Iran Latest, Donald Trump’s Leadership Then vs. Now & Making a Deal With Evil | March 24, 2026

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Hey, Bill O'Reilly here.

Welcome to the No Spin News for Tuesday, March 24, 2026. Stand up for your country. We can report with certainty that the Trump administration would like to make a deal with Iran. When I say the words with certainty you can take that to the bank. Now it's a very practical story. So the United States has degraded Iran as a

aggressive military threat. It's not a hundred percent complete, but it's very, very serious. And that country is going to take years to rebuild its arsenal. The only outstanding situation is the uranium, which has got to be the headline of any deal Okay and the Trump administration understands now

That the Persian people aren't going to rise up right away at least and overthrow the regime So that's not going to happen unless US ground forces would go into Iran and the American people will not support that as everybody knows. So you've got to be realistic in these things and we are going to provide some clarity in the talking points memo. So the president of Pakistan Shabazz Sharif has offered to hold peace talks in Islamabad between the United

States and I would assume Israel would be in on those talks to some extent, but not a major player, and the government of Iran. The Guardian, that's a newspaper that is not reliable, reports that Vice President Vance would be the chief negotiator, not Steve Whitcoff or Jared Kushner, who had been doing the negotiating before the military action. Again, The Guardian is not reliable. So I can't give you anything other than that's what this newspaper says. The government of Iran predictably says, oh no, no, we don't want to talk. Yeah, okay. That's like, you know, they don't want to lose face

in the Arab world, in the Muslim world, and with their own people, but they'll show up if there are talks scheduled. Now Reuters reports the talks may begin this weekend. Reuters is so-so. I'm just giving you what we have. I can't say with certainty that any of this is going to happen.

I can just tell you that the Trump administration would like it to happen.

Okay, about 2,200 Marines are either in or on their way to the Persian Gulf. We don't know why.

And the Pentagon is not going to tell anybody why. Why would you do that? So we have ground forces available if certain missions, not occupation, but missions need to be done. But the Defense Department, Department of War, whatever they are, they're not going to say, hey, this is where the Marines are, this is what we're going to do. Come on.

But the reporters keep asking. OK. A Pentagon official says that due to security situations, we can't answer any questions. That's legitimate. Usually, the government dodges and it doesn't want to answer questions here. In a battlefront situation. That's legitimate

In Ukraine Zelensky says he has irrefutable proof That Russia is providing intelligence to Iran that is likely an accurate situation Putin is the master of evil. It's why he's on the cover confronting evil right next to the Ayatollah Khomeini. All right, so I'm sure that Russia's doing bad things

trying to make it more difficult for the United States. So I believe that report. The United Nations UNICEF, which is the children's arm of it, says that 324 children have been killed so far in a conflict, 206 in Iran, 118 in Lebanon, 4 in Israel, 1 in Kuwait. Now the Lebanon thing is interesting because Lebanon got involved at the behest of Iran and it's Hezbollah, it's not the government of Lebanon, it's the terror group Hezbollah, it's the same thing with Hamas. So they start firing rockets at Israel

civilians What do you think Israel's gonna do? Though they fire rockets back now, I justify in anything. I'm just telling you that perspective is needed in covering the story So the kids are caught in the middle Just like Hamas. Civilians were caught in Gaza because Hamas hid behind them. We all understand. I hope so. So how

did the UN get those numbers? It's impossible to get them. So they took them from the various governments, which then you say, okay, you got to be skeptical. But be that as it may, children, women, civilians, everybody's suffering. The world would be a lot better place if we didn't have any of this, right? It's so simple. So summing up, I think that there over the weekend, this weekend coming, stuff is going to happen.

And I'm hoping good stuff for the country's sake could be wrong, and that's the memo. Now I've been around long enough to know who holds real power in this country. And the IRS at the top of that list. They don't need a judge to freeze your bank account, garnish your wages, seize your home.

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Joining us now from Washington, D.C. is Mick Mulvaney. You know him. He was President Trump's chief of staff for 15 months at the end of Ms. Trump's first term. He is now the co-chair at Actom and he's on CNBC and News Nation. So my question is very simple. I'm a simple man as you know, Mick. Is President Trump the same leader? We'll talk about him as a human being in a minute. But is he the same leader now than he was when you were chief of staff?

