Schumer: Trump’s Failed War With Iran

Published Jun 23, 2026 6:00 am : Updated Jun 23, 2026 5:18 am

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Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) spoke Monday on the Senate floor.

Schumer was Tuesday’s KVML “Newsmaker of the Day”. Here are his words:

“In Iran, Donald Trump’s foreign policy by clown car continues to careen towards disaster.

After this failed war with Iran, Trump needs to rename the “Art of the Deal” the art of the face-plant. The art of the face-plant.

Just days after Trump boasted he had reopened the Strait of Hormuz, Iran announced it was closing the Strait again.

Trump hasn’t been able to guarantee safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz yet, but he already has waived the sanctions to allow Iran to bring in billions of dollars in oil revenue. Iran gets what it wants, Trump dithers.

Now Trump and Vance are patting themselves on the back about getting Iran to agree to nuclear inspections that only stopped after Trump’s 2025 strikes.

And what exactly will this access look like? Trump and Vance refuse to provide details, just like the rest of this so-called “understanding.”

Trump’s “memo of understanding” reads like an Iranian wish list.

After Trump’s war, Iran gets to keep backing its terrorist proxies, to keep building ballistic missiles, to maintain its stranglehold on the global economy, and to rake in hundreds of billions of dollars in reconstruction aid and maritime tolls. Trump got taken to the cleaners by Iran.

The administration keeps telling us not to read too much into the “understanding,” but there’s one thing that is very easy to read: the American people hate this war. They want it to end.

Roughly 80% of Americans say they want this war to end immediately, two thirds disapprove of how Trump has handled Iran.

And can anyone blame them? All the American people have gotten from Trump’s war are skyrocketing gas prices at the pump, backbreaking inflation, the tragic loss of thirteen servicemembers, and the wounding of hundreds of others.

The story of Trump’s ruinous war has been the same since day one: the Iranian regime gets emboldened, the American people get screwed, Donald Trump gets himself into a deeper and deeper hole.

The costs of this war will only get worse every second it continues.

We need a full accounting of everything Trump has given away as part of his 14-point “understanding” – I continue to call on Trump, Secretary Rubio, and the rest of the leadership team to brief the full Senate without delay.

It’s outrageous none of us have gotten a briefing yet.

Why don’t they want to give us a briefing? Are they embarrassed? Is it so vague they told Iran one thing and will have to tell the world another? Is it because Trump got taken to the cleaners? Is it because Trump’s embarrassed to have this “understanding” fully discussed by the people who put it together?

It’s been eight days since this so-called understanding was announced: why is the administration so scared to come to Congress and the American people and defend their deal?

Trump ought to listen to what Senate Democrats – and the American people – have been saying for months and end this war for good.”

The “Newsmaker of the Day” is heard every weekday morning at 6:45, 7:45 and 8:45 on AM 1450 and FM 102.7 KVML.