Trump’s Iran deal BACKFIRES in humiliating fashion

0:01Brian Tyler Cohen:Trump's big win in Iran has turned out to be a big win only for the Iranians. And I've got two interviews, Congressman Ro Khanna and California Attorney General Rob Bonta. I'm Brian Tyler Cohen and you're listening to No Lie. So Trump has been declaring victory on his quote unquote deal with Iran to avoid, in his words, the whole civilization dying. But it turns out that the deal that he struck is an unmitigated win for Iran and loss for the U.S. So here's what we have to show for Operation Epic Fury. Iran will continue to control the Strait of Hormuz. Iran gets to charge tolls on ships passing through the strait.

0:36Brian Tyler Cohen:Iran gets to keep its enriched uranium, which is necessary to develop nuclear weapons, which we were led to believe was the point of this entire thing. In other words, Iran offered up basically no concessions, and now they'll have even more money to rebuild. And what do we have to show for our efforts here on the American side? Well, we have 13 dead Americans, almost 400 wounded, the largest oil supply disruption in recorded history, gas prices surged toward$4.30 a gallon nationally, and will have to contend with an Iranian regime moving forward, led by another guy named Khomeini, who is reportedly even more hardline than his father and who now has a personal vendetta against the United States.

1:13So, uh, art of the deal?

1:16Brian Tyler Cohen:And according to ABC News, Trump called it a, quote, beautiful thing. Those are his exact words. Like, I'm sorry, but I don't see how any human being can look at what happened here and not see that we just got rolled. Like, think about it. Before February 28th, the Strait of Hormuz was an international waterway. Ships passed through completely freely. That was the standard. That was the baseline. Now, the ceasefire plan includes provisions that would let Iran charge tolls on ships using the strait, reportedly tolls up to$2 million in crypto. In other words, Iran has now converted a shared global resource into a revenue stream for itself, not because they earned it, but because Donald Trump started a war, lost the leverage and folded.

1:57Brian Tyler Cohen:And he's calling it a win. But here's what Trump actually said when he was asked about Iran charging tolls on ships. I had a conversation with the president this morning about all of this. He clearly believes that it was his threats that caused the Iranians to agree to things that they wouldn't have agreed to before. He acknowledged that China played a role here in bringing about this ceasefire agreement, obviously Pakistan as well. But I asked him about some of the many unanswered questions here. Iran is saying in their 10-point proposal that they would maintain control over the Strait of Hormuz.

2:34They're talking about charging a toll of$2 million per ship that Krepposs passes through it. They didn't have control of the Strait before the war, so this would be a step back. I asked President Trump if he's okay with that, if he's okay with Iran charging a toll, and his answer was quite stunning. He said maybe it will be a joint venture. and I said a joint venture between the U.S. and Iran?

3:00Brian Tyler Cohen:And he said, yes, it's a beautiful thing. It's a beautiful thing. Maybe we'll do that. A joint venture with Iran, the country we just went to war with, the country that killed 13 American service members, the country that, according to the IAEA, possesses over 400 kilograms of enriched uranium to 60 % purity, which is nearly a 50 % increase since February. That country. Trump wants to go into business with them and split the profits from a toll booth on the world's most critical oil passage. Sure, why not? And while we're at it, maybe we can launch that cybersecurity task force with Russia that Trump wanted so badly in his first term while we're on the topic of insane things that should never happen.

3:37Brian Tyler Cohen:And look, even setting aside how insane this idea of a joint venture is, the damage has already been done. Like the moment Iran gained control of the strait, they gained something that they never had before. If their toll booth policy stands, it could earn them roughly$500 billion over the next five years. That cash would allow Iran to rebuild its military multiple times over and could be the key to finally developing the nuclear weapon that we allegedly started this war to stop them from obtaining. In other words, we went to war specifically to stop Iran from developing a nuke and the deal that we came out with would fund them building a nuke.

4:13Brian Tyler Cohen:That's not a victory. That is a catastrophic historic failure wearing a mission accomplished banner, something that the Republican Party seems quite adept at doing. And speaking of their nuclear program, let's be crystal clear about where things stand. The Farsi version of Iran's 10-point ceasefire plan includes the phrase acceptance of enrichment. In the English version that's shared with journalists, that phrase was absent. So Iran is putting out two different versions of the same deal, one for their people and then clearly one for ours. And that is the agreement that Trump is calling a total and complete victory.

