No Dictator Party

🚨After receiving a briefing from a Senior TRUMP Administration Official on the status of the Iran negotiations (someone in the know & not just speculating), I can tell you the following: -USA IS NOT GIVING IRANIANS MONEY FOR NOTHING. All speculation and propaganda to the contrary is false. Some hardline elements of Iran’s govt (IRGC) have pushed fake stories & propaganda to try to kill this negotiation. -Iran deal is NOT done (95%, but still haggling over some language). No deal being signed today. May be a few more days before this is done. -Iran will NOT get any money or sanctions relief up front. -Iran must turn over nuclear stockpile to get anything. USA position is that failure to meet deal commitments means Iran gets nothing. -Long term USA objective is preventing Iran from having nuclear weapon. -Initial deal point is to re-establish free flow of commerce by reopening Strait of Hormuz. Deal should have 2 phases: Step 1 - Open Strait of Hormuz. Give world economy breathing room. Iran agrees to give up enriched uranium. Step 2 - Get the nuclear material turned over. Only then can Iran get sanctions relief. Bottom line: goal is to make a deal that lowers costs for Americans, calms world energy markets, and guarantees that Iranians cannot have a nuclear weapon over the long term. We aren’t there yet. Iran takes forever to get you a response on even small things. But we are close although it still could be a few days. “If we get what we are demanding, this is going to be a historic deal,” SAO says. SAO sounds prepared to do no deal at all if all Iran will do is a “bad deal.” SAO admits deal could fall apart yet. But if a deal is reached, SAO expects very senior USA admin officials to take part in a signing ceremony of some sort. Iran has agreed in principle to the framework but there are still a couple points USA isn’t satisfied with. 95% done. But literally changing words sometimes requires days in Iran’s system. Haggling over language. But USA feels like we have a commitment on nuclear stockpile and on opening Strait of Hormuz. If IRAN doesn’t deliver on commitments, they get nothing. “Iran’s ability to project power is a lot more limited than it was two months ago,” SAO says. “Their industrial base for building ballistic missiles has been substantially destroyed.”

Travis Kelce chugging a beer on the sideline at Knicks-Cavs Game 3 😭🍺

The deal being floated with Iran seems straight out of the Wendy Sherman-Robert Malley-Ben Rhodes playbook: Pay the IRGC to build a WMD program and terrorize the world. Not remotely America First. It’s straightforward: Open the damned strait. Deny Iran access to money. Take out enough Iranian capability so it cannot threaten our allies in the region. Overdue. Let’s go.

It’s worth noting that when Jan. 6 happened, the pro-Trump right used dozens of conspiracy theories to try and offload blame from themselves—e.g., claiming it was “antifa,” “feds.” Now, they seem keen to just admit they did it—all of it—and it was good.

NEW: U.S. & Iran are reportedly closing in on a deal that would extend the ceasefire by 60 days.

Mr. President, completely agree about having a lot of fun over these next seven months.  But nitpicking? Some of your advisors are telling you to support things like:     - Using billions of taxpayer dollars to compensate convicted felons and thugs who attacked police. (Ed Martin)    - Pushing 50-year mortgages and Elizabeth Warren's housing bill over sound conservative housing policy. (Bill Pulte)    - Using taxpayer money to transform publicly traded companies into state-owned enterprises. (Howard Lutnick)    - Firing our very best generals and not holding Putin accountable for his systematic kidnapping, rape, torture, and murder of Ukrainian civilians. (Pete Hegseth)  If opposing these things makes me a RINO, then I gladly accept that nickname.  We need Republicans to do well in November, but the stupid stuff is killing our chances!

GOP Senator Thom Tillis on Trump’s proposed “Anti-Weaponization” fund: “I think it’s stupid on stilts. When you take money from me to give to a purpose I vehemently disagree with, that’s tyranny.”