had told them that there was, told the administration, there was a high probability that the straits would be closed. If that's the case and they waved it off saying, no, that won't happen. We're going to be so devastating that we won't need any kind of escorts. Well, now you're in a problem because you don't have the ships to conduct both Tomahawk attacks, protection of aircraft carriers that are long. launching aircraft into Iran and at the same time, use those same destroyers and cruisers for another task.

So you have what's called task expansion. Some will call it mission creep, but it just causes the military to go in a bunch of different directions that they're not prepared to do. That's what we're starting to see right now. And I hate to see it, but some are blaming the military saying, hey, how come they can't just escort the ships? Well, because they don't have enough ships to do it. and all the other missions they've been assigned.

All right, retired Army, Lieutenant General Mark Hurdling. Thank you, as always, his new book. If I don't return, a father's wartime journals available now. And Mika, the general is so right. We need to underline this. The military is doing an extraordinary job. This needs to be planned forward, planned ahead. But these end goals, and we heard it in Israel, oh, we have to disarm Hamas.

Hamas has gotten a vote on that. And after all these months, that hasn't happened. And the idea that we're going to just change regimes in Iran, Iran gets a vote on that. So those are the known unknowns. When does that happen? What does that look like? And how can we get our troops back home while keeping the straits open and getting the economy back to where it needs to be so working Americans can afford? Guess?

really, really difficult realities connected to the decision to go to war with Iran, obviously. But always are. Coming up, we're going to get to the new piece by David Ignatius, looking at Iran's new leadership in a new column by Rahm Emanuel, advising Democrats on how to most effectively speak out against Trump's foreign policy. And later, we're going to get to the other top stories of the day, including the big moments from last night's Academy Awards. But first, as we go to break, a quick look at the Travelers' Four

this morning from ACUweathers, Bernie Rayno. Bernie, how's it looking? Mika, major travel delays today. Strong winds this afternoon and tonight throughout the mid-Atlantic states, and we're looking at damaging thunderstorms, roughly from Harrisburg, Washington, D.C., all the way down to where Columbia, South Carolina, New York City and Boston rain this morning, then showers and thunderstorms this afternoon. We think the severe weather stays off to the south and east. The southeast, strong thunderstorms. leaving this morning, but gusty winds and turning colder later today and tonight. And take a look at this travel forecast.

Major delays today. To help you make the best decisions and be more in the know, download the Accuweather app today. Juan Soto, Bobby Witt, and then Catell Marte, who shows off that back. Oh, yeah. Aaron Judge, with a 96-mile-per-hour laser from right field to nab the runner at third base and end the third inning with Team USA, trailing by one run against the Dominican Republic last night in the World Baseball Classic. Gunner Henderson even the score with a solar shot in the top of the frame before Roman Anthony put the U.S. ahead.

Join the red, white and blue. Some people are saying he's Captain America. Oh, my gosh. Some people are saying he's Superman. Some people are saying, whatever they're saying about Roman Anthony. They're right. The pair of solo home rhymes would be all Team USA needed. Starting pitcher, Paul Skeen's allowed just one run, more than four innings of work on the mound, but the U.S. full pen held. The D.R. scoreless from there, a controversial strike three call

on a low slider thrown by the closer ends the game. And since Team USA was third consecutive final for a two-to-one win over the Dominican Republic, the U.S. is going to face a winner of the other semifinal tonight, between Italy and Venezuela, which knocked out defending in champion Japan on Saturday. Jonathan Lemire, just a great game. And of course, Roman Anthony winning the game for Team USA made it all the sweeter. I will just say, man, you kind of hate to see the game end on a ball clearly outside the strike zone.

Well, that is why Major League Baseball this year is instituting the new ABS challenge system where you can challenge a couple of balls and strikes balls during a day, during a game. and clearly was low. You know, a few other calls that were missed during the game. But it doesn't take away from what a classic it was. What a wonderful tournament this has been. The enthusiasm from the crowds, the enthusiasm from the players has been so fun. And then you were right.

This game yesterday, Roman Anthony, 21 years old, face of the Red Sox, face of Major League Baseball, maybe face of the nation. Face of America. Roman Anthony, there he is. Maybe face of the world. Face of the world. Our greatest living America. Roman Anthony, who only added to the roster days before the tournament started.

But biggest swing of the night, great win, so much fun. And now and up, a Cinderella story, if you will, tonight, Joe. Italy. Yes, Italy has had a charmed run through this tournament, drinking shots of espresso after every home run. And they take on Venezuela. Championship game tomorrow. Some people say Roman Anthony should be on the $20 bill. I don't know.

