Trump’s ‘incompetent’ team exposed | Scott Lucas analyses Pete Hegseth’s brutal hearing

They're trying to keep this war going, even though they have no idea how to get regime surrender.And here's what will undermine them in the end.It will be that domestic pressure, which is already why some people in the administration, J .D.Vance, I'm looking at you, are already looking to get out of it.They're already seeing the damage it's costing, well, most importantly, to their political careers.

And I think it'll be that split in the administration that Hegseth ultimately can't defy.I'm debate, friction, fighting with people asking him questions.So it was really interesting.We're going to speak all about that.So just a reminder that you can watch us every Monday through Friday on the Trump Report YouTube page.You can stream us as a podcast wherever you get your podcasts and you can see clips of the show on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.

My guest today is Professor Scott Lucas from the Clinton Institute at the University College Dublin.Scott, thank you so much for joining the Trump Report.

Well, thank you for letting me come in and join the party on this one.

Before we get into the hearing, I want to start off with the Pentagon revealing that it's cost around $25 billion in just two months of war in Iran.Most of the money has gone towards weapons, so missiles and air defense systems and operations.The stockpiles are running dangerously low after heavy use.Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth hasn't formally requested for more money yet, but he did tell Congress that the Pentagon will prepare a funding request once they know the full cost of what they need.CNN's Caitlin Collins said on her show that sources have told them that the costing is more likely to be run byto $50 billion so far when taking into account the fact that there needs to be these repairs done on US bases in the region.

Her guest, Congressman Jason Crowe, then, who sits on the Armed Services Committee, said that there is no way that this has just been $25 billion.That is a lowball number.It is probably two or three times that guaranteed.What are your thoughts on that?

Who cares?It's just money, right?And I'm sure Donald, who's like the richest guy in the world, I'm sure he'll dig into his pockets to fund the war effort, or maybe not.I mean, let's get serious about this here.So it was actually at the same hearings that we're gonna talk about where Pete Hexeth was, but you also had other Pentagon officials and you have the comptroller there, the guy who oversees the Pentagon budgets.And he gets asked by one of the representatives, you know, look, can you please tell us how much does this cost?

And they're kind of surprised when he actually answered the question, because up to now, and remember, we are nine weeks into this war.The Pentagon has refused to give even a cost to legislators about this.But he comes up, Jules Hearst, the comptroller, and says $25 billion, which is most of it on munitions.Now, he also said there's other costs for operations and for equipment.What happens subsequent to that is that you get Jason Crowe, who's not just a representative, he is an American veteran, so he knows military matters.And he says, no, in fact, the cost is probably far higher than that because there's different ways you measure the military expenditure in terms of how the equipment has been used.

There's also ongoing costs, for example, for the care for injured service personnel.personnel.And remember the Americans have had 14 killed and probably hundreds injured.so far.So, let's put this into context.For the first time, Congress is getting a breakdown of these costs and what we find out is that $25 billion is the entire budget for the year of NASA, which has just, of course, had this successful Artemis mission.

It's almost the same as what it would cost to extend Obamacare healthcare subsidies for a year, which Republicans were resisting.leading to the government shutdown at the end of 2025.It's more than the budget of the FBI.It's about the same as the budget of the U .S.Agency for International Development.

Remember that the Trump administration axed, claiming they were wasting money.And the point here is, is that Pete Hegseth, pop -gun Pete, is not going to say that this is a waste of money.He's going to say, well, no, actually, he didn't admit to this.Instead of acknowledging the cost, he kept shouting.He was like, whoa.What about an Iranian nuclear weapon?

How much would that cost?All right, two different issues, bro.And by the way, Iran still does not have a nuclear weapon, but we can discuss that later.And the upshot of this is, is that despite repeated questioning, and we'll go through this here in a minute, Popcon Pete would not give a breakdown of what this money has gone on.

