Tuesday was a big day in foreign policy news. Israel launched a barrage of airstrikes on Gaza Monday night, its first attack since a ceasefire with Hamas took hold in January. Officials in Gaza say more than 400 people were killed. And President Donald Trump held a 90-minute phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin about the war in Ukraine. Putin ostensibly agreed to a 30-day limited ceasefire on energy and infrastructure targets — far short of the unconditional ceasefire proposal Ukraine and the U.S. negotiated earlier this month. Oh, and Trump threatened ‘dire consequences’ for Iran over attacks from Houthi rebels in Yemen. Crooked’s own Tommy Vietor, co-host of ‘Pod Save the World,’ breaks down all the big international headlines and what they say about Trump’s approach to foreign policy.

And in headlines: Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts rebuked Trump over his calls to impeach federal judges, the Pentagon continued its purge of website pages honoring minority groups, and two stranded U.S. astronauts returned to Earth.

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For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/whataday

TRANSCRIPT

Jane Coaston: It’s Wednesday, March 19th. I’m Jane Coaston, and this is What a Day, the show that agrees with Fox News host Maria Bartiromo here talking about tariffs for, like, the first time ever. 

[clip of Maria Bartiromo] See these are the things that people are really worried about because they first thought it was just about trade, then they thought it was just about fentanyl, then after that we talked about well maybe it’s currency manipulation and maybe it’s now you’re talking about food testing and when I bring up the issue of clarity that’s that’s what I’m talking about and that’s what I’m hearing from corporate America that we’re not sure where this is going. 

Jane Coaston: I also do not know where this is going, not just tariffs like any of it. [music break] On today’s show, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts rebukes President Donald Trump over his calls to impeach federal judges. And the stranded US astronauts return to Earth. But let’s start with foreign policy news because, woo boy, there’s a lot of it. On Tuesday, President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin held a phone call to talk about a ceasefire deal to end Russia’s war on Ukraine and the potential for a Russia-US hockey series because sure. During the call, Trump proposed that both Russia and Ukraine refrain from attacking quote, “energy infrastructure facilities.” And Putin, according to a Kremlin readout of the conversation, seemed to be kind of into the idea. Quote, “Vladimir Putin responded positively to this initiative and immediately gave the Russian military the corresponding order.” And Trump responded positively to all the attention the call got him too. He went on Fox News Tuesday night to talk about it. 

[clip of President Donald Trump] And we want to get it over with. Look, we’re doing this. There are no Americans involved. There could be if we end up in World War III over this, which is so ridiculous, but, you know, strange things happen. And I think we had a great call. It lasted almost two hours. Talked about a lot of things and toward getting it to peace. 

Jane Coaston: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky responded by saying that he was, quote, “ready to discuss next steps with Trump, but Ukraine needs to hear more details.” And multiple reports indicated that Russia has continued to attack Kiev and other cities in Ukraine on Tuesday. So as far as I can tell, nothing has changed. Also on Tuesday, Israel launched a massive attack on Gaza. Palestinian officials say the strikes killed more than 400 people. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the strikes were in response to Hamas refusing to free more Israeli hostages in exchange for extending the ceasefire. To be clear, that was not part of the original ceasefire agreement, but Netanyahu said he has Trump’s full support for the strikes. 

[clip of Benjamin Netanyahu] In the past two weeks, Israel did not initiate any military action in the hope that Hamas would change course, well that didn’t happen. While Israel accepted the offer of President Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, Hamas flatly refused to do so. This is why I authorized yesterday the renewal of military action against Hamas. 

Jane Coaston: So to get into Russia, Israel, and also the US attacks on Houthi militants in Yemen too, I sat down with Crooked Media’s own Tommy Vietor, co-host of Pod Save the World. Tommy, thanks for being here. 

Tommy Vietor: Thanks for having me. 

Jane Coaston: So let’s start with Israel’s attack on Gaza Monday night, local time. 

Tommy Vietor: Yeah. 

Jane Coaston: Does this mean the ceasefire has failed? 

Tommy Vietor: It sounds like it, at least for now. I mean, the Israelis say they’re resuming bombing because Hamas was basically intransigent in the talks. Though I do think it’s worth noting that Hamas’s position was they wanted to continue to phase two of the ceasefire agreement that everyone had signed, which would lead to a permanent end to the war. And Israel seemed to want to extend it for another seven weeks or so to get more hostages out and they just couldn’t find common ground. 

Jane Coaston: Yeah, let’s let’s get into that a little bit like what do we know about why those talks broke down between Hamas and the Israeli government? Because it sounds like serious talks about the second phase of the deal which we kept hearing about never really materialized. 

