MS NOW’s “Morning Joe” Scarborough comments on where the war with Iran stands, and the Washington Post’s report: “U.S. Intel: Iran Retains Significant Missile Arsenal, Can Outlast Trump’s Hormuz Blockade for Months” “Their missile program is much stronger than people expected; their nuclear program is still intact,” he said. “This regime is even more hardened and more radical and more embittered, for a lot of reasons. And Iran has more power over the Strait than ever before.” “And yet every day Donald Trump goes out, even when they’re attacking our naval ships, Donald Trump goes out and says the ceasefire is still on.” “Talk about the weakness this projects across the region, across the globe, and to the Iranians,” he said.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: The missiles are mostly decimated. They have some. They have probably 18, 19%, but not a lot by comparison to what they had. And their leaders are all dead. So I think we won. JONATHAN LEMIRE, MSNBC: So, Joe, let’s just tick through real quick the goals that were supposed to be accomplished at the beginning of this war. One of them was destroying the Iranian navy. JOE SCARBOROUGH, MSNBC: Yep. They did that. We did that. Okay. We’ve won the war, right? Give me the other four, because I’m sure we got it. I’m sure we got the other four, too. What else we got? JONATHAN LEMIRE: Another one was supposed to be destroying their ballistic missile arsenal, which we just learned they have not done. They’ve weakened it, but they have not destroyed it. Third up would be the nuke program, which they haven’t touched, has not been addressed. That still exists. The future of that remains uncertain. We had some talk of regime change. That hasn’t happened. Sure, the first supreme leader is dead, but his son is in charge – an even harder-line group now running things in Tehran, the IRGC. JOE SCARBOROUGH: So yeah, that’s actually worse. That would be like taking Chapman out so you could put Weissert in, in relief duty for the Red Sox. It’s actually that much worse, isn’t it? JONATHAN LEMIRE: And then, we haven’t even gotten to yet, the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran now ends this war with more control: the knowledge not only can they menace ships through it, which they’re doing, but the knowledge they can shut it at any time, even down the road after the war comes to an end. This is impossible for President Trump–try as he will, this would be impossible for him to declare a victory at its current state. JOE SCARBOROUGH: The missiles, stronger than ever. And that’s again what our allies said: You’ve got to get rid of those missiles, because we will get struck. Because it’s an even more radicalized, if that’s even possible, a more radicalized government. You know, there used to be a split between the mullahs, the Revolutionary Guard, and the parliament. Now it’s the most hardened element of the Revolutionary Guard that’s running it. And they have all the reason in the world now to strike out against our allies. So their missile program is much stronger than people expected. Their nuclear program is still intact. In fact, they have much more ability now than they did in 2018, when Donald Trump got out of the nuclear deal. The regime changed. This regime is even more hardened and more radical and more embittered, for a lot of reasons. And then the Strait – Iran has more power over the Strait than ever before. And yet every day Donald Trump goes out, even when they’re attacking our naval ships, Donald Trump goes out and says, Oh, the ceasefire is on, the ceasefire is on. Talk about the weakness this projects across the region, across the globe, and to the Iranians. How are they going to respond to this? MICHAEL WEISS: Yeah. So, the Washington Post story was kind of extraordinary. I mean, 75% of their missile program is still intact. What they’ve been doing is taking stuff out of storage, basically pulling old launchers that we thought maybe had been destroyed or disabled. They still have about 70% of their missiles. I spoke to a Western diplomat in Israel yesterday about this story, and he said most of these missiles are probably short-range missiles, which means that the Israelis will consider this a partial victory, right? They don’t have as many medium-range missiles to rain terror down on Tel Aviv. But guess who’s not going to take this as great comfort? The GCC countries, right? The Gulf Arab states, including the Emiratis, who just got pounded yesterday during a ceasefire. I mean, this is sort of like that movie Wag the Dog. It’s like war is over when you say it is. It’s like a high-production-value kind of war. Yesterday, it was a mini-war. I think they called it an excursion the other day. We’re running out of euphemisms or Orwellian language to describe what’s taking place here. And Jonathan’s point is correct. The IRGC feels emboldened. They have now essentially taken over the country. The rulership of the clerics is almost at an end, I would argue. The son of Khamenei, the supreme leader, is a creature of the IRGC, probably not a guy who would have been appointed to this position if there had been a proper succession. And they love to do nothing but test and tweak Donald Trump and to show him to be a busted flush or a paper tiger, if you like. And he’s in this bind. He can’t say, I’m going to let them eat my lunch for me. He can’t say that. I’m going to let them fire on American vessels without responding. So instead, it’s this love-tap nonsense. But we’re at war. We’re at war. He’s desperate to get out of it, which he probably shouldn’t have started in the first place. And I suspect he’s got buyer’s remorse for this thing. But he doesn’t want to appear weak. He has to project this image of strength. But I think increasingly, even his own base is saying, Man, what are you doing here? This is not what we signed up for. JOE SCARBOROUGH: Well, I mean, it’s what Lindsey Graham signed up for, and it’s what the Secretary of Defense signed up for, Pete Hegseth. It’s what Netanyahu signed up for. They all were pushing, saying this was going to be easy, that he needed to go in and do it. And he’s paying for it. And you’ve got JD Vance going out talking about a war that is causing Americans to pay $ 4.50 at filling stations, gas stations; a war that, in its opening day, killed over 100 children in Iran; that’s killed over 6,000, 7,000 Iranians right now; that’s leveled – Netanyahu has used this again as another excuse to level another country. And he’s leveled half of Lebanon right now, completely wiping out and destroying entire towns, entire villages. And JD Vance is calling that a blip. Nobody believes it.

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