Trump keeps US and Europe in the dark on Iran plans
KCRW's Left, Right & Center
KCRW
4.2 • 4.8K Ratings
🗓️ 20 June 2025
⏱️ 51 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
President Trump has plans for securing peace after Israel launched a war with Iran. However, he’s keeping them to himself. A lack of clarity on whether the U.S. will support Israel has created a divide amongst interventionist and isolationist wings of Trump supporters. Which direction will Trump’s often-touted “America First” policy lead the U.S. in?
The federal government’s mass deportation efforts have expanded to work sites like farms, hotels, and restaurants. The business community has pushed back, calling for President Trump to relax deportation efforts on industries that rely on immigrant labor. Trump obliged those requests, but federal officials say they’ll continue to enforce immigration law wherever possible. Will the president continue to try navigating the pitfalls of interior enforcement?
Ten years ago this month, the country mourned a tragic act of racial violence in Charleston, South Carolina. As America reckons with another all too familiar occurrence, this time in Minnesota, KCRW discusses what has changed and what hasn’t in America’s political climate.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Welcome to left, right, and center. I'm Molly Ball, senior political correspondent at the Wall Street Journal, filling in for David Green. |
| 0:09.6 | I'm joined on the panel by Mo Alafi, executive director at Georgetown University's Institute of Politics and Public Service. |
| 0:16.6 | He was also communications director for the Democratic National Committee and an advisor to Hillary Clinton and Sarah Isker, senior editor at the dispatch and host of the advisory opinions podcast. |
| 0:27.3 | She's a lawyer and was the spokesperson at the Department of Justice under President Trump in his first term. |
| 0:32.1 | Hello, everyone. |
| 0:33.0 | Hey, Molly. |
| 0:34.2 | Molly! |
| 0:35.6 | So, America First, it's the rallying cry of the Trump administration's foreign policy. |
| 0:41.5 | But the phrase's true meaning could be put to the test as the president contemplates American involvement in the conflict between Israel and Iran. |
| 0:50.0 | You don't know that I'm going to even do it. You don't know. I may do it. I may not do it. I mean, nobody knows what I'm going to do. I can tell you this, that Iran's got a lot of trouble. |
| 1:00.3 | And they want to negotiate. And I said, why didn't you negotiate with me before? All this |
| 1:05.3 | death and destruction. Why didn't you negotiate? I said to the people, why didn't you negotiate with me two weeks ago? You could have done fine. One circle of support for the |
| 1:15.2 | president on the right sees on the ground support for Israel as an unnecessary involvement for the United States. |
| 1:21.4 | On the other end of the spectrum are conservatives pushing for the president to reiterate America's |
| 1:25.7 | partnership with Israel by providing material |
| 1:27.8 | support to defeat Iran. And in the middle is President Trump himself, who has used a number of |
| 1:33.4 | truth social posts in recent days to try to threaten Iran into an agreement to pause their nuclear |
| 1:38.5 | program and end missile strikes on Israel. Iran's development of nuclear weapons is a long-time |
| 1:44.0 | concern for the U.S. |
| 1:45.0 | and other countries. So, Mo, let's start with you. What are your thoughts on the potential for |
| 1:51.1 | U.S. involvement in Iran? I don't know how to answer that question, Molly, right? Like, |
| 1:57.5 | it's Donald Trump, so everything is unpredictable, and I think that's part of what he's trying to convey is his unpredictability. |
... |
Transcript will be available on the free plan in 3 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from KCRW, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of KCRW and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.