Will Trump's Iran strikes hit him in the ballots?
The News Agents - USA
Global
4.3 • 719 Ratings
🗓️ 4 March 2026
⏱️ 36 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Why did Trump decide to strike Iran? Was it the US that started the war? Is it even a war? Listening to senior figures in the administration and in MAGA it's not entirely clear. The accounts are confused, contradictory, and seem to change by day.
What is clearer is that the American public don't support the action. Polling suggests only one in four Americans back the strikes - and a series of Trump influencers have reacted with fury to the move. This is another war from the President who pledged to end them. With the midterms critical for Trump's future, could this intervention become a massive own goal if gas prices rise and voters turn away from the GOP?
This week, Jon is joined by Michael D. Shear, the Pulitzer Prize winning New York Times correspondent.
And later - James Talarico electrifies Democrats in Texas, but is talk of turning the State blue premature? Or does Talarico represent a generational shift in the party?
The News Agents USA is brought to you by HSBC UK - https://www.hsbc.co.uk/
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Newsagents USA Podcast is brought to you by HSBC, UK, opening up a world of opportunity. |
| 0:09.6 | This is a global player original podcast. |
| 0:13.0 | The president made the very wise decision. |
| 0:15.2 | We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action. |
| 0:17.7 | We knew that that would precipitate an attack against American forces. |
| 0:25.6 | We didn't start this war, but under President Trump, we are finishing it. No, I might have forced their hand. You see, we were having negotiations with these lunatics, |
| 0:32.6 | and it was my opinion that they were going to attack first. They were going to attack if we didn't do it. |
| 0:38.2 | And I didn't want that to happen. So if anything, I might have forced Israel's hand. |
| 0:44.0 | It's like we're in a bizarre, multiple choice exam. Was it A, as Marco Rubio says, that the US was |
| 0:50.7 | pushed into this by Israel? Was it B, as Pete Hegeseth says, Iran, who fired first and America |
| 0:57.8 | simply responded, or was it C, as Donald Trump says, America that pushed Israel into it? |
| 1:05.4 | For an explanation of what is going on in Iran and why it has been confusing in the extreme. And the more |
| 1:16.1 | that administration leaders speak, the less clear it becomes. Welcome to the newsagents USA. |
| 1:25.7 | The Newsagents USA with Emily Maitliss and John Sopal. |
| 1:30.6 | It's John, and the last I could see, Emily was feeding a kangaroo in Melbourne. |
| 1:37.1 | She's only been there 12 hours, and she's already hassling poor kangaroos. |
| 1:42.9 | Instead, in the studio, I'm delighted to welcome Michael |
| 1:46.1 | Shear, who is the chief UK correspondent for the New York Times. When I was a sort of newbie |
| 1:51.6 | in Washington as the BBC's North America editor, the first Obama trip on Air Force One, I went on, |
| 1:58.3 | Michael Shear was the person who told me where I had to sit, what I had to do, |
| 2:02.1 | what needed to happen. |
| 2:03.3 | And so it's lovely to kind of have you back here in Britain. |
... |
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