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Eamon Mohaldin

Yeah.

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Rachel Maddow

Thanks you at home for joining us as our really, really happy to have you here tonight. Do you want to see a beautiful thing? Look at this. Whether or not you're like an infrastructure geek. Isn't this a nice looking bridge? I think this is just gorgeous. I grew up in the East Bay in Northern California. When I was a little kid, every time we drive over the Bay Bridge from the East Bay to San Francisco, I would drive myself nuts trying to figure out how on earth they could ever build a big long bridge like that. I think that, I think I have a memory of convinc myself as a little kid that they must have built the Bay Bridge, the suspension part of it. They must have built it straight up in the air as if it was a big flat tower. And then when it was tall enough, they flopped it down onto the other

Mark Elias

side of the bay.

Rachel Maddow

That's how I believed these things must be built. Which is not at all how you build a bridge. This in fact, is how you build a bridge. This is a time lapse video that shows how this one in particular was built out from each side of the span, both sides building toward the middle. And then when they get to the middle, look, it just knits together and presto, it's a bridge. Just beautiful stuff. Really impressive. This bridge cost nearly $5 billion to build. They built it to stand for more than a century and this bridge has taken years. But it is ready to go. After years of construction and all the design and effort that went into this, this beautiful bridge is good to go. It is ready for cars and tr. It's even got a lane for bikes or people walking. Let's go it is ready. But of course, there's a reason I'm not showing you pictures of cars and trucks and bikes and walkers on that bridge. Because let's not go. After all, even though this thing is ready to be used, even though it is done, even though the ribbon cutting and the opening ceremony were set for this past Friday, which could have meant that people could be walking and driving and cycling across that bridge right now as I speak, nevertheless, it is still closed. It is totally done and ready, but it is still closed because guess why, or should I say guess who? Headline. Donald Trump can't open the Strait of Hormuz, so instead he's blocking the Strait of Detroit. That's a headline from the Globe and Mail, the Canadian newspaper. The big, beautiful new bridge that Trump is not allowed, allowing us to use is a bridge that crosses the Detroit River. It goes from Michigan, from Detroit, across the Detroit river to Canada, to Windsor, Ontario, Canada. Fully financed and paid for. This bridge, it is ready to be opened. It will be the biggest US Border crossing in Canada. It will be one of the most important routes for trade in the entire world, the single most important one with one of our two most important trading partners, Canada. But Trump won't let anybody use it, even though it's ready, ready to be driven on. See this, this is why we can't have nice things. When you have a corrupt government, you don't just have the embarrassment and the, you know, the sort of depravity of the president giving out pardons after people write him checks to get those pardons. You don't just have the president's sons and his son in laws, their companies collecting hundreds of millions of dollars, even billions of dollars from foreign government, get favorable treatment from the president and his administration. You don't just get a trust for the president buying stock in a private company and then the president hosting an event for that private company at the White House and doing everything he can as president to boost the value of that company in which he holds stock. While the White House insists that categorically, just because he's president, he can't have a conflict of interest like dividing by zero. Doesn't make sense. Sure. I mean, with a profoundly and really shamelessly corrupt president, you do get all of those things I just described, but you also get very practical consequences. You get a perfectly good, totally useful bridge that you're not allowed to use. It was supposed to open Friday. It is not open because Trump says he doesn't want it open. When this bridge does open someday, if Trump ever lets it open. You should know that there is a competing bridge a little way down the river. A privately owned, very old, very congested toll bridge that will likely lose some of its traffic because of competition. It will lose some of its traffic to this pretty brand new bridge that has just