What Next - Trump’s Threatening War Crimes. Will Anyone Stop Him?
Slate News
Slate Podcasts
4.5 • 6K Ratings
🗓️ 7 April 2026
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Last week, the Army’s Chief of Staff, General Randy George, joined a long and growing list of high-level military officers who have been fired, forced out, or otherwise induced to leave their positions during the second Trump administration. What does that mean for the war in Iran?
Guest: Idrees Ali, national security correspondent at Reuters.
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Podcast production by Elena Schwartz, Paige Osburn, Anna Phillips, Madeline Ducharme, and Rob Gunther.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Just a heads up, I quote the president in this show, and he dropped an F-bomb. |
| 0:06.1 | But we think it's important for you to hear what he's saying, unfiltered. |
| 0:13.7 | Idris, can you give me a vibe check inside the Pentagon right now? |
| 0:18.9 | The vibes are weird. |
| 0:23.6 | Idris Ali covers the Department of Defense over at Reuters. |
| 0:28.5 | Over the weekend, Donald Trump got on social media to say if Iran doesn't open up the |
| 0:33.5 | fucking straight of Hormuz, Iranians will be living in hell, which he said would include |
| 0:39.3 | the destruction of Iranian power plants and bridges, which, I mean, that's the commander |
| 0:44.6 | in chief right there. |
| 0:46.3 | That tweet was genuinely one of the most confusing, bizarre tweets that I remember President Trump sending, and he has sent quite a few confusing ones. |
| 0:59.0 | This post was actually on Truth Social, but the point stands. |
| 1:03.4 | He talked about the Iranians not wanting to make a deal in that they were crazy, |
| 1:08.5 | you know, sort of showing his lack of understanding of the |
| 1:11.0 | Iranian mentality on talks. And he ended with praise be to Allah, which I think a lot of people |
| 1:17.8 | took rightfully so as being offensive. You kind of joked about it online. Yeah, absolutely. |
| 1:23.6 | It's like, you know, well, on Easter Friday, is he converting to Islam now? It sounds like it's chaos. |
| 1:31.2 | In the hours since this post went out into the world, there's been a lot of conversation about the president's intent. |
| 1:39.0 | Some have worried he was all but threatening nuclear war. |
| 1:43.2 | Others are waiting for him to taco his way out of another |
| 1:46.7 | tantrum. There was apparently some kind of ceasefire offer on the table, but neither Iran nor the |
| 1:53.2 | U.S. seemed interested in that. On Monday, the president held a news conference in which he doubled |
| 1:59.8 | down on his threats. |
... |
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