Why is Donald Trump hosting a cage fight at the White House?

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1:01This is a global production. As an exercise in sheer, utter, mind-boggling brazenness, is Donald Trump is trying to take a victory lap for the fact that prices will soon be coming down in America. Oh, thank you, Mr. President. What has he achieved in this, except for reminding Iran of the extraordinary, the immense, the world-changing power that they have in their control of that waterway. Not a ceasefire. It is not a deal. It is a capitulation. I think the most important thing for the American people to appreciate is that what this agreement does is really twofold. On the one hand, it ensures that Iran will never have a nuclear weapon while simultaneously opening the Strait of Hormuz.

1:45That is the Vice President, J.D. Vance, talking up the deal that was agreed this weekend. The Strait of Hormuz will reopen. Iran will never get a nuclear weapon. Well, as we sit here now, the Strait of Hormuz still seems to be shut. And according to the Iranian news agency, will remain so for another 96 hours. And as for the Iran nuclear deal, well, that is still to be negotiated. So what has the Iran ceasefire deal and the cage fight on the White House lawn got in common? Well, in some ways, Trump has given both to himself for his 80th birthday present. Welcome to the News Agents USA.

2:32It's John. It's Maitlis. And President Trump this weekend posted on social media, Truth Social. Congratulations to all. Congratulations to all that the United States and Iran have reached a deal to end their war. Then we're told it isn't actually a deal and it's certainly not a peace deal, but it is a continuation or an extension of a ceasefire. And that congratulations just so happened to land on Trump's own birthday celebrations, which I think might explain the timing of this whole thing because we were expecting the deal, as it were, to be announced on Friday. It wasn't. And by Sunday there was this lurid, ludicrous event on the south lawn of the White House where a cage fight for mixed martial arts was put in place with Joe Rogan hosting as Trump turned 80.

3:35Happy birthday to me. happy birthday to me wasn't marilyn monroe singing no it wasn't it wasn't happy birthday mr president yeah no exactly that was donald trump singing to himself which is you know all of a piece of what you would expect from this president but i think look you know undoubtedly progress has been made there is a framework agreement uh for 60 days to talk about some of these big issues but the strait of hormones as i said in the introduction there you know according to the iranian news agency it's going to remain closed for another four days now whether that is a technicality because they're still waiting for documents to be signed but Donald Trump you know posting on Truth Social saying fire up your engines let the oil flow seems a little bit premature given where we are right now and so that needs some explaining away and there are still so many obstacles before you could say hang on this is all sorted out you know Israel is still determined to prosecute its campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon.

4:34There's meant to be no further action in Lebanon. And the nuclear deal, I mean, Iran has always said it didn't want to get a nuclear weapon. So Donald Trump saying Iran isn't going to get a nuclear weapon isn't anything different from what Iran has been saying for years. But what are you going to do to stop it enriching uranium to the level where it could make a nuclear weapon? And that question we don't know the answer to. Trump has singularly failed to achieve every one of the goals that he put forward for the war that was his own choice and his own decision. It is not a ceasefire. It is not a deal.

5:15It is a capitulation. It is Trump saying, I cannot go any further with this. And the military strikes, which we thought was having an impact, clearly didn't have an impact. because it turns out that just killing lots of schoolchildren and bombing things, even if you remove leaders of a regime, doesn't mean that the thing has worked. It did not produce victory because the Tehran regime is still intact. The revolutionary guards are still more salient and more powerful than ever. And as we've just heard from that tweet from Iranian media, the Strait of Hormuz will remain under the grip of Iran until they decide otherwise.

6:02Right. So, yes, there is no nuclear weapon that we know of yet. There wasn't beforehand. There is no Ayatollah, but there is son of Ayatollah and a whole revolutionary guard in place as there always was. So what has he achieved in this except for reminding Iran of the extraordinary, the immense, the world changing power that they have in their control of that waterway Hormuz? Yeah, exactly. Look, I think maybe that, you know, America have achieved something. They have been able to apply pressure by, you know, stopping Iranian ships from leaving the Strait of Hormuz by their naval blockade. So I think the Americans, you know, can take some credit for that.

6:51They have degraded the Iranian military. So you can take a little, tiniest little victory lap on that. But the fact of the matter was that the Iranians still have a ton of ballistic missiles. They still have weapons that can hit the targets where they want, whether in the Gulf region, whether in northern Israel, wherever it happens to be. And Donald Trump hasn't been able to stop that. And as you say, Emily, the Republican Guard is still firmly in place. And we've now got son of Ayatollah instead of Ayatollah. And worse, there is now an absolute rift between Netanyahu and Trump. I mean, don't forget, Trump told Netanyahu that he would be in prison if it wasn't for him.