been built. The family that operates the competing old bridge earlier this year made a $1 million donation to Donald Trump's super PAC. In short order, member of that family then got an in person meeting with Trump Commerce Secretary Howard Letnick. The White House and the PAC say that was just a coincidence, no connection at all. But after the million dollar donation, he gets this meeting. And then the same day of the meeting, Howard Letnick calls President Donald Trump. And that night Trump suddenly discovers new, supposedly trade related reasons why he is now against this bridge, even though previously he had been for it. The one family in the world that will financially not benefit from this bridge being open pays Donald Trump Super PAC a million dollars. And wouldn't you know it, Donald Trump suddenly decides that he has reasons for taking their side and opposing the opening of the bridge, which again, he used to support. That all happened in February. Now it's June. The bridge really was supposed to open. It was going to open. The invitations had gone out for Friday's ribbon cutting and Friday's opening ceremony. They had already put together and put out to the public the video instructions telling you how to put the toll ticket for the new bridge on your windshield. Or if you drive a commercial truck, you can put it on the license plate frame of your truck. Or if you drive a motorcycle, you can put the toll sticker thing on the headlight of your motorcycle. I had no. They've put out all these instructions. They are ready to cut the ribbon. They are ready to go. The bridge is ready for traffic. But nope, Donald Trump says no. Headline in Ontario Construction News, Gordie Howe International Bridge opening delayed Again, no date in sight. Trump administration is insisting that this bridge should not be allowed to open because heaven forbid a MAGA donor be inconvenienced. One billionaire family that donates to Donald Trump, heaven forbid they be inconvenienced because that to a corrupt administration that is way worse than literally tens of thousands of people a day being deprived of the use of this. Fully built, fully paid for, ready to open, state of the art, brand new, beautiful bridge. This is why we can have nice things. Corruption. Corruption is why we can't have nice things. Speaking of toll crossings, looks like there's now going to be tolls for anybody who wants to cross the Strait of Hormuz. Now, technically, I guess, it's illegal to call them tolls, but according to new reporting tonight in the New York Times, Iran apparently thinks that the outcome of this war they just won against the United States is going to include Iran having the ability for the first time to charge everyone fees to transit the Strait of Hormuz. You're not allowed to call it a toll, so they're calling it a fee, but it sort of amounts to the same thing. And this is something they didn't do before, but now they're going to start. Why are they going to start doing this? They're going to start doing this because they just won a war with the United States of America. Donald Trump started a war with Iran, and he then lost the war. The war was supposedly for regime change, right? The regime in Iran is now the same theocratic regime they had before, just with a younger, more radical mullah in charge. Now, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps is in a position with regard to the government that is as strong, if not stronger, than it was before Iran's nuclear program. That was another supposed reason for the war that is still very much in place. Iran's stockpiles of enriched uranium still very much in place. Trump said he wanted regime change. He said he wanted to end their nuclear program. He wanted to seize their stockpiles of enriched uranium. He did none of these things. He said he wanted to decimate Iran's military capability. Indeed, he says he did so. But, you know, somehow Iran maintained enough military capability to keep the Strait of Hormuz closed all this time. And as recently as this past week, they were able to shoot down an American Apache helicopter. We're apparently not allowed to see the supposed deal that Trump just signed with Iran. We'll get some expert help with that in just a moment. But bottom line, it does just seem to be Donald Trump surrendering on behalf of the American government, agreeing to cease all of our military operations there, potentially agreeing to pay Iran in the form of lifting previous sanctions or unfreezing previously frozen Iranian assets. And in exchange for us paying them, we get a return to most of the conditions that existed before the war. Except things are now worse