Tommy Vietor: Yeah. I mean, there was this phase one, which was a ceasefire for the release of Israeli hostages being held by Hamas and then Palestinian prisoners being held by the Israelis. Um. Everyone could agree that they wanted that part to happen, but the Israelis don’t want the war to be over. Netanyahu’s right flank and his political coalition wants to continue the fighting in Gaza until Hamas is basically eradicated. And Hamas wants to get to a place where the IDF is permanently out of the Gaza Strip and they just couldn’t find common ground there. 

Jane Coaston: Right. And Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that any future negotiations with Hamas would happen in tandem with Israeli military action in Gaza, which seems to me kind of like Netanyahu is trying to have his cake and eat it too. 

Tommy Vietor: Yes, I mean, that’s [?]–

Jane Coaston: Like he’s basically saying like resuming active fighting while saying the ceasefire is still on the table. What’s your read on his actions here? 

Tommy Vietor: Yeah, and he also, I think, want Hamas essentially to dismantle itself and give up and no longer have any civilian control in Gaza or a military wing, which is an understandable position. 

Jane Coaston: Right. 

Tommy Vietor: From a country attacked on October 7th, but it’s also understandable that Hamas would view that as a non-starter. 

Jane Coaston: Yeah, that doesn’t seem at all realistic. 

Tommy Vietor: Right. 

Jane Coaston: Where does this leave Trump? Press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that Israel had consulted with the administration before launching Monday’s attack and Trump has shown a lot of deference to the Israelis. Even floating that absurd plan where the U.S. takes over Gaza, kicks the Palestinians out and turns it into I don’t know real estate. So basically he’s tied into this he is in this and so where, what where does that leave him? 

Tommy Vietor: Yeah, I mean, I’m pulling this from memory, but I think in the last few months, the U.S. has given the Israelis like $12 billion worth of weapons. So he is helping Netanyahu rearm and prepare for this continued assault. Um. I think Trump deserved credit for getting the initial ceasefire kind of like over the line and getting it done for the last couple months. But now it seems like he’s just gonna fully back the Israelis in whatever they wanna do. I mean, I, unfortunately, I don’t really think he cares much about what happens to Gaza. 

Jane Coaston: Now the politics for him are not the same as they were for Biden. 

Tommy Vietor: Yeah. 

Jane Coaston: But what are the downsides for Trump? Because I think you’re starting to hear a little bit from the so-called kind of foreign policy realists who are opposing his actions here and his actions and we’re going to talk about Iran in a second, but what are some potential downsides here? 

Tommy Vietor: Yeah, I mean, Trump’s position on the most recent wars, the war in Gaza and the war in Ukraine, is that it never would have happened if he was president. Well, now it’s restarting. 

Jane Coaston: Right. 

Tommy Vietor: While he is president, the bombing in Gaza. At the same time, the United States just launched a bunch of airstrikes on the Houthi rebels in Yemen. So our anti-war president doesn’t look quite as anti-war at the moment. 

Jane Coaston: Why? I mean, what a wild piece of information. 

Tommy Vietor: You’re shocked, huh? 

Jane Coaston: I’m stunned. Yeah, like Trump also threatened to ramp up tensions with Iran on Tuesday, saying any new strikes from the Houthi militants in Yemen, an Iranian proxy, would be seen in the eyes of the administration as a direct attack from Iran. This is the same group the US launched strikes on over the weekend. We’ve been talking about this, but are we going to war with Iran? 

Tommy Vietor: Well, I mean, I think the real danger of that statement from Trump is that the Houthi rebels are armed by Iran and they’re supported by Iran, but they are not controlled by Iran the way you might say Hezbollah is. And so if suddenly we’re gonna hold Iran accountable for everything they do, that’s pretty scary. There’s some vast implications. I mean, I think we should take the Houthi rebels at their word, which is they’re saying, as long as the war in Gaza is going, as long as the Israelis are blockading the Gaza Strip and keeping humanitarian aid out. they’re gonna fire missiles or drones at ships in the Red Sea. Like that seems to be the proximate cause that we should be focusing on. Like I’m not an Iran fan. I’m not a Houthi rebel fan. Houthi rebels are bad dudes. The left should not embrace the Houthi rebels. But um that’s a recipe for war. 

Jane Coaston: Let’s pivot to Russia and Trump’s call Tuesday with Russian president Vladimir Putin, Trump had a 90 minute call with Putin on Tuesday where the two ostensibly agreed to a limited 30 day ceasefire on energy and infrastructure targets in Ukraine. As we are speaking, that appears to not be happening based on some information we’re seeing about drone attacks in Ukraine. So if this were to happen, would that be a win for Trump? 

Tommy Vietor: Seems like a pretty limited win, right? I mean, what I think what Trump forced the Ukrainians agree to was a 30 day unconditional ceasefire. And now what it sounds like he got out of Putin is a 30 day promise not to bomb energy infrastructure. Not much of a ceasefire in my view. I mean, listen, I like, I hate, I don’t want