Yeah, it's a really interesting question. I'm going to give you a try to give you a little nuanced answer. And the answer is, yeah, some places and some places he's different. Keep in mind, I was chief, what, seven years ago now. And I don't think any of us are exactly the same person or same leader that we would have been seven years ago. I see some similarities, Bill, and I see some differences. The big differences that I've seen is that in the first term, I really think Trump valued having people around him who aggressively disagreed with him, maybe not publicly, but certainly

privately. Look, he hired me. I was one of the most fiscally conservative members of the Republican Budget Committee on the Hill. And Donald Trump is is not the world's most fiscally conservative person. He hired Gary Cohn, the former president of Goldman Sachs, to advise him on economic issues. And Gary's a free trader. Donald Trump is clearly not a free trader. He welcomed those types of disagreements in the first term. In fact, he sort of cultivated it. He wanted to see people fight with each other. I remember going to trade meetings and he used to put the free traders, you know, me and Gary on one side

of the room and that protectionist, Peter Navarro and Bob Lighthizer on the other side and watch us argue. He liked that. That's how he chose to manage. I see a little bit of that in this term. I know for, oh, by the way, and don't forget he hired John Bolton, uh, the, you know, the most neoconservative person you can be national security advisor and Donald Trump is not a neoconservative in this term. I get the sense that he doesn't have as much interest in doing that. It's still some Russ vote who runs the OMB work for me, probably more fiscally conservative than I am. And he's still on the team and very highly regarded. But generally speaking, I'm just not I don't get the sense that he

wants that same sort of of active and aggressive disagreement that he wanted in the first term. So, yeah, there's some similarities. There's some differences probably to be expected with the passage of time. He's a different person. The country's a different place. So I don't think that's necessarily bad. It's just different.

Is it true that he's more confident in his second term because he learned some very hard lessons in his first term?

I'm not sure if it's the first lessons. I think he's confident right now in the military. I think the actions in Venezuela, the actions six months ago in Iran at the Natanz nuclear facility gave him a certain level of confidence. We didn't see that.

We didn't do any of that in the first term by choice. And I think maybe he that's a new data point for him that he thought he could use the military in a way that what didn't really occur to us in the first term. I don't think Donald Trump has any interest, as you mentioned in your introduction of putting troops on the ground in Iran on a permanent or semi-permanent invasion type of basis. And he didn't want that in the first term either.

But this sort of what I call tomahawk diplomacy, the strategic sort of stuff, the standoff weapons, that was something we didn't even consider using the first term. And clearly, he's not shy about using it now.

It is true that a lot of people that he has hired have been sycophants and just say yes him to death and whatever he wants is fine but is that understandable because he got burned by a lot of people in his first term. Kelly, people like that, they turned on him, they burned him, there were a lot of leaks, remember the leaks all over the place, and he then became very distrustful of the swamp.

Yes and no, and again, that's the second time I'm trying to give you a nuanced answer, but these are complicated questions. Yeah, he got burned in the first term, there's no question. I mean, James Mattis was actively working against Donald Trump.

John Kelly, my predecessor's chief of staff, was actively working against him. Many of the people saw themselves as the so-called adults in the room there to protect the country against the president. That's a fundamentally wrong position for any member, an unelected member of staff to take. And if Trump sort of felt burnt by that, you can't blame him that being said There were people that he that he trusted and knew and worked well with in the first administration Who did disagree with him from time to time? I was one of those I never turned on Trump

But I did have the confidence to go and close the door and tell him something that maybe maybe I disagreed with so I Don't think you need to Go as far as just firing everybody or not putting people in there who would disagree with you at all. There are ways to get there.

But he's chosen people for loyalty as one of the top considerations. I think a lot of this turned and I'm looking at it from a historical point of view now, on January 6th. So he had a close relationship with Pence, his vice president, and I think, and correct me if I'm wrong, but I think they lunched a couple of times a week

and Pence gave him fairly candid advice, correct?

He did. Okay.

So that relationship was pretty strong until January 6th. All right. When Pence wouldn't go in and challenge the vote. And so Pence was out the door. And then a more loyal guy in Donald Trump's opinion, Vance took his place. And then you saw that in the Department of War with Hegseth, who is a patriot, I mean I would never argue that, he's served his country well, but certainly very inexperienced and another loyalist. And it just looks down the line like that's what he did, he wanted to take

any chances with people and theuary 6th thing hardened him

would i be wrong there no but i i cringe when i hear people say oh my goodness this president hired loyalists they all do eric holder was not disloyal to to that's true that's true confidence the question is is not loyalty i was loyal to the president. True. Oh, that's true. Confident. The question is, is not loyalty. I was loyal to the president. In fact, I was so loyal to the president, I decided to give him honest opinions when

he asked me about questions.

