Trump Rages over Fresh Iran Humiliation as GOP Angst Grows: “Screwed”

THE DAILY BLAST with Greg Sargent

The New Republic

News, Politics

4.4 • 800 Ratings

🗓️ 2 June 2026

⏱️ 21 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Donald Trump is hitting many new difficulties. On Monday, Iran abandoned talks with the U.S., angering Trump. Speaking to CNBC, he raged that he “couldn’t care less” if the negotiations die, threatened again to blow Iran “to kingdom come,” and seethed that NATO’s refusal to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz shows that it's “very weak” and “very sad.” (He then insisted the talks are back on track.) Meanwhile, Senate Republicans’ anxiety over the politics of Trump’s corrupt $1 billion slush fund has grown: As one reporter notes, they are “absolutely screwed.” The fund may be on hold, but this signals broader GOP frustration with Trump. We talked to Molly Jong-Fast, host of the Fast Politics podcast and author of a great TNR piece with editor Michael Tomasky on Trump’s ongoing crackup. We discuss how Trump appears stuck in a mental loop, whether our country can survive two-and-a-half more years of him, and what a final GOP breaking point might look. 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.
0:31.5	Donald Trump is furious over the news that Iran has walked away from the talks with the U.S. over the war.
0:33.3	He unleashed some angry and strange quotes to CNBC that suggests he has no idea what to do,
0:39.6	none at all.
0:41.4	It's hard to escape the sense that we're in a new place with Trump's mental state.
0:45.7	He seems caught in a loop, and he appears unable to think his way out of it.
0:51.6	All this comes as Republicans are mounting a genuine stand against Trump's corrupt
0:55.6	slush fund for insurrectionists because the politics of it are so terrible for them. As one
1:01.1	plugged-in reporter put it, Republicans are screwed. It's very unnerving to imagine how we're going to get
1:08.3	through the next two and a half years of this.
1:16.1	Molly Zhang Fast, the host of the Fast Politics podcast, has a great piece for the new Republic with editor Michael Tamasky on just this topic. So we're talking to Molly about all
1:21.0	of it today. Molly, really nice to have you on. Thanks. Thanks for having me. So on Monday, Iran announced it was walking away from the talks with
1:30.0	the U.S. over Israeli attacks in Lebanon. Trump has lurched wildly back and forth over this. First,
1:36.7	he said he doesn't care at all if the talks are on hold. Then he said he's personally intervened
1:41.9	to get Israel to stop. And the talks are suddenly back on track, he says, and proceeding rapidly.
1:47.7	Molly, before we get into the details here, do you believe Trump when he says everything's back on track?
1:55.5	No. I mean, I don't know. I think that what's happened is one of the functions of Trump, of this second term of Trumpism, is that Trump now has a world that fits his whatever he wants. So surrounded by sycophants, people don't tell him the truth. He also has people who are not telling him what's actually happening.
2:20.3	I mean, I think about, you know, we've been in this war for what, almost three months more.
2:26.3	You know, and when, you know, he doesn't get a PDV the way a normal president would.
2:33.3	So he gets, supposedly the reporting says he gets a
2:36.7	video of things blowing up. So he doesn't have a great sense of what's happening on the ground.
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 23 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

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.