Trump and Republicans are suffering from 'extraordinary denial and magical thinking'

The New Republic's Greg Sargent spoke with Democratic strategist Simon Rosenberg on his morning podcast about the challenges President Donald Trump and the GOP face in ending the Iran war.

As the Iran war drags on past its 60-day limit and the Strait of Hormuz's closure sends fuel prices soaring, Trump appears to believe everything will suddenly end. Somehow, Iran will finally agree to the U.S.'s demands despite refusing over the past several years since Trump left the treaty.

"They also have said that they think the war is just going to end magically, right?" Rosenberg said. "Just the way that COVID ended. He kept saying COVID is just going to end one day. The war is just going to end, and things are going to snap back to the way they were. And I think that is the widespread belief in the Republican Party now, that this is a temporary blip."

The reality, he continued, is that inflation data now show it has surpassed Americans' wages. Inflation not only went up, U.S. wholesale inflation, known as the Producer Price Index, increased to 6 percent, April numbers show, according to the Associated Press. It makes it the highest increase since December 2022.

"Remember, energy inflation is different than food inflation or different than other inflation because it affects anything that is transported. That also goes up in price," Rosenberg explained. "So, it’s like a multiplier through the economy. It’s not just a singular pillar of inflation."

The impact will likely be on food prices, he added.

"Trump and the Republicans, I think, are in a place of extraordinary denial and magical thinking about the depth of the hole that he’s digging for them right now because of the war," said Rosenberg.

All of it will have a major impact on the 2026 midterm elections.

"You can win an election just on voters being sick of the party in power and have the election that you want to have. And we’ve been having test cases around the election in all these special elections and other elections over the last 16 months. And things have been going very well for Democrats," Rosenberg noted.

Trump is in China this week, and one military expert said that Trump's goal is to get Xi Jinping to help him end the war since China purchases so much oil from Iran.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that Trump should "realize that the person you're talking to is propping up Russia and Iran." He claimed that if China wanted, it could have more influence than any other nation in ending the war.

Trump told reporters before leaving for China, "No, I don't think we need any help with Iran."