That Was The Week That Was—Donald Trump Edition Vol 1, Ep 2.

With no slowdown in Trump news, this has been a busy week for the staff at TW3/DT. But with a little help from Google and Duck Duck Go, we’ve made it. So, without further ado, That Was The Week That Was—Donald Trump Edition, Vol 1, Ep 2.

Note: Because the week was so packed with so much (too much?) “Trump,” this episode of TW3/DT will be broken into three chapters. Due to their length, each chapter will be posted separately.

Today:

• Chapter 1: The Trump-Iran War

And over the next day or so, other major Trump news of the week:

Chapter 2: The Trump-Pope War

Followed by:

• Chapter 3: “Below the Fold” Summaries of Trump and His Acolytes’ Activities

Sometimes it is almost over, other times it is just getting started

The above headline from The Week magazine sums up not only the week but the entire war as well as Trump himself.

Combine that headline with the following story published yesterday, April 18, by the Associated Press, and all I have to do is fill in the details. But let me warn you, there are lots of details.

Trump declares blockade will remain until deal finalized

BEIRUT — Iran said Friday it fully reopened the Strait of Hormuz to commercial vessels, but President Donald Trump said the American blockade on Iranian ships and ports “will remain in full force” until Tehran reaches a deal with the U.S., including on its nuclear program.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi posted on X that the crucial waterway, through which about 20% of the world’s oil is shipped, was now fully open to commercial vessels,as a 10-day truce between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon appeared to hold.

Araghchi said ships will use routes designated by the Islamic Republic in coordination with Iranian authorities. It was not clear if vessels would have to pay tolls. Trump initially celebrated the Iranian announcement, posting on social media that the strait was “fully open and ready for full passage.” But minutes later, he issued another post saying the U.S. Navy’s blockade would continue “UNTIL SUCH TIME AS OUR TRANSACTION WITH IRAN IS 100% COMPLETE .” (All bold & caps courtesy of DJT)

A spokesperson for the Iranian Foreign Ministry said the blockade was a violation of the ceasefire agreement. In comments published by Iranian state media, Esmail Baghaei said the strait is still under the supervision of Iran, which is serious about its commitments. But if the U.S. violates its own commitments, then Iran “will take the necessary reciprocal measures.”

“No leniency will be shown in this regard,” Baghaei said.

Based by both sides’ grandstanding and divergent opinions reported in the AP story, and with negotiations supposedly beginning again on Monday in Islamabad, there should be a lot to discuss.

More on that later. But before we get there, let’s get up to date on what’s happening now in Trump’s war.

According to several sources, including Bloomberg and Travel Weekly, “Cruise ships that have been stuck in the Persian Gulf since the Iran war began on Feb. 28 are now on the move.”

Several reports indicate that travel operator TUI Cruises said on Sunday that two of its vessels—Mein Schiff (My Ship) 4 and Mein Schiff 5—had “successfully passed” the strait by early afternoon.

“The passage took place based on the relevant coordination and approvals from the authorities, in a controlled manner and with careful consideration of the security situation,” the company said in an update on its website.

Other ships that have either navigated through the strait or are preparing to sail through include, Celestyal ships Discovery and Journey and the Aroya ship, Aroya.

Editor’s note: Yes, I wrote “Cruise Ships” in the Persian Gulf. Not tankers or container ships, cruise ships! Wow, can you imagine cruising on the Mein Schiff 4 or 5 on that itinerary? For all you cruisers who are just tired of Celebrity this or Princess that and want a less ordinary experience at sea, I’m very close to a travel consultant who can book the cruise of a lifetime for you. “Mein Shiff, Wenn Sie bitte?” And given the fact that no one knows if all the mines have been swept from the strait, it could be not just the most adventurous cruise of your lifetime, but the last cruise of your lifetime!

As mentioned earlier, and based on reporting from multiple sources, Trump announced earlier today that negotiatins with Iran will resume on Monday. But, in keeping with what we’ve come to expect from Trump, not only was the announcement combined with threats of war crimes, but was chock full of standard Trumpian confusion and lack of clarity. First the war crimes talk (from The Washington Post):

President Donald Trump said Sunday that U.S. representatives are returning to Pakistan for negotiations to end the war with Iran and renewed his threats of broad attacks on the country’s infrastructure if no deal is reached.

Trump accused Iran of violating a fragile two-week ceasefire as it closed the vital Strait of Hormuz again on Saturday and two ships reported attacks while attempting to cross, after a brief reopening brought hope for an end to the war.

“We’re offering a very fair and reasonable DEAL, and I hope they take it because, if they don’t, the United States is going to knock out every single Power Plant, and every single Bridge, in Iran. NO MORE MR. NICE GUY!,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

And now, the confusion.

In an astonishing piece of journalism during a commercial break on MSNOW’s “The Weekend” this morning, co-host and reporter Jackie Alemany called Donald Trump, who not only took the call, but broke the news of the impending talks.

(As this is a 7-minute video, I’ll sum up the key takeaways below.)

