Iran Is Escalating Because Trump Looks Weak

On tonight’s show, I’ll be discussing Iran’s surprise missile attack on American forces in the Middle East -- and Trump’s threat that the United States is now going to hit Iran hard. Iran appears to believe Trump is desperate to end the war and afraid of further escalation, so Tehran is testing him and trying to enter any negotiations from a position of strength. Trump now has to respond forcefully, but it’s increasingly unclear what he can do to change Iran’s basic calculation.

I’ll also look at Fauci’s testimony today, and the Trump-world outrage over his decision to plead the Fifth -- even though Trump himself invoked the Fifth 450 times. We’ll talk about the strange circumstances surrounding the testimony, the questions involving Fauci’s lawyer, Peter Navarro’s reaction, and Republican Congressman Andy Ogles’ extraordinary suggestion that losing one percent of the population to COVID would somehow have been acceptable.

Meanwhile, Trump’s Justice Department reportedly used former Gambino crime-family mobster and admitted murderer Sammy “The Bull” Gravano to help corroborate its case against James Comey. Trump was reportedly receiving updates aboard Air Force One while the Secret Service was conducting its initial interview of Comey. I’ll explain why that raises even more questions about Trump’s personal involvement in a prosecution aimed at one of his oldest political enemies.

We’ll also cover several major domestic stories. Trump is ending premium subsidies for the Medicare prescription-drug program. Republican Congressman Max Miller is facing horrifying domestic-abuse allegations from Emily Moreno, the daughter of Republican Senator Bernie Moreno. And Trump is reportedly spending roughly $5 million to apply an unusually thick layer of nearly pure gold leaf to four horse statues near the Lincoln Memorial -- while now planning a $22bn upgrade of DC's Dulles Airport, which Trump wants to name after himself.

Politically, the news keeps getting worse for Trump. Democrats continue to perform well in the generic congressional ballot, while two new polls have Trump falling to record lows -- 34 percent approval in CNN’s poll and 32 percent in Quinnipiac’s. At the same time, Sean Hannity gave Volodymyr Zelensky an unexpectedly supportive interview, calling Russia’s invasion unprovoked, defending Ukraine’s right to protect itself and describing Zelensky as a warrior. Laura Loomer also met with the head of Ukraine’s Azov unit in Kharkiv, even as Ukraine is still waiting for $400 million in aid that Congress appropriated last year and Trump himself signed into law.

Finally, I’ll have the latest on the expanding Iran-Ukraine confrontation. Iran reportedly considered firing a ballistic missile at a Ukrainian Black Sea port after Ukraine struck an Iranian commercial vessel in the Caspian Sea, killing a civilian sailor. Diplomacy appears to have prevented an immediate attack, but any Iranian missile strike on Ukraine could dramatically widen the war. And in Russia, the head of a company that manufactures military drones was shot three times outside his apartment in Tula and hospitalized in serious condition, while the attacker remains at large. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