Well, let's get into that, Scott, because I want to use that clip straight away.We're going to play out a few clips here of what happened at this House Armed Services hearing over the cost, the strategy and the chaos of the Iran war.That's what it's all about.Quickly turned into a full blown political clash.What you're what you're referencing is especially this clip with Congresswoman Maggie Goodlander.She grilled Pete Hegseth on this twenty five billion dollar price tag, arguing that Americans deserve a complete breakdown of exactly where this money has been spent.

You have testified that Americantaxpayers need to know where their dollars are going.And as you sit here today, you can't provide us with a basic answer to the most simple question that you should be able to answer to each and every American.

You're asking a question to an answer with an answer you already have.

No, I'm asking you for a breakdown where you said you will be accountable for every taxpayer dollar.You cannot tell us where any of the five billion dollars dollars in taxpayer funds that have gone to fund your war of choice in Iran.What the average cost of a gallon of gas was in this country on February 28th?

Well, it depends on where you live.If you live in California, it's $8.

$2 .83.Do you know what the average cost of a gallon of gas is today?

Much higher in California.

Welcome to Pam Bondi Mark II.Just as pretty as Pam, just as egotistical as Pam, and just as frustrating as Pam.You might remember we did one of these previously.last autumn, it was the Epstein hearings.And Pam Bondi, instead of actually answering questions, she insulted legislators, she yelled at them, she refused to acknowledge the survivors here.Welcome to Pete Hedges, whose main qualification for this job, you know, we should remind everybody, is despite the fact he was in the National Guard in Iraq and Afghanistan, his main qualification is he stood up on Fox TV with very luxurious hair, and he shouted about whatever Fox TV was shouting at that point.

He takes the same approach here.And that is, rather than actually engaging with the question, he wants to say this is all just a partisan effort to do him and the Trump administration down.So it's like, the Iranian people are not the victims here.U .S.foreign policy is not the victim here.

Pete, Pete and Donald Trump, they're the victims.They're being picked on.Poor, poor, poor.Poor, poor Donald.And, you know, if we were in normal politics and a decent politics, even if you have Democrats and Republicans, you would want engagement on some of these issues.America is in this war, which is not going well, which is not just extremely costly, which is damaging the global economy, which is damaging the US reputation around the world.

And Hegseth is doing he's doing nothing to counter that.He's just giving the impression that he's digging his heels in and being extremely divorced from reality.

Then Democratic Congressman Ro Khanna, he stayed on these economic impacts of the war by asking Peter Hagseth if he knew how much extra money it will cost Americans regarding gas and food prices for the next year, if there was a projection, a prediction of how much this would impact the American consumer.And that's when it quickly turned sour.

I would simply ask you what the cost is of an Iranian nuclear bomb.

I'm going to give you that opportunity.

I would simply ask you what the...You're playing gotcha questions about domestic things.

You're saying it's a gotcha question to ask what it's going to be in terms of the increased cost of gas?

Why won't you answer what it costs to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear bomb?

I give you that, sir, but let me...

What would it cost?What would you pay to ensure Iran doesn't get a nuclear bomb?What would you pay?Sir, can I reclaim my time?Do you not know, you and no one do the analysis of what the increased cost of gas and food on the American people are going to be?

Oh, man.Sorry, you guys, I left you hanging with dead air for a second because I'm just shaking my head at this, right?Because it's like, you know, it was at the point where Ro Khan and others said, look, tell us, tell us what a price, you know, tell us what a price of a gallon of gasoline is.Now, this is the day -to -day effect.A lot of people in America will not know where Iran is.It's very far away.

