Trump Imposes Blockade on Iranian Ports

Members can share articles with friends & family to bypass the paywall. Steve Hayes is joined by Mike Warren, Mike Nelson, and Michael Sobolik to discuss the failed negotiations with Iran, and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's defeat at the polls. The Agenda:—What we know about the negotiations—How to enforce a blockade—The risk to U.S. troops—The view from China—J.D. Vance as negotiator—Why Taiwan’s defense budget matters—Viktor Orbán’s big loss—NWYT: Trump vs. the pope Dispatch Recommendations:—Trump’s NATO Threats Highlight Deeper Structural Tension—Trans Issues Are No Conspiracy—Identity Politics Is a Problem for Conservative Christians Too—A Peaceful Uneasy Feeling—Pope Leo’s Case Against the Iran War Is Not Political—Come Sail Away With Me (in Sheboygan, Wisconsin)—Orbán’s 16-Year Reign Ends Show Notes:—Chaos Under Heaven: Trump, Xi, and the Battle for the Twenty-First Century—Trump post appearing to depict him as Jesus removed amid backlash The Dispatch Podcast is a production of The Dispatch, a digital media company covering politics, policy, and culture from a non-partisan, conservative perspective. To access all of The Dispatch’s offerings—including access to all of our articles, members-only newsletters, and bonus podcast episodes—click here. If you’d like to remove all ads from your podcast experience, consider becoming a premium Dispatch member by clicking here. Steve Hayes is CEO and editor of The Dispatch, based in Annapolis, Maryland. Prior to co-founding the company in 2019, he worked at The Weekly Standard for 18 years, covering Washington, politics, and national security. Steve is the author of two New York Times bestsellers. He also worked as a contributor at CNN and Fox News, and currently serves as a political analyst at NBC News. When Steve is not focused on The Dispatch, he’s probably traveling with his family, grilling, or riding his mountain bike. Michael Warren is a senior editor at The Dispatch and is based in Washington, D.C. Prior to joining the company in 2023, he was an on-air reporter at CNN and a senior writer at the Weekly Standard. When Mike is not reporting, writing, editing, and podcasting, he is probably spending time with his wife and three sons. Mike Nelson is a retired Army Special Forces officer and a member of the Atlantic Council’s Counterterrorism Project. He is formerly of the Institute for the Study of War and the National Security Institute. You can find him on x.com at @mikenelson586. Michael Sobolik is a senior fellow at Hudson Institute and author of Countering China’s Great Game: A Strategy for American Dominance (Naval Institute Press, 2024). Follow him on X @michaelsobolik. The podcast transcription below was generated using artificial intelligence and may include occasional errors or misspellings. [upbeat music] Welcome to the Dispatch Podcast. I'm Steve Hayes. On today's roundtable, we'll discuss the latest on Iran, the ceasefire, the negotiations, the blockade, the politics, and more. We'll also discuss the overwhelming defeat of Viktor Orbán, the President of Hungary, on the heels of a campaign swing on his behalf by U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance. And finally, not worth your time, Trump versus the Pope? I'm joined today by my Dispatch colleague Mike Warren; Dispatch contributor Mike Nelson, a retired Army Special Forces officer and a member of the Atlantic Council's Counter Terrorism project; and finally, Dispatch contributor Michael Sobolik, senior fellow at the Hudson Institute. Let's dive in. Mike Warren, I'll ask you a question to start us off. Can you bring us up to speed on the negotiations over the weekend between the United States and Iran, led by Vice President J.D. Vance in Pakistan, and this subsequent announcement and beginning of what President Trump is calling a blockade? What happened in the negotiations, and how are we at this point of a U.S. blockade of the Strait of Hormuz? Well, the status of the negotiations is that they did not go well. They failed. I think it was the pretty clear answer there. I mean, there's really not much more that we know, except that what the Iranians were demanding was not what the American side was willing to accept. They could not come away with any kind of framework. And so J.D. Vance, the vice president, left Pakistan really with nothing. And you could see that in his press conference, his brief sort of press appearance after how frustrated he was that there didn't seem to be any movement on any kind of agreement, and he left without anything. And I guess you could sort of draw some comparisons maybe to Reykjavik in nineteen eighty-six with Reagan and the Soviet Union, but don't think there's any reason to think that Iran is gonna be, you know, eager to come back to the negotiating table. So I guess there's going to be sort of another attempt at some point. But in the meantime, as you alluded to, there's now this blockade that, you know, the United States and President Trump essentially issued this warning, this threat, that on Monday sort of passed. And so now the United States military is blocking anything from coming in the Strait of Hormuz as the Iranian Navy has really not moved at all on its very limited amount of traffic that it's been allowing through the Strait of Hormuz. And so you have these sort of double blockades happening. The United States has asked for more negotiations. Iran has not responded. That was the sort of deadline that was hit, and so here we are, double blockades. I don't know-- I'm not much of an expert, actually, in sort of the history of that sort of maneuver, but it does seem to me that after all of the fanfare that we heard last week about, you know, the sort of the war was going to end and that Donald Trump was sort of extending the olive branch of peace toward the Iranians if they would just grab it, it doesn't seem like there really has been much positive movement over the last, what, forty-eight, seventy-two hours. And here we are. And, and in the meantime, I should also add here that it's, I think, rattling a lot of people, particularly looking at the oil markets. This does not bode well to have this kind of seize up, more seize up in this very important pathway. And I think there are a lot of people that I trust who went from feeling very uneasy to extremely uneasy about what this might mean for the global economy if this continues for a long time. But, you know, we'll see. Mike Nelson, you wrote a piece last week for us about the ceasefire, and I'm interested in your thoughts on whether you're surprised that these negotiations didn't lead to some kind of a deal. Is this roughly what you expected? And what is your understanding of the status of the ceasefire? Interactive transcripts are available to Premium members. Join to follow along with the audio.