BREAKING: Exhausted Trump Rambles Through Parade of Grievances On G7 Stage

Hey, everybody.It's me, Sam Stein, managing editor at The Bulwark.We're here live following Donald Trump's press conference at the G7, a meandering affair, a bit wild, even by his standards.Joined by General Mark Hertling and Andrew Egger to break it all down.Guys, I honestly I'm kind of like, we're speechless about this because it was a weave.It was meandering.

It didn't make sense at some points.At others, it seemed oddly defensive, low energy.But then there was also some real substantive stuff, Mark, about what we should, how we should perceive this MOU, this Memorandum of Understanding that we have struck with Iran.And that doesn't seem to be actually much in the way of enforcement of the MOU.Well, there's not much in.

the way of an MOU.I can tell.One of the things we've been talking about for the last several weeks as they first announced they were going to do an MOU is an MOU is not a diplomatic tool.It's sort of a an agenda.that you use to do further diplomacy, do further negotiations, do further talks, parse out what both sides want, and then come to a determination of exactly what you're going to negotiate.He even admitted that earlier today, that it's not a deal, it's an MOU.

And there was just a rambling for the first time by the president of what an MOU is all about, which all of us have been talking about over the last couple of weeks.Now, during this press conference, there seemed to be a desire to state that everything we're going to ask for is going to be accomplished.If Iran doesn't do it, the repeating theme was we're going to bomb the hell out of them or start shooting again or start the action all over again.And I, for one thing, part of getting this MOU on the table and getting people to negotiate was for him to have an off -ramp for what he realized was a disaster.And yet now, on the verge of doing an MOU and beginning the negotiations, The off -ramp has been pulled away and we're back on the potential for another on -ramp for military action.

Let's play the clip that really personified this, where essentially it's like, and I'm trying to be, I'm trying to be objective about it, but essentially it boils down to they will do what we want here.They will fulfill these kind of amorphous obligations of the MOU or else we will bomb them again.Let's play the clip.

threatening to bomb Iran if they don't comply, but there's nothing enforceable in the deal itself.Is that correct?

Doesn't have to be.I let him know.He said, look, if you don't adhere to the agreement, I don't want to do that, but we're going to bomb the hell out of you.And I don't think that they're going to veer from the agreement.What else am I going to do?Am I going to say I'm going to take you to court?

Let me take you to court.Let me just let me sue you.No, we're going to bomb the hell out of them if they violate the agreement.I don't want them to.I want them to honor the agreement.

All right, Andrew, that seems a little bit sort of reductive, but maybe you have a different view of it.

Well, the catch 22 there, I mean, the substance of the question is we've all seen these draft versions of this MOU floating around.And the whole the whole predicate of the question is there isn't that much that's enforceable that Iran is actually committing itself to other than, you know, pinky promise not to go after a nuclear weapon, which we also had in the JCPOA.And beyond that, you know, all of the sorts ofactual checks and actual accountability mechanisms and things like this that Republicans have wanted since the days of the JCPOA, didn't think the JCPOA got us enough, none of that is in it.So that's why she's asking the question.She's asking, how can we count on Iran to stick to this.

So it's this weird back and forth situation here with the president, where on the one hand, there's no reason to believe that Iran has committed itself to anything like what Iran hawks want to see in terms of actual, like, concrete, we are not going to take this and that and the other step toward enrichment and things like this.But then on the other hand, Trump is saying, we're gonna bomb them if we think they're moving toward that.So it almost seems like he is saying that we are going to be looking for different measures that are not part of this agreement at all.And if Iran takes steps that we don't like that aren't part of this agreement, then we ourselves are gonna violate this agreement and start bombing again.But at the same time, if I can just add one other thing, Trump very plainly does see the need to sign something right now.And that is another thing, and he spent a ton of time talking about this.

We're going to get to that in a second, but I want to just talk about this idea of sort of a snapback enforcement mechanism with Mark for a minute.And I might be viewing this the wrong way, but I am admittedly going off of very limited information that we have.But it strikes me that the problem here is that we have a 60 -day window.at which point benefits will accrue, right?So all Iran has to do is be on good behavior for 60 days.They'll get their sanctions relief.

