Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2: Here's the latest this morning.
Speaker 3: Then Rut's reporting around Supreme Leader pushing for its uranium
Speaker 3: to stay in the country to run, reportedly preparing a
Speaker 3: response to the latest peace proposal from the US, and
Speaker 3: Ray joined to snaw from Washington for more hammriy.
Speaker 4: Hey, Jonathan, Well, that directive from Iran that's being reported
Speaker 4: from the Supreme Leader on Reuters is really going to
Speaker 4: be a red line potential in these negotiations, because Prime
Speaker 4: Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had made it very clear for Israel
Speaker 4: for the war to end, that highly enriched uranium needs
Speaker 4: to be taken out of Iran's Potentially this could put
Speaker 4: the President in a very difficult position. And for a
Speaker 4: little bit more insight on how potentially we could see
Speaker 4: this White House react, we are now joined by Trump's
Speaker 4: in the first term director of Legislative Affairs, and of
Speaker 4: course he was the former chief of staff to Vice
Speaker 4: President Mike Pence, and that is Mark Short. Thank you
Speaker 4: so much for joining us, Thanks for having so we
Speaker 4: have this new reporting out of Reuters. As the President
Speaker 4: said yesterday, right now they're right on the borderline between
Speaker 4: getting a deal and resuming a war. What do you
Speaker 4: think he does with this basically escalation from Ron?
Speaker 1: Well, look, I don't think there's any president who's been
Speaker 1: a better partner, more loyal to Israel than Donald Trump
Speaker 1: throughout his first term and his second term. But we
Speaker 1: are reaching an important point here because Iran is an
Speaker 1: existential threat for this real clearly, and they're not going
Speaker 1: to want to see a deal at this point. Whereas
Speaker 1: the President is facing a lot of domestic pressure with
Speaker 1: energy prices continuing to spike, his numbers continuing to deteriorate,
Speaker 1: with midterm elections coming soon, and so there's this is
Speaker 1: obviously going to be a significant pressure point for him.
Speaker 4: Yeah, his polling is going down, as you see, gasoline
Speaker 4: price is going up. We're north of four dollars and
Speaker 4: fifty cents today. I just spoke last hour to read
Speaker 4: a cent of Energy Aspects, and she's on the road
Speaker 4: and she says, inventories are halfway drawn down now and
Speaker 4: people are looking at June.
Speaker 2: If we see.
Speaker 4: North of five dollars a gallon, does the president blink?
Speaker 1: I think it's not just worth of five dollars a gallon,
Speaker 1: it's jet fuel prices, jetfield a lot of airlines continue
Speaker 1: to cancel flights as diesel fuel continue to go up.
Speaker 1: I think there's some things the President's done, like leaving
Speaker 1: the waving the Jones Act, that have kept some of
Speaker 1: this a bay. But I think that the question is
Speaker 1: going to be does he want a deal? The President
Speaker 1: loves to have a deal, but I think if he
Speaker 1: gets a deal, and Marie, there's gonna be a lot
Speaker 1: of questions like is this not just Obama two point zero?
Speaker 1: And when a lot of Republicans criticize sending pallets of
Speaker 1: cash to Iran, if we're basically saying, well, you know,
Speaker 1: as some have said that we've got twenty years now,
Speaker 1: is that really going to be that significally different? And
Speaker 1: Iran has done this, this is what they've done for
Speaker 1: forty seven years. Continue to walk along a lot of
Speaker 1: presidents to say, hey, we'll you know, negotiate this later.
Speaker 1: And they've continued to be the same menace for forty
Speaker 1: seven years.
Speaker 4: Yeah, they continue to drag their feet, and they have
Speaker 4: done with multiple presidents.
Speaker 2: But you have been in the room with President Trump.
Speaker 2: You know his instincts.
Speaker 4: If the domestic pressures get too much for him, does
Speaker 4: he then gave a lot of concessions away.
Speaker 2: I worry that he does.
Speaker 1: I think that right now the president, again it's hard
Speaker 1: to say there hasn't been somebody who has stood with Israel.
Speaker 2: More than this president, and he has so far. But Amria,
Speaker 2: I do think he's tough.
Speaker 4: On Iran first term, maximum pressure, second term. Obviously their strike.
Speaker 2: Taking out solid money.
Speaker 1: But for a lot of things the president has done.
