What A Day - Trump & Iran: From Doomsday To Ceasefire

Episode Date: April 8, 2026

President Donald Trump posted a disturbing threat on Truth Social on Tuesday morning. If Iran did not meet his demands by 8 PM Eastern, "​​A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again." But then, an hour and a half before his deadline, Trump said he’d agree to a two-week ceasefire — if Iran agreed to the “COMPLETE, IMMEDIATE, and SAFE OPENING of the Strait of Hormuz.” And the Iranian regime agreed… sort of. But there’s still a lot we don’t know.We spoke with Arizona Democratic Representative Yassamin Ansari shortly after the news broke that U.S. and Iranian officials had agreed to a ceasefire.Show Notes: 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 Wednesday, April 8th. I'm Jane Koston, and this is Waday. The show that was really excited that Michigan won the men's basketball national championship on Monday night. But that wore off pretty quickly thanks to the president's thinly veiled threat of imminent annihilation of millions of people written on a social media platform made just for him. On today's show, we are jumping right into the Iran war. and the 11th hour ceasefire that everyone seems on board with. For now. But let's back up a bit. President Donald Trump posted a disturbing threat on true social on Tuesday morning.

If Iran did not meet his demands by 8 p.m. Eastern, quote, A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don't want that to happen, but it probably will. He went on to tease the potential attack in words fit for the trailer of a shitty TV show's season finale. But the threat sounded to a lot of Americans like the president was promising to kill millions of people, decimating the entire nation of Iran in the process. Especially when Vice President J.D. Vance said this while stumping for Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban in Budapest on Tuesday. So they've got to know, we've got tools in our toolkit that we so far haven't decided to use. The President of the United States can decide to use them and he will decide to use them if the Iranians don't change their force of conduct.

ominous. But then, an hour and a half before his deadline, Trump posted on true social again. This time, he said that after conversations with officials from Pakistan, he would, quote, agree to suspend the bombing and attack of Iran for a period of two weeks. That is, if Iran agrees to the, quote, complete, immediate, and safe opening of the Strait of Hormuz. And the Iranian regime agreed. Sort of. In a statement, the Supreme National Security Council of the Islamic Republic said that it would cease, quote, defensive operations if attacks on Iran stopped, and that it would coordinate passage through the Strait of Hormuz with the country's armed forces. But there's still a lot we don't know.

For one thing, that statement also said that Trump had accepted the framework of Iran's 10-point peace proposal. But that peace proposal includes a lot of factors that seem like non-starters, like charging $2 million per ship that crosses the Strait of Hormuz, and an end to Israeli strikes on Hezbollah in Lebanon. So after a day filled with panic and fear for so many people, we were left with just as many questions as we had before. What now? To find out, we spoke with Arizona Democratic Representative Yasim and Ansari,

shortly after the news broke that U.S. and Iranian officials had agreed to a ceasefire. Representative Ansari, welcome to what a day. Hi, thank you for having me. We're recording at 7 p.m. Eastern Time. And less than 30 minutes ago, President Trump posted on true social that after talking with officials from Pakistan, he has agreed to a two-week ceasefire. He also said that this is subject to Iran agreeing to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. The New York Times is reporting that Iran has accepted a ceasefire. All of this has just happened.

What's your reaction to this update? Well, I mean, I am incredibly relieved. I have not been able to sleep for many days now, given all that has been going on. and Trump's, you know, threats of literal genocide and war crimes and language that to me sounded like he was considering using a nuclear weapon on Iran. So I'm relieved that others had to get involved, that other countries got involved, and some sane actors came to the table and pushed Donald Trump, who was clearly unhinged to restrain himself and work towards compromise. I think that we are going to see some right-wing outlets and Republicans praise Trump and say that this strategy worked.

But I just want to say that what we have experienced today and over the last 48 hours with Donald Trump's behavior proves that this man is mentally not there and unfit to be president. You cannot take to social media and consider. conduct foreign policy and threaten to say you're going to end the civilization of a country of 90 million people. That is an impeachable offense to me. That is grounds for removal for office. He is not there. And he has proven time and time again that the 25th Amendment must be invoked. And this was the most egregious example. This has been a horrific time for so many people around the world. 90 million Iranians were thinking that their country was going to be bombed oblivion tonight. I mean, what kind of hell is this that the United States is unleashing on

innocent civilians? So I'm relieved that that's not happening tonight. But now we have a two-week ceasefire and, you know, another deadline that Donald Trump's going to impose and two more weeks of theatrics from him. And I want to see people in his cabinet step up and speak out and stop normalizing this insanity. You were calling for, and all of that. are calling for Trump's cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment and remove the president from office because of everything you just said. Rhode Island Democratic Senator Sheldon White House tweeted on Tuesday, quote, unfortunately invoking the 25th is not realistic right now. Do you think it's realistic? Nothing is realistic until you make it realistic until you make it and force it to reality.