If, you know, if they don't know,relatives in the service, military service, it might be, look, I'm here, I'm just minding my own business.But when it comes to the price of gasoline, that affects them.And the price of gasoline, which was $2 .98, the average price of an unleaded gallon on February 28th when the war started, is now $4 .23.It's about 40 % higher.But Hegseth may not well know.

what the cost of a gallon of gasoline is which is one reason why he won't answer the question or the other is he just doesn't want to admit it and The rubber is going to hit the road.I mean He can keep trying to evade this you can have other trump people that are trying to spin it But the reality here is is that the us economy as well as the global economy is taking a hit here And if the trump folks don't find a way out of the war, it's going to take a further hit And you really do have this sense that when pete starts shouting and when donald starts tweet raging.They're like King Canute trying to hold back the waters.How's that for a fancy reference?They're trying to keep this war going, even though they have no idea how to get regime surrender.And here's what will undermine them in the end.

It will be that domestic pressure, which is already why some people in the administration, J .D.Vance, I'm looking at you, are already looking to get out of it.they're already seeing the damage it's costing, well, most importantly, to their political careers.And I think it'll be that split in the administration that Hegseth ultimately can't defy.

Absolutely.And Scott, we're about to hit May tomorrow.You know, the midterm elections, they'll be here quicker than anyone expects.You know, once summer hits, the next kind of months, they come out of nowhere, as anyone can tell you.But let's kind of talk about the hearing in the way that he's I guess, tried to explain their strategy.Now, quite frankly,

Adam Smith, he asked what so many people are wondering, which is, why did Trump and his cabinet consider Iran to be such an imminent threat when Operation Midnight Hammer in July was meant to obliterate Iran's nuclear capabilities?So he pressed Hegseth on this.

So they haven't broken yet.Okay, we haven't gotten there yet for all of the...

Well, their nuclear facilities have been obliterated.Underground, they're buried and we're watching them 24 -7.So we know where any nuclear material might be.Reclaiming my time for a quick second here.

We had to start this war, you just said, 60 days ago, because the nuclear weapon was an imminent threat.Now you're saying that it was completely obliterated?

They had not given up their nuclear ambitions, and they had a conventional shield of thousands of...So Operation Midnight Hammer accomplished nothing of substance.It left us at exactly the same place we were before.So much so that we had to start a war.Their facilities were bombed and obliterated.Their ambitions continued.

And they're building a conventional shield.Let me try again.It's the North Korea strategy.You know this very well.The North Korea strategy was use conventional missiles to prevent anybody from challenging them so they could slow walk their way to a weapon.President Trump saw Iran at its weakest moment, took an action to ensure in a way that only the United States of America could do with our Israeli partners.

And yet they still haven't given up the deal.

It's an illegal war.That's the problem that the Trump folks have.It's illegal because there was no imminent threat from Iran on February the 28th.You know, Iran does not have a nuclear weapon.It does have ballistic missiles, but those are ballistic missiles that cannot reach the United States.It was not showing that it was going to fire those ballistic missiles on Israel at that point.

So the administration, and not just he, you know, Pete, we've been picking on you.and I feel sorry for him.All administration officials have been scrambling since February 28th to construct a justification for the war.Now, one of the justifications that they tried was Marco Rubio saying, well, we had to go in and defend Israel.Now that got them into trouble because it looked like they were doing it at Israel's bidding.So they had to scramble around saying, oh no, no, no, no, no.

We did this because they did it.But it can't get them away from the fact that look, you know, where's the threat if you obliterated the nuclear program last year?You know, where's your justification for two days after, two days after having held talks with the Iranians in Geneva, they go back into war.And that's what Hegseth was trying to wriggle out of just in a really, really clumsy, ham -fisted way.Because the absurdity of that clip when he says, Oh, but they were using conventional weapons.They had conventional weapons to hide the nuclear weapons.

No, no, no.The nuclear material, not nuclear weapons, is hidden because you bombed it last year and it's still hidden.And you told us it was hidden.Does it really matter that much to Americans that the war was illegal and that that's happened?I don't think it does to Americans.This one, I think, matters more to the world.

Because this is why the Americans cannot get support for this war, because there's absolutely no justification for it.They can present as much as Donald Trump can reach about all these horrible people in Europe that are letting him down.

