from WNYC Studios. I'm Brian Lehrer. This is my daily politics podcast. It's Wednesday,

March 11th. I want to play maybe the most interesting soundbite from the Trump administration

about the war since yesterday's show.

President Trump said the other day that the war will end when Iran unconditionally surrenders.

Did you hear that one?

Unconditionally surrenders.

But it doesn't seem to be mounting a ground campaign or anything like that to actually get the Iranian government to unconditionally surrender

to the United States, like, say, Germany surrendered at the end of World War II or the British

and the Revolutionary War. So, press secretary Caroline Levitt, was in the awkward position yesterday

of having to kind of redefine unconditional surrender for 2026. Listen.

Ultimately, the operations will end when the commander-in-chief determines the military

objectives have been met, fully realized, and that Iran is in a position of complete an

unconditional surrender, whether they say it or not.

Does the president still want Iran's unconditional surrender?

Well, when President Trump says that Iran is in a place of unconditional surrender,

he's not claiming the Iranian regime is going to come out and say that themselves.

What the President means is that Iran's threats will no longer be backed by a ballistic missile arsenal that protects them from building a nuclear bomb in their country.

I could make an empty threat, but if I have no actions to back it up, then it's an empty threat.

And so President Trump will determine when Iran is in a place of unconditional surrender, when they no longer pose a credible

and direct threat to the United States of America and our allies. So unconditional surrender now

apparently means weak in Iran's military, not to give up power completely as the dictionary

definition would have it. Merriam Webster take note note, the president might invade you unless you redefine

...