Let's bring in Selena Zito now. Selena, of course, syndicated columnist, Washington Examiner, National Political Reporter and author of Butler, The Untold Story of the Near Assassination of Donald Trump and the Fight for America's Heartland. Selena, this is one of those meetings where it's not just ceremonial. If the king wants to do his job, He's going to start to he has to start, I guess, healing relations between the countries, don't you think? Yeah, I absolutely think so.
And I think it's the best way to the best steps to do that is a relationship between President Trump and King Charles. I think they have always had an amicable relationship, and they both have mutual respect for what each wants to accomplish. And you know, they both sort of came up in that same era, right? Seventies, eighties, where the culture was changing, where the world was changing. And so they have that sort of cultural connection as well.
I once met. King Charles, when he was Prince Charles, in an alley in Pittsburgh, when he was coming into a couple of cities across the country, former steel cities that were trying to remake themselves. I didn't know he was going to be in town. It wasn't the age of, you know, sort of the internet, right? Like you knew everything.
And I was just taking a shortcut walking with my newborn through an alley, and he was getting out of his car. And That was very nice. I knew the mayor, so the mayor sort of felt obligated of introducing me, but I was just so embarrassed that I found myself in that place. But he was very gracious.
So, you know, you talk about the relations between these two countries. The storm is fighting for his political life. And I don't know, I've been watching some of this. I don't know if he's going to survive.
So this will be, they've had like six prime ministers in the last five years. Right, right. When do we see these kinds of events happen? And Brian, you are a student of history. When we see great turmoil politically, that means that there's great turmoil in our culture and our economy.
You look at our country, for example, during the Industrial Revolution, we switched House majorities by 100 seats every two years. Presidents didn't last longer than one term. And so I think we are in the same sort of turmoil. You look at our turmoil in terms of switching majorities in the House and the Senate, the Presidency, sort of going from one side to the other and back to the other side. And that has to do with our technological Revolution, right?
It's sort of like the Industrial Revolution. Things are changing, and our politics is always downstream of culture. It's changing as well.
So, yes, that's my really long answer: saying he's facing those same problems.
So, you're there in Butler, you interviewed the president at the time. He also helps you out, gives you perspective on his book, and we're at it again. Butler there was a shell of a Secret Service team, most of them with with Joe Biden. And you don't know even how organized they actually were, no coordination with locals. This is different.
He's a President now. A President's already had already know that he's under threat.
So what's your takeaway from what we now know three days later?
So, I think two things happen. I think the Secret Service. And you were there in the room. And I was right beside him in Butler. You saw the people around him act quickly, right?
They were there. They were, but the planning, right? The things that go around the event, that is what I think we really need to look into. You know, I've gone to the White House correspondence dinner a couple of times. You made a really good point.
Like, if you had big thighs, you've got a problem, right? Because everybody's knees are touching, like, it's so cramped. And and and so why? I look, I know how he is. I know his insistence if he wants to do something.
It's sort of like I was watching in Butler when he kept insisting to put his shoes on. And I think I don't think a lot of people know that he wanted to go back out at that rally in Butler. He wanted to go back out. Just like he wanted to go back at the correspondence dinner. And I think this is a character thing that people don't understand.
He told me, and it's in the book Butler, he told me the next day: look, I wasn't Donald Trump in that moment. My job right then is representing the entire presidency and legacy of the presidency of the United States. We are supposed to show strength, that we endure, that things don't knock us down. And I'm sure he was thinking the exact same thing Saturday night. Yeah.
And then we still have to maybe button things up. Susie Wiles had an emergency meeting yesterday, and they made it sound kind of generic and informational, but I think she was very upset. And I think the family, the Trump family is upset too. They don't feel as though that perimeter was properly guarded. I don't disagree with you, and I'm sure Susie is upset because she was there in Butler.
Right? This is the second time she has gone through this. And I know how I feel, right? Like, well, hearing those sounds of those bullets, I mean, I'm a gun owner, I go target shooting all the time. Bullet sounds don't bother me.
In that kind of situation, it's completely different.
So I can't even imagine how she felt.
Well, no, I can't imagine how she felt in that moment. And she's going to make sure that something changes. Yeah, here's what Caroline Levitt said, cut eight. I definitely wouldn't say changes are out of the question. I think, again, that it's up to the White House here, and we view it as a great responsibility to ensure the maximum safety of the President and the Vice President and the entire Cabinet.
And so we're always looking for ways to improve security. I think if you just sit here and say everything is perfect all the time, that's not a good way to operate. And so the White House will continue to engage with DHS and Waltham Secret Service to find ways to improve and strengthen security. But as far as Saturday night is concerned, the President was satisfied with the response. Yeah, they got I do you notice how quick they got J D out compared to the President though, right?
Yeah. Yeah, I did see that. Although, weren't there now I've looked at different angles. Didn't some men immediately stand in front of him? At the stage, were people standing in front of him?
As well as ushering him out, it's sort of hard to get a 360 angle, but that's what it seems like. They grabbed JD like he was eight years old by the collar and dragged him out. That's true. And I don't know why they were both there. I mean, they got to rethink that, too, because I've been to a bunch of people.
I don't disagree with you. You know, you talk to the president a lot. I talk to the president a lot. I think there's a conflict, inner conflict with him because he loves his detail that's around him. He feels safe.
