MAGA Civil War? Trump Can’t Find Iran on the Map!

The New Abnormal

The Daily Beast

News & Politics

4.6 • 7.9K Ratings

🗓️ 19 June 2025

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

James Carville joins Joanna Coles for a bracing tour through the foreign policy civil war inside MAGA—and why it could tear the coalition. As Israel and Iran square off, so do Tucker Carlson, Steve Bannon, and Tulsi Gabbard versus Trump, Pete Hegseth, and Mark Levin. Carville breaks down the long-simmering ideological rift now boiling over, and why Trump’s strategic confusion—especially in the Middle East—is dangerous not just for Republicans, but for global stability. He explains why Trump “couldn’t find Iran on a globe,” how Tucker’s pro-Russia leanings go back decades, and why Americans aren't nearly scared enough about what’s coming. Plus: what Carville says is the real cost of Republican loyalty to Trump, and how Democrats can seize this moment—if they’re smart.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	How do I pose this delicately, but I'll try.
0:05.0	Trump has no idea of what he's doing.
0:08.9	You could, and I guarantee you that Tucker Carlson or Steve Bannon or any of these people believe that if you pointed to a globe and you said point to the Middle East,
0:22.7	Trump would have no idea what it is.
0:29.0	I'm Joanna Coles.
0:30.5	I'm the chief content officer of The Daily Beast,
0:33.8	and this is the Daily Beast podcast.
0:36.3	I hope you're either listening or watching possibly
0:38.4	on YouTube and we're about to talk to James Carvel. Before we do, I wanted to address the
0:43.5	hundreds, thousands of comments actually that you left us on YouTube. I now know that it's
0:49.1	Senator Alex Padilla. I know that. Brits always have struggles with French and Spanish words in particular, but I've
0:57.5	got that right, and I'm sorry that I got it wrong first time round. And secondly, many of you
1:02.8	loved the Art Deco background that I have. It's just the hotel I'm staying in. I wish I could say
1:08.1	it was my boudoir, as someone referred to it. It's not my boudoir,
1:11.9	it's a hotel room. But there's so much stuff going on in the world right now, who better to talk to
1:17.6	than our favourite elder statesman, the national treasure of democratic politics, none other than James Carvel.
1:36.3	James, was that a glass of red wine I just saw?
1:44.2	I did. I'm having it. I am. Where are you? I'm in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.
1:50.8	Oh, fabulous. Okay. James, so as Israel and Iran appear to be battling it out,
1:56.2	Somaga seems to be battling it out. You've got Tucker Carlson, Steve Bannon, Tulsi Gabbard on one side.
2:00.2	You've got Donald Trump, Mark Levin, Pete Heggseth on another.
2:02.1	What do you make of this?
	...

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