That's what some people say. I agree. But yeah, a great, a great night for Team USA. And it was another action-packed weekend in the English Premier League with Arsenal now nine points ahead of Manchester City and the league's 10th ways. Let's bring in founder of Men and Blazers Media Network and author of the new book that really has changed so many lives across the planet. We are the World Cup, a personal history of the world's greatest sporting event. Roger Bennett, you're here. And I must say, this may be the weekend that I just gave up hope on Liverpool. They once again, once again, blew a match in, you know, the 93rd, 94th, 95th minute. That, I, I, who do you blame that on? Do you blame, is that, is that the manager?

One constant loss after another in the final minutes of a match. Oh, Joe, I blame it on you for having hope. children watching at home. Stop having hope. That's what you need to do. Give it all up. Yeah, not just in football, but in life. We'll get into Liverpool, Joe.

Well, let's start with Arsenal Football Club. Let's start with Joy. 22 years since they last won the title. They're leading the league. They're like Marv Levy's Buffalo Bills, perpetual second. They're a Sisyphus, owned by L.A. Rams, Stan Cronkey. Began the weekend, seven points ahead,

with nine games to go, facing Road Warrior. Everton, game that felt a little bit. Don't like to be hyperbolic like a colonoscopy. Match tied until the 80-9th minute. This is a 16-year-old crossing in the ball, like Paul Skeens. Drop to Victor Jokores, who finished a goal about as challenging as a Bamadabio layup in the fourth quarter, but the relief palpable. Max Downman wasn't done.

This is a 16-year-old, 73 days. He's a child star. This is Haley Joel Osman in cleats. I don't like to be hyperbolic, but this is like watching Odysseus reclaimers thrown in Ithaca at the end of the Odyssey. Arsenal go from staring into the abyss in the 89 minute to this kind of joy. They are walking on sunshine like Katrina and the waves, and even I, who am dead inside, found it magnificent. There was a team hunting Arsenal. Look at this. World needs more of this kind of joy.

Manchester City pursuing Arsenal. They played at Sellerswell at West Ham, who was a lot. appeared City to be cruising early. Look at this. Bernardo Silver, little Ewok, sends a ball higher that Mondo Duplantis. Oh, but City this season cannot have nice things and they definitely can't hold on to Leeds. And three minutes and 42 seconds later, West Ham, so did West Ham. This is an ex-Arsonal player, Mavra Panos, scoring for them. Proof once again, children watching at home. bite is the rocket fuel of human motivation.

City stumble, Arsenal now nine points ahead. And finally, your Liverpool, Joe, against Tottenham Hotspur, the ninth richest club in the world. They're essentially having a New York jet to the season in which are in danger of being relegated. They're like footballing barestones. Too big to fail. Liverpool start off at this very handsome man,

a poem of a free kick, beautiful Dom Soberslie. But Liverpool, in the last seconds of games, you alluded it to in the top. They're Cinemax after dark. And in the very last minute, Joe, Rich Arlinson, scuff the ball home. It's more than a goal. This is fibulators.

This is oxygen. This is life itself. Joe, what can I tell you, your Liverpool, they are essentially a footballing Timothy Chalamey. You don't want to be Chalamey, do you?

All right, Roger Bennett. You don't want to be Timothy Chalemay in life, do you? Now, pretty good ping-tonging player. It's all right. Roger Bennett. Thank you very much. I'm always good to see you.

It's great to see you. I've got to talk to Elmere about this for a second. You know, Lamere, Lamar. A small amount of time. I know I do. But it's just I have to, I have to rant about this. Jonathan Elmere, why do we watch Liverpool matches when we know that we're going to play teams that are going to be relegated? We're going to be ahead of them for 93 minutes and loose.

We keep doing this. I mean, it's really, it's, and I don't know who to blame. I love the players. I really do. Do we blame slot? Whose fault is this that this team keeps collapsing at the very end? You know, after a while, I'm sorry, after a while, you got to look at the people who were running the squad. You know, because great coaches, and I saw it at Alabama with Nick Saban.

You go on to the fourth quarter, you go, we're going to win. You just relax. You know Sabin's going to win if there's a chance. Here, we know this year, even against the worst teams in the league, doesn't matter how we're doing. this is a one goal difference, we're going to lose or draw. Yeah, we do it every week. We talk ourselves into it. And other teams that Premier League have also had tough seasons,

Astonville, Chelsea, etc. Like, had they hung on to that lead yesterday, Liverpool, they'd be fourth. They'd be set to go to the Champions League again next year. And they blow it. And they have had, I believe, a historic run of late losses or given up late goals that make them settle for a draw like yesterday. No team has done this before in the history of the Premier League.

And I agree with you, Joe. Arnie Slott brought them a title just a year ago. His job security is very much in doubt. I think most Liverpool fans would be happy to see him go at the end of this season, unthinkable just 12 months ago. I know. All right. We're going to get to the Oscars and other news in just a moment.