He feels confident. He feels that they are confident and have his back. Sean Curran, right? Sean Curran is his guy. Right, right.
But the conflict lies in planning. Right? Well, you shouldn't have JD or the vice president and president in the same room. You shouldn't be in a room that's that vulnerable and that closed in, and not a lot of ways to escape. Right, look around you at your exits when you were there, Brian.
Did you see? Like it, it is almost suffocating the way you feel. It really is. Yeah, no, you really can't walk between. I wasn't kidding.
I was going up to a bunch of strangers as usual because I was the last one in. You have to stand out. Hi, excuse me, excuse me, excuse me. And then finally get in your seat because I knew I'm going to wait till the last minute because once you get in your seat, you can't move. There's 2,200 people there.
And I thought to myself, what a fire hazard. I'm just glad that nobody panicked. If everyone panicked and started running for the exits, for example, if those people running in were gunmen as opposed to security, there would have been justified panic. I mean, there would have been carnage. Gee.
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Did you see the story in The Atlantic? Which one? What did they do this time? The Pentagon may not be telling Donald Trump the full picture about the war, and it has anonymous figures in J.D. Vance's staff.
Who say that Pete Hagseth is not telling him the whole truth about the war? And some of the facts there are absolutely impossible. They're saying that two-thirds of his Air Force is still afloat, as is most of the, you know, a third of his Navy.
Now, the Mosquito Navy, I get it. But the stuff in here looks like The vice president's staff, unless they totally made it out of a whole cloth. is informing against Pete. Is there a s problem inside the White House between The Dan Driscoll, Pete Hagseth and J. D.
Vance crowd.
Well, historically, you know that Vice Presidents' offices not necessarily Vice Presidents, but their offices have are thinking about the next Election, right? And they're protecting their asset, which is the vice president politically. And and so it's not Unbelievable that there would be a leak like this, although I have I'm very skeptical of something that goes into the Atlantic. And and they're out to get Trump. We know we're about the signal chat and all that.
Right. And they're trying to create division.
So so they can't create division within the conservative populist movement. It just it doesn't move.
So let's create a division between the vice president and the president. That is certainly not out the realm of possibility that what's going on here. You think that quote might not have been a quote at all? Yeah. Wow, that would be beyond evil and irresponsible.
I want to talk about Iran, if we could. Marco Rubio on the latest offer. They say they'll open up the strait if we get rid of the blockade, Cut 27. Reports do indicate Iran has offered to open The straits. But they want to delay conversations about their nuclear program.
Would this be acceptable to the Trump administration?
Well, again, I'm not going to speculate about the president's decision-making on this matter. Suffice it to say that the nuclear question is the reason why we're in this in the first place. If Iran was just a radical country run by radical people, but you know, it'd still be a problem. But they are revolutionary. In essence, they seek to expand and export their revolution.
Not just what they do in Iran. That's why they're with Hezbollah in Lebanon. That's why they've supported Hamas. That's why they've supported the militias in Iraq. They don't just seek to dominate Iran.
They seek to dominate the region. And imagine that with a nuclear weapon.
So that that that's you know Marco Rubio is the real great explainer on that staff. Yeah, absolutely. That was completely on point. Iraq, and I would even argue that Iran wants to dominate the world, not just the region. They they want to not only um Be the dominant force in the Middle East, but they want to create suspicion and disruption throughout the world so that they, um, and that's sort of their sense of power.
There's no reason to trust them to do anything. If they say, Well, we'll do this if you do that, uh, of course, the president is going to say, Yeah, that's not happening. We're just not going to talk until you come back and you do something, right? He wants evidence-based. um actions from uh ir Iran.
So, I want you to hear what Frederick Mertz played, the Chancellor of Germany, through a translator. I could not believe this statement, Cut 33. At the moment, I cannot see what strategic exit the Americans are now opting for, especially as the Iranians are obviously negotiating very skillfully, or rather very skillfully not negotiating and letting the Americans travel to Islamabad, only to leave again without any results. This entire nation is being humiliated by the Iranian state leadership, especially by these so-called revolutionary guards. Your thoughts.
How about he thinks we're being humiliated and for him to say that Yeah, that's a really good example of someone that lives in a bubble and is surrounded by people telling him that's what's going on. I don't think the United States is being humiliated. I think there's a lot of things that we don't know that's going on, a lot of negotiations that are or plans that are being made. I'm not being a cheerleader for the president, but I am being, I do understand his mindset and the mindset of the people that he trusts the most, such as Marco Rubio and his son-in-law and Steve. And uh I think that In the end, whenever the end is, and I suspect the end won't be long from now, I think people will say man, we caught that wrong.
I hear you. I thoroughly agree. And that's why I just take notes of people who jump off the ship when things get tough, as opposed to just be an analyst. You don't have to be a cheerleader. Just be an analyst.
And for them to, as a NATO member, do nothing, know that we do the majority of defending, and for them to say something. If you want to say that behind the scenes, I get it. Maybe it leaks out unadvertently. But for him to do that publicly, they say it's now in the leader's interest to be anti-Trump in the region.
So you look like a tough guy.
Well, why? We have to ask ourselves, we have to be reflective.
Okay, why are you trying to undermine the United States? What's your end goal? If if you're of mertz? Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.
Your end goal is why you better build up your defense quick because Trump's not going to forget where you were. Oh, absolutely. Selena Zito, thanks so much. I appreciate it. Thanks for having me.
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