I have started calling upon J.D. Vance, a man with presidential aspirations in 2008, who has long said he's against endless wars and who allegedly today leaked something to the press about how he was against this war. If J.D. Vance is serious about running for president in 2008, this could be a moment where he could be a hero to this country and show actual leadership. He has the power to assemble the cabinet and invoke the 25th Amendment. It is upon us as members of Congress to sound the alarm, to build the public pressure, and to make it so it is inevitable for something like this to happen, because that is the magnitude of the crisis right now with Donald Trump, a man who is an authoritarian in this country and wants to be an emperor on the

global stage. And it is putting every single American in danger. And this moment is one that every single Republican will be judged on. So I take this very seriously. I have been calling colleagues all day. I've been doing everything I can, even as a lowly freshman member to organize because I think this is that urgent and that apocalyptic. And even the recent announcement of a ceasefire, again, a sigh of relief for this moment, it doesn't change the root problem that Donald Trump is an unhinged madman unfit to keep us safe as president of the United States. Yeah, I, I, I actually want to talk a little bit about what all of this has been like for you. When President Trump made the decision to attack Iran in February, you released a statement condemning the attacks. But you also

said, quote, as the daughter of Iranian immigrants who fled this regime, I know personally what its violence means. Members of our family and friends were brutalized and murdered by the Islamic Republic. What has it been like for you to witness this war as part of the Iranian diaspora? and especially for so many Iranian Americans, there's been so much hope that this could be the end of this regime. But then Trump talks about like, we want to bomb them back into the Stone Age where they belong. I'm sure you may still have friends and family in Iran.

What has that even been like? And have you been able to get in touch with any family who are still there? The entire experience has been something I never wanted to experience. to be completely honest. Look, for me, I have a very nuanced perspective on everything that has been going on. I understand and have empathy for the fact that many Iranians in the diaspora and inside the country

are so desperate for regime change because this is an awful, murderous regime in Iran. Like, I really condemn any on the left or the right who try to diminish. the brutality of this regime. That is unacceptable to me. I've seen it in my own party. It's not real. It's not based in data. Just in January, thousands were massacred by this regime, and it's been 47 years of serious repression. That being said, I'm an American congresswoman, and I know Donald Trump. I've been dealing with this administration firsthand for 15 months. I've seen

the way Donald Trump operates, the way he has no regard for human life, the way he has happily ripped away health care and food assistance from millions of Americans enriched his own family. And after all of those horrific actions, has taken on this new role where he is, you know, abducting the leader of Venezuela and stealing all the country's oil and just replacing Maduro with Delsi Rodriguez, which is the same regime. So especially after that experience, it was clear to me, the Donald Trump isn't interested in genuine regime change in Iran. Now, regime change is a very difficult thing to accomplish. So that's a separate conversation. But even if that was the goal, it wasn't the goal here, right? I mean, we've heard Donald Trump say over and over again, we have a new regime. Right.

They're filled with more moderate people. Yeah, he said, quote, we have complete and total regime change where different, smarter, and less radicalized minds prevail, which I'm like, do you think anyone in Iran or outside of Iran would have? agree with him on that? No, I have spoken to Iranians. I just spoke with a 25-year-old doctor who was helping patients who were wounded with gunshots during the January massacres, and he was giving me his take on the war. He said the regime's been even more repressive since this war started. They now have the besiege. It's kind of like their paramilitary force on the streets, having checkpoints. They've started executing people, uh,

accusing them of being spies, our war is also giving the regime more propaganda tools, right? So when we're bombing civilian infrastructure, when we are, when Trump is coming out publicly and saying we actually armed these Kurdish forces and the guns never got to the protesters, you are literally handing this regime propaganda to then say, well, these protesters must have been spies and they must have been double agents and they must have been, you know, agents of our enemies. And so now they're executing them. So nothing about this war, even if it was about regime change, which it is not. And if it was about democracy and freedom for Iranians, which Trump has said it is not, we're going about it the wrong way. And so that's been heartbreaking from a

diaspora perspective, because I will tell you that I've been getting relentless attacks from the 30, 40 percent minority who are very supportive of this war and are chanting phrases like Miga, make Iran great again. And they think, you know, they think the worst of me being against this war. But I, you know, I know what Donald Trump is. I know what we're dealing with with Benjamin Netanyahu. And as time has gone on, I will say, though, you know, it's now been 39 days of this war. The tide has definitely changed. I mean, even the voices coming outside of Iran. And what people are most afraid of is that Trump will hit this civilian infrastructure and continue to bomb. And the regime will be even more powerful at the end of it. And they're going to be left with an even more repressive regime.

