Trump Press Sec Goes Full Cult as Damning War Leaks Humiliate Him Anew

THE DAILY BLAST with Greg Sargent

The New Republic

News, Politics

4.4 • 800 Ratings

🗓️ 22 April 2026

⏱️ 20 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

President Trump keeps boasting that a deal with Iran is at hand. But now officials leaked word to CNN that Trump’s public posturing has hurt the negotiations. One noted that by “negotiating through social media,” Trump implied Iran had agreed to things “they hadn’t yet agreed to,” complicating the talks. That’s humiliating, given Trump’s bragging of success. Meanwhile, in two cult-like tirades, Karoline Leavitt attacked the media for being insufficiently worshipful of Trump, and gushed over his greatness with extraordinary sycophancy. Can any good outcome be envisioned here? We talked to former National Security Council veteran Emily Horne. She explains why Leavitt's spin is so absurd, why this fiasco is so hard for Trump to extricate himself from, why there may be no good options ahead, and what it means that Trump has indefinitely extended the ceasefire, which he announced while we were recording. Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	This is the Daily Blast from the New Republic, produced and presented by the DSR Network.
0:16.4	I'm your host, Greg Sargent.
0:31.3	It's getting harder for Donald Trump's propagandists to defend his handling of the war.
0:37.4	Trump has been saying that a deal with Iran is near, yet Trump officials are leaking that his public outbursts have only
0:38.9	made it harder to reach an agreement to end the conflict. Amid those realities, White House press
0:45.1	secretary Caroline Levin went full cult on Fox News. She viciously attacked the media for being
0:51.6	insufficiently worshipful of Trump's glory, and she unleashed an
0:55.7	obsequious monologue that was plainly designed to lift Trump's spirits.
1:00.4	All this underscores that even if Trump gets a deal, it'll be extremely hard to spend this
1:05.4	adventure as a success. So how bad a catastrophe is this shaping up to be? We're unraveling all this with former National Security Council and State Department veteran Emily Horn, one of our go-toes on these topics.
1:18.6	Emily, nice to have you back on.
1:20.6	Thanks for having me, Greg.
1:22.6	So we're getting close to the expiration of the two-week ceasefire, and as of this recording, J.D. Vance's
1:28.6	trip to negotiate a peace has been postponed after Iran failed to respond to the American
1:33.7	position, though this could restart at any time. There's a lot of confusion around the status
1:38.6	of the Strait of Hormuz. Emily, can you explain where we are and bring us up to date on the
1:43.5	current sticking points and
1:44.8	everything else? Talks are off. There's no plan for when or if they'll restart. The Strait of Hormuz
1:51.1	is, it continues to be controlled by the IRGC. So the IRGC, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard
1:57.7	Corps, which is the real source of power in Iran, continues to control the
2:01.7	Strait of Hormuz. And, you know, it's IRGC missiles and drones that killed 13 U.S. troops,
2:07.3	attacked U.S. embassies and diplomatic facilities across the Middle East, attack Gulf oil
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The New Republic, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of The New Republic and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.