for us and better for them. That's basically the definition of losing a war. Thanks to Donald Trump starting and then losing this war, Iran is going to be richer and more influential. Its ruling ruling regime is definitely more radical and more entrenched than ever. It can be infinitely more confident in its nuclear ambitions now that they know that the most powerful country. And the most powerful military in the world couldn't do anything to end those ambitions, even at the cost of a war. I mean, really, the only difference for Iran now materially, is that they may be able to start charging fees for ships that want to transit the Strait of Hormuz, which is something they were never able to do before. But hey, to the victor go the spoils, right? Meanwhile, American families are poorer thanks to the spike in energy prices and related inflation that Trump's war caused. That may not even level out anytime soon, thanks to the damage. That's not even considering the economic impact of what we spent in terms of military materiel and the American lives lost. And then there's the fact that the US Government has been humiliated on the world stage, reducing itself to precisely one international ally, one Israel, even as the President himself cannot even speak anymore about Israel's leader without using four letter words, even in public. Remember when Donald Trump said the only way this war would end would be unconditional surrender? He maybe should have specified which country he meant by that. He also said the war would result in a great civilization being destroyed. Remember that? And again, maybe he should have been more specific as to what he meant by that. But I'm just saying, this is what he had happening at the White House, the actual White House. As he got ready to sign the supposed agreement with Iran, crying uncle and agreeing that he lost the war, he himself started motorcycle circus at the White House. So the president spent $14 million on a no bid contract to make the reflecting pool on the National Mall be blue. He did that during the war. Spent $14 million in a no bid contract to make the reflecting pool blue. It is already not blue anymore. There's no filter here. This is just what it looks like. As of today, the reflecting pool is green again. Bright green, electric green. It is covered in very healthy blooming algae. Trump only reopened the reflecting pool last week to great fanfare. Look, I made it blue. Aren't you glad I spent millions of taxpayer dollars to make it blue? Blue only lasted a couple of days. As of today, it is covered in slimy, huge green algae blooms all over again. This is what the Kennedy center looks like now, I guess, permanently. This is like a permanent little suit that Kennedy center is going to wear indefinitely. Now, Trump, of course, as you know, was ordered to take his name off of the Kennedy center building this weekend. That reportedly did happen. But they are apparently keeping the whole facade of the building covered up with a circus tent, like a circus tent pattern tarp or it kind of looks like those things that you used to get in elementary school to teach you how to write cursive. But on the side where one line was dotted and the rest were solid lines kind of looks like that. Anyway, that's what the Kennedy center looks like now. It's the John Ehrmang Arts Building with a circus tent in the middle because he wouldn't want you to see that his name has been taken down. How else are things going? Well, after we put an anti vaccine quack conspiracy theorist in charge of healthcare for the federal government, we are now about to lose our elimination status for measles. As one of our many interconnected raging measles outbreaks, this one in Utah approaches one year length. One year in length. That is one of the triggers for a nation losing elimination status for measles after Trump led his top campaign donor randomly cut things out of the government that he didn't understand. Turns out we're all learning now why it's a bad idea to cut out the screw worm monitoring systems that Elon Musk cut from the government. We're learning that now as a potentially devastating screw worm infestation starts making its way through Texas cattle herds after Trump put a string of his personal lawyers in charge at the U.S. justice Department and instructed them, publicly instructed them, to start investigating and arresting his political rivals and critics. Today, we have learned that California's Democratic governor and likely top tier Democratic presidential contender Gavin Newsom has had his family targeted by Trump's Justice Department. Here's some of Governor Newsom's response tonight.

