This is the Daily Blast from the New Republic, produced and presented by the DSR Network.

I'm your host, Greg Sargent.

This week, Donald Trump rejected a proposal from Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

This offer would have set aside questions about Iran's nuclear program for now. That may be why Trump rejected

it, but there's another possible reason. Accepting that deal wouldn't make him look as if he's winning.

Yet this comes as gas and oil prices continue to rise, which isn't making Trump look like a winner either.

And partly because of that,

Republicans are privately warning that their prospects in the midterms look increasingly dire.

So what now for Trump? Paul Krugman has a great new piece on his substack arguing that Trump

simply does not have the cards in the Iran situation, even though he may not know it.

So we're talking with Krugman about where all this is going. Paul, always nice to have you on.

Good to be on again. So Trump rejected that proposal from Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz,

perhaps in part because it would not address Trump's demand for total termination

of Iran's nuclear program. But the New York Times had an extraordinary detail about the Iranian offer.

Quote, a U.S. official also said that accepting it could appear to deny Mr. Trump a victory,

close quote. Paul, apparently that's the single most important factor

on all of this, right? That's what's been holding everything up. You know, the, for most of us,

by about a week into the war, it was obvious that basically America lost, but Trump cannot bring himself to acknowledge that.

He's been trying, you know, he's threatening to bomb them back into the Stone Ages,

and he's been threatening war crimes, and he's been imposing counter-blockades against

the blockade, all of which seems to be because he cannot seem to accept that actually

he screwed up badly.

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