Welcome to the best.

Expect the worst.

Some drink champagne.

Some die of first.

The way of knowing which way it's going.

Hope for the best.

Expect the worst. Welcome to the commentary magazine Daily Podcast. Today is Thursday, May 7th, 2026. I'm John Pott Hortz, the editor of Commentary Magazine. With me, as always. Executive Editor Abe Greenwald. Hi, Abe. Hi, John. Senior editor Seth Mandel. Hi, Seth. Hi, John. Social commentary

columnist Christine Rosen. Hi, Christine. Hi, John. And joining us there, contributing editor Puba at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Jonathan Shanzer. Hi, John.

Hey, John. Jonathan, you are one of our go-to guys to talk about just what the hell is happening

in the war. And I think everybody in America and the world is saying to themselves, what the

hell is happening in the war. And this is a fast-moving, very confusing story.

We now have this bit of detail that seems to explain, might explain why it is that

Donald Trump behaving in an extremely inconstant fashion over the last 48 hours

announced and then withdrew

his program, Project Freedom, for the escorting of ships out of the Hormuz Strait.

The story that we are getting, we got a bit of it last night, and then we're getting

new versions of it this morning is that it largely ended

because the Saudis said, uh, uh, uh, don't be doing this. You can't, you can't base your planes

or take any offensive military action out of our territory, which then seemed extremely bizarre.

It was very hard to understand the first leak story about this from NBC News.

And we're getting a clear picture of it this morning from Israeli news sources and others who say the Saudis weren't blindsided.

They did know about it.

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