Gavin Newsom

One by one, anyone who has challenged Donald Trump has ended up on his hit list. And today, I proudly join that list. After calling for my arrest last year, Donald Trump directed his Department of Justice to investigate me. And just in the last week, I've learned that his campaign has reached my own home to get me. He's coming after my wife, Jen. To Donald Trump, who I know is watching because he watches everything. I have a message for you. You can subpoena my records, you can investigate me, you can harass me, put my name on every and any enemies list you have. But leave my wife and family out of your personal vendetta to Donald Trump. This country, this country does not belong to you. It does not belong to your cronies. And we're going to fight your lawlessness. And we're going to continue to remind the people of this country of your corruption, that same corruption our founders warned us against. As we move to celebrate our 250th anniversary. I'm going to keep reminding Americans of what they warned would happen if a man with no, no character ever held the office of presidency. So let me say it again, Mr. President. Come after me. I'm not going anywhere. And the country is watching.

Rachel Maddow

I want to keep reminding Americans of what they warned would happen if a man with no character ever held the office of the president. Governor Gavin Newsom speaking tonight as he announces that the Trump administration has started some sort of criminal investigation into his family. Just in case you needed a window into who the Trump administration is worried about as a potential Democratic presidential candidate for 2028, I would say that reported criminal investigation is probably as good an indication as any. You might remember the last time Trump was president during the conduct of a presidential election. You might remember Republicans working on his behalf drew up fake certifications claiming that Trump had won a bunch of states that he actually had lost. Remember the fake electors? Joe Biden had won these states. Republicans said those states had actually elected Trump. They had picked Trump electors to send to the Electoral College. And then they tried to pass off those fake electors as if they were real. Well, if you want a real window, a really nice split screen window into what to expect from the next elections in our country, consider this split screen that's going to happen tomorrow. Tomorrow in Madison, Wisconsin. Three pro Trump lawyers who helped hatch the fake electors scheme in that state are going to be arraigned on 11 counts of forgery in state court in Wisconsin, in Madison, while simultaneously also tomorrow, one of the people who was a fake elector from the great state of Georgia will tomorrow be on the ballot to try to become the Republican Party's nominee for Georgia governor. His name is Bert Jones. He actually was one of the fake electors in that forgery scheme that even tomorrow is resulting in a criminal forgery arraignment in a courtroom in Wisconsin. But in Georgia, he has the endorsement of Donald Trump and Republican Governor Brian Kemp to become the next Republican candidate for governor in Georgia. And what do you think the consequences of that will be if he's the nominee or if indeed he wins the election against Keisha Lance Bottoms in November? You think they'd ever try the fake elector thing again in Georgia? Think they're more likely or less likely to try it again if one of the actual fake electors from 2020 is the sitting governor of Georgia. But the pushback against the worst of what Trump is trying to do keeps coming from more and more unexpected places in Utah, in Salt Lake City, Utah. The city and county there have now just sued to stop Trump from trying to build one of those huge Trump prison camp at a Salt Lake City warehouse site. San Diego, California. This is a protest this weekend outside the Ote Mesa immigrant prison in San Diego. This comes after the county of San Diego sued and a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to allow local officials and local health inspectors into that facility where they are holding immigrants. Another federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to reinstate all the history exhibits and history placards and signs that Trump had ordered be taken down from national park sites all across the country. The judge ordered specifically that those materials needed to be reinstated and put back up by July 3, 2026, in time for the 250th birthday of our country the following day. We are living in a time of profound, profound corruption in our national government. And so it's a time, I mean, just ask the communities on either side of the Gordie Howe International Bridge, which is closed for no reason at all. I mean, we are in a time because of that corruption, when we really cannot have nice things that we really ought to have. That said, the American people do appear to be acutely aware of how corrupt these times are and how worthy an endeavor it is to try to stop as much of this nonsense as possible. And that includes a new concerted, high level effort to try to anticipate and fight and thereby try to stop what Trump may be trying to do to mess with the elections later this year. We've got a really interesting reporting on that. Report on that coming up in just a few minutes. We've got more on the American government essentially admitting defeat in the Iran war that Trump started. And we've got news on something that you ought to be watching out for in the news coming up on Friday of this week, right at the end of this week. We've got a lot to get to tonight. Stay with us. Really happy to have you here.