One of the biggest questions over the US's decision to start this war with Iran was how prepared the US really was on how Iran would retaliate.The way in which they did so was, of course, weaponizing the Strait of Hormuz, knowing what a global catastrophe it would be.So Trump at the time said that nobody could have prepared for this.Nobody told him what would happen with the Strait of Hormuz, a narrative which has been repeatedly debunked by military analysts and war game experts who say thatany time you know the scenario of a conflict with Iran comes up we know that Iran's playbook will be to weaponize the Strait of Hormuz.So Congressman Seth Moulton he wanted answers on this.

Did you consider this risk?

Of course, this department has looked at all aspects of this risk, and because this department looks...

But then why did you send the minesweepers, the only minesweepers we had in the Gulf, to Singapore weeks before the war started?

We have lots of capabilities that you may or may not be aware of at the classified level.Okay, and so...To deal with minesweepers...By the way, would the Trump -class battleships have helped with this?You're talking about a prospective future battleship which we welcome in the fleet.Okay, so you're supportive of the battleships?

Yes, sir.You're not stopping me from the black comedy, are you?I mean, and this is horrible black comedy.Okay, if you're going to launch an illegal war two days after having talks with the Iranians, okay, it's illegal, but at least you should conduct the war in a way that you're going to do well out of it and not expose your partners to retaliation and not expose the global economy to an Iranian chokehold.Trump administration, or I should say the Trump inner circle, because the military has been making contingency plans, they know what the Iranians could do.They know the Iranians could retaliate across the Gulf.

They know the Iranians could retaliate in the Strait.Why?Because the Iranians have, as you said, threatened it for years.Who told the Trump administration that?The military did, when they wanted to go into war.But the Trump camp were so eager to go into the war, Remember, only two days after having talks, they didn't leave themselves time.

to plan or to consider what Iran's reaction would be.So even before we talked about the Strait of Hormuz, remember that Iran immediately hits the Gulf states, Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and these countries now feel betrayed by the United States, and you just lost a lot of your capacity, your oil and gas capacity, because it's been damaged.Then they go in and they take the straight, Iran takes the straight, and you are absolutely right in your summary that almost every expert worth their salt, geopolitical, maritime, economic, military, knew, said this is one of the Iranian options, and here we are nine weeks later and the Trump folks can't get out of the bind.

And now this is the number one issue, the Strait of Hormuz, a situation that they weren't in before.But the hearing, it started to get heavily politicized, Scott, with Congresswoman Sarah Jacobs questioning Trump's mental state, bringing Hegseth.And then Hegseth starts bringing Joe Biden to it, which is, of course, an easy swing.But yeah, I want to play this clip out of when it starts to get heated.

We should be taking leaders at their word.So is there a reason that we should not be taking our leader at his word?

Iran should not underestimate the will of President Trump and the United States military to achieve our mission.

OK, well, I want you to know this is not a partisan thing.In fact, many, many Democrats have had many, many Republicans have had these same questions.Marjorie Taylor Greene said he's out of control and he's gone insane.Candace Owens said the 25th Amendment needs to be invoked.Megyn Kelly, Tucker Carlson, who used to work with Alex Jones, Stephanie Grisham, the list could go on.So how do I explain to my constituents that while they are in harm's way, their commander in chief is posting these unhinged posts?

And Mr. Secretary, if you think that this is what winning looks like, then maybe we should be questioning your opinion.stability.Maybe you are the one responsible for this failure and the president should think about replacing you.Mr. Chairman, I yield back.

It's like the get -out -of -jail -free card for the Trump people.No matter how asinine they have been, no matter how much damage they've caused, no matter how much they look like cockwombles, there's an academic word for you, they go, Joe Biden!Hey, here's a newsflash for you.Guess who is not president right now, right?And guess, by the way, who did not get the United States into a war which it can't get out of nine weeks later.And what really ticked me off about that Hegsa thing was not just, Joe Biden, okay, no problem here.