4:45Brian Tyler Cohen:So he's either being played or he knows and he doesn't care. I genuinely don't know which one's worse. And by the way, don't take my word for any of this. This was Fox News's thoughts on the matter. But I will say that the president's demands, we have not reached any of those objectives. I have full confidence that the president is going to find some way to make this happen. But he said that we want to dismantle all major nuclear facilities. That has not happened. The end of uranium enrichment on the soil, they're still enriching. The transfer of the enriched uranium stockpiles out of Iran, that hasn't happened.

5:21Brian Tyler Cohen:The acceptance of intrusive international inspections, they're still not willing to do that. And they have not suspended their ballistic missiles program. They're still firing them off to stop the production of the long-range missiles. That's just a few of them on the president's proposal. The question is, is the president using this two weeks to give our soldiers a break, a rest to see if we can get this ultimately done? We'll see. Not great when even the state TV guys don't know how to spin it. And let me be precise about something here because I don't want to overstate anything. This is a ceasefire, not a final deal.

5:58Brian Tyler Cohen:The formal negotiations have not concluded. There is a two week window right now. So maybe something comes out of it, something better. I genuinely hope so. But based on what's on the table right now, based on the terms that Iran is claiming and that Trump is calling workable, this is an L. Donald Trump pulled us out of the JCPOA in 2018. He called it a horrible one-sided deal. He said Iran would never get nuclear weapons on his watch. He said he was the greatest dealmaker in the history of the world. And so after waging a war that killed American troops, crashed energy markets, triggered the worst oil supply shock since the 70s, and left Iran in a stronger strategic position than before we started, Donald Trump wants you to know that it's a big day for world peace.

6:39Brian Tyler Cohen:The emperor has no clothes and the American people deserve to know it. Next up are my interviews with Ro Khanna and Rob Bonta. No Lie is sponsored by BetterHelp. Financial stress affects far more than our bank accounts. It can take a serious toll on mental health and relationships, with 88 % of Americans feeling some form of financial stress at the start of 2026. Money worries often bring anxiety, sleep disruption, and even depression, and on one of the leading sources of conflict for couples. Especially with the way that things are going in politics today, Donald Trump has taken an already bad issue and got it even worse, with cuts to healthcare, food assistance, higher gas prices, and the cost of everyday goods.

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8:21Brian Tyler Cohen:That's BetterHelp.com slash nolie. I'm joined now by Congressman Ro Khanna. Congressman, thanks for joining me. Thank you for having me. So a lot to talk about right now. But I think the first first things first is in the aftermath of Donald Trump's kind of unhinged threat of of basically killing, annihilating the entirety of the Iranian population, which, you know, he's obviously since walking, walked back from the edge on. Can you speak about the need, the call to invoke the 25th Amendment from Trump's cabinet members? It shouldn't even be debated. He threatened genocide. He threatened to wipe out an entire Iranian people from the face of the earth.

9:03Of course, he needs to be removed from office. Of course, Democrats need to take every possible step, either by the invocation of the 25th Amendment or impeachment to make sure that he's removed. This is about fighting for our moral vision of the country.

9:19Brian Tyler Cohen:You know that there are going to be Republicans who say this is just how Trump negotiates. He you know, you Democrats are being too sensitive. And in the end, he got a deal anyway. So what would your reaction to that be? America has never threatened evil. Even Richard Nixon, who came up with a madman theory, the unpredictability of a president never threatened to annihilate all of the Vietnamese people. FDR never threatened to wipe out all the German people. Reagan never threatened to wipe out all the Russian people. There is something evil, about a president threatening that, saying that America is indifferent to human life.

9:59And I don't care whether it's a negotiation technique. It compromises everything we believe in, which is the dignity of human life. There are plenty of other ways to be a bold negotiator and make credible threats short of genocide.