So for a moment of just sadness, this is a devastating lose-lose situation for Iranian people. And they feel very alone. We'll get to more of my conversation with Representative Ansari in a moment. But if you like the show, make sure to subscribe. Leave 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. Let's face it, after a night with drinks, I don't bounce back the next day like I used to.

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Join the membership for where you live at joinbilt.com slash Wad. That's J-O-I-N-B-I-L-T-com slash WAD. Make sure to use our URL so they know we sent you. Let's get back to my conversation with Arizona Democratic Representative Yasim and Ansari. Let's go back to Congress. Some congressional Republicans have publicly voiced objections to the president's violent threats against Iran. What's your response to them, considering that the GOP has done nothing to actually push back against the military action in Iran? That that's a good first step, but they need to do more. They need to be brave. The Republicans are going to lose the midterms in a landslide. This is not about winning elections anymore. This is about where you want to say you were and what you did during a grave moment in modern American history. And I think it's not partisan at all. When the U.S. President is threatening genocide, that's not partisan. And that's why you've seen people like Tucker Carlson and Alex Jones and.

Marjorie Taylor Green come out forcefully, more forcefully than some Democrats, about how evil and unhinged this is and that he needs to be removed from office. That needs to translate to the elected officials. The elected officials need to join us in getting a war powers resolution passed in Congress. They need to join us in the cabinet in working to remove Trump from office. If the last, you know, 48 hours hasn't demonstrated to us that we are dealing with a president who's a severe national security risk to this country, then I don't know what we'll wake them up. But I think we need more public pressure. I'm calling for working with groups on national protests

across the country. This is very, very serious. And I know so much has happened in the last 15 months. It's easy to be desensitized and tired and want to just tune it all out. But if there is a time to get involved, it is right now. To that point, do you think Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries have done enough to push back against the Trump administration over the war, given that they are in the minority? I think now is a good moment for that test. I believe that we should be called back to Washington, D.C. immediately, even if Mike Johnson and Republican leadership refused to bring us back, I think we need to be there to demonstrate how important this is and call on them to return and vote on war powers resolutions. We need to be

outside of the White House, you know, calling on President Trump to change course. I think we need that leadership. I'm demanding that leadership. I have made my feelings known because, again, this is not just the healthcare fight is incredibly important. Of course, it impacts millions of Americans economically. The ICE fight. I've been at the forefront of the fight against ICE and the out-of-control budget and the murder of American citizens extremely important. But what this is about is, like, truly the closest we've come to nuclear war since the Cold War. I mean, it is that serious, and I feel like we're somewhat sleepwalking in the midst of all of it. I know that this is, this has been a crazy day for you, for basically everyone. What are your biggest concerns about the

long-term impacts of this war on the Iranian people. Given that, it seems as if regime change has ceased to be something anyone's trying to do. And given that, my concern is that this conflict has, in some ways, made the regime even stronger because it makes it seem as if the only alternative to the regime is annihilation by American and Israeli forces. I'm curious as to your thoughts? My concern is that we are not doing enough in a non-kinetic manner to support civil society in Iran, that we are not doing enough to make sure that Iranians have internet access because 99% of the country is facing a regime-imposed internet blackout. And my concern is that we are not doing everything possible to actually create the circumstances for change. And

And let's say Donald Trump makes a deal with this regime and they agree to his demands, they are going to be more repressive than they were before because they will now use this as a way to execute political prisoners by accusing them of being spies. It will entrench their power because they will have evidence that the United States and Israel chose to take out civilian infrastructure. I mean, we've already bombed schools and bridges. and we will have lost that opportunity for real change. I am urging the Trump administration in any negotiations

to make human rights a real, real focus. For all of my doubts that I have about Donald Trump, he did say over and over again that help is on the way for Iranian people, that they should take over their institutions, that they should go protest, and tens of thousands of them got murdered during that process. So human rights and some baseline commitments from the regime around that has to be part of this process. And then ultimately, sanctions relief is extremely, extremely important.

Right now, the sanctions that the United States has in place, they're not, you know, the buzzwords that are used are smart sanctions or targeted sanctions against regime officials. That's not what's happening. We have very broad blanket sanctions against Iranians that have made the economic situation in the country unbearable. I mean, people are struggling. There's really no middle class. Poverty is very, very real. And the war has doubled the price of everything. And so I think this method just showed that it didn't work.

You can't force a country into economic collapse and then think that the civilian population has the tools to then change their government or improve their government. You have to make life easier for people. And I think this method has failed. And I think we need to try something new. For Representative Ansari, thank you so much for joining me. Thank you for having me. I appreciate it. That was my conversation with Arizona Democratic Representative Yasiman Ansari.

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