That's what you had.

You had a falling out with him over January six.

Yeah, that's right. I get. If your question is this, uh, is he getting good advice? I think that's really what we're talking about. Is he getting good advice from people? And I think the answer is generally, yes, I do hope that behind closed doors, there are people who are saying, Mr. President, this might not be such a good idea. My fear bill, my fear is this, is that instead of giving them those, those honest opinions, There's people, especially more junior people in the White House. You know, we talked about the cabinet here, but the junior people who are around the president all the time are, are, are goading him on. Oh, Mr. President, I think it'd be a great idea if we put your name

on the Kennedy center. I don't think Donald Trump came up with that. I think that was some obsequious junior staffer trying to get in good with the president. And I don't think that serves him well, generally, in the long run. That's maybe not the best example. But that was powerful guy. Most powerful guy in the

White House right now is Stephen Miller. And Miller is more militant about everything than Donald Trump is. But I think that Miller still has the presidency or would I be wrong on that?

No, he absolutely does. You're not wrong at all. The one thing about Stephen is that it's a constant. Stephen was just as adamant and militant about this in the first term. He just is.

I think one of the differences is that Trump really, really did latch on to immigration as one of the key issues in the 2024 election. That's not to say that it wasn't like that in 2026, excuse me, 2016, but clearly him not being Hillary Clinton was also a big part of it.

And it worked and Trump likes success and, and Miller can take a success.

Now I have been in a few, and I'm sorry to interrupt, but they have fixed the fundamental underlying issue of the security of the Southern border.

Right, but it got them elected. That's correct. It got them elected. I mean, you know, that pounding of this is insane and hurting the country, and I'm gonna fix it, which he did.

Now, as a civilian, I don't work for anybody but myself, I've been in some cabinet meetings, serious stuff, invited by President Trump because I believe he, like you, he knows that I'm not going to tow any party line or ideological line or anything. When he asked me a question I give him an honest answer. I never insert myself without being asked, ever. I don't call him. I don't do any of that.

He's got to come to me. But when I was in those cabinet meetings, those guys in the White House were not happy to see me. They were not pleased because I would go out of the box and I would say, I'm writing about it in my book which will be out in September, Confronting America. I spell it out pretty vividly but I'll give you one example, Panama.

And it was early on and you remember the rattle in the cage and we're going to go down there and take over the canal and only well I was in that meeting and I said, you know, I do any of this, you know The here's what you can do You'll get everything you want and it absolutely happened the whole thing happened The way that I had drawn it out because I covered the wars in Central America. I know the turf Alright, I know how it goes

Well, those guys didn't like that at all. The advice, and I understand, I mean, here's this O'Reilly guy coming in from God knows where, sitting with us and he's given, and the president's listening to him. They didn't like it. So I got a little taste of the office politics.

I don't remember you doing that when I was the chief of staff, but other people did. And here's how I would respond to it. I get the concern because a lot of folks who come into those meetings from the outside, whether it's a cabinet meeting

or just an Oval Office meeting, aren't familiar with all the work that has been done up to that point of arriving at a certain conclusion or at least getting to someplace along the line of making a decision. So I get that little level of frustration, but to me it was more important,

number one, did the president like it? And was it good information, number two?

That's what we're looking for.

He made fun of me. I don't know whether he liked it or not, Involved the way that I laid it out. I was at Harvard two weeks ago giving a little seminar to the pinheads at the Kennedy School my alma mater and You know, they don't like Trump generally speaking in that school and and they were

Asking me questions about my interactions with the president and what I said to them was look what you're hearing from the media isn't true generally speaking so they're shading it negative toward Trump I can tell you that in every single conversation I have had and you know I did the first interview with him in 216 when he when he announced in every single conversation Number one. He never lied to me and

Number two, he knew what the doocy was talking about He knew Yeah. All right. So if you think that this guy is some You know bon vivant shouldn't be there because he doesn't know what he's doing. You're crazy.

And he's straight up with me. And that silenced them because they couldn't challenge me on it. Because I've had more conversations with President Trump than any journalist in the country. A lot of them are private and I always honor that.

Now, the man himself, I have seen a change in the man. I'm not ready to define it yet. Have you seen a

change in him? I mean look he's what almost 80 now I guess he was 72 when I worked for him so that that's a big difference for everybody. Do I think he seems a little bit more tired sometimes? Yes. But I know that people offer examples of his, what he calls the weave as sign of mental decline.