7:28In other words, he understood that this was a get out of jail free card, literally a get out of jail free card for Netanyahu to come in on Iran, to use it as a pretext to go after Hezbollah in Lebanon. And that became obviously one of the kind of key contested points for Iran when they were trying to work out the ceasefire because they felt that Israel had overreached in what they were trying to do and had never signed up to the ceasefire that Trump had. And the fact that Iran basically connected what was going on in Lebanon with Trump's own promise of a ceasefire was what held this up for, what, three weeks.

8:06I mean, you know, this is this is not to skirt over the devastation that has gone on in Lebanon over the past month. I do think that the striking takeout from what has happened between the 28th of February, when Donald Trump and the Israelis launched this attack on Iran to now, is that we have really seen the limitations of American power in a way that we have never really quite seen. American military power as well. I mean, that's the extraordinary thing. The limitations of their military power. And you talk about the relationship with Netanyahu. Why stop there? What about America's relationship with the Gulf allies?

8:40Yeah, where the Gulf allies have always thought, OK, we put all our eggs in the US basket because that is what is going to keep us safe. Hasn't kept them safe. Iran has been able to fire at will at targets around the Gulf, the UAE, Dubai, you know, you name it. kind of all these places, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and they have felt themselves vulnerable to Iranian attack. And America hasn't been able to do that much for them. And so will you see an America going forward now with a much more fractured and frayed relationship with those Gulf states as those Gulf states think, maybe I need to put kind of a couple of eggs into China's basket or to Russia or to wherever or to Iran, because that will keep us safe and we can't rely on America to keep us safe any longer.

9:31That strategically is really important. Yeah. The Strait of Hormuz, what nobody is mentioning is the Strait of Hormuz was open for anyone that the Iranians wanted to let go through. So when Trump, he did this big sort of celebratory, you know, victorious message saying, I hereby fully authorise the toll-free opening of the Strait of Hormuz. My whippet Moody could have said the same thing. Alfie could have said the same thing because i don't think alfie's as articulate as me no hoody's got away with words but my point is that trump saying it out loud doesn't make it happen because it's we've seen from that of course there's 96 hours where the iranians are going uh yeah no actually no no so you can't just declare things open anymore yeah and in the meantime donald trump is trying i mean as an exercise in sheer, utter, mind-boggling brazenness, is Donald Trump is trying to take a victory lap for the fact that prices will soon be coming down in America.

10:30Oh, thank you, Mr President. There was an amazing press conference where somebody showed Trump the inflation figures. Inflation is not looking good at the moment in America. He is becoming deeply unpopular at this point of his presidency because of the cost of this war on the economy. and the inflation figures are proving it. And yet, when Trump was asked about these figures, this was his response. The right people come into our country.

11:00I will. I will. Are you concerned, Mr. President, about the latest inflation number which came out this morning? Could that be a... No, I love it. The numbers were great. You know what I really love? I love the inflation. You know why? Because as soon as this war is over, you know, I can say it now. Something you didn't know. But you know, we've been taking out millions of barrels of oil. Nobody knows it. You know who doesn't know about it? Iran, until right now. We took out the other night 22 ships late at night with no lights, because they don't have any radar because we blasted the crap out of it.

11:37We took out. That's why oil is$85 a barrel. I mean, you take a look. Remember when I did this, I said, look, the one bad thing will be we hit the best The worst economy we've ever hit. And I said to my people, I had Scott, I had Howard, I had Pete, I had all of them. I had Todd in the room. I said, the one thing we have to do now, we had just hit the highest stock market in history, highest 401ks in history. Everything was going well. And I said, I hate to do this to you guys, but Iran's going to have a nuclear weapon very soon. Trying to make sense of that. Not a sausage. I mean, literally not a sausage of sense in that.

12:20He could have said, well, the inflation figures are high now. But they'll come down. But they'll come down. Instead, and I think this is what sort of tells you that he is agitating inwardly. He can't quite say that out loud. And he's clearly pissed off that inflation is high. So he has to sort of take us around the table of how much he's done to stop the Iranian nuclear enrichment program, which isn't an answer to the question. And also this idea that, well, inflation is going to come down when you stop doing the thing that you're doing. When you stop banging your head against the wall, you will feel better, Mr.

