Hello and welcome to the Americano podcast, a series of discussions about American politics and the Trump presidency for the new Spectator USA website.

I'm joined today by John Hudson, who is National Security Reporter at the Washington Post, and we're going to be

asking what is happening with Trump and Iran. Now, John, it seems to me that strategically, or in

terms of sort of the imminent threat of war, has receded a little bit in the last few days, but the

rhetoric seems to be getting more and more aggressive. I mean,

Trump suggesting that American policy is afflicted by mental retardation and Trump being more and more

bellicose about what a big mistake it would be for Iran to underestimate him. Is that a fair reading

of the situation?

Yeah, I think that's right. I think none of us should be too confident with where we are

because it seems to change by the minute. I mean, just a few minutes ago, the president tweeted,

and he said that he was very upset about the Iranianians response that came out overnight with the apparent

mental retardation line.

And he said that if they did choose to respond militarily, it would be obliteration.

And so you're right, the rhetoric is reaching an uptick and it's becoming a lot more aggressive and pugnacious.

But what we do know is that he, you know, he was faced with the decision last week to order a military strike on Iran, and he decided not to.

So that's a fact, but now we have this escalation in rhetoric. We have

this escalation in sanctions, sanctions imposed last night, and those brought about a response

of Iran saying the door to diplomacy is closed. So even though we pulled away from the brink

of a military confrontation, there's no way out at this point that anyone can see of how to de-escalate the situation.

And Mike Pompeo, the Secretary of State, went out to the UAE, I think, did he not on Monday, was it?

Yeah, and Saudi Arabia.

And Saudi Arabia. And Saudi Arabia.

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