It's Monday, May 4th, 2026. It's Groundhog Day in the Middle East redistricting update and hard data on church attendance.

Next on the AM update.

I've been beating this drum for the last week. It just seems like day after day.

It's kind of the same story every day when it comes to the developments in Iran and the broader

Middle East. Here's President Trump, who says Iran has given him yet another proposal for

making the ceasefire permanent. I haven't. I'm looking at it up here. I'll let you know about it later.

But, uh, well, I wouldn't have to. I didn't say that. I said that if we left right now, it would take them 20 years to rebuild. But we're not leaving right now. We're going to do it. So nobody has to go back in two years or five years. So there is President Trump once again saying that he's got a deal in hand. he's going to be reviewing it. Yada, yada, yada. And he does seem to be playing for keeps. I mean, I think he is correct there. If we left right now, which would probably not be the greatest idea, given that they still are coming up the straight-of-war moves. If we left right now, then it would take them many decades, many years to

rebuild. But we also saw how quickly they supposedly can spin up their nuclear capabilities.

So again, so much in flux right now. But it seems like the same story every day when it comes to

Iran. Treasury Secretary Scott Besson says the economic pain is just getting started for the regime.

You apply secondary sanctions or sanctions on Iran or those doing business with Iran.

Yeah. And Maria, just to remind you and your viewers, this began with the order last March from

President Trump on max pressure. And three weeks ago, the president gave the order last March from President Trump on max pressure.

And three weeks ago, the president gave the order to Treasury myself to begin economic fury.

And the way to think about that, we were running a marathon over the past 12 months,

and now we are sprinting towards the finish line.

And I can tell you that we are supplicating the regime,

and they are not able to pay their soldiers. This is a real economic blockade, and it is in all

parts of government, all hands on deck. It is the blockade that our great navy is doing no ships are getting through

and we have up the pressure on anyone uh trying to remit money into uh iran to help the irgc you know

they are a corrupt institution they've been stealing from the Iranian people for years.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessence, pretty much telling you there, he's pulling and pushing every single knob and lever he has at his disposal to try to hurt the IRGC and the remaining regime.

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