What A Day - Iran: Trump's Forever War?

Episode Date: July 20, 2026

Over the weekend, the Pentagon announced that three US service members were killed as fighting intensified between the US and Iran. That brings the current death toll for US military personnel engaged in the war to 17. And with news from the New York Times that the Pentagon has been hesitant to share more information about further casualties. It's clear that the Iran war is far from ending, and may even be spiraling out of control. So to talk more about Trump's war of choice, we spoke with Mehdi Hasan. He's the editor-in-chief and CEO of Zeteo.And in headlines, US senators are pushing for more details about ICE's vetting practices for new agents, Troy Jackson, a fifth-generation logger, is almost certain to become the Democratic Senate nominee in Maine, and President Trump tries to steal the spotlight from Spain after the FIFA World Cup final.Show Notes: Check out Zeteo Call Congress – 202-224-3121 Subscribe to the What A Day Newsletter – https://tinyurl.com/y4y2e9jy What A Day – YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcast Follow us on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/crookedmedia/ For a transcript of this episode, please email [e-mail]

The transparency issue is a real problem with this administration. This is a fundamental challenge with covering Trump, is that A, everything he says is a lie, and same with the people around him. And B, it's very hard to then try and debunk those lies when information is so closely guarded by this administration. I'm Jane Koston, and this is why today, the show wondering why so many in the world of golf had decided that President Donald Trump is the man they need when times get tough.

First, it was Tiger Woods, who told police, was on the phone with Trump when he got arrested for a DUI back in March. Then, over the weekend, golfer Bryson DeShambo reportedly demanded Trump get involved when he was penalized at the Open Championship. Typically, I'd say that these golfers should know that the president of the United States has better things to do. But then again, this is Trump we're talking about. On today's show, we talk to Zateo's Mehdi Hassan about Trump's escalating war in Iran.

Before we get into all that, here's what we're following today, Monday, July 20th. On the ICE officer in Maine, is there more clarity on how he got his job considering the vetting concerns that his wife has raised? Are there potential changes coming to the vetting process of ICE agents? That's a question for ICE. That's under investigation. I'm sure that part now is part of the investigation. We'll let the investigation play. I'm not going to comment on investigation as is ongoing. Borders are Tom Homan spoke to reporters outside of the White House on Monday about the recent deadly shootings in which immigration and customs enforcement officers killed immigrants in Texas in Maine. The Associated Press reported last week that the ICE officer who killed a man from

Columbia in Maine had a history of violent behavior toward family members that was detailed in family court records. In response to the shootings, U.S. senators are pushing for more details from ICE about the agency's vetting practices for new agents. Maine's independent senator, Angus King, and 38 Democratic senators sent a letter to the Department of Homeland Security on Monday. The letter lists new measures they want put in place to increase accountability at the agency, including transparency about whether ICE considers records and family court of domestic violence or abuse when vetting new recruits. The Trump administration is at a loss on how to clean up the mess of the parasitic outbreak causing thousands of people to sprint to the toilet. Thankfully, the FDA was on the case,

until it wasn't. The agency admitted today that it had not found lettuce that tested positive for cyclospora, a parasite that can cause explosive diarrhea from produce distributor Taylor Farms. The agency's initial report was a false positive. Taylor Farms has recalled its lettuce processed in Mexico in quote, an abundance of caution. The reversal comes as the outbreak quickly spreads. More than a thousand people have confirmed cases of cyclosporiasis, according to federal data and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But the numbers could be far higher, since the infection is often.

and underreported and symptoms can take several days to develop. But don't worry, I'm sure Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has a situation handled. You know, the guy who once bragged about having a freezer full of roadkill. Troy Jackson, a fifth-generation logger, is almost certain to become the Democratic Senate nominee in Maine, after all of his major opponents dropped out. While Jackson is a staunch progressive with a long history in Maine politics, Democrats worry that he simply isn't as compelling as Graham Platner was before his campaign's implosion. A Bitterford resident told Politico that Jackson, quote, was never going to be like the pick of the consultant class. He continued, quote, he's too much of a regular guy.

