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Good morning. Martin here, honored as ever to set out what you need to know this fine Monday morning. Here’s a song about Mondays from the great Alabama 3, who are not from Alabama and who number considerably more than three but who did write the greatest TV theme of all time.
In today’s ‘First Draft,’ we’re looking at another ludicrous, existentially worrying weekend in Donald Trump’s illegal war with Iran, now lurching toward its ninth month with the U.S. president doing his best to ruin a new attempt to end it. What’s next? More talks, more nonsense from the maniac in the White House, all while Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi uses a very worrying word – twice.
Next, we’ll take a first look at encouraging numbers out of Michigan, where Democrat Abdul El-Sayed and Republican Mike Rogers are competing for a U.S. Senate seat. There’s also more on Trump’s illegal, taxpayer-funded, insane ego-fluffing ahead of the looming midterms. Let’s dive in.
‘I Rejected Their Deal’
On Sunday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi spoke to NBC’s ‘Meet the Press.’ He conducted the interview from New York, where he and other Iranian officials traveled last week for the United Nations and where talks about stopping the eight-month U.S. war with Iran have taken place.
If you think it odd that leaders of a power with which the U.S. is at war were granted visas for UN week while Palestinian leaders were not, well, you’re not alone, but that’s U.S.-Israeli policy for you. Donald Trump was happy to have people he’s repeatedly threatened to “annihilate” (and who he says want to annihilate him) in town, but people Benjamin Netanyahu is actively annihilating? Not so much.
And so, the Trump show rolled on. On Saturday, with predictable intemperance, he gave his opinion of an Iranian offer to reopen the Strait of Hormuz swiftly should a peace deal be agreed.
“I rejected their deal,” Trump told reporters before leaving the White House, his treats for the weekend including a college football game in Tennessee and a golf tournament in Illinois. “They want to make a deal where they open the Strait immediately because they’re losing so badly.
“…You know why? Because they’re dying. You know why they’re dying? Because they have no money coming in because they get their money from the Hormuz Strait. They outsmarted themselves. They said, ‘Let’s close it and cause a problem for the world.’ And I came along, and we put up the greatest blockade ever in military history.”
Yadda yadda. But what Araghchi told NBC about those words from Trump was telling. And chilling.