But for now, back to Iran. David Ignatius, your latest opinion piece for the Washington Post is titled, Iran's Islamic Republic 2.0 is coming, and it won't be pretty. What are your warnings? So, Mika, with the death of the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, we've gone into what I call Islamic Republic 2.0, with his son, who's kind of a clerical nonentity, taking over. But really, this is an IRGC state. It's now run by the revolutionary militia that's really been behind the scenes for years. this Iran is going to be probably even more hardline and difficult than the one that we've seen before. It will govern increasingly by just sheer physical intimidation. The only thing that gives me hope as I look in this kind of bleak period is the Iranian people. Every year, for the

last five or so years, they've been out in the streets demanding change. They're frightened and inside their homes now, afraid of coming out, afraid of protesting. But I have to believe that even with the sympathy that is being generated by this bombing campaign, the Iranian people still want change. And Islamic Republic 2.0 is going to have the same problems with public opinion that the previous regime had. All right. The Washington Post, David Ignatius, as always, thank you so much for coming on the show this morning. And still ahead. on Morning Joe, the New York Times has a new piece on the stark choices President Trump is facing as the war with Iran drags on will dig into that.

Plus, a live report from Jerusalem amid reporting that Israel is planning a massive ground invasion of Lebanon. Morning Joe is back at a moment. The Oscar goes to one battle after another. I really blew it when I won a Best Director award, and I forgot to thank my cat. with Leo Benicio, Tiana, Sean, Regina, and especially Chase, my American girl, Chase. You are the heart of this movie, this entire team. What a night.

You guys, let's have a martini. This is pretty amazing. Cheers. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Martini time. The team behind one battle after another were the big winners at last night's Academy Awards,

taking home six Oscars, including Best Picture. Sinners followed closely behind the film won four awards, including Best Original Screenplay and Best Lead Actor for Michael B. Jordan. The film also made history behind the camera. Its cinematographer became the first woman to ever win in that category. She invited every other woman in the room to stand up during her acceptance speech to celebrate the moment with her. I like that.

Plenty of other firsts were made throughout the night. Jesse Buckley became the first Irish woman to win Best Actress, taking home the Oscar for her performance in Hamnet. The Netflix Sensation, K-pop Demon Hunters, won Best Animated Feature, with its co-director and producer becoming the first people of South Korean descent to win in that category. And the film's song, Golden, became the first K-pop song to win an Oscar last month.

also began the first ever K-pop song to win a Grammy. Comedian Conan O'Brien was back for the second year in a row to host the big event. It's the first time since 2012, first time since 2012, that there are no British actors nominated for best actor or best actress. Yeah, British spokesperson said, yeah, well, at least we arrest our pedophiles. So you got that going to hear you. If you're watching from Spain, Hola, So I'm a pleasure

darle la bienvenida on those Oscars. If you're seeing us in Argentina, Hola, So I'm Conro Brian. He's an pleasure to give me la bienvenida or those Oscars.

And to our friends in Los Angeles, hello, So I'm Conro, Brian. It's a pleasure, D'A la bien-vinda. Well done. Well done. Jonathan Lemire,

he also said this might be the lot year, a human actually hosts the Oscars, given all the changes with AI. But what a night. Yeah, he also teased ahead. This is, Oscars are going to YouTube in a few years. He had a funny bit there about the Oscar streaming telecast being interrupted by pop-up ads. Conan's always great. The line about the pedophilias, that was sort of the winner of the night for most people. He also injected a little bit of seriousness into the brief moment about acknowledgement of how tough things are on the world right now for so many people. But Caddy Kay, let's go through a couple of the winners here.

One battle after another, widely expected to win. Paul Thomas Anderson, the director, you know, deserved it. This is his first Oscar, to be sure. Great to see Michael B. Jordan win, though, for best actor in Sinners. He was, you know, he's a beloved figure in Hollywood. This was due. Jesse Buckley, of course, transcended performance. And I also was amused that Sean Penn, who won best supporting actor for one battle

after another skipped the ceremony. I just didn't bother to show up. And we also had, Caddy, our first tie in decades for best short film. What has stood out to you last night? Well, I was glad that both sinners and one battle after another got kind of good recognition because I know it had been a competition between the two of them going into the night. I loved both of those movies. So it was nice they both seemed to come away, satisfied that they both got that recognition.

Okay, full disclosure, I have not seen Hamnet because I know that it's going to make me cry for two hours and there's enough going on in the world and I'm not sure if I can do two hours of sobbing in a cinema. So I may get to that. I love Jesse Buckley. So I may try and get to that one. I liked the cold open. I liked the kids chasing him around on him and his wig. I thought that was funny. He did a good job, Conan. Obviously, I didn't stay up and watch the whole thing. I'm not even going to pretend that I did. I mean, you know, you get you get the best supporting actress and then it's bedtime. It is. Absolutely. I'm with you, Katty.