They'll get the $300 billion, I should say.They may even be able to start charging fees on these straightforward moves.Let's put up this Associated Press news break that just happened right before we went on air.I don't know if we're able to do it.Probably not because it's a tweet.But under the news break, it did say that they were...

Oh, there it is.So reporters were being read actual language from the MOU andamong them was the AP.And they said, US draft of Iran agreement only secures toll free passage of the Strait of Hormuz for 60 days.It doesn't preclude future fees.So this is what I'm going to ask you, Mark.

Strikes me that the problem here is that after 60 days, Iran just needs to play nice for that.They get a bunch of benefits, and then they could start kind of inching back in towards malignant behavior.They could put on a couple of fees on the Strait of Hormuz.They could be a bad regional actor in sort of minor ways, but not overt ways.They can do all the stuff that Donald Trump will say, well, I don't want to start bombing them again and get back into this situation.And they'll just kind of be in that bad status quo.

Is that a fair read?

It's an extremely fair read.And I'll go one step further and say 60 days puts us in the middle of August, and that's a whole lot closer to election.President Trump is doing what he's doing right now because I think his team is telling him we're tanking in a big way.And he even addressed that toward the end with polls.But if Iran decides after 60 days playing for time that they want to go longer, what you just said is exactly right, Sam.They're just going to kind of diddle away with it.

And no one's going to Are the ships all going to stay there during this period of time?Are all of the ammunition that's been fired at Iran going to be rebuilt over the next 60 days?Are we going to use that time frame to get another military force just sitting around in the Gulf to attack on a whim?Are we going to start drawing that down?It's a ludicrous combination of diplomacy and fallacy.You know, the president really believes that people will take his orders in other countries.

And we're still just talking about Iran.Let's start talking about Israel.Let's start talking about the Gulf states.Let's start talking about Turkey and Europe and all the others that have a stake in this thing.Yeah, it's just, it's bizarre.

Now, Andrew, to your point, he did it at some various junctures throughout this kind of hint that he felt really pinched, right?There is one moment where he was talking about how our munitions or stockpile munitions was getting dangerously low or no, sorry, our oil stockpiles, global oil stockpiles are getting dangerously low.Said like four weeks, we would have been a real energy crisis.So that was a real hint.But he kept.He kept bringing up Herbert Hoover, like over and over again.

As the president, he was desperately trying to avoid just letting the pretext kind of come out there.Let's play the clip of him referencing Hoover.

The only difference is that a player that's very volatile, very tough, very smart, frankly, you know, they have in one way a primitive culture, but it's also a genius primitive culture.They're very smart people, very good negotiators, but so are we.rather than possibly going into a depression, rather than having your favorite president be Herbert Hoover.I was always the one I didn't want to be.I wouldn't have preferred Nixon.I wouldn't have preferred.

There are plenty I wouldn't prefer.But the one I always thought of Herbert Hoover, and he caused it.He raised taxes too fast and he raised interest rates too fast, all at the same time.And it caused the Great Depression.So I don't think I'll make mistakes like that.

I lowered Oh my God.Well, uh, that was a weave, uh, very much.There was one weave where he went from like Lebanon to Africa, to Ebola, to AI, to electrical grids and so on and so forth.That was a better way than that one.But, uh, Andrew, if you're, if you're free to talk,I am free to talk.

This was what you're talking about.He's, there was something about this whole presentation where I was like, if I had kept going, folks, we would have been in real trouble.

it's because it, you know, completely justifies and he put us in the car.Exactly, exactly.And I mean, it is true.Iran had us over a barrel.You don't really expect the president to say that, but he was saying it.The other thing he kept saying, which was which was so funny through all of this is like, him this argument

big triumph for the United States.And it is just so clear that even he is not really buying what they're selling on this.