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Rachel Maddow

So imagine this scenario. Election Day is approaching. The White House is fear mongering about supposed election fraud, right? This is not hard to imagine. White House is fear mongering about election fraud. But then they decide they're going to encourage vigilantes to take action to stop this supposed fraud. So Trump supporters decide that they're going to do citizen patrols of polling places because the Trump White House has been messaging that they should do that. And Trump supporters start showing up to do these patrols with guns. So now we're getting reports of armed vigilantes at polling places and obviously protests against them and probably confrontations with them. In response to those reports, Trump announces that he must keep the peace. He must send armed federal agents to polling places to protect the election. That's one scenario. What would we do in that scenario? Here's another scenario. Some foreign country, say Iran or Russia or China, whoever, some foreign country, decides to unleash a wave of AI generated deep fake videos of candidates and other people in American politics. And these are fake videos, but they're good, they're good quality. And people don't always recognize that they are fake. These fakes are designed to hurt Democratic candidates and Trump critics. They're designed to confuse voters and muddy the waters in terms of what's going on in the election. When news organizations start reporting on the deepfakes, the Trump administration goes ballistic and starts threatening all news organizations that report on the deepfakes. They start telling news organizations that they have to censor any coverage of this foreign influence operation as a matter of national security. That's a second scenario. What would we do then? Here's a third scenario. Voting's over. But before the states can certify the results of the vote, Trump's Justice Department sends FBI agents out to go seize the ballots, supposedly to investigate irregularities in election administration. They seize the ballots before the results are final. That's the third scenario. What would we do, then what are the options, really, practically speaking, what are the options for protecting our elections from our own federal government? That was the question at the center of a war gaming session that was held just a few days ago by 10 Democratic U.S. senators, including the Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, plus several election experts. Those three scenarios I just described, they gamed those out, those three very specific and not at all unimaginable scenarios. Politico reported that in these tabletop drills, quote, they game planned legal injunctions to bar armed federal agents or armed citizens from voting sites and lawsuits to force the Trump administration to return ballots if they're confiscated in key contests that could decide control of Congress. They also choreographed communication strategies across elected leaders and campaigns and advocacy groups to combat misinformation and disinformation designed to sow distrust in the results. Senator Schumer told Politico that another one of these exercises is planned for next month. He said, quote, we're going to be prepared for anything that Trump throws at us. Being prepared for anything is a necessity of living in these political times. Donald Trump, of course, has called for nationalizing elections. He's talked about sending immigration agents, ICE agents, or the National Guard or somebody else with a gun to voting sites. His Justice Department has seized ballots already from the 2020 election, as well as election records from counties in Georgia and Arizona. On Thursday, Trump's agents served search warrants on a voter registration group in Ohio. Now the White House is absurdly threatening that the US Post office won't deliver mail ballots anymore in any states that refuse to turn over their voter rolls to the Trump administration. I mean, it's one thing to think about foreign governments trying to interfere in our elections, right? Or sort of bad actors or criminals. But if it's the federal government who you have to defend the elections against, who does that and how? I mean, specifically what specific people do it and what do they actually do? Who has the authority to stand up for elections and to plan around these kinds of scenarios? It's not crazy for it to be high ranking elected officials from the opposition party, from the Democratic Party. Joining Senator Schumer at this strategy session were members of an election protection task force he has set up, including Senators Mark Warner, Dick Durbin, Adam Schiff, Raphael Warnock, and Alex Padilla. They brought in a crew of heavy hitters to offer expertise, including former Attorney General Eric Holder, election law expert Norm Eisen, the heads of the legal group Democracy Forward and the nonprofit Protect Democracy. They also brought in the tireless, hard charging election attorney Mark Elias, who has beaten Donald Trump in court on these issues dozens of times. Joining us now is election attorney Mark Elias. He's the founder of democracy docket. Mr. Elias, thank you very much for being here. I really appreciate you making the time.

Mark Elias

Thanks for having me.

Rachel Maddow

Did I explain that accurately? Did I miss anything important about these tabletop exercises and what they were about?

Mark Elias

No, I think you got it exactly right. I mean, these are important to do because, you know, Donald Trump is posing a threat that we have not seen before. As you say, it is one thing to be prepared for what happens if right wing vigilantes do things. For example, you mentioned, you know, guns or armed people around polls. We actually dealt with that in 2020. My law firm and I, we sued people in Arizona who were staking out drop boxes in Maricopa County. But it is quite another thing, Rachel, when the person with the gun or the people trying to seize the ballots or the people trying to spread disinformation is actually the federal government led by the Department of Justice. And so these tabletop exercises and other things we do to prepare are really important.

Rachel Maddow

Democratic senators convening this sort of an exercise is. Is of interest to me because I'm realizing now that while we all have a sense of what kinds of responses we want the country to have, we're close enough to these elections and we're deep enough into this primary season that we gotta start getting specific about who the country is and what the response should actually amount to in terms of who should do what. Do you feel like Democratic, that elected Democrats in the Senate and the House in important statewide positions, sort of understand their roles and what their individual parts will be to play if any of these scenarios come to pass.