10:13Brian Tyler Cohen:You know, when we think about the 25th Amendment, it doesn't happen unless his cabinet actually does it. I mean, inherently, that is that is how the tool is exercised. But he's filled his cabinet with people who are loyalists for him. I mean, you know, that is actually the only qualification to be a member in good standing of the Trump cabinet. And so and so how do you reconcile the impasse that we would be at where you would need cabinet members to sign on to this effort? But the cabinet members are only there because they are they are undyingly loyal to the president. Well, that's why we need to pursue both the 25th Amendment and impeachment.

10:53I mean, here's the reality. The Republicans threw out this 25th Amendment unfairly against Joe Biden, who still had all his faculties and judgment when he was president. And yet the Democrats who actually have an issue of a president who's going crazy are not being bold enough to say, look, this is this time where we need a 25th Amendment. This is the time we need an intervention where you have a president saying that you may wipe out Iran. What is he going to say tomorrow? Is he going to say we could wipe out Cuba? Is he going to say wipe out Gaza? We need to have a check on this president. So my view is that this is the time where the Democrats need to fight.

11:29We need to fight with every tool available, the 25th Amendment, impeachment, and say that we're standing up for the moral integrity of America, for our values. And a lot of the base is upset that they don't see that passion, that clarity, that fight in the Democrats. They can count the votes. They know it's an uphill battle, but they want us to fight and make sure we're standing up with every fiber of our being against an illegal war.

11:55Brian Tyler Cohen:And I completely agree. And in fact, that has been, I think, the most important thing to focus on, this idea of finding Democrats who are willing to fight, who are willing to exercise power. I have a book coming out in a couple of months that is all about exercising power when we have it. I want to play devil's advocate here, though, and say and ask you about this idea that, OK, let's say there is an impeachment fight that actually does boil to the surface. You know, I feel like there's a world where Trump could look at that and say, that's actually exactly what I want because that can negatively polarize, you know, that can polarize the country and then it can fall.

12:31Brian Tyler Cohen:We can have a situation where I get to play the victim. I get to say the Democrats are coming after their favorite president and all of those Republicans who might have been on the fence about certain things like Nancy Mace and Lauren Boebert, Thomas Massey, will suddenly feel like, OK, if this is just going to be the usual D versus our food fight, then I can rally the troops again. Brian, if this was 2020, then I would understand your points. But now you have Tucker Carlson and Marjorie Taylor Greene calling for the 25th Amendment. Now you have his base having felt betrayed because of his protecting the Epstein class, because of his protecting pedophiles, because of his starting wars of choice.

13:11And you know what I'm hearing from Democrats? I'm hearing that Marjorie Taylor Greene and Tucker Carlson shoot stronger statements than many Democrats did. And they are frustrated that you have bland statements issued in press releases when the Trump is threatening genocide. They want us to fight. And just because we're pursuing impeachment or the 25th Amendment doesn't mean that we're going to forget the rest of the agenda. We're going to fight for the working class. We're going to fight for universal child care, for expanding Medicare for all. We're going to fight for a living wage. We're going to fight for paid family time off.

13:44We're going to fight to tax billionaires. But you know what we're also going to do, we're going to fight for elite accountability. We're going to hold people who violated the law, who think they don't have to follow the rules. We're going to hold them accountable.

13:55Brian Tyler Cohen:Yeah, I think that was perfectly put. I want to switch topics here now to Pam Bondi. News has just come out that Pam Bondi is not planning on attending the sworn deposition on April 14th, so less than a week from now. Can I have your reaction to the legality first and foremost of this move and whether it feels like the House is going to settle for Pam Bondi's refusal to comply. Well, it's illegal. Nancy Mace and I wrote a letter this morning to Comer. That's what precipitated Bondi's response. And we said that we still expect Pam Bondi to come. The subpoena that Nancy Mace and I drafted, the motion said Pam Bondi as an individual.

14:36It did not say Pam Bondi in her role as attorney general. So we're going to continue to pursue this, she's going to appear before the committee. I mean, if Jim Comer could trace like Captain Ahab, Hillary Clinton to come 20 years after she was in office, certainly Pam Bondi needs to appear. And we're also going to continue to push for testimony from all the other people in the Epstein class implicated.

