Trump's Iran MoU, the Venezuela Earthquakes, and Reflecting Pool Drama

Nick and Rick break down 10 days of chaos in American politics. They open on Trump's Iran deal: at Versailles during the G7 summit, Trump signed a 14-point memorandum of understanding with Iran's foreign minister — Strait of Hormuz reopens, sanctions lifted, $42 billion in frozen Iranian assets unfrozen, US forces removed from Iran's borders. Senators Cassidy and Tillis called it "the worst American foreign policy blunder in decades" — $100 billion spent, 13 Americans dead, two F-18s lost, and Iran got everything it wanted. The deal was already cracking by Friday: a cargo ship was hit on a UN-backed route in the Strait, Iranian drones struck Bahrain, and the US bombed Iran again — nine days after the "historic" peace deal. Then to Venezuela: twin 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude earthquakes struck the northern coast Wednesday, killing at least 235 with the USGS estimating the total death toll could exceed 10,000. Trump pledged $150 million in aid — his largest humanitarian response since dismantling USAID last year — while the Supreme Court the same day cleared the way to strip TPS from Haitians and Syrians, with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus demanding a halt to Venezuelan deportations during the active disaster. Plus VP JD Vance at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library on Thursday: "If Watergate happened tomorrow, it would be like a 12-hour news story. The idea that it would have taken down a presidency is crazy." Vance also compared himself to Nixon. Also covered: Trump canceled the signing of the bipartisan housing bill at the Capitol because the Senate hasn't passed the voter ID bill — with McConnell, Murkowski, Collins, and Cornyn openly questioning whether Trump is deliberately sabotaging his own party's majority; the NYT revealed Stephen Miller pushed to suspend habeas corpus for immigrants and Vance and Miller pushed to invoke the Insurrection Act after the Alex Pretti killing, both quashed by Staff Secretary Will Scharf; the Pentagon reversed Hegseth on the flu vaccine mandate after a Lackland Air Force Base outbreak sickened 275+ recruits and one trainee died; all three Mamdani-backed insurgent candidates won their NYC congressional primaries — Brad Lander beat Dan Goldman, Darializa Avila Chevalier beat 5-term Rep. Adriano Espaillat, and Claire Valdez won the Velázquez seat; Pete Buttigieg revealed on Substack that his 4-year-old twins were separated from him for 24 hours after a false CPS report he believes was politically motivated swatting; and STAT News reported a 79-year-old man with refractory obesity, sleep apnea, and pulmonary hypertension received compassionate-use access to Eli Lilly's experimental obesity drug retatrutide in April — Democratic senators are now formally asking the White House whether the patient is Trump. We close with the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool: Trump's $16 million "American flag blue" renovation that turned green within 24 hours from algae, started peeling within 10 days, and which Trump is now blaming on a vandalism conspiracy — six arrested, including a former US Olympic canoeist who said he was detained for touching loose paint. And the Great American State Fair opened on the National Mall — Massachusetts brought only maple syrup, the Smithsonian Folklife Festival was displaced to make room, and Vanilla Ice is headlining.