May 13, 2026 · 1 hr 22 min · 10 segments
Prof John Mearsheimer: Trump WIl Be FORCED TO CUT A DEAL w/IRAN See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
John MearsheimerGuest
Daniel DavisHost
Well, it's true that in 2015, we reached an agreement with the Iranians, the famous JCPOA, which made it literally impossible for them to acquire nuclear weapons.
And his, in effect, created the problem today that he's trying to solve, but has been unable to solve it.
the whole question of the nuclear issue being the only issue he cares about i would note that early in the war he was calling for total surrender or unconditional surrender on the part of the iranians and that sounds like a lot more than just making sure that iran does not acquire a nuclear weapon and with regard to the economy there's absolutely no question that the economic situation is weighing very heavily on President Trump.
He surely understands that the situation is bad and all the indicators are that it's just going to get worse.
And that's going to have serious consequences for his presidency and for the Republican Party in the midterm elections.
So he is scrambling as best he can to settle this war, to head off those economic problems at the pass.
Well, I'm not sure which path he's heading on to right now because it seems like he's going toward the wrong one.
Now, right now, there's a debate going on within the administration about what's going to happen next.
So we're in this tenuous, I don't know if you call it a ceasefire or just a pause.
whatever it is, three or four weeks at this point after nearly 40 days of pretty intense bombing in both directions.
And now the question is, are we going to seek? Are we going to attain some kind of political settlement? Are we going to ramp up and go back into hot war? Or are we just going to claim victory and walk away? Those seem to be the three possibilities here.
And actually, I'm going to talk about the military one in a minute, but I'd like your view on each of those.
First of all, there are a number of different issues that have to be settled here, not just the nuclear enrichment issue, but the whole question of who controls the Strait of Hormuz, what are going to be Iran's relations with Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis moving forward, and so forth and so on.
There are just a number of complicated issues that will take time to figure out by themselves.
Well, it's true that in 2015, we reached an agreement with the Iranians, the famous JCPOA, which made it literally impossible for them to acquire nuclear weapons.
And his, in effect, created the problem today that he's trying to solve, but has been unable to solve it.
the whole question of the nuclear issue being the only issue he cares about i would note that early in the war he was calling for total surrender or unconditional surrender on the part of the iranians and that sounds like a lot more than just making sure that iran does not acquire a nuclear weapon and with regard to the economy there's absolutely no question that the economic situation is weighing very heavily on President Trump.
He surely understands that the situation is bad and all the indicators are that it's just going to get worse.
And that's going to have serious consequences for his presidency and for the Republican Party in the midterm elections.
So he is scrambling as best he can to settle this war, to head off those economic problems at the pass.
Well, I'm not sure which path he's heading on to right now because it seems like he's going toward the wrong one.
Now, right now, there's a debate going on within the administration about what's going to happen next.
So we're in this tenuous, I don't know if you call it a ceasefire or just a pause.
whatever it is, three or four weeks at this point after nearly 40 days of pretty intense bombing in both directions.
And now the question is, are we going to seek? Are we going to attain some kind of political settlement? Are we going to ramp up and go back into hot war? Or are we just going to claim victory and walk away? Those seem to be the three possibilities here.
And actually, I'm going to talk about the military one in a minute, but I'd like your view on each of those.
First of all, there are a number of different issues that have to be settled here, not just the nuclear enrichment issue, but the whole question of who controls the Strait of Hormuz, what are going to be Iran's relations with Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis moving forward, and so forth and so on.
There are just a number of complicated issues that will take time to figure out by themselves.
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3 of 9
The Nuclear Escalation Trap
A conventional strike could trigger nuclear escalation
The Slippery Nuclear Slope
Nuclear use could send everyone toward disaster
Iran May Have Won
Expert says Iran already won the war
+6 more clips · 14 min 14 sec of audio in all
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