Mark Elias

Yeah, I think there's been a lot of work and understanding in the last few months. You know, I've been doing this a very long time, Rachel. The first time I was involved in a post election matter, it involved the Louisiana Senate seat that Mary Landrieu won back in 1996. I did Harry Reid's recount in 1998. I did Al Franken's recount in 2008. I could go on and on and never have I seen the Democratic Party as prepared as they are today. And that includes, by the way, the work I did to help Joe Biden and the Democrats beat Donald Trump 60 times in the post election in 2020. So there are a lot of people involved in preparing. We need to stay focused on the task at hand. It is a very daunting challenge, not like One we've seen before. But I do think the Democratic Party

Rachel Maddow

is prepared with these sites, these sorts of exercises and that type of planning happening within the Democratic Party and among Democratic elected officials. What should the public expect their role to be? I think that a lot of Americans who think of themselves just as voters and citizens, maybe they've been to a protest here or there sometime in their life, or maybe they never have, are nevertheless pretty invested in making sure that our democracy gives us free and fair elections in November and that the results of those elections are abided by in this country. What will the public be called upon to do? What should the public be thinking about organizing to do in advance of those elections?

Mark Elias

Yeah, I think three things. I think, number one, they need to prepare to vote. Right. They need to understand that the rules may have changed, the registration may be being challenged. We're seeing Donald Trump do that. And so everyone needs to understand the rules and they need to have a plan to vote, even if they voted before. They need to make out a plan about how they're going to vote this time and make sure they are prepared. Number two is they need to be educated. I mean, I'm thrilled, Rachel, that you are doing this episode tonight with your enormous audience and people paying attention, because it is educating people about the threats that are coming so that they won't be quite as scary, they won't seem quite as out of the blue. So people need to get educated and to share that information with others. I started Democracy Docket actually to be a resource that people could share information from. There are lots of good sources of information to share. And then finally, if we get down to the place where Republicans or Donald Trump are trying to interfere in the election, then we're going to need people to mobilize. We're going to need them to mobilize peacefully. We're going to need them to mobilize within the law. But we're going to need the public to be prepared to be active in protesting any efforts by the Republicans to overturn the will of the voters. Look, the lawyers are going to do a lot of heavy lifting here. The political professionals do a lot of heavy lifting here. But it is ultimately on the people of the United States to really do their job. And if that happens, I think we'll be fine.

Sierra Miller

Yeah.

Rachel Maddow

And I think that the organizing toward that potential eventuality needs to happen now. Needs to happen now during the primary season with eyes on November being ready. And may it be a power that we never have to use. But the American people need to be ready. Election attorney Mark Elias, the founder of democracy Docket. Mark, it's always a pleasure to have you here, but in particular on this story, it's really invaluable. Thank you.

Mark Elias

Thank you.

Rachel Maddow

All right. We got a lot more news here. Sorry, the host glitched. We have a lot more news to get to tonight. Stay with us.

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Sierra Miller

Hi, it's Sierra Miller. I can't wait for you to check out my new collection of shoes and accessories at Designer Shoe Warehouse. If you love shoes as much as I do, then trust me, I got you. From cute sneakerinas to the perfect flip flops to stunning heels, these shoes are all style, no drama. It's a girls girl summer. And DSW has just the shoes shop the Sierra Miller Collection right now at your dsw store or dsw.com

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why have

Eamon Mohaldin

I asked my electrician I found on angie.com to bury my pet hamster? I was so moved by how carefully he buried my electrical wires, I knew I could trust him to bury my sweet nibbles after his untimely ends.

Rachel Maddow

This is very strange, Angie, the one

Mark Elias

you trust to find the ones you trust.