And the combination of, I bombed him once, I bombed him twice, and if they piss me off, I'm going to bomb him again.It was a skit.I mean, it was incredibly dumb.And scary, actually.

Mark, from just a sort of military standpoint, I mean, obviously, we have an incredible amount of resources and personnel and munitions.But I am kind of curious how depleted we got.Obviously, I kind of misinterpreted at one point when he was talking about oil.I thought he was talking about weaponry.But what's your sense of how much we could have gone further on this path?

Yeah, we could have, but it would have put every single contingency plan we have at risk, in my view.And I used to be, a long time ago, when I was a one -star, I was the J7 on the Joint Staff, which was the guy in charge of watching contingency plans.And how much were we draining from one, Iraq and Afghanistan, at the threat of draining others?What he's used is quite a bit of ammunition, low density, high demand ammunition is what they call it, LDHT.So when you're talking about going another day, another week, starting it all over again, starting a new campaign, you're really putting other contingencies at risk.And that's not me saying that.

That was the commander of Pacific Command saying that a couple of weeks ago when he said he was concerned about his various war plans and being able to have the right amount of ammunition.

There was a couple of times during this Well, beyond beyond being sort of like amazed that Trump and his is kind of grumpiness.But there were a couple of points in this where someone who covered the JCPOA in 2015, I was just like kind of blown away.by how, how similar the structures are here, but obviously Trump will never admit it.So they're talking about at one juncture, you know, you're not paying Iran, but you are on freezing their assets.And Donald Trump went into this great soliloquy about, well, it is their money, right?It's their money.

We were just, if we were to seize the money, If we were to seize their money, no one would ever invest in, in America again, because you would have not, you wouldn't have the confidence that you could get your money back.And I just, Leopold went off.I was like, well, this is a sort of incredibly unsophisticated talking point that the unsophisticated version of the talking point that the Obama people use when they were on freezing Iranian assets in 2015.Uh, and it just, it just blew me away.But then he went a bit further than even Obama did.Um, he made the case.

proactively that the Iranians should keep some of their ballistic missiles, which is not something I ever heard any Obama administration official utter once in 2015.Let's listen to that.

So we'll be working on a parallel effort with the Gulf nations to address non -nuclear issues such as the conventional ballistic missiles, which we'll be talking about.and support.I mean, they have to have some because other people have some got to have some.Somebody said you shouldn't give them one.And I have guys.I like some of these guys, but I don't think this.

I don't think they're smart.Sure.

You shouldn't let them have any missile.

I said, well, what am I going to do?We're going to let Saudi Arabia have missiles, but they can't have them.

Yes, sir.

It doesn't work that way.You know, it doesn't work that way.And missiles aren't the problem.Missiles are They hurt a little location, but they don't blow up the planet.So the Gulf nations will address the non -nuclear issues as we'll be doing.about the ballistic missiles.

And we'll talk also about the terrorist proxies that they have, that we don't want that to happen.

Oh, my God.I don't even know where to begin.It's just shocking to me that it happened.Of course, everyone's going to fall in line and be like, oh, he's a genius.Of course, they need some missiles.But it's just so amazing to me that he uttered it, Andrew.

The other good, good moment.that was Yes, if you are Israel, you are happy that the United States has... significantly diminished Iran's capacities in these respects.But the idea that they're finished, I mean, Pete Hegseth and these guys have been saying this for months now, that they're like, you know, one more good barrage away from having, you know, spent their whole role.It's just not the case.And it is funny, again, to see Trump now acknowledging from the stage stuff that they have been insisting all along is basically the opposite, you know, where guys like Hegseth have said everything is going to be fine on the missiles department.But guys like Trump and Rubio and, you know, Scott Besent have said, you know, the economy is going to be fine.

Everything is just this little blip.And now we're acknowledging, OK, they're going to keep some missiles.And now we're acknowledging, OK, we were weeks away from a real crisis and we had to do we had to cut bait basically and cut our losses and get out of here.

