00:00Well, we're going to talk a bit more about what the U.S. is looking for, hoping to do in
00:04this operation now with France 24's Douglas Herbert, who joins me on set.
00:08Doug, the U.S. intensifying their attacks, also intensifying its messaging.
00:12Yeah, now that the war is on, they have to get their message straight.
00:15And so far, they've actually been all over the place.
00:18While they would vehemently deny it and say we're very much on message, you know exactly what we're doing.
00:22The fact of the matter is the base, the MAGA base, there have been a lot of frictions, a lot
00:28of ructions, and a lot of pushback, especially among the MAGA influencers in the U.S., who are highly critical
00:34of what they believe that they just don't believe that there have been a convincing or a compelling argument really
00:39made so far for why the U.S. is at war.
00:42Remember, Donald Trump famously campaigned on an America First agenda about putting an end to the forever wars, not repeating
00:50what he saw as the catastrophic mistakes of his weak and loser predecessors who took the U.S. into these
00:56endless conflicts.
00:57He wasn't going to be that type of president.
00:59And now, lo and behold, the fear is among some in his base, not all, that he is.
01:05Now, let's be very clear.
01:06Donald Trump's diehard supporters, nothing has significantly changed.
01:10They are still his diehard supporters.
01:12He still has that core of support.
01:15But he's very cognizant.
01:16He and the administration are cognizant that there seems to be these ructions I was talking about.
01:21So Caroline Levitt, for instance, the White House press secretary, was very much out there, a long post that she
01:28put up there on social media, pushing back at those in the MAGA base, the MAGA influencers who have been
01:34critical of the Trump administration's behavior, their actions so far in this now 72-hour war.
01:44So when I say that the messaging has been all over the place, Jeannie, I literally mean it.
01:48But yesterday after, you know, there had been Trump had sort of been on the sidelines following that weird in
01:54the middle of the night video he released, finally appeared at the White House.
01:57So you saw Trump in one day at the White House.
01:59You saw, meanwhile, J.D. Vance, who is famous for being opposed, fiercely opposed in the past to Iran wars
02:07and wars of any kind.
02:08He was a real MAGA America first type.
02:11He went on to Fox News sort of trotting out the administration line but not with that much enthusiasm.
02:15It wasn't really him speaking.
02:18He was really repeating Trump's line.
02:19Trump, after all, is his boss.
02:21You had Marco Rubio, the secretary of state.
02:23He was on Capitol Hill yesterday alongside also the House speaker, Mike Johnson, and they were also trying to message.
02:30Everyone's trying to hunker down, double down on the positive message.
02:34They all know what they're doing.
02:35But do they?
02:35Because the messages, depending on who you spoke to, and Trump himself was all over the media.
02:40I think there were 19 different media, phone calls and call-ins with different news outlets yesterday, during which the
02:48message varied according to who was being spoken to at what time.
02:52So either the war was about regime change or the war was about giving the people of Iran the power
02:57to rise up and free themselves and then claim their own government.
03:01Or the war was about nuclear weapons, right?
03:03Remember that?
03:04The war was maybe going to be two days, three days, or the war was going to be four or
03:08five weeks.
03:09So literally, not figuratively, the messaging has been very dispersed.
03:14Now, obviously, they're trying to get it more coherent.
03:16You can bet that in the next 24, 48 hours, even as things probably remain chaotic in the Middle East,
03:22they're going to try to get at least more on the same page, more of a coherent message.
03:25But I do think it's significant that J.D. Vance has sort of been the outlier there, very much opposed
03:31to wars, and not as much out there pushing through the message.
03:34I'm sure he'll be on the same page, too, on the same wavelength.
03:37But it's been very clear to anyone paying attention that the messaging has been all over the place, and they're
03:41trying to get their story together post-de facto, trying to build a coherent narrative to what seems to be
03:47a very chaotic operation.
03:48So given all of that, and given, of course, that this is an election year in the United States, how
03:53is all of this going down with Trump's base so far?
03:55Not well.
03:56What I mean by not well, it's not hitting well.
03:58It's not landing well.
03:59Like I said, many in the base, if they're not explicitly saying it in the back of their minds, for
04:05many of them, they're thinking, did I vote for this?
04:07Was this the America First platform?
04:09So like I said, let's be very clear here.
04:11No, they're not abandoning Donald Trump.
04:13Donald Trump still has the support.
04:14Yes, most of the Republicans in Congress will continue to pay fealty to Donald Trump and mark in lockstep with
04:20his agenda and will not oppose him.
04:21But in the back of their minds, there are these thoughts, and there are signs that among the broader American
04:27populace, especially, there are a lot of, if you will, reservations.
04:31I will note that CNN in the U.S. took a poll just over the weekend following the initiation of
04:37hostilities.
04:37I want to just give our viewers a few of the findings of it because it's fascinating.
04:4159% of all Americans disapprove of the attack.
04:4460% of Americans don't believe Donald Trump has a clear plan for handling the situation.
04:5162% say Trump should get congressional approval.
04:5662% for any further military action.
04:5927% think that Trump did not make enough of an effort at diplomacy before launching strikes.
05:06Those are just some numbers.
05:07Now, yes, you'll say that's the broad American populace.
05:10Obviously, it includes a lot of Democrats who can't stand Donald Trump.
05:13If you look more broadly at Republicans, sure, more Republicans by a vast margin will approve and do approve of
05:20what Donald Trump is doing, whether blindly or not, willfully, coherently.
05:2577% of Republicans do approve.
05:28Might that change?
05:29Sure, it might.
05:30These are early days, literally, not because I'm saying it.
05:33Donald Trump says it.
05:34He says that the biggest actions are yet to come, which would imply yet more uncertainty lying ahead.
05:41Anyone who tells you today that they know what's in store in the next day, next week, even the next
05:45month, is probably making it up and winging it.
05:48So watch this space as American public opinion.
05:51It is volatile.
05:52It's on a tripwire.
05:53And it could change on a dime.
05:55Doug, thanks for that.
05:56France 24's Douglas Harbert.
05:57Thank you for listening.
05:58Thanks for listening.
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