It was the fact that he referred back to and said, Afghanistan, Joe Biden got us into, he screwed up Afghanistan.Guess who it was who signed the agreement with the Taliban for the American withdrawal?It was not Joe Biden, it was the Trump administration.So even if Pete's gonna use this, at least get your facts straight, bro.Then, if you want to go further with this, there is an issue with Trump's mental state.You know my favorite expression for it.

You let me use it a few weeks ago.It's still up there.Everybody go look at it.And he's still that way.And of course, let's give Pete some credit.He's not going to say that.

Oh my God.Donald Trump, he's running around the White House and he's like in his bathrobe again at 11 o 'clock in the morning and he's throwing stuff at the TV.Pete's not going to say that.He's a loyalist.The reason why this was raised is that there is a serious issue here that some congresspeople are raising.You are in the middle of a war, which you cannot get out of.

You've messed it up politically.militarily, economically, but the guy at the head of this commander in chief, he ain't commanding much right now.He certainly ain't commanding the inside of his head very well.

Because it was petty politics, in my opinion, from Hegseth to, of course, throw Biden in.It's an easy win, an easy argument, Scott.But at the same time, why must we always revert back to former administrations?Who cares?Who cares?Like, let's focus on the right here and now, but at the same time, yes, it's almost also petty from Sarah Jacobs to bring it up, bring up his mental state.

But I do understand your argument that at the end of the day, this is about the Iran war and the person in charge of the war right now is having his mental state questioned.So fair enough.It's just more that perhaps it was a waste of her time because you only get so much time to speak.

I think there's another reason, Maddie, why, and again, why I'm okay with her bringing it up, right?And by the way, we know there's political point scoring that goes on at this point.I think you have to remember that one of those tweets that she's referring to is when you have, which is, you know, the whole civilization will die tonight.And when you are getting to the point that Donald Trump is threatening war crimes, you know, threatening effectively genocide is what he's threatening.Now, he didn't do it.And that's part of his mental state.

And we could talk about why he didn't do it.But I think putting that on record.Yeah, fair enough, even though I don't think it's the most important point to come out of the hearing.

You're right.And also a lot of her points were that the president is tweets, writing on true social at 4am.We don't have, you know, the insight knowledge to know if these are scheduled posts.But I remember I asked John Bolton last week, you know, whether what he thought about that, whether he actually believes that it's Trump overnight writing.He was just kind of like, you know, I wouldn't be surprised.But the point is, is that it's a little bit unhinged behavior to have someone tweeting or true social

dead into the night, pretty insane things.But just to wrap up what's happened in the hearing, I want to end on this clip from Congressman Adam Smith, who he gave such an inspiring assessment of Ukraine, because we know right now that Trump and Putin, they've had another phone call.We don't know too much about it.But I want to play this clip out of Adam Smith telling Hegseth that Ukraine's strategy should be an inspiration and aspiration for the United States.

One of the other ironies of this, of course, is we have a great example in the world right now of what our strategy should be and where our values should be.And that's Ukraine.And I'm really curious.Here we are.We roll out the red carpet for Vladimir Putin.We belittle and insult President Zelensky in the White House.

He has no cards, right?Well, here we are a year after that.Looks like he had a couple of cards to play.Because Ukraine is actually winning against Russia.Ukraine, a sovereign democracy standing up against a brutal, oppressive, coercive dictatorship.And we can't even bring ourselves on a consistent basis to say we are with Ukraine and we are against what Putin is doing and stand up and support them.

So I want to see that strategy.

Yeah, so I, you know, I've been talking, you know, with our colleagues, Times Radio colleagues on frontline about this, and also with Ukrainian journalists, who I get to chat with a couple times a week, and with other outlets.And one of the big stories this year is that, you know, from the position in February, where Russia was trying to finally break Ukraine's resistance after four years of invasion, with the attacks on energy infrastructure, Ukraine survived that.They came out of that horrible winter.Not only have they come out of that horrible winter, they're counterattacking inside Ukraine.In fact, overnight, yet two more oil facilities were hit, one of them for the second night in a row.So, on a daily basis, they are starting to constrain Russia's invasion by causing real damage.

