What A Day - The Challenge To Ending The Iran War

Episode Date: May 28, 2026

Despite whatever President Donald Trump has said over the last few days, his war in Iran does not look like it's ending soon. But here's the thing: a major factor in what happens with Trump's Iran war isn't Trump – it's Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Despite a ceasefire, Israel has continued to bomb targets in southern Lebanon – part of the country's war against Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed proxy militia that controls a swath of Lebanon. And on Wednesday, Israel told residents of southern Lebanon to leave their homes as the Israeli military moves into new areas of the country. So what do Israel's goals mean for Trump's Iran war – and the future of the Middle East? To find out, we spoke to Nahal Toosi. She's the senior foreign affairs correspondent and columnist at POLITICO.And in headlines: Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton dominated Sen. John Cornyn in Tuesday's Senate Republican primary runoff; House Democrats introduce a bill to block construction of Trump's proposed "triumphal arch;” and a Ball State University employee gets paid after she was fired for criticizing Charlie Kirk.Show Notes: Check out Nahal's work – https://tinyurl.com/4nmp552x 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 visit crooked.com/whataday

It's Thursday, May 28th. I'm Jane Koston, and this is what a day. The show shouting out 35 former federal judges who have sued the Trump administration over President Donald Trump's $1.776 billion mega slush fund. That brings my count of lawsuits over the slush fund to four, which, interestingly, is the number of brain cells one would need to have to believe that the slush fund is a good idea. On today's show, Trump's endorsement street continues. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton dominated Senator John Cornyn in Tuesday's Senate-Republican primary runoff, and a Ball State University employee gets paid after she was fired for criticizing Charlie Kirk. Turns out free speech does go both ways.

But let's start with the war in Iran and Israel's role in any potential peace deal. Because despite whatever Trump has said over the last few days, his war in Iran does not look like it's ending soon. Granted, when we're getting pearls of wisdom from Trump like this at Wednesday's cabinet meeting, I couldn't possibly see why anyone is worried. Iran wants control of the straight over moves. Would you accept a short-term deal that allows Iran and Oman to control the straight? And would they have to open it immediately, or would you be open to that happening over a period of time? No, the strait's going to be open to everybody.

And who would control it? It's international waters. Nobody's going to control it. We're going to watch over it. We'll watch over it. But nobody's going to control it. That's part of the negotiation that we have. They would like to control it.

Nobody's going to control it. It's international water. and Oman will behave just like everybody else who will have to blow them up. They understand that. They'll be fine. What? But here's the thing.

A major factor in what happens with Trump's war in Iran isn't Trump. It's Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Despite a ceasefire, Israel has continued to bomb targets in southern Lebanon, part of the country's war against Chesbola, an Iranian-backed proxy militia that controls a swath of Lebanon. On Wednesday, Israel told residents of southern... in Lebanon to leave their homes as the Israeli military moves into new areas of the country. Again, during a ceasefire.

So what do Israel's goals mean for Trump's war in Iran? And the future of the Middle East. To find out, I spoke to Nahal Tusi. She's a senior foreign affairs correspondent and columnist at Politico. Nahal, welcome back to Water Day. Hey, it's great to be here. The U.S. and Iran have been working on some kind of deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and the war. But there have been various reports that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who also helped to start this war back in February, has not really been involved.

What does Israel want out of the Iran war? Ideally, I think this Israeli government and many Israelis want regime change in Iran. That remains the long-term goal. And it's one that does not seem like it's going to happen this time around. And it's really important to understand that that's really the, the, the, the, ultimate desire is changing that regime completely. But it doesn't seem like that's a priority for Trump or in these negotiations. Like, I feel like we stopped hearing about regime change back the beginning of March.

Now we're just getting at straight of foremost open nuclear material dealt with. What does that mean for Israel? I think Trump would have loved to have seen the regime fall. He would have loved to have had that be part of his legacy. But guess what? It turns out regime change is hard. especially when a regime is not just built around one single guy. The thing about the Iranian regime is that it's a system.