13:00President. Yeah, I feel great now. Well, why did you bang your head against the wall in the first place? Exactly. And that question has not been answered to the American people. Why are they paying so much more for their gasoline right now? And there's one other thing that still lies ahead. Let's assume, and it's a big assumption, but let's assume that everything goes according to plan in terms of this kind of framework agreement that has been signed thanks to the help of the Pakistanis and the Turks and others over the weekend. And a nuclear deal and a nuclear discussion takes place. what happened with the jcpoa was that america uh said right you've we've got this agreement there's going to be a freeze on nuclear enrichment but there's going to be an awful lot of money paid iran didn't do it for nothing yeah and iran isn't going to do it for nothing now it's got this nuclear material america hasn't been able to bomb it into submission so what is america going to do if iran says no you're going to have to lift sanctions against us before we do anything and And Donald Trump will then find himself in exactly the same position as Barack Obama, where you have to pay the Iranians to get what you want.

14:08And that will look bloody awful, given everything that Donald Trump has said for so many years about the awfulness of the Barack Obama deal. Yeah, not only that, but America has handed Iran this economic gift, which is if they don't like a deal, if they don't like the framework for their talks, they just go, I'm afraid we're shutting the Hormuz Straits again now. Sorry. I mean, that's all they have to do to wind him up again and to see inflation go back up again. That is essentially what Trump hasn't said in that rather rambling clip, that as soon as Iran isn't happy with the relationship with America, they can do it again.

14:45Yeah, exactly. And so this is a problem that has got a long tail for Donald Trump domestically. I do think it's worth talking about one other thing that, you know, one of the vital exports that comes through the Strait of Hormuz is fertilizer for the world's economy. And the growing season will have already gone in parts of sub-Saharan Africa, in other parts of the world, India, which are going to be deeply, deeply affected that could lead to hunger. so the idea that this has been a oh it's just been a little local war not too many consequences arise from it I think that is such dishonesty and I think that you know to the question what did you achieve Mr President in your war with Iran I think if you look at the ledger what you've gained is so limited if anything and what has been lost is a huge amount American prestige, the global economy, what's going to happen in sub-Saharan Africa and the South.

15:48All these things are terrible, terrible consequences to have come out a bit with the Iranian regime still in place. But let's get on to what really happened this weekend. Oh, the big stuff. Yeah. Cage fight on the White House lawn. That's coming up.

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17:14The News Agents USA.

17:44It is so ridiculous. It is Donald Trump walking out of the Oval Office with Dana White from UFC, which is the kind of, you know, the mixed martial arts organisation. and they're walking along the colonnade for a cage fight. And you think, my God, you look at American history and you see the people that have walked along that famous colonnade. And there we are. We're going to get mixed martial art fighting on the White House Lord in some ridiculous structure that has been built. That is so ugly. Although Donald Trump is now saying, I might want to keep it there. Yeah, you will be shocked to hear that this was the first ever professional sporting event held at the presidential residence, delayed by, I think, an hour because of the fear of thunderstorms.

18:33God was not happy. Well, Emily, I'm sorry. I'm sorry you say that God wasn't happy. Donald Trump has tweeted that very much God was happy, and that's why the weather changed, the clouds parted, and that was God saying... Go on with it. Get on with it. Fight away. Fight away on the lawn. Yeah, so 4 ,300 people estimated were present on the White House lawn. It was a very high calibre invite only ticket. And they think that there were nearly 100 ,000 watching in a fan zone nearby. And they had 14 fighters, back to back fights. And we should just point out that this was nominally for the 250th birthday celebrations of America's freedom.

19:21from us, but it also happened to coincide with Trump's 80th birthday. So we're back to his birthday again. I don't think we ever really left the birthday, did we? No, we never really did leave the birthday. And so there was this kind of great hullabaloo. And look, there'll be a huge number of Americans who will have watched it, who will have loved it, who will have saluted Donald Trump as the only president in American history who would have dared put on such a show that so many Americans would thoroughly enjoy. And, you know, he does have that impresario quality where those sort of things happen.

19:55Now, there is something about Eric Trump in all of this, which is a little murkier. And that is that some tweets appeared where Eric Trump was apparently asking the organiser, one of the organisers of UFC, who are the fighters that are fit at the moment? Who might be a little bit injured? Who would you put your money on? Do you think he was asking out of medical concern? Yeah, possibly. I'm still looking at another explanation, though, Emily. Yeah. Who should I put my money on? Who should I put my money on? Now, this comes in the wake of so many things. And we go back to Iran. And as you rightly said at the top of this show, try, you know, separate the mixed martial arts fighting and the Iran deal and the 80th birthday.