And I think equally significant, they have got backing, substantial backing from the rest of the world, including this 90 billion euro loan from the EU that's going to start coming through.And what is happening here is, is that the Trump administration abandoned Ukraine.And even yesterday, at his own appearance before the press, Donald Trump said, you know, after talking to Vladimir Putin for 90 minutes, he came out and said, oh, Ukraine's not winning.Why aren't they quitting?Oh, they're not winning, despite what the fake news will tell you.Hey, guess what, bro?

Here we are on Times Radio, not the fake news.Ukraine is not losing this conflict.And the real story here that we're going to match up upon this is, not only have they not lost it, they've moved from resistance to strength without having the Trump folks there.The Trump folks bailed on them, except for some people in the agencies we can talk about, military intelligence agencies.So what this has actually shown, if we're going to go wide, and perhaps foreshadowing our next pod video cast, is that this world is realigning.What you saw yesterday to bring this all together is you saw a rather frantic defensive defense secretary trying to justify the erosion of American power in a very dramatic way and say, we have to spend more even as that power erodes.

And on the other hand, what you saw was a much smaller country, Ukraine, backed up by European powerswho are no longer having to depend on the post -1945 alliance with the United States because they can't rely on that alliance while Trump is in power.And not only did we see that, we're seeing those European powers, including Ukraine, reach out to Gulf states to talk about how to work together at a point when Gulf states are thinking maybe, except for the UAE, a story we could pick up later, those Gulf states are thinking maybe we can't rely on the United States.This is, to borrow a phrase from the 1990s, or to rework it, a new world disorder.And when one of the sources of disorder is in Moscow, and when one of the sources of disorder is in Washington, then the new world is one where both the Americans and the Russians are not getting to call the shots anymore.

All of that hearing wrapped up and just even the updates on the Russia -Ukraine war.If Trump is surrounded by idiots or incompetent liabilities, Scott, the way that many would say that he is, was that hearing proof to you that the people running this war and those advising Trump and what's happening in Iran and what's happening between Russia and Ukraine don't actually know what they're doing?

Here's the twist in the tale.Not everyone in the Trump camp is an idiot.And because not everyone on the Trump camp is an idiot, two things happen.One is that there's a split in the administration about continuing this war.Now, this did not come out yesterday.Who is the person who has not been questioned in these hearings?

Because he wouldn't be questioned in these hearings.Vice President J .D.Vance.Who's the person who's been sending his staff out to brief the media?for weeks that J .

D.Vance was against this war.Who's the person who sent his staff out in the last few days to say that the Pentagon and Pete Hegseth were misleading administration officials?by underestimating the cost of the war.Remember that 25 billion?That would be J .

D.Vance.J .D.Vance, who has his own political future to think about, that may be his priority here, wants out of this.Now he wants part out, out part of this because he wants to be president.

He also wants out of it in part because J .D.Vance wants his own priorities, which are, among them, to undermine Europe.because it was J .D.Vance and his people that are behind the national security strategy from last December that says, break up the European Union, support hard rights to get into power in Europe.

In other words, Ukrainian and European security is not important to us.So it's not that there's idiots in the Trump administration.It's that everywhere you turn, there's an awful story.The awful story right now is that they've gotten themselves into a war in Iran, which has completely entangled them and killed many thousands of people.The other awful story is that to get out of this war, it may take a person who wants not only to break the US alliance with Europe, he actually sees Europe as an adversary from the frying pan into the fire, so to speak.

Some analysts, Scott, in the last week have been saying that we are at a stalemate in this war.Witkoff, Kushner and J .D.Vance are still the nominated negotiating team dealing with Iranian officials.Do you think that Trump is listening to experts that he has?around?

And is it time to send a new experienced team to Iran to negotiate a deal?