Yeah, I guess part of it is he wants to present this deal as some some sort of reentrance of Iran into the global community.Right.And so, of course,they have to have funds to rebuild, and they, of course, have to have weaponry.And then he wants them to sign the Abraham Accords, like, on top of that.It's not – it doesn't strike me as particularly realistic.

I'm – we actually have a copy of the MOU, and I'm sorting through it as I'm talking to you guys.But, Mark, can you – while I sort through that, can you just sort of expand on that?Like, how do you go about getting Iran back into the global community?Is it a realistic objective here?

The, you know, if I can just comment on one other thing too about the JCPOA, you know, that was a year and a half effort in a 159 page document.And what we're currently seeing is we're going to go in and wing it.I mean, that's really what is being publicized today that, okay, we might have a couple of talking points.I'm probably not going to be there to sign it.I'll let JD sign it.There's nothing there.

It is the terms of understanding by both sides of what they want to talk about.And neither side agree.And now that we have the written, the alleged written document from one side, I'm not sure it represents the ideas of, again, Iran, the Iranian leadership, Certainly it doesn't represent what Israel wants.Certainly the Gulf states are going to have challenges with it because they're kind of questioning right now, who's going to pony up the billions of dollars for the reconstruction, which Trump also said, well, it, you know, we're only going to give them 300 billion for reconstruction.They actually need a couple of trillion.So he's winging it even reconstruction.

Yeah.The, the, the MOU is it's.I would almost say it's a, it's a, it's a undergraduate war game of what you can do.you might put at a table for someone who has never done this before.

Well, let's get, let's get into it.So we're going to start putting up.So we actually have text.This is from the United States side of the full MOU finally released.We do not know if it corresponds with the Iranian version, but let's go, let's go through it because it's kind of fascinating to dissect.I'm going to start, the first three sections are fairly basic.

and a dime.It says the U .S.and Iran commit to negotiating and achieving final maximum 60 days.We knew this.They talk about the situation in Lebanon and territorial integrity and sovereignty of Lebanon and respecting that they are going to respect each other's sovereignty and territorial integrity and refrain from interfering in each other's internal affairs.

That's one, two, three.Then it gets to four.And then it gets to five.And let's do five here because I found this to be kind of interesting.If we can put it up, I want to read it.Upon signing of this MOU, the Islamic Republic of Iran will make arrangements using its best efforts for safe passage of commercial vessels with no charge.

for 60 days only from the Persian Gulf to the Sea of Oman and vice versa.So essentially, they're going to get rid of the blockade of the straightforward moves that Iran had put in place.The traffic of commercial vessels will immediately start, and considering the need for removing the technical and military obstacles and demining by the Islamic Republic of Iran, will be instated within 30 days.Iran will conduct dialogue with the Sultanate of Oman to define the future administration and maritime services in the Strait of Hormuz.Okay.That's what really stood out to me in discussion with other Persian Gulf states in line with the applicable international law and sovereign rights of coastal states of the Strait of Hormuz.

Mark, that reads to me like we are going to put together a fee service with Oman and that will be implemented at some point.after the 60 days of clear passage.Yes.

Well, not we will institute that.They're, I think, hedging their bets, knowing that Iran and Oman have already signed off on this.It may not be a toll.It may be a fee service.If you move through the straits and you're collecting any kind of resources, you may pay a fee at Karg Island.which we have the right to instill.

You may pay a fee going through a demined location, which is closer to Oman, because the strait is basically separated into three areas.The area closest to Iran they control.The middle lane, if you will, if you'll call it that, used to be where most of the ships went through.And then there's the Omani coastline, which for the last several weeks, the U .S.Navy has helped escort ships or get ships through.

So what they're basically saying is it's now up to Iran and Oman to determine who and what passage through passes through here.Right.I think that's what it says.