Speaker 1: But I do think that he likes to be the
Speaker 1: one who ends up making a deal, and.
Speaker 2: So there's a lot of pressure.
Speaker 1: On for him to obviously get out of this into
Speaker 1: lower energy prices. But again for our partner Israel, again
Speaker 1: this has been an existential trend.
Speaker 2: They view this is our opportunity.
Speaker 1: Iran is weakened, now is our opportunity to do this,
Speaker 1: and they know that it basically if we back out,
Speaker 1: then China and Russia and continue to rebuild the military
Speaker 1: supplies in Iran and it will become once again a
Speaker 1: threat to Israel and to the West.
Speaker 4: You mentioned the midterm elections. We just had a bunch
Speaker 4: of primaries, but also recently the President said he's not
Speaker 4: thinking about American's financial conditions when he's talking about Iran. Now,
Speaker 4: I know some people would say that was taken out
Speaker 4: of context, but how difficult is that going to be
Speaker 4: for Republicans when they try to deliver a message before November.
Speaker 1: The midterms are always going to be difficult in the
Speaker 1: determament of the president, particularly when there's one party in power.
Speaker 1: So the Republicans have obviously the House, the Senate, and
Speaker 1: the White House, and American voters have always wanted to
Speaker 1: have divided government, and so you would anticipate already a
Speaker 1: significant year for Democrats. I think you add on to
Speaker 1: that what you've seen with the economy and affordability crisis,
Speaker 1: energy prices spiking, but also now the president has shown
Speaker 1: his muscle in winning primaries. But if you're basically showing
Speaker 1: that you want people who are more loyal to you,
Speaker 1: how does that play to general election voters? I think
Speaker 1: that that may be playing out to their strength in
Speaker 1: the primary season memory, but creating an even bigger hurdle
Speaker 1: for Republicans come November.
Speaker 4: What does this mean for also the current Republicans in Congress.
Speaker 4: A lot of Republicans were very disappointed of the President
Speaker 4: yesterday going for Ken Paxton in Texas.
Speaker 1: Well, that's obviously on the heels of taking out Republicans
Speaker 1: in Indiana and taking out Thomas Massey and Kentucky, taking
Speaker 1: out Bill Cassidy and Louisiana. And I think that you're
Speaker 1: going to continue to see I think, less and less
Speaker 1: done in Washington.
Speaker 2: It's already hard to get something.
Speaker 1: Done in midterm election cycle memory, but I think even
Speaker 1: more so now because you're going to see those Republicans
Speaker 1: begin to break further and further from the President. So
Speaker 1: I would think there's been very little done legislatively. It
Speaker 1: seems that this housing bill that seems to be Republicans,
Speaker 1: there's only a handful of Republicans actually still believe in
Speaker 1: free markets, because it seems like the vast majority of
Speaker 1: them are partnering with the populace left and deciding who
Speaker 1: can buy houses.
Speaker 4: But if they're willing to break with this president, what
Speaker 4: does that look like.
Speaker 2: It looks like things stalling.
Speaker 1: It looks like basically nothing else happening between now and Novembers.
Speaker 1: It means that that things like the president's desire for
Speaker 1: a ballroom funding doesn't happen. It potentially means that more
Speaker 1: funding from the military doesn't happen.
Speaker 4: I was going to say, we had an individual yesterday
Speaker 4: saying we're going to be running out of.
Speaker 2: The military budget for the war in Iran.
Speaker 4: The president's asking for one point five trullion.
Speaker 2: Now does he get that before November?
Speaker 1: I think everything gets harder Now, everything does, and so
Speaker 1: I would be basically wagering against anything else happening of
Speaker 1: consequence between now and November.
Speaker 4: Does that mean that we see a president that's going
Speaker 4: to be more assertive on Congress and try to do
Speaker 4: things through executive order?
Speaker 1: Well, I think that's already been the case, right right.
Speaker 1: I mean, this administration clearly believes they don't need Congress
Speaker 1: for much, and they think that they can do it
Speaker 1: just from an executive branch. That's going to become a
Speaker 1: bigger and bigger challenge after the midterms, because there'll be
Speaker 1: a bigger and bigger clash with the legislative branch at
Speaker 1: that point.
Speaker 4: Mark Short, thank you so much for your time.
Speaker 2: Evering morning.
Speaker 4: Thanks for coming in. That was Mark Short.