I was beginning to think you gave me too easy a question.Does Donald Trump listen to experts?And then I actually caught myself.And I do think Trump listened at one point, or at least if he didn't listen, people manipulated him into, when he didn't send ground troops in.I think that's the one point when Trump was like,what the hell am I doing here?

And I suspect that you had the military, as well as people around Vance, and some of the economic folks telling him, look, if you put the ground troops in, this is just going to get worse rather than better, or it could get worse rather than better.The fundamental here is that It's not just the fact that you haven't got experienced diplomats handling the talks, that you haven't got experienced people, nuclear experts, who've been at the talks.You haven't got experienced experts on sanctions who have been at the talks.You have simply got real estate developer Steve Whitcoff and son -in -law Jared Kushner.It is that even if you sent the most talented people in the United States into these talks, you're in no position to enforce an ultimatum.That's the problem that they've got here.

And it takes us back to the Strait of Hormuz.Once the Iranians got control of the Strait of Hormuz, they have leverage.And if they have leverage, you can't force them to capitulate unless you can completely collapse the entire regime.So where are we with those talks?Just to close, we did not get the second set of the talks last weekend because the Iranians stood the Americans up again.It was like the Americans were like, we're going to send out, we're going to send out, we got J .

D.'s waiting, J .D.'s waiting, or Whitkoff and Kushner are going to go.And the Iranian foreign minister went to Islamabad in Pakistan.And before Whitkoff and Kushner could get on that plane, he left Pakistan because Iran's trying to get other countries on their side.They don't want the direct talks yet.Here we are a week later.

Iran still has control of the Straits of Hormuz and they put forth a two -phase plan.Phase one, We will talk about oversight of the Strait of Hormuz, a new arrangement in return for a lasting ceasefire, second phase.Then we will talk about the nuclear program.In other words, we're not going to accept the American demands that before there's a ceasefire, you have to make an agreement with us limiting your nuclear program.The Iranians have turned the diplomatic tables on the Americans.Probably the last hope for the Trump folks before they're forced into compromise or concession even, is to economically break Iran.

Now, we can pick that up in our next video cast, but here's my bet.they won't be able to economically break Iran.

Let's finish on what happened at the White House yesterday.Reporters were in the Oval Office asking Trump questions.At one point, he was asked which war he thinks will finish first, Iran or Ukraine.He said, I don't know, maybe they're on a similar timetable.He then said, I think Iran militarily, they're defeated.Sorry, he said, I think Ukraine militarily, they're defeated.

They had 159 ships.Every ship is underwater.Every one of their planes has been shot down.Now, did he just mix up Ukraine with Iran?

The media are being a bit cheeky here, Matty, because they've compressed two clips together, right?He said Ukraine is not winning the war, despite what the fake news media tell you, right?And then he goes, they've lost 159 ships and so on.I think Trump compressed two different thoughts in his head and put them in together because he got asked about Ukraine and Iran, and he didn't clearly separate them.I'm actually taking this as I've just actually referred to.I'm going to take Trump at his word here with what is a much more worrying prospect.

It's not just simply that he's incoherent.It is that he is willing to sell Ukraine out.We're back at that point again.We've been there repeatedly, but here is where I give you the half fact.as I'm going to end on Ukraine rather than Iran.Despite an incoherent chaotic president, beset with his own ego, despite his bumbling negotiators, one of whom, real estate developer Steve Witkoff, is basically carrying the bag for the Kremlin on his demands, despite JD Vance not having any interest, in fact, wanting to undermine European and Ukrainian security, The Trump folks can't sell Ukraine down the river now because Ukraine doesn't have to go begging them.

They've got other friends.So other friends, thank you very much.Meanwhile, good luck, Pop Gun Pete.Good luck, Donald.Good luck, JD, because you boys might be needing it in the next week to come.

Professor Scott Lucas, thank you for joining The Trump Report.He'll be back on Monday for everyone.A little sneak peek until we'll see what happens over the weekend.I'm sure there'll be a lot to discuss.

Onwards and upwards, Maddie.