Rachel Maddow

Find pros for all your home projects@angie.com here's the headline in the New York Times tonight on Trump's efforts to end the war in Iran. Quote Trump winds down the war he started with goals unmet. That's a nice way to put it. Here's another from the Washington Post. Trump sought to break Iran's regime. He settled for reopening Hormuz. Here's one from Politico. Quote, Trump promised no Iranian nukes. His deal may never do that. You know, it's kind of weird. We still don't know exactly what's in the supposed deal that Donald Trump negotiated with Iran to end the war. Based on what little we do know, it sort of looks like Donald Trump is just agreeing to give in and lose the war because he doesn't have any good military options left. And he apparently had no other ideas or plans about how to meet any of his stated goals. That also is a very nice way of saying that Donald Trump is admitting he lost the war. Mississippi now reports that under the agreement, quote, Iran will be allowed to have a civilian nuclear power program. A key demand from the Iranians that hardliners in the US And Israel have long opposed. Both Trump officials and Iran say that under this new agreement, Iran and the US Will just continue to talk about the future of Iran's nuclear program, which is exactly what they were doing before Trump launched the war. Experts also tell Ms. Now that based on what little information we have, the nuclear deal Iran offered the US before the war appears to have been better than the deal they are offering Trump now. This kind of makes sense when you consider that they won the war. Trump said the goal of this war was to destroy Iran's missile capabilities. He said their missiles would be, quote, totally obliterated. So far, the administration has not indicated that this deal in any way limits Iran's missile stockpile. The New York Times has reported that Iran still maintains about 70% of its pre war missile stockpile. There's no reason to believe they won't now just build it back up just as strong or stronger than it was before. Trump also said this war would ensure Iran's proxy forces can no longer destabilize the region. But there's no indication that this deal will do anything to stop any of that either. The one thing the Trump administration says this deal will do is reopen the Strait of Hormuz. The only reason the strait was closed in the first place was because Trump launched this war. And today Iran's Foreign Ministry is reportedly saying that the deal will allow Iran for the first time to charge fees to ships navigating the strait, fees they never charged before. As I said earlier in the show, to the victor go the spoils. Is this essentially just Trump admitting that he lost this war that he started? I mean, the White House certainly wouldn't describe it using those words, but there really appears to be nothing that the United States has, quote, unquote, won in this war. If anything, if anybody won anything, it was Iran. This really does appear to just be Trump crying uncle. Joining us now is Eamon Mohaldin. He's the co host of the weekend Primetime on Ms. Now. Eamon, it's great to see you, my friend. Thanks very much for being here tonight.

Eamon Mohaldin

Great to be with you.

Rachel Maddow

Rachel, let me just ask you to, let me invite you to push back on the way that I'm characterizing this. Is it fair to say at this point that we don't know of anything in this deal that puts the US In a better position than we were before? Trump started the war?

Eamon Mohaldin

Absolutely not. That's the short answer to it. There is nothing that you can demonstrably say is making America better off today than it was on February 27th. And you've gone through the entire list very accurately. And two things that I would add to that. You know, J.D. vance was on CNBC this morning, the vice president saying very proudly that the US had destroyed Iran's military and its capabilities somewhat to project power in the region. And he seems to have forgotten that just a few days ago, Iran shot down a US Apache helicopter that we had to go rescue the two pilots that were evacuated out of that situation. On top of that, Iran, Iran hit a civilian airport in Kuwait last week, killing one person. And on top of that, Iran managed to also fire ballistic missiles at Israel, which they were able to shoot down. So if J.D. vance, on the eve of this signing of this deal that we don't know anything about, is coming on American TV and telling the American public we destroyed Iran's capabilities, where Iran is still inflicting this kind of damage on our Arab allies, on Israel, on our own troops, then the definition of destroyed has been completely flipped upside down. And we're living in a very dystopian world where he can just come on TV and make those types of assertions and expect everyone just to go along with it.

Rachel Maddow

Yeah, and that's exactly right. Not to mention the fact that they certainly have sufficient military power to keep the Strait of Hormuz closed, which they have and which they've shown the ability to do indefinitely. And that issue I do want to ask you, and I recognize this may be something on which we don't get reporting on for a while. So I'm sort of just asking for your take on this. I hope that's not unfair. But why do you think this is happening right now? Why announce this agreement now? This is, I think my estimation of this is this is Trump admitting that he has lost this war and therefore wants to get out of it. In terms of why do that now? Like, why give that to yourself as a birthday present? If I had to guess, I would say that it may be these increasingly hair on fire warnings that the oil industry has been issuing both publicly and apparently specifically to the president, to the White House about oil reserves dwindling, that potentially leading not just to continued high oil prices, but a huge, huge new spike in oil prices that would come soon. I mean, I think that may be what's driving the timing. But I wanted to get your take on that, too.