And I'm like, that's crazy.

Donald Trump is always-

There's no mental decline. That's stupid.

There's a great ESPN 30 for 30 from, I don't know, 40 years ago about the USFL. I encourage people to go back and watch it because the Donald Trump when he was in his, I don't know, late 30s, early 40s is the exact same Donald Trump you see today. So now I've not seen any mental decline yet at all. Does he look a little bit more tired?

There is an overseas. Yeah. I mean, I, I would say that with certainty. However, he's less restrained in his statements, in my opinion. So when Mueller dies, he says, I'm glad he's dead. I don't know if he would have said that in his first four years.

Yeah, he did. He said the same thing about McCain.

I mean, not this exactly. Yeah, I don't know if he criticized me. Can I remember that? But it wasn't that personal. Yeah, it wasn't that. That was, that was a tough statement, which I understood. And I wrote a message today on Bill O'Reilly doc. I'm about it because Mueller had attacked his family. And if you attack somebody's family, I mean, that changes everything. So you haven't seen a big change in Donald Trump, the man.

Not really. Just on the stuff on the overseas trips. Look, those trips are brutal. And as you know, he doesn't sleep. He only sleeps about four hours a night anyway. The man's physical conditioning is just, it's outrageous.

I've known a couple of people who were able to do that. I couldn't do it. But at some point it has to wear on you. You know, a 30 hour flight back from the Middle East is gonna take its toll on everybody.

How about being moody?

No, I don't.

I mean, I'm not with him day to day like I used to be. So my interaction with him is on television. I just watched the interview that he gave today. I've not seen any large swings in that. He is a little bit more willing to push back on the press, but that's a degree. That was something he did in the first term anyway.

I do think, let me see if I can make sense out of it this way, Bill. He's not restricted by having to run for office again. And when you're the first term president, you're also automatically on day one, a candidate for re-election. Everybody is, right?

And so you're always in the back of your mind going, how is this gonna play in the next elections? And I think that's different this time. He doesn't have to do that. We watched the equity markets very, very closely in the first term because we knew it was a big deal for the voters.

I don't think they're as restricted by that. They pay more attention now, for example, I think to the bond markets than they do the equity markets. Equity markets is still done very well under Trump. Don't get me wrong. But I think that the flow of the day might be a little bit different because he's not running for reelection

But he has to win the midterms or two years gonna be real rough

And I think that's an uphill battle The listen if gas is $4 a gallon in August and September. They've got a problem. Yeah, it shouldn't be though

I think they're gonna wrap this Iran thing in the next In the short term term let's put it that way and then gas prices will have to come down fairly rapidly but the damage done you'd ever know you don't know if recession or overseas or what's going on final question Donald Trump's got a big thing coming up with China. And a lot of people don't understand his interactions with Putin, with Xi, but they're different, my observation.

They're different than he interacts with most other world leaders. Would I be wrong there?

I don't think so. You know, the way I try to describe it is that just because you get elected president doesn't mean you're not a human being. And he reacts the way that ordinary people would and under similar circumstances.

Look, a lot of the European leaders, when I was there in the first term, were not shy about showing their disdain for Donald Trump. And if I come on TV and I, you know, I, I, I clearly don't like you and I let it known that let it be known that I don't like you and my body language is like that. My verbal language is like that. That's going to affect our relationship. And I think that was part of the difficulty he had, Angela Merkel in Germany, et cetera. You can go down the list. Donald Trump does not pick his friends based upon their politics.

He doesn't like conservatives more than liberals. He likes people that he likes. And I think he just gets along with Xi. To a certain extent, he gets along with Putin. I do worry a little bit about the relationships. And at the end of the day,

when Trump comes out and he has these meetings, like he's gonna go to, he's supposed to go to China at the end of this month, it's now been delayed, and says he's got a great personal relationship with Xi, that's wonderful. But what I would tell him when we did this in the first,

Mr. President, that's great. But the American people don't care as much about your relationship with that leader as they do what that means to them. So we need to show them the benefits of that good relationship.

Yeah, but he feels he can leverage deals with these guys if he has...

Let's see the deals.

Yeah, if he has a real... Hey, Mick, thanks very much for helping us out. We really appreciate it and hope we can talk again soon. Financial stress is hitting an all-time high. Millions of Americans are stretched thin with no extra money, no room to breathe. And this isn't just lower-income households. Middle-class families are also running out of options.

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