Confusion #1 Vance or no Vance

Less than two hours after Alemany’s scoop in which Trump said that J.D. Vance WAS NOT going to be leading the talks, the White House announced that J.D. Vance WAS GOING to be leading the talks. It is not clear what or who changed Trump’s “MOCA-championship” mind.

Following are transcripts from The Weekend show, edited for clarity:

Jackie Alemany: “Basically, the top line here from my brief conversation (with Trump) during commercial breaks was that J.D. Vince is not going to be leading the delegation to Islamabad for the talks with the Iranians this week. It’s just going to be Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner. The reason the president gave us was that there are security issues, potentially not enough time for Secret Service to make sure that the vice president’s able to travel over there safely.”

I‘m wondering if you [David Rhode, MSNOW Senior National Security Reporter] have any initial reactions to this, or whether you think that it’s possible that the vice president has been sidelined, and if you have any sort of reporting from your diplomatic sources about how they felt the vice president’s performance was during the first round of negotiations.

David Rhode: Not having J.D. Vance, I think, hurts the chances for an agreement. The Iranians wanted J.D. Vance there. They felt that he’s opposed this war. He opposed forever wars previously. He, and there’s been reporting (on this), that he actually told the president he didn’t support this war, but when the president told him he was going to attack Iran, JD Vance said, “go big and go fast,” meaning hit them fast and make it hard and make it a short war.

This claim of inadequate security doesn’t make any sense. I spent years reporting in Islamabad. A close friend of mine, who I worked with then, from the New York Times, is now an editor of a local paper. They locked down the entire city for these negotiations. The negotiations are held in the Serena Hotel. That’s where diplomats stay. And it’s quite safe. So, I think Steve Witcoff leading these negotiations is a mistake. There were two previous rounds of negotiations that Witcoff led with Iran. Jared Kushner was with him for the last round. Those both ended in surprise Israeli and U.S. air strikes. The Iranians do not trust Witkoff. They feel he didn’t fully understand the final offer they made in terms of their nuclear program. All that said, it’s very good that they will be talks in Pakistan, but I just want to explain the dynamics in terms of what the Iranians might be thinking.

Confusion #2 Trump demands that Iran will give up their nuclear ambitions forever

Eugene Daniels (The Weekend co-host): David, one of the things that the president said (to Jackie) was that Iran would agree to never again have nuclear ambitions, to never again have to put those ambitions to actual work. That seems out of place with how the Iranians have been behaving this entire time. Really, how many countries nowadays would allow a sovereign nation to tell them when they could never do something. What are you hearing from your sources? Does that square at all with what they are telling you?

Rhode: So, again, and I apologize to you and to viewers, the president’s statements are just inaccurate in that Iran has said dozens of times, including before we started attacking them, that they did not intend to make a nuclear weapon. If the president was talking about trying to get all their enriched uranium, they’ve got about a thousand pounds of it. It’s not enriched to bomb level that you can make a nuclear bomb, but they might be able to enrich it if they could rebuild their centrifuges. So this point about promising to never have a nuclear weapon, I don’t understand it. the supreme leader, the one who (was killed), the older one, issued a Fatwa that Iran would never develop a nuclear weapon. Many Americans, including the Obama and Biden administration, didn’t trust that promise. And obviously, Israel didn’t and shouldn’t. But I don’t understand this sort of condition. And you’re right, it is sort of dictating to a sovereign country what they’re gonna do.

I’m excited they’re going. There should be a peace deal. It’s not going to be easy.

Confusion #3 Trump claims “China has been great” regarding the war

Jonathan Capehart (The Weekend co-host): David, one of the things that Jackie asked the president about was China and why he felt that they have been terrific. And part of the things he said was, “They haven’t done anything that, you know, they haven’t been a factor, which is very nice, you know, they haven’t been trying to block, you know, the block, the blockade, as we call it. They haven’t been doing anything. They’ve been great. China’s been great.” I’m trying to understand how does that square with reports that the Chinese have been helping the Iranians in their fight in this war with the United States?

Rhode: An excellent question. There was a Financial Times story that said that the Chinese have been providing satellite imagery. Russia has been doing this as well. A U.S. official confirmed to me that story is correct. That would be satellite imagery that would help the Iranians target U.S. forces. Again, Russia’s been doing the same thing. And I had a U.S. official confirm it to me that China was preparing to send shoulder fired (arms) or some sort of anti-aircraft system to the Iranians. It’s not clear (if it was) actually sent. In terms of the blockade, I think the president’s trying to give China credit and it is a positive thing that when the U.S. started blocking Iranian tankers, they were largely taking oil from Iran to China. (But) the Chinese didn’t militarily try to get involved there. That could have started a very dangerous broader conflict with China. So that is a positive step. I see that China, like so many countries, is just eager for a deal here.

With David Rhode’s reassuringly “positive step” that China didn’t start a broader conflict, I guess the week wasn’t a total disaster. (Of course, this is only Chapter 1.)

And that’s the way it was April 13-19, Chapter 1.

Stay tuned for Chapters 2 and 3 over the next few days.

In the meantime, from all of us at TW3/DT, “Good night and good luck…you’ll need it.”