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Earlier this week, Donald Trump threatened to annihilate Iranian civilization. Then he said he would work with Iran to collect tolls at the Strait of Hormuz. What will he say next? Join moderator Jeffrey Goldberg, Karim Sadjapour of the Carnegie Endowment, Anne Applebaum and Nancy Youssef of The Atlantic and Gillian Tett of The Financial Times to discuss this and more.
WATCH TODAY’S SEGMENTS:
Trump’s ever-shifting Iran views
• Trump’s ever-shifting Iran views
Europe's view of U.S. amid Iran war, Trump's NATO threats
• Europe's view of the U.S. amid Iran war an...
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Democracy Now! is an independent global news hour that airs on over 1,500 TV and radio stations Monday through Friday. Watch our livestream at democracynow.org Mondays to Fridays 8-9 a.m. ET.
The Vatican rarely needs to raise its voice. When it quietly cancels a papal visit, rejects a national invitation, and chooses refugees over Washington on America’s birthday, the message lands harder than any press conference ever could.
⛪ What Pope Leo XIV actually said about war, diplomacy, and the return of force in global politics
🛡️ Why the Pentagon’s reported reaction revealed how aggressively Washington now interprets criticism from even the Holy See
📜 How the reference to the Avignon papacy turned one diplomatic meeting into a message about coercion, memory, and power
🇺🇸 Why the Vatican’s decision to cancel a US visit and reject America’s 250th anniversary invitation matters symbolically
🕊️ How choosing Lampedusa over Washington reframed the moral contrast between refugees and military prestige
🌍 What this says about the limits of American pressure when directed at institutions with deep historical legitimacy
📉 Why this episode reflects a wider erosion of US soft power as allies and moral authorities grow less willing to comply
This is bigger than one speech or one diplomatic clash. It is about what happens when a superpower tries to command moral legitimacy by force—and discovers that some institutions have survived too much history to be intimidated now.
Europe may still be inside NATO, but automatic obedience to Washington is no longer guaranteed. When Spain refuses US military access, absorbs economic threats, and then publicly rebukes the very escalation it was pressured to support, something deeper is shifting in the transatlantic relationship.
• Trump’s ever-shifting Iran views
Europe's view of U.S. amid Iran war, Trump's NATO threats