He's not the slick choice, which is funny because he's a regular guy was the entire pitch for Graham Platner. After a glorious month of hydration breaks, upsets, FIFA-related nonsense and thinking way too much about VAR, the World Cup has finally come to an end. On Sunday, Spain defeated Argentina, won nothing an extra time, marking the country's second men's World Cup title. And because the Spanish women's team won the World Cup back in 2023, Spain is now the first country to hold both the men's and women's titles concurrently. But don't worry, Donald Trump naturally attempted to get involved in the final. During a Friday reception, he said that he wants the U.S. to host the World Cup again in 2038,

but without Mexico and Canada as co-hosts. He added that FIFA president Gianni Infantino has suggested that the U.S. co-host World Cup with China, an idea so terrible that only a FIFA president could come up with it. And that's the news. Let's talk about Trump's war in Iran. Over the weekend, the Pentagon announced that three U.S. service members were killed as fighting intensified between the U.S. and Iran.

That brings the current death toll for U.S. military personnel engaged in the war to 17. Trump's response, quote, It's a very sad thing. And with news from the New York Times that the Pentagon has been hesitant to share more information about further casualties, it's clear that far from ending,

the war in Iran is spiraling out of control. Actually, was a war in Iran ever in control? As we've discussed in the show before, the Trump administration has given more than a dozen reasons why it launched combat operations in Iran, from regime change to preventing nuclear war to personal payback on the country for

assassination attempts on Trump. And nearly five months into the conflict, not only do the American people not know why the war began, we have absolutely no idea what victory would even look like. So to talk more about Trump's war of choice, I spoke to Medi Hassan. He's the editor-in-chief and CEO of Zateo. Madi, welcome back to Wad today. Good to be back. So it feels like it was 10 years ago, but just over a month ago, the U.S. and Iran signed a 14-point memorandum of understanding, which included a formal ceasefire, reopening the Strait of Hormuz, and even the promise of billions of dollars for Iran to do something, among a bunch of other things.

But now we've seen nine straight days of strikes on Iran and a Wall Street Journal report that Trump wants to expand operations. How did we get here? We got here because we never really left, Jane, is my simple answer to that question. I don't want to sound like I told you so, but when this MOU was signed. You can say, I told you so. I mean, we, many of us told many of people what. and listening that this MOU is not a peace deal, it's not a real ceasefire, it hasn't ended the

war and it's going to end in tears. With Donald Trump, you know, you don't lose much money betting on things ending in tears that he claims our resolves sorted ended, whether it's pandemics or foreign wars. And so for me, looking at that 14-point memorandum of understanding, it was very clear that they've kicked the most important can down the road, which was the nuclear program, which was supposedly the CASA Sbelli for this illegal war from Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu. That was kicked down the track. And the short-term issue was,

what do we do about the Strait of Hormuz? And that was where the sticking point came. There's an article, I think it's Article 5, where the Iranians read it as we get to do what we want with the trip. We're managing it with the Omanis. And the Americans were like, no, no, no. This just means that you have to allow everyone back in during the 60 days. And so there's been trading of fire.

There's been attacks on ships. Both sides have accused each other of breaching the deal. Trump finally got fed up on one of his foreign trips, started calling the leadership of Iran. I don't know if he said they're scum, which is funny because because a month ago, he said that they were rational people, good people, they care about their people, and now he's back to scum. It's kind of the way he talks about members of his cabinet. They're wonderful when he hires them, and then they're the worst people when he fires them. Why on earth were they ever in government to begin with? So Donald Trump's erratic nature, impulsive nature, thin-skin nature, his inability to focus on problems for longer than five seconds,

his misunderstanding and ignorance of the Middle East, and his general hawkishness, as well as his close alliance with Netanyahu, all of that feeds into this idea that an MOU is not going to stop this, is not going to end this. By the way, in terms of deals, let me just say this. The JCPOA that Barack Obama signed with Iran in 2015, that took several years to negotiate. And obviously there have been massive consequences for Trump's decisions. We're not even going to get into the consequences for the Iranian people. Over the weekend, the U.S. lost three more service members in Jordan and Iraq, bringing the total number of American casualties to 17.