Eamon Mohaldin

No, that is A very important part of it. And one thing that, you know, for an American audience we know Donald Trump is if there is one thing that he does well, it is he's a master of optics. Right. And he's a master of the theatrical because he always wants to make everything look big and look theatrical in terms of how he delivers it to the American people and try to claim it as a win. But one thing that I have actually learned from my sources in the region, which I think has probably trickled its way to the President, Rachel, through our intelligence agency, is that the American intelligence gathering capabilities in Iran have probably learned. What other Arab allies and intelligence services in the regions have learned is that Iran has consolidated its power in the Revolutionary Guard Corps. There are very sophisticated intelligence gathering operations inside of Iran, and they are probably learning that the regime in Iran is now more hardened, less likely to compromise, more willing to go to war, and that the situation is not gonna get any better. Given the new reality inside Iran. Does that mean that the President is making his determination based on that intelligence? It's hard to know because we don't even know if the President reads these intelligence briefings. But from what I've heard from sources in the region is that their own assessments of where Iran is today is a regime that is more consolidated with the Revolutionary Guard, alienating more of the people that might be perceived as moderates within the regime and consolidating power more with the kind of theological military center of the regime in Iran that is more hardlined, less likely to compromise. And that has posed a challenge for the Americans and what they can actually achieve militarily.

Gavin Newsom

Yeah.

Rachel Maddow

And another important component of what it means to lose this war, about how the American public, the American government, the American infrastructure around supporting the oil industry, around our intelligence and military interests in the region, how all of those things are are worse off now because of Iran essentially outmaneuvering Trump throughout this war. Ayman Mahaldin, co host of the Weekend Primetime on Ms. Now so good to have you here, my friend. Thank you so much for being here.

Eamon Mohaldin

Same.

Rachel Maddow

All right, we'll be right back. Do you ever sign anything electronically? I know it's a really common thing now, but I always find it a little unsettling. You get a link to click and you like type in your name and then it turns that into a pixelated cursive font so it of looks like you signed the agreement by hand, even though you really didn't. It feels so dodgy. But I know that is often how we sign things today. And maybe that dodgy gambit is what's going on with the new deal that President Trump and Vice President Vance have reportedly signed electronically with Iran to end Trump's war in Iran. I mean, first of all, I did not know you could conduct diplomacy by DocuSign. So that's one weird thing about it. Another weird thing about it, as Eamon just noted here on our air, is that this thing that they have signed, electronically signed is a secret. Neither side has shown anyone what is actually in this thing that they have signed. Now, the reports of the content of this deal make it sound essentially just like an American surrender offered by Donald Trump. But we don't technically know because they won't show anybody the document. Not yet. They're not going to do that until Friday. The White House says on Friday there's going to be a ceremonial signing of the deal in Switzerland and then after that they will show people what's in it. Now why do they need to do a ceremonial signing? Maybe they want commemorative pens or something. I don't know. If the deal is already all signed, as Trump said today after they electronically signed it, then why are they not showing everybody what's in it today? Why wait four more days after today for the that second ceremonial wet ink signing on Friday before they show anybody what's in it? Why wait till Friday to make that news? What else on Friday might they have in mind in terms of their thinking about the news cycle? Is there anything going on on Friday that Trump might want to distract attention from? You know, I don't have any idea if this is related. Maybe it's not. But I would remiss not to mention that on Friday it's Juneteenth Federal Holiday. It's also the official opening day of the brand new Barack Obama Presidential center in Chicago. All former living presidents except Trump were invited to the grand opening ceremony on Thursday. But then on Friday, the Obama Presidential center opens to the general public. And who knows, maybe that's important context as to why the White House is going to release the terms of the Iran surrender on Friday. I should tell you here at Ms. Now, we will have live coverage from Chicago all day this Thursday for the ceremony at the Obama Presidential Center. And then on Friday, the day it opens to the public, we're going to have a two hour special hosted by our colleague Michelle Norris, who not only got an early look inside the center, but she also spoke exclusively with President and Mrs. Obama. That special starts at 9:00pm Eastern on Friday night. You will not want to miss it Morehead tonight. Stay with us. All right, that's going to do it for me tonight. So good to have you here with us.

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