20:46You can't. But, you know, with the Iran war that has been going on, the number, the amount of insider trading that has taken place where kind of miraculously people have suddenly gambled on the oil price moments before the president makes an important announcement. And here we have Eric Trump apparently saying, oh, look, who's fit? Who's not? Who should I put my money on? and those messages have been deleted and eric trump is saying they were they were never real they were all put up by ai but the person who outed eric trump was the person who received the messages so goodness knows what was going on there so could it have been ai i mean i'm going to say that from now on whatever people dig up it was all ai yeah it was all ai look the ufc spent about 45 million on this event.

21:4145 million pounds, 60 million dollars on this event. So these sort of things don't come cheaply. And what was extraordinary was listening to Joe Rogan, who obviously was quite a fanboy of the president in times past, critically before the 2024 election. He was hosting it, but it's worth listening to his comments ahead of time on the Friday. Where the fuck are these Epstein files? Who the fuck is this? Why is this redacted? Where is it who the fuck killed JFK right like come out with it with the fuck who fucking killed Charlie Kirk for real? Yeah, like what is that? Why is that fucking story? So clouded and mystery and why did they pave over the fucking ground right after the shooting?

22:20What the fuck is going on there? See now you're making me in a bad mood That's but that it's easy to do it's easy to do it's easy to get locked up in there Do you see my notes look at my two on the very top was it say stay positive be nice and And what does that other one say you have terrible hand be positive. Oh be nice be positive But your handwriting is terrible. It is should be a doctor But no I have to remind myself like because I if you start mentioning those things that you just did It's hard dude. I will fucking lose my shit because I'm so pissed I know and it should be and we were all we're all pissed We're all you know, we all thought that you know All that stuff was going to be released right after the election.

23:02We're going to drain the swamp and find all the pedophiles. Look, it is a Rogan-y rant, right? It is a bona fide Rogan-y rant. But if he is like the key voice for Trump's birthday celebrations at the UFC wrestling match on Saturday, he doesn't sound like that big a fan of the president right now. If that's what your mates are sounding like, where would we tie to your enemies? and also look this is you know tied up as you say with the 250th anniversary of the birth of the united states of america in 1776 and you want this to be a kind of occasion when the nation comes together and celebrates what it is as a nation just hear what some of the cage fighters have had to say at the event hey shout out to trump for having the balls to put some shit like this on.

23:51And if I'm going to say anything, there's only one person more incredible than the Incredible Hulk, and that's my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

24:03Now listen, Alex Pereira, I want a shama on your mama.

24:14And lastly, Michelle Obama is a man. Am I right, America? So there you have one of the cage fighters on the White House lawn to a live television audience declaring that Michelle Obama is a man. It is grotesque. And that is going out across America to mark America's 250th birthday. It is pure misogynistic shite. And we have seen it before and it is becoming a trope. But honestly, if that is what a celebration of America at 250 years looks like, then God help us with the next 250. I don't think it is. I don't think it is representative of what America is feeling or saying right now. But those are the loudest voices.

25:14Those are the voices that are amplified by this president in this White House, enabled by his mates, Joe Rogan, with a microphone. Those are the voices that are being heard around the world, which tell you what America thinks about itself right now. And it is that sense that America seems to want to wind the clock back to an age where women stayed away from the public gaze. They were just decorative and on the outside of everything. It just seems to represent an America going back, I don't know, 50, 60, 70 years where you don't expect or respect anyone who is in public life who is a woman. But I mean, you know, the old saying goes that men who are macho normally aren't macho.

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26:48The News Agents USA. Just before we go, we're going to bring you a view on Donald Trump from a quarter that you might not expect it. Jordan Bardella, who is the second in command of the Front National, the Rassemblement National, the far-right party in France, was asked what he thought of Donald Trump. And curiously, he doesn't mince his words and he definitely doesn't cozy up. Just have a listen, we'll interpret. Comment vous voyez aujourd 'hui l 'attitude du président Trump?

27:28Yeah, how do you see the President of the United States? Well, it kind of depends what day of the week it is, frankly. You know, Monday, he's like this. And he's a bit erratic. And he's changing the whole time.