And today, the New York Times reporter that the Pentagon has been withholding injuries from the public. How do we make sense of this war when we can't trust the information coming from the Pentagon, which is not a new problem, but it's one that's in our faces right now? Yeah, I never thought would there be a time where we missed Donald Rumsfeld and Ari Fleischer and George W. Bush. I mean, that administration looked very transparent and honest compared to this administration. I said recently to a colleague in a podcast that Donald Trump has chosen 2026 to go full George W. Bush, not just embracing the neocons and lying us into an illegal foreign war in the Middle East, but of course his presentation last week at the White House was very 2003.

God, the CIA say, we've released intelligence showing China's doing X, Y, Z, which China is not doing according to the intel they release. So the transparency issue is a real problem with this administration. This is a fundamental challenge with covering Trump, is that A, everything he says is a lie, and same with the people around him. And B, it's very hard to then try and debunk those lies when information is so closely guarded by this administration. This is an administration which was, you know,

multiple judges have gone after for them blocking the media, whether it's the AP from the Oval Office, for simply calling it the Gulf of Mexico, whether it's the entire defense press corps, which were ejected from the Pentagon by Peter Hexeth a few months ago, and they were replaced by Laura Luma and a bunch of far-right freaks. And even the far-right freaks have not had a briefing from the Pentagon. I checked just before I came on air,

the last time there was a full Pentagon briefing for the media on the wall, was early May. So it's been over two months. So they don't even trust their own handpick, far-right conspiracy nuts who they put in the Pentagon. Even they don't get a proper briefing, let alone the rest of the press corps. So these are people who abuse everything that they can abuse. I didn't know this until I read it today in the Times, that the government is under no obligation to publish injury numbers because some soldiers go into hospital, come out quickly, and it's hard to unpack serious injuries from weekend. But again, all of those rules were constructed for a different period and a different president. I mean, I think there has to be a whole house clearing

at some point in the future, if Democrats ever get back into office. All of the departments and government rules that were treated as, well, it's just a convention. It's a norm. It's how we've always done things. Well, then you get a Donald Trump or a Pete Hegsworth. And then you go, well, actually, we needed proper rules. We needed laws that they need to abide by. And I think that's just something that we're learning the hard way on Iran as well, where they can just say, we're not going to tell you how many people are injured. We're not going to tell you how many people have been killed. We're not going to tell you how exactly they got injured. And that's a problem, obviously, for the media. Yeah. I'm glad you referenced Donald Rumsfeld and Ari Fleischer because I've

been thinking, like, this is like the war in Iraq, only somehow much stupider. Yeah, definitely stupider. Whatever you want to say about Colin Powell and Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney and Condoleezer, they weren't stupid. They were a lot of, they were incompetent, yes. They were ideologues, yes, they were not stupid. There was some geostrategic goal to what they were doing. I mean, they fucked it up, but they went for it. These guys don't know what's going. Donald Trump can't tell you in a sustained interview, which he doesn't do.

If he had a sustained interview with a decent interviewer, he could not tell you, A, what is actually happening on the ground? B, where is Babel Mundab or Strait of Hormuz on a map? And C, what is the actual strategic goal here? He says nonsense like it's to prevent them from ever having a nuclear weapon. Oh, that's new. We already had that goal for every previous president, and Barack Obama already pulled it off with the JCPOA, which begins, the very first sentence of JCPA says Iran agrees

never to have a nuclear weapon. And now Trump thinks that's some big victory. We're also being told that Strait of Hormuz is the big issue here. I would remind your view as and listen. I'm sure they're aware of this, but we must never stop reminding ourselves. It was open on February the 27th, the day before we went to war on February the 28th. The idea that you go to war to try and open something that was already open before you started the war is insanity of the highest order. If you also think that going to war to open something that was already open, is insane, stick around. We'll get back to my conversation with Medi Haassen in a moment. In the meantime, make sure to subscribe. They have a five-star review on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, watch us on YouTube,