That's my read of it too.All right.Then we get to section six and let's put that up.And Andrew, this one's for you.So on section six, this is with respect to the reconstruction.United States of America undertakes with regional partners to develop a definitive mutually agreed plan with at least USD, US dollars, $300 billion for the reconstruction and economic development of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

The mechanism of the implementation of the plan will be finalized as part of the final deal.Within 60 days, our card license waivers and permissions needed for the relevant financial transactions will be granted by the United States of America.That last part.So my read of this and Andrew, tell me if I'm wrong, I often end, we're going to facilitate $300 billion in reconstruction.It doesn't say it's going to be our money, but it will be our, you know, measured as,U .S.

S.dollars.We will waive and get the license to make sure this happens, which means the sanctions regimes that we have put in place will be waived.

And this will all happen.within 60 days.to get all of these neighboring states to pony up a bunch of cash to go and invest in Iran.We're not just opening up the markets to them.We've become like their biggest economic cheerleader in the region and on the global, on the global stage.And I mean, this is, this is another part of why the idea that Donald Trump could, if Iran decides to get squirrely again, just say, ah, you know what, we tried all this, we're going to go back to bombing again.

And that's going to be, you know, another, another, still possible outlet from all of this.It's just farcical on its face.We are now committing to a bunch of different things that are going to make it much more painful for us and much more painful for all of our regional partners to cut back on all this stuff again.Because what, are we going to tell a bunch of U .S.companies that they now need to go and get reinvested in Iran and sink a bunch of money into new infrastructure and hiring and all kinds of stuff over there?

And then, you know, two months from now, we're going to say, just kidding, pull the plug.All that money's gone.We've enriched Iran.We've allowed them to rebuild in all these sorts of ways.but we've decided that we're better off fighting after all.I mean, we become weaker from the point of view of any future attack with every single one of these provisions.

So if we're not wanting to attack them now, there's no chance we're going to be wanting to attack them later.Again, very hollow.

Can I comment on that?Because I think that the statement itself where it says the mechanisms for this will be established within 60 days.My comment on that is you got to be fucking kidding me. I mean, you know, what Sam just said is right.The Gulf, color me silly, but perhaps the Gulf states like Dubai and UAE and Kuwait and Saudi Arabia may want to know whether they are being asked to finance Iran's recovery after years of Iranian -backed attacks against them.I mean, this is suddenly turning an enemy that's been there for decades into someone they're going to pay to reconstruct.I mean, it's crazier than that, Mark.

Iran just spent weeks bombing their own infrastructure.They're not, they're a liquid national gas pipeline.

That's small, that's small.You know, and by the way, these are also the same Gulf states that President Trump said could rebuild Gaza.after the Israeli attack against us and none of them ponied up.

Well, that raises actually an interesting question.So let's say in theory, after 60 days, the money isn't there.Okay.300 billion was promised.The mechanisms are not there and the commitments are not there.Where, what happens?

The Iranians look at this and say, okay, we're closing the straight again.Is that it?

Well, I think the first thing the Iranian set would say was, Hey, you guys were the ones that said you were going to do this.What's the status?That's what's going to happen.And by the way, this is the same country that the president just said a little while ago in the press conference, we'rein their ability to negotiate.They've been around for, oh, I don't know, a couple thousand years.

I think they're actually damn good at negotiating and he doesn't really.

Can I say one thing on the Gulf states too?

I want to get to the seven and eight because this is this is about but go ahead quickly go quick.

Yeah, just real quick.I mean, this is just the latest example of what we've seen where a country that tries to butter Donald Trump up in a specific way finds out that there are downsides to this because a lot of these Gulf states have personally endeared themselves to Donald Trump by making themselves into his personal piggy banks, right?They have they have funneled insane resources to him and his family on sort of a personal capacity and as as state actors, you know during all the liberation days stuff last year, promising these massive lavish investments in the United States, again, in order to sidle up to him and ingratiate themselves to him.But what they have now done is they have him thinking of them as just this bottomless well of financial resources that he can dip into to solve basically any problems he wants to in the region.And this is the other shoe dropping of that.

One last thing, Sam, if you don't mind.I learned a word during my time in the Middle East.It's an Arabic word.I don't know the Farsi translation, but the word is wasta.And in the Arab world, when you have wasta, it means everyone respects who you are because you make stuff happen.You get things done.

