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The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell

Velshi: Chaos surrounds Trump as his Iran war drags on

The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell

Lawrence O'Donnell, MS NOW

Washington, Policy, Politics, President, News, Versant Media, Ms Now, Congress, Versant, Senate, Government

4.56.4K Ratings

🗓️ 24 April 2026

⏱️ 42 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Tonight on The Last Word: Donald Trump considers a financial bailout for the “really rich” United Arab Emirates. Also, a Federal Reserve chair nominee is grilled on his loyalty to Trump. Plus, America’s global standing diminishes under Trump. And organizers plan may day economic action on May 1. Rep. James Walkinshaw, David Rohde, Ron Insana, Timothy Snyder, and Leah Greenberg join Ali Velshi.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

The last word with Ali. Valshi in for Lawrence starts right now. Hey, Ali.

0:05.6

So you know, Jen, I feel strongly about the fact that you're the master class in how you stand in front of a podium in front of a group of people who might like you, might not like you, whatever the case is. I was watching our friend Cash Patel's presser.

0:18.6

Oh, you know, you got to be careful what you say about this dude because he sues everybody for saying

0:22.1

everything.

0:39.7

That was just, I just wish he had called you and said, maybe you don't like me. I don't know, but can I just have a few tips on how to handle this thing? It was a little, I was giving him more of the benefit of the doubt before he got out there in front of the press and decided to, you know, argue about the Atlantic and the other reporting that was out there. That might not be his only problem, but, you know, I have advice on all of it. Don't be paranoid. Don't drink on the job. Yeah. And maybe you could do better publicly performing, too. And maybe don't call everybody a liar all the time, right?

0:55.9

I mean, I know a lot of people that took.

0:58.0

Maybe that.

0:58.5

A lot of people took exception of things you said when you were up there,

1:01.6

but there's a way of engaging in people who are there to be critical with you.

1:05.7

One day, just keep your phone on because if I ever need to, you know,

1:08.0

get in front of a crowd like that, I'm calling you.

1:09.9

I'm calling you. I'm here, always. Thank you, my friend. You have a great evening.

1:13.2

Thanks, I have a great show. Okay. Well, Donald Trump first became famous when he was a fame,

1:19.8

hungry New York real estate developer who filed for bankruptcy six times. Weirdly, he reinvented

1:26.5

himself, pretending to be a boardroom guy telling people

1:28.9

you're fired on television. But now voters might be realizing that Donald Trump is not a successful

1:35.1

manager. He just played one on TV. A majority of registered voters, 56% according to a Fox poll,

1:43.4

now say that Trump is not competent and he's not effective in managing the federal government. 56% according to a Fox poll now say that Trump is not competent and he's not effective

1:46.5

in managing the federal government. 56%. Now, there's no mystery here. It's just not hard to understand

1:52.3

why these numbers are. In fact, it's almost hard to understand why they're as low as they are.

1:56.6

Because as Donald Trump's war in Iran drags on, his administration has literally descended into chaos.

2:03.6

Every day, every few hours, just yesterday, Navy Secretary John Phelan, was fired after 13 months at the Pentagon.

...

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