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But two of the big ones, the ones that we heard the most about, not just from Trump, but from people around him, was no more forever wars and affordability. Both of these things were things that were projected onto him, things that were used against Vice President Kamala Harris. Neither of those things is happening. What is Trump doing right now? Because it seems as if the version of Donald Trump we're getting now is the person Donald Trump would have hated the most in 2016. Well, I can't forget the 2016 presidential debate or maybe it's 2015 when Donald Trump went after Jeb Bush and said the towers came down on your brother's watch. I remember it vividly like it was yesterday. I was sitting in my old house. I was sitting on the couch and I started whooping and cheering. Probably the only time I've whooped and cheered for Donald Trump. not knowing how buddy was at time, not think he would win. But whooping and cheering that somebody had called out the Bush family on a Republican debate stage and not got immediately booed.

Half the audience clapped from some booed. And I just thought to myself, wow, that was a kind of head-on attack on the Bush family, on the neocons, on the Iraq war. And he pretended to be anti-war in 2016. He then did a first term where he wasn't anti-war. And then he pretended to be anti-war again in 2024 and got away with it a second time and has been even more hawkish and gung-ho in his second term. So it is really important that we remind people that he's been. trade them on these big pledges. Interlink pledges, obviously. The war in Iran has led to a direct

increase in gas prices at home, which has screwed his affordability agenda. Don't forget, he thinks affordability is a word that was invented by the Democrats to undermine him. Let's not forget that either. So they are interlink. You're right to point out they were the two big promises. It wasn't just Trump, Stephen Miller. I just saw somebody just shared the other day a screenshot of an old tweet exchange between Stephen Miller and Chink Yuga of the young Turks from 2024. When Stephen was like, I cannot be explicit enough, Chank. We will not. be going to war. Kamala Harris will be taking people to war in the Middle East. We will be ending wars. So that kind of bullshit was said a lot and we should hang that round their heads because

there's no getting away from it. I was on Pierce Morgan show recently with Hogan Gidley, who was Deputy Press Secretary during the first term. And he said, oh, he didn't say no wars. He said, no stupid wars, trying to borrow the Barack Obama line of no dumb wars. And I brought receipts and I read them out. I said, no more wars. I will end wars. There will be no new wars on my watch. So it's a complete betrayal. It really is. And it goes to to how Trump is so good at the advertising part of a campaign, but he has no interest in being president. He would love it if being president was like winning an award

where you won the award and then you just went home. Well, on that note, two things on awards. I'm glad you mentioned that. Number one, you asked me earlier, you know, where is Trump? What is he doing while wars kick off and all prices go up and his agenda fails and Republicans are about to lose Congress? We know where he is. He's standing on stage trying to get into the Spain photo,

as they lift the World Cup trophy. And the Spanish team, props to them, edited him out of the photo this morning when they released the official picture. Because there he was, like an old man in an old people's home with dementia, being grabbed by Gianni Infantino, the head of FIFA, and being told, you know, get out. You're not supposed to be in this shot. He's supposed to give the trophy and leave. So that's what he's doing. His family were all there at the World Cup Stadium in New Jersey. Lutnik was there.

Rubio was there. So, you know, there's a war going on. People are dying. Marco Rubio is enjoying the footy. in New Jersey. So that's where they are trying to get, you know, join on to other people's awards. And then, of course, don't forget the Nobel Peace Prize, which goes to the heart of this. I'm sorry, Jane, this is really important for us to acknowledge. When I try and tell people they think it's TDS, don't be silly, that's a joke.