The president of the United States, whoever it might be, has always had wasta in the Middle East.Right now, I think, as Sam, Andrew just said, it's fading because it's not there anymore.Right.

All right.This is where it gets like.Super technical and you're kind of looking at every single word and trying to make sure you got the right meaning here i guess that's the case with these types of agreements but let's put a seven and eight together now it's a little bit it's small font but paragraph seven is basically the sanctions relief and how it's going to happen so it says youUnited States of America undertakes to terminate all types of sanctions, all types.

That's their words, all types of sanctions against the Islamic Republic of Iran.

I can't.That's it's amazing that they're doing all types of sanctions, including the United Nations Security Council resolutions, IAEA Board of Governors resolutions, all unilateral U .S.sanctions primary and secondary in an agreed upon schedule as part of the final deal.We don't know what the agreed upon schedule is.So that's.

TBD.The Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States of America acknowledge the critical importance of the sanctions termination issued above mentioned and express their intentions to immediately address these issues in the negotiations in order to achieve mutual agreement on them.Sentence doesn't quite make sense to me.Seems like a lot of words.All right.Eight, the Islamic Republic of Iran reaffirms that it shall not procure or develop nuclear weapons.

That was part of the JCPOA.Everyone knows it.The United States of America and the Islamic Republic of Iran have agreed to resolve the disposition of stockpile enriched material pursuant to a mechanism that will be mutually agreed upon.And here's where I kind of, my ear sparks a blip in accordance with the schedule mentioned in paragraph seven, with the minimum methodology to be down blended onsite under the supervision of I a E a.So what was the scheduled mentioned in paragraph seven?It looks like, as I read it, that they're going to do sanctions relief first and then get to the issue of downgrading enriched uranium.

But I might be overreading this and I just can't tell, but this strikes me, Mark or Andrew, I guess, Mark, you first as sort of the most important and most likely to trip things up element of this is the sequencing.We just don't know the sequencing on a lot of this stuff.What comes first?The sanctions relief.the inspections?What comes first, end of the blockade or opening the Strait of Hormuz?

You know, it's, it's those nitty gritty details.And you mentioned it, the JCPOA took a year and a half to negotiate.It was 159 pages long.I went, I went and reread it again.You could see how tortured every single word was.This is ambiguous to me.

It does appear to me in reading this that the sanctions relief will come first.Right.That's my read.And the fate of the enriched material and the nuclear material is deferred.So this is not dismantlement.It's a promise to negotiate dismantlement in the future, but only after the sanctions have been relieved and Iran has the money back.

So Iran, from the very beginning, has said they want their money.They want people to quit attacking them.Lebanon should be free and Israel should no longer attack them.So it appears to me in reading this formal statement that Iran is getting everything they want and the United States is providing that, especially in terms of the monetary, the fiscal aspect of it.And yet there's a promise to negotiate nuclear dismantlement later after people have talked to the various governing bodies like the UN and the IAEA.Just that alone will take months, if not years.

I mean, that's not something that's going to snappily occur in the heart of any body that has 194 different nations contributing.

Let's go to number nine.We're going to move through these pretty quickly.Pending the final deal, the United States of America and the Islamic Republic of Iran agreed to maintain the status quo.Islamic Republic of Iran will maintain the current status quo of its nuclear program, and the United States of America will not impose any new sanctions and will not deploy additional forces in the region.This is interesting only for the fact that it's pending the final deal, which means that during the course of the negotiations that are going to supposedly happen, because of the MOU, there will not be any new sanctions.So Iran could keep the negotiations going, or has an incentive to keep the negotiations going and going and going, because they're not going to be re -sanctioned while those negotiations happen.

It's an invitation to just negotiate or draw them out, as I read it, Andrew.

