Politics and views in the United States

President Donald Trump calls off attacks he said would destroy Iran's civilization for a two week ceasefire deal. Administration allies continue to say the war is vital to global security and calls grow for another Trump impeachment.

Transcript

Welcome to 2026 Talks, where we're following our democracy in historic times.

Every power plant in Iran will be out of business, burning, exploding, and never to be used again.

I mean, complete demolition.

After threats of destroying, quote, an entire civilization, President Donald Trump is delaying attacks on Iran, pending a ceasefire.

Tehran looks willing to reopen the Strait of Hormuz during the two-week deal and is describing the agreement as a victory.

The Speaker of Iran's parliament is making veiled threats to close another waterway, the Bab el-Mandaib Strait at the mouth of the Red Sea, an important passage for oil, liquefied natural gas, wheat, rice, and fertilizer.

Trump's allies still insist the war is vital to tame a global threat.

In debate at the UN, Ambassador Mike Waltz cited the organization's reports of serious human rights problems there, including hiding weapons in hospitals and schools, to claims the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is recruiting children.

He says Iranian leaders see regional peace as a threat to their power.

As their country suffers, they are spending millions per day to enforce an internet blackout on those same civilians and those same children they are executing for daring to protest.

Russia and China vetoed a resolution aimed at forcing Hormuz open.

Although the U.S. is holding off, Israeli airstrikes are still targeting Iranian bridges and railways, which the Israeli prime minister says are used to transport weapons.

Members of Congress from both parties are condemning the dramatic escalation in Trump's recent rhetoric, with some asking if he should be impeached a third time or if the president's cabinet should remove him from power as unfit through the 25th Amendment.

But Republican Trump critic and former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie says there's no one in the current cabinet who would stand up to him.

There's no one who can tell him no.

There is no one who can tell him this is wrong, sir.

In the first term, he had Rex Tillerson.

He had Jim Mattis.

You know, he had Bill Barr.

He had people of real substance.

Rural hospitals are downsizing or preparing to close despite a federal plan to bolster them.

While the Trump administration's Rural Health Transformation Fund provides $50 billion in spending over the next decade, that pales in comparison to the nearly $140 billion in federal funding KFF projects they'll lose over the next 10 years.

During the debate on the huge cuts to Medicaid and last year's megabill, administration officials touted the rural investment grants as a way to foster lasting health delivery solutions.

Joan Alker with Georgetown University points out those hospitals are only going to get a small share of the grants.

The Trump administration, with their own volition in implementing this fund, have limited the amount of the fund that can go to rural hospitals to 15 percent.

Republican Clayton Fuller is poised to win the special election to replace former Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, but by a much narrower margin than expected.

Democrat Sean Harris campaigned as a, quote, dirt road Democrat and is urging common sense Republicans in the deep red Northwest Georgia district to vote for him, despite Trump strongly endorsing Fuller.

I'm Edwin J. Viera for Pacifica Network and Public News Service.

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