No, no, one of the reasons we are at war is because he didn't get a Nobel Peace Prize. And he said this himself, people missed this. It didn't get as much coverage. He literally said on the record a few months ago that I used to care about peace, but they didn't give me a Peace Prize. So now I don't care. It's like Citizen Kane, and yet again, stupider. Stupider and crazier. Looking ahead, what drives me insane of the many things, the Iranian government and the US are at a stalemate right now. Iran does not have to win this war.

They just have to not lose. Do we even know what winning means for the US at this point? No, because if they open the Strait of Hormuz, they're going to call that a win, and the rest of us should not allow them to call that a win, because the freaking straight of Hormuz was open on February the 27th. So the idea that you can call that a win. And again, we always grade Trump on a curve. That's always been the case. The mainstream media give him wins that they would never give Joe Biden or Barack Obama or even a George W. Bush or Bill Clinton.

So for him to kill several thousand Iranians, lose multiple American lives, have hundreds of American soldiers injured, we don't know how many, and then go, you know, rocket up gas prices, screw up the global economy, mess up all of our allies in the region. you know, Kuwait just had a desalination plant blown up in Kuwait by the Iran who were responding to the Americans blowing up a desalination plant in Iran that left 10,000 people in Iran in 20 villages without water. So if you're going to take all of that chaos and destruction and war crimes and genocidal threats and then go, ah, but Trump, in the end, he worked it all out. The straight of Hormuz is open. He did a deal with Iran. That's bullshit. And none of us should actually go along with it. Have some self-respect, White House press corps. Hold him to account on this. Going forward, you're right. It's a stalemate. It was a stale. It was a stale.

a month ago, which is why I didn't buy the MOU being any kind of great improvement. The fundamentals are the same. Iran has said, we have these red lines that we're not going to give up the straight of Hormuz. Now we love this control. It's like a nuclear weapon, they say. And then they say they want a nuclear program, not a weapon, but they say we have a right to enrich uranium. That's a red line for us.

And until we work out how we're willing to live with those two red lines, or do some kind of full-scale invasion and regime change, good luck with that. That's what the Iranians want. They would love nothing more than Trump to hubristically. ridiculously, overconfidently send American ground forces into Kag Island or wherever else. Because this, I have to keep reminding Americans, the Iranians fought Iraq for eight years, from 1980 to 1988, eight years. They lost half a million people. They endured chemical weapons attacks, supported by us, in eight years. The idea that they're just going to roll over for

Donald Trump in eight weeks or even eight months is absurd. And as you say, they don't even have to win. They just have to preserve the status quo. My colleague Swin-Sub-Sang reported for Zetao recently that American intelligence has told the White House that the Iranians are holding out for the midterms. They know that the midterms are a key political weapon for them, that if they can keep control of the straight and keep control of global oil prices until November and hurt Donald Trump

and the Republican Party at the pump, then that only helps them. Maddie, as always, thank you so much for joining me. Thanks, sorry if I ran to too much. Never too much. In this climate. That was my conversation with Maddiehausen, editor-in-chief and CEO of Zateo News.

Before we go, Hysteria is your podcast for surviving the chaos and heartbreak of the American news cycle. Last Thursday, Erin, Alyssa, and guest host, Heather Gardner discussed the latest on the tragic killings by ICE officers, the death of Lindsay Graham, and the consequences of last year's doge cuts. Then they unpack what this season of Love Island reveals about American literacy and relationship culture. Check out Hysteria on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. That's all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review. Let's talk about the real second place team with the World Cup and tell your friends to listen. And if you're in reading, and not just about how because Argentina played like garbage,

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Our music is by Kyle Murdoch and Jordan Canter. We had helped today from the Associated Press. Our production staff is probably unionized with the Writers Guild of America East. There's a new show from The Guardian called Stateside with Kai and Carter. The idea is pretty simple. Slow things down. Focus on one story. ask the questions you're probably already yelling at your phone.

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