Yeah, and if you go on to 10 there, if you don't mind as well, because that basically elaborates, it says the United States of America undertakes that immediately upon the signing of this MOU and until the termination of sanctions, the Treasury will issue waivers for the export of Iranian crude oil, petroleum products and derivatives and so on and so on.So everything that is front loaded here.is all coming from the US.But before that, it is extremely explicit that we are one, dropping the blockade of Iranian ports, and two, we are dropping all of these, or sorry, rather issuing all of these waivers to allow certain things in a particularly Iranian oil to flow.And all of that comes even prior to the one sort of front -loaded thing that Iran is offering here, which is the partial and sort of ambiguous reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.So to maybe lay out the whole timetable here, it's we give them a bunch of economic goodies immediately.

They give us the one big economic lifeline, probably, and pretty soon, the straight -up hormuz, they're doing the minesweeping and all these sorts of things.And then it's more question marks about how the other stuff all comes down, because a lot of the other stuff just hasn't been negotiated yet.That's the big thing.This is the talks that are starting now, and we still don't know.But again, as I was saying before, every day that goes past that brings us closer to the midterms, as Mark said, or that we go around and secure new financial investment commitments for Iran.It's not like we get a stronger hand in any of this at any point.

So it's, I don't know, it's pretty grisly from a negotiating point of view.

And then the last, go ahead Mark, quickly.It goes back to one of the things you were saying at the very beginning too, the emphasis that the president made on refilling all of the the supplies.He said, we've only got four weeks left of oil, so I'm a great guy in opening the straits and getting that back to you.It's taking credit for something you caused, the evil thing that you caused.

Now, this might be the most significant graph, and I guess it's also the one that is open to communication, or it's a little bit ambiguous too, but let's put a graph 13.Okay, after signing this memorandum of understanding and subject to the beginning of implementation of paragraphs 145 10 and 11 so just for your reminder, four and 510 and 11 are basically about the financial relief.Four was about the $300 billion to rebuild Iran.Five was about safe passage through the strait and the end of the blockade that we had.And in addition to that, coming up with some sort of system where the Sultan of Omanthe Republic of Iran kind of have some fee service, 10 and 11 were explicitly about sanctions relief.

So after signing this MOU and subject to the beginning of the implementation of all that and the continuing implementation of these measures, the United States of America and the Republic of Iran will start negotiations.Okay, so if I'm reading this correct, negotiations on the final deal do not start until we start seeing sanctions relief, the opening of the straits, the ending of the blockade, and some mechanism from which the $300 billion to rebuild Iran have been implemented to some degree.So we can't even start negotiations until we see that, according to this graph, is how I read it, which I guess makes sense.You want to make sure that people are operating in good faith.But it does mean that Iran will get some economic benefits during the negotiations.And that means we've removed some key leverage points for the negotiations.

Well, enormous economic benefits, right?I mean, this is a very, very, very steep price that the Trump administration has agreed to pay just to keep Iran at the negotiating table.And more importantly, to take some of the pressure off of the Strait of Hormuz.And again, like we've gotten a little bit away from what we started talking about at the beginning, which was this Trump speech.But it just could not have been clearer as you were watching that speech that Trump believes, and probably correctly, that the Iranian stranglehold over the Strait of Hormuz was about to become painful for America and for the world on a scale that we just hadn't even seen yet.And he really felt like he was over a barrel and was compelled to give these goodies.

And Iran knew it too.And that's why we're seeing the deal that we're seeing.

I mean, I'm struck by this, Mark, that he's justwith this war.That was it.He, he is done.He, he was willing to take anything to just get to the point where he could say I'm out.Uh, because for what Andrew said, and also I think he was just sort of like recognize he's taking a huge political hit here, but even the, even the body language in that press conference, the lethargic, angry kind of grumpy attitude about it.

Like it just seemed like he was done.

Yeah, we've known that for a while, I think.He hasn't been able to push it away from the headlines.He hasn't been able to delay action on it because it is war.It's extremely hard to figure out how to fight a war and execute a strategy, especially when a strategy isn't there in the first place.And all of these things are contrary to who he was as a businessman making a deal on real estate property.None of them relate or correlate to what he's trying to do right now.