15:00Brian Tyler Cohen:In terms of the logistics behind forcing compliance with the subpoena, is this something that would be voted on in committee, in which case the fact that Nancy Mace is on our side, the accountability side, doesn't bode well for Pam Bondi's ability to not comply? Or is it going to be a unilateral decision by James Comer to determine whether or not that subpoena is valid? No, it will be voted on in committee. And Comer knows that he knows he doesn't have the votes. And then Nancy and I would bring a subpoena again for Pam Bondi as an individual. This is just a delay tactic. We'd have to vote for it again.

15:38My guess is we won't even have to vote, they will find an alternative date for Bondi. And it's just a issue of delaying and buying her time. But we have the votes. And we also need to vote subpoena now Todd Blanche, who's the acting attorney general, to get him to appear. But it is awfully convenient, Brian, that the president fires Pam Bondi a week or two before her. She's scheduled to appear in the oversight committee. It just highlights that there is a cover up. This is one of the biggest scandals in American history. And it's been one of the biggest cover ups in American history.

16:12Brian Tyler Cohen:Well, you know, we've spoken about the my my my next question a few times, but I think for posterity, it's worth reiterating here. And that is what happens in the event that Pam Bondi decides not to comply when the only agency that would be tasked with holding her to account for failing to comply with a subpoena would be the very Department of Justice that we all know would never lay a finger on Pam Bondi. Well, this is why we can't just as Democrats say when we win in 26 and 28, we're going to move on and move forward. We need to have accountability. And that accountability is going to start, of course, with prosecution of people who actually raped and abused these young girls on Epstein's Island and ranch.

16:51But it's also going to mean accountability for people like Pam Bondi, who either covered up or if they fail to appear in front of a committee, that's criminal contempt. And when we have a majority in the House, we can vote for criminal contempt for Pam Bondi. So life is much longer than Donald Trump. He's soon going to be a lame duck. And soon people are going to realize that the Trump umbrella of protection no longer protects you when he's no longer in power.

17:22Brian Tyler Cohen:What message would you have for Todd Blanche as he engages in similar behavior as Pam Bondi did, recognizing that Trump isn't going to be in office forever and that he's not going to have the tool and that Blanche isn't going to have the tools of the DOJ at his disposal forever? Well, this is where there's a reckoning. Every person who violated the Epstein Transparency Act can be prosecuted for obstruction of justice. If you hid documents, if you engaged in redactions, and the next president should do something immediately, which is appoint a special counsel to deal with the Epstein issue. And that special counsel should meet with survivors, meet with survivors' lawyers, and really oversee to have full transparency, have all of the files released, no redactions, and see where there need to be investigations and prosecutions.

18:12By the way, the Senate should make this the fight in the new attorney general. I know there are many other issues, but this is the issue that the American people are outraged by, that a group of rich and powerful people have gotten away with things that they can. And we should insist that the new attorney general release all the files and pursue investigations and prosecutions.

18:33Brian Tyler Cohen:Perfect place to leave off. Congressman, as always, thanks for your voice and thanks for taking the time today. Thank you, Brian. Appreciate you.

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19:49Brian Tyler Cohen:I'm joined now by the Attorney General of California, Rob Bonta. Thanks so much for joining me. My pleasure, Brian. Great to see you again. So we've had some major news as it relates to Trump's illegal executive order blocking mail-in voting. Can you talk about what you and other attorneys general around the country are doing to prevent this from taking from taking effect? Absolutely. In short, when the executive order came down last week, we immediately started inspecting it for legal compliance and quickly concluded that it is not lawful. And so we brought a lawsuit by the end of the week, the same week, days later.

20:24And so we have a case filed already in federal district court, specifically the district of Massachusetts. We is 23 attorneys general and Governor Shapiro in Pennsylvania. And we have taken Trump to court after he took this very desperate and unlawful and unconstitutional action to try to require citizenship lists that are used to filter and potentially block vote by mail ballots from being sent to eligible voters in the United States of America.

20:58Brian Tyler Cohen:Are you confident that the courts will move fast enough to prevent this from taking place if they rule in your favor? We feel very confident and, you know, we can never speak for the court. The court is an independent separate branch of government, co-equal branch of government who needs to act. But based on our prior lawsuit that we had with respect to Trump's executive order on elections where we, in our case, the multi-state as well as multiple other cases, secured orders blocking a very unconstitutional action, we feel we can do the same thing here. And the way that the executive order is crafted and designed, it can't be in effect by the June primary elections, the ones coming up.