Trump says Iran can be "taken out" in one night
The NPR Politics Podcast
NPR
4.4 • 25.7K Ratings
🗓️ 6 April 2026
⏱️ 20 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This episode: senior political correspondent Tamara Keith, national security correspondent Greg Myre, and senior national political correspondent Mara Liasson.
This podcast was produced and edited by Casey Morell & Bria Suggs.
Special thanks to Dana Farrington, Ted Mebane and Natalie Winston.
Our executive producer is Muthoni Muturi.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey there, it's the NPR Politics Podcast. I'm Tamara Keith, and I have a new title, Senior Political Correspondent. |
| 0:11.2 | Congratulations, Tam. Thank you. I'm Greg Myrie. I cover national security. And I'm Mara Liason, Senior National Political Correspondent. |
| 0:18.4 | And today on the show, President Trump held a press conference |
| 0:21.7 | at the White House to discuss the war with Iran. During it, the president shared the harrowing rescue |
| 0:28.1 | of the American weapons officer who was shot down over Iran. And I ordered the U.S. |
| 0:33.9 | Armed Forces to do whatever was necessary to bring our brave warriors back home, |
| 0:38.7 | a risky decision because we could have ended up with 100 dead as opposed to one or two. |
| 0:45.9 | It's a hard decision to make. But in the United States military, we leave no American behind. |
| 0:52.8 | We don't do it. And he continued to level threats against Iran if it |
| 0:58.0 | doesn't open up the straight of Hormuz. The entire country can be taken out in one night, |
| 1:03.8 | and that night might be tomorrow night. Greg, I want to start with you. We just played a clip there |
| 1:09.2 | where President Trump continues his threats against Iran. |
| 1:12.7 | Did we learn anything new about the president's plans? |
| 1:16.7 | No, not in specific terms. And he said, well, I can't tell you the plan. He said he has a plan, but he can't tell it. |
| 1:24.6 | But the question of what sort of military action he might take after this extraordinary |
| 1:29.8 | threat that he's been making, very specifically yesterday, talking about going after bridges and |
| 1:34.9 | power stations, and a lot of question about, you know, aren't these civilian targets? And, you know, |
| 1:41.6 | is that a legitimate way to prosecute this war? So he's put himself in a |
| 1:47.2 | corner. Tomorrow night would be the fourth deadline he's set for a massive operation that he, at least |
| 1:54.4 | in general terms, he's describing as a big escalation in the war. But he did not give any details, for example, on the Strait of Hormuz, |
| 2:03.2 | how that might be dealt with. Is he thinking about a military operation for that? Is he talking |
| 2:08.6 | about negotiations? And I'll just finish with saying it's a very different tone from his |
... |
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