This is the April 3, 2026, edition of “The Tea, Spilled by Morning Joe” newsletter.Subscribe here to get it delivered straight to your inbox every Monday through Friday.
BREAKING NEWS
President Donald Trump has fired Attorney General Pam Bondi, removing the nation’s top law enforcement officer amid growing frustration over her handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche will serve as acting attorney general.
Tune into “Morning Joe” tomorrow for full analysis.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“It’s a new world. It’s the same Constitution.”
— Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, questioning the Trump administration’s interpretation of the 14th Amendment’s citizenship clause
President Trump last night addressed the nation for the first time since starting a war with Iran, defending the conflict while leaving key questions unanswered. Richard Haass, president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations, joined the “Morning Joe” panel today to break it all down.
JS: The president may not have said everything that everyone wanted to hear, but I’m glad that he spoke to the American people. Our commander in chief needs to communicate regularly with the public about what’s going on in this war.
WG: He didn’t say much that was concrete, though — and he was dismissive of what people are actually living through right now. Gas at $4 a gallon, markets down again today.
He also seems to have abandoned the idea of regime change, suggesting it was never really the goal. As facts on the ground have shifted, so have the objectives — so the president can somehow declare victory.
RH: I’m reminded of what Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan called “defining deviancy down” — lowering our standards of what counts as success. That’s what’s happening here.
No one wants to see Iran with nuclear weapons — that’s a vital American national interest. But it’s not obvious that military force has advanced that goal. One way or another, we’re heading back to the negotiating table, which, by the way, is exactly where we were on the eve of this war. If the president was trying to make the case for this war, I don’t think it was a sell.
MB: It’s an uphill sell for this president. He has said on multiple occasions that no one could have predicted Iran would attack its Middle Eastern neighbors if struck by the U.S. and Israel. But back in 2012, my father, Dr. Zbigniew Brzezinski, not only predicted it, he laid out in detail the global implications of a new Middle East war and America’s limits in controlling the outcome.
JS: We’ve heard time and again from people in the administration: Who could have ever seen this coming? Dr. Brzezinski saw this coming 14 years ago. The people who’ve war-gamed this over decades all reached the same conclusion. They understood the choke hold Iran has over the Strait of Hormuz — and therefore over oil prices worldwide.
That’s why every president before Trump did not go into Iran, despite the fact they would have loved their legacy to have been toppling the ayatollahs’ government.
Jonathan Lemire: Some in the administration did see this coming — but the president and his advisers ignored it. They were so taken with their success in Venezuela that they assumed the same playbook would work here.
And last night’s speech was exactly what Trump should have given at the start of the war. He didn’t, because he thought this would be over in days — a week or two at most. He didn’t think he’d need to explain the stakes to the American people.
JS: Who does that sound like? Vladimir Putin going into Ukraine. We live in the age of asymmetrical warfare, where weaker countries may not be able to prevail outright, but they can bleed dry another country.
And here’s the thing: If this administration hadn’t shown such contempt for Ukraine, they could have called Kyiv months ago and asked how to stop Iranian drones. This war would have looked very different — especially for our Gulf allies, who are getting pounded every day.
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JL: The parallels here are uncanny. And Ukraine is still making that offer. The administration is still turning it down.
JS: Jon, what did the president fail to address last night?
JL: He offered only a vague timeline — two to three weeks, maybe —and did not signal an end, something markets had been hoping for.
He also didn’t address the major military options now on the table, even with assets already in place.
And despite widespread concern in Europe, he said nothing about the future of NATO. There were rumors yesterday that the president was going to use his speech to announce pulling out of NATO. Of course, that will be a worry that persists in the days and weeks ahead, as long as the Strait of Hormuz remains closed.RH: He didn’t say it, but no one should kid themselves. No one in Europe any longer believes that the American commitment to come to Europe’s defense under Article 5 exists. We’re in a post-NATO moment.
CHART OF THE DAY
ON THIS DATE
In 2005, Pope John Paul II died after 27 years at the helm of the Catholic Church. Elected in 1978, he became the first non-Italian pope in 455 years. He was known for his commitment to interfaith dialogue — improving Catholic-Muslim relations, visiting a mosque in Damascus, Syria, and sitting down in 1983 with Mehmet Ali Agca, the man who had tried to assassinate him two years earlier.
U.S. “PLAYING WITH FIRE” ON IRAN
Donald Trump has repeatedly insisted the United States could not have predicted that Iran would retaliate against its neighbors if struck by the U.S. and Israel. The record says otherwise. In 2012, Dr. Zbigniew Brzezinski told Charlie Rose that Iran could destabilize Iraq, set Bahrain “on fire,” and attack Saudi Arabia’s oil fields — and that while it could “ignite, but not prevail,” the consequences would be “cumulative” and oil prices would “go through the roof.”
“So we’re playing with fire here,” he said.
Watch here.
EXTRA HOT TEA
235.1 mph
— The speed of the fastest golf drive on record, recently set by Australian Thomas Fliniks
ONE MORE SHOT
The full moon rises behind illuminated cherry trees in bloom last night in Tanba-Sasayama, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan.
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