And it's too hard.He wanted other people to solve it for him, Whitcoff, Kushner, Rubio, Hegseth, but none of them can.And what we haven't even mentioned is Rubio's body language.Yeah.Talk about that for a second.behind him at the press conference, so very different from Witkoff's body language.

Witkoff is remaining the sycophant.You know, you could tell it's a tried expression, but with Rubio, his soul left his body and never came back during that entire press conference.Okay.

Well, one, one person who was not there, whose soul probably also left his body was JD Vance, who's been tasked with selling this deal.And he's gone on the shows for a couple of days now.And weirdly enough, like was kind of downplaying the idea that he wasthe, the, the MOU said exactly what it said.Uh, you know, it's like the $300 billion.What are you talking about?

Anyways, Trump clearly wants to just offload all this stuff onto JD pants.

And at the end of the press conference, the one question I laughed at with the reporter, they ask a serious question first and the same reporter, and I can't remember, it was a juicy.No, it wasn't Doocy.It wasn't Doocy?The woman said to him afterwards, asked the first question then said, and what did you think of J .D.Vance's performance yesterday?

That came out of nowhere.That was a weird one.That was a weird question.And then the one that really blew my mind was the guy was like, did you see the generic congressional ballot poll?And I was like, what?You're in the G7 in France, and this is happening?

You're asking about the - It is.

It is astonishing.One real quick thing on that.It doesn't matter what's happening in the news.Anytime Trump gets questions from his traveling pool, you are forcibly re -reminded of the way that he completely broke that institution and stuck a bunch of people in it who are like, right wing MAGA bloggers who are going to ask like, Mr. President, oil is dropping like crazy on your very powerful deal with Iran.Your thoughts on that?I mean, it's just it really is embarrassing to see that be what is presented as the American media on the world.

You both have been in these kind of forums before, and I've been in them answering questions.But there is the American media and then the international media.And the American media is asking those kind of questions.

The international media are looking at each other like, What the hell is wrong with these people, you know, that's true You know, I will say this though about the international media, um, they do ask questions solely based on the interests of their countries So the japanese reporter is like to ask him about like japanese internal politics and the brazilian report is like What's going on with you and lula and trump's mind is racing a million miles a minute.Uh, he had no clue what he was doingreporter was saying.He was just like totally out to lunch on that.So, uh, anyways, the very last question came back to do see for the second time and he brings up JD Vance and Trump just like, you know, he just kind of cops to how JD is going to get thrown under the bus for this.And let's watch that.

Thank you, President Trump.I have a question about this weekend.Why not stick around for the signing ceremony with this Iran peace deal?

I might.

You might?

Yeah, I might, but I'd rather, this is a memorandum of understanding.It's very important, but it might not be the kind of a document that I should be signing.

Is there some element to this where you send the vice president, if it works out, Great, you look like a genius for sending him.And if it doesn't work out, it's the vice president.

I like that idea.Sure.Well, this way it works out.I'm going to take the credit if it doesn't work out.I'm blaming J .D.

You better be careful, J .D.He's going to turn his plane around and get the hell out of here.Yeah, I like that idea.I think it's a good idea.Thank you very much, everybody.

I didn't show it.I didn't show it.But that was the only moment in the thing Marco Rubio liked.

Yeah, he's kind of smirked.But you could tell, it's like, yeah, the smirk was, he'd do that to me in a heartbeat too, you know?Totally.The bus comes for everybody at some point in time.

All right, fellas, this is great.I can't believe we actually broke down the MOU live on air.That's real live TV shit right there, guys.Very impressed with us.We're growing up.We're becoming real professionals.

For those who tuned in, I hope this was informative.

Except when I dropped the F -bomb.I apologize for that.

It's all right.You can do it any time you want, man.People go crazy for that, Mark.Yeah, they love it.All right.Andrew, Mark, thanks a bunch.

guys.For everyone who watched, thanks so much.If you like what you watched, subscribe to us on YouTube or on Substack, and we will come back to you soon.Take care.