Is Trump running scared of his own war?
The News Agents
Global
4.1 • 5.4K Ratings
🗓️ 10 March 2026
⏱️ 41 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In a zig-zagging, confused and at times weirdly low energy press conference from President Donald Trump last night, a remarkably new tone was struck on the conflict in Iran. Just hours earlier, his defence secretary Pete Hegseth had announced that this stage of the war was "just the beginning". But yesterday evening. Trump declared that the conflict was, in fact, "very complete"; at one point even downplaying the US attacks as "an excursion" rather than a war.
It doesn't take a genius to work out what's behind the volte-face - following his intervention, the price of oil plummeted. Welcome respite for the markets, but where does it leave Trump's war objectives? What does it mean for the Iranian people, who'd been promised regime change? Has Trump bottled it? And does that risk emboldening the regime in Tehran?
Later - why is white genocide being casually discussed on GB News? And why have Kwasi Kwarteng and Nigel Farage teamed up in a crypto venture?
The News Agents is brought to you by HSBC UK - https://www.hsbc.co.uk/
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Newsagents podcast is brought to you by HSBC UK, opening up a world of opportunity. |
| 0:09.5 | This is a global player original podcast. |
| 0:12.9 | Mr. President, you've said the war is, quote, very complete, but your defense secretary says this is just the beginning. |
| 0:18.6 | So which is it? And how long should Americans be prepared for this |
| 0:21.6 | border last for? The beginning, it's the beginning of building a new country. But they certainly, |
| 0:26.9 | they have no Navy, they have no Air Force. They have no anti-aircraft equipment. It's all been blown up. |
| 0:34.5 | They have no radar. They have no telecommunications. And they have no leadership. It's all been blown up. They have no radar. They have no telecommunications. |
| 0:38.1 | And they have no leadership. It's all gone. |
| 0:41.6 | That was Donald Trump last night at one of his golf courses discussing the war in Iran. |
| 0:47.0 | And the thing about Donald Trump, he can both be inconsistent, incoherent and contradictory, |
| 0:57.4 | but yet be utterly clear about what he wants. |
| 1:01.6 | And it's clear he's wearied of the war in Iran. |
| 1:06.3 | This may or may not have something to do with the fact that yesterday the price of oil reached $120 a barrel. |
| 1:09.7 | The same day that Trump said that he thought that the war is very complete. |
| 1:14.0 | A simple question, has Trump bottled it over Iran? Welcome to the newsagents. |
| 1:24.5 | The news agents. It's John. It's Lewis. And I suppose we've got used to the idea that matters of war and peace are most commonly discussed at one of Donald Trump's golf courses. And so it was last night that he gave a news conference that felt like he was trying to convince himself as much as anybody else. |
| 1:46.1 | And there were times when it was rambling. |
| 1:47.8 | There were times when it was low energy. |
| 1:50.1 | There were times when it was bizarre. |
| 1:52.8 | But I think the through line, through all of it, was this sense that he's taken fright at what has happened to the oil prize and how that |
| 2:03.7 | might transfer to ordinary Americans lives and is now thinking, oh Christ, time to stop this, |
| 2:10.5 | got to get out of it somehow and I'm getting ready to declare victory, though what victory |
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