It's deeply entrenched. It's designed to rebuild itself. Probably some people around Trump knew this from the beginning, but Trump himself has come to realize that you can't simply dislodge this regime. And so when you have a situation where this conflict is causing so much global economic pain, so much political pain for him, he's now thinking, well, how can I put a stop to this without causing too much more damage? But at the same time, he has added a new condition for a peace deal that more countries in the Middle East join the Abraham Accords, which were brokered by Jared Kushner

during Trump's first term. First, can you remind us, like, what are the Abraham Accords? The Abraham Accords are a set of deals that normalize relations between Israel and other countries to sign on to them, several of them having been Arab countries. These are diplomatic relations. They would formally recognize Israel as a country and set up embassies, that sort of thing. They establish economic ties, cultural ties. And so you've had several countries already joined, the UAE, Bahrain, they've been part of this in the past. And Trump and the Biden administration, they have tried to expand these accords over the years to bring on more people, gain Israel, more friends. And now Trump,

brought this up at a time when the odds are very low that many countries want to join this particular deal. Yeah, I was I was wondering, like, is this even feasible? I know you wrote about this, but he wants Pakistan and Turkey to join. And he even talked about Iran joining, which was very confusing. This seems to me be kind of a poison pill. Like, if you add this in, you have something that's going to push people away from the bargaining table who, might have been more interested. You know, some people do see it as a poison pill and they think it could collapse all of the Iran talks. But a number of smart Arab diplomats and others that I've spoken to say, look, Trump says a lot of stuff and he tends to forget about him. And one of the

things that they saw him doing with this request is appeasing his GOP base, right? So you had people like Lindsey Graham and Mark Levin and others who are like very hawkish on Iran. being very unhappy with the contours of the Iran deal that was emerging, and they were taking it out on Trump. And so when Trump put this out there saying, hey, as part of the deal, we can have everybody sign the Abraham Accords. Suddenly these guys thought, well, actually, maybe it'll work. They kind of soften their criticism of Trump. So some Arab diplomats say, look, this is not actually going to happen, but he just kind of needs to say this to calm down some of the GOP base. At the same time that Trump and Iran are engaged in peace talks, Israel is dialing up its attacks on Hezbollah and Lebanon, even though they're supposedly in the midst of a ceasefire.

How is the rest of the region responding to Israel's increasingly aggressive actions in the Middle East as it occupies land, obviously in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria? I mean, I think it goes to your point about like Israel's not making, signing onto the Abraham Accords look more appealing with its actions. Look, there are a lot of benefits you could argue to signing the Abraham Accords. I mean, in terms of investment, things like that. But yeah, the Lebanon fighting continues. It's escalating. Look, I don't even know what the word ceasefire means anymore. Like, there are like words that are so increasingly meaningless in the national security space these days. Like, what is a war? What is a conflict? What is a deal? Right? Like, so, yeah, they're supposed to be a ceasefire. But that, the Israelis say that Hezbollah is attacking them and that they're striking back and they have to wipe out this group that is Iranian-backed. And so absolutely, the ceasefire is falling apart. And what's important is that the reports that emerged about the deal with Iran was that there might have to be an end to the fighting in Lebanon too, right? And the Israelis are like, wait, wait, wait, we're not necessarily going to sign up to that.

So the fact that they're escalating the fighting with Hezbollah in Lebanon could undermine the ability to strike a deal between the U.S. and Iran. How do other countries in the Middle East view Israel right now, especially as this war continues? So many of the countries in the region are really increasingly worried about Israel's actions in Israel's role, especially this particular Israeli government, which is very, very right-wing. has some very far-right figures, and has been very, very aggressive. Let's not forget that, you know, the Gaza war remains an open wound for many people and many Arab governments in particular are just deeply alarmed. These are some of these governments might have actually signed the Abraham

Accords had it not been for what happened in the Gaza war and how Israel, you know, has, has, the actions that it has taken in Gaza that have killed so many. Palestinians. That's just part of it, though. Israel has also been acting very aggressively in Syria, as we described, acting very aggressively in Lebanon, taking a lot of territory there. And it's also effectively de facto annexing parts of the West Bank, increasingly, through settlers who are increasingly violent toward the Palestinians who are there. So although many countries in the region are extremely unhappy with Iran, do not like the Iranian regime. were originally kind of hoping the regime would fall.

They also are looking at Israel and they're thinking, what is this government up to? Is it trying to be like the regional hegemon? And how are we going to deal with them if and when we can control the Iranian threat? Yeah, it strikes me that Benjamin Netanyahu is up for reelection this year. And he has a government, which as you've mentioned is increasingly right wing with the ways in which the settler violence, is kind of encouraged. You saw the National Security Minister Ben-Gavir be banned from France

because of his actions with regard to members of a protest flotilla. You've seen how the right-wing government, which keeps Netanyahu in power, seems to be pushing away the rest of the Middle East, but Netanyahu gets to say in power, so that works for him. Is peace in the Middle East possible as long as Netanyahu is in power? I know, I know. You know Netanyahu has been, he's like the longest serving Israeli prime minister. Not contiguous, but I mean definitely very long serving. One thing I've learned is never, ever bet against the guy after October 7th.

I thought politically he was done for. A lot of people thought that. Nope. He is not going to give up. He's also facing trial on corruption charges. So he is very much incentivized to stay in power. And this is a guy who really just can't let go. I mean, he's just not able to ride off into the sunset.

There are people who say he is the worst leader in Israeli history and others who say he's the best because he's protected Israel because he saw the threat from Iran coming. You know, is the region going to be better off because he stays in power or not? Oh, I mean, it's very hard to know. Look, I think it's important to remember that even if Netanyahu were not in power, Israelis in general, after October 7, 2023 are much more hardcore and right-wing and security-minded. They are much less willing to tolerate the threats on their borders or in the region. Many of them are very, very much supportive of going after Iran. So whoever takes power

after Netanyahu, it's not going to be like a 180. And so it's not just necessarily about him, but in so many ways it is about him. Nahal, thank you so much for joining me. It's been great. Thank you. That was my conversation with Nahal Tusi, senior foreign affairs correspondent and columnist at Politico. We'll link to her work in the show notes. More news about terrible people doing terrible things is coming. Sorry.

But if you like the show, make sure to subscribe. a five-star review on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, watch us on YouTube, and share with your friends. More to come after some ads. What a day is brought to you by Zbiotics Pre-Alcohol. Let's face it, after a night with drinks, I don't bounce back the next day like I used to. I have to make a choice. I can either have a great night or a great next day. That is until I found pre-alcohol.

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Terms and conditions apply. Here's what else we're following today. Head of lines. I don't care about the midterms. Look what happened last night. That was the prelude to the midterms. About that. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton dominated Senator John Cornyn

in Tuesday's Texas U.S. Senate runoff. This was the latest contest where Trump sought to oust an incumbent he saw as insufficiently loyal. The grudge holds. president endorsed for Paxton last week, calling him a, quote, true MAGA warrior. And let's not forget that Paxton is corrupt as hell. However, this could create an easier path to victory for the Democratic candidate,

Texas State Representative James Talariko. I love construction. It's very exciting. House Democrats are introducing a bill to block construction of Trump's proposed Triumphful Arch near the Lincoln Memorial. The bill comes after a federal commission approved the design for the project, which Trump wants to serve as an entrance to the nation. capital. The 250-foot arch is one of several projects the Republican president is pursuing alongside a White House ballroom to leave his imprint on Washington. In a related note, gas prices

are above $4. We cannot and will not allow any cases of Ebola to enter the United States. That was Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday, reassuring the public about the ongoing Ebola crisis. Trump's administration is planning to send Americans who are exposed to Ebola, while abroad, to a new facility in Kenya, instead of flying with. them to the United States, an official said Wednesday. The quarantine and treatment center is being set up by multiple departments. It will be designed for Ebola patients who need to get out of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and receive care quickly.

The official said the plan would help patients avoid an hours-long medical evacuation to the U.S. It was unclear where in Kenya the new facility will be built or whether the Kenyan government has signed off on the plan, which seems like an important factor. A former Ball State University employee who was fired from her job, will receive $225,000 to settle her lawsuit against the school. The woman was terminated for a Facebook post criticizing conservative activist Charlie Kirk after his assassination. She's the fourth person who has received a six-figure payout after being punished

for making comments following Kirk's death. An attorney for the woman said in a statement, quote, The First Amendment does not allow government institutions to retaliate in those circumstances, and this settlement reflects that. Because life just isn't tough enough for people attempting to live in the United States, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, or U.S. CIS, announced last week that green card applicants will have to return to their home country to apply, rather than doing so from the U.S. That's a massive shift for the more than 600,000 people already in the U.S.

to apply for a green card each year, including spouses of American citizens and holders of U.S. work visas. In response to questions from the Associated Press, the Department of Homeland Security said Wednesday, the shift wouldn't prevent anyone, quote, who legitimately and properly qualifies from obtaining a green card, although it will result in some people having to apply overseas with the State Department. Sure. Just trust the Department of Homeland Security on this. And that's the news. Before we go, mark your calendars.

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relish the list of performers playing for Trump's Great American State Fair on the National Mall this June and tell your friends to listen. And if you're into reading, and not just about how audiences will thrill to performances by Martina McBride, Millie Vanilli, Flo Rida, and Brett Michaels. Like me, Waterday is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at crooked.com slash subscribe. I'm Jane Koston and Millie Vanilli? Really? We're doing Millie Vanilla in 2026? What a day is a production of Crooked Media. Our show is produced by Caitlin Plummer, Emily Four, Erica Morrison, and Adrian Hill. Our team includes Haley Jones, Greg Walters, Matt Berg, Joseph Dutra, Johanna Case, and Desmond Taylor. Our music is by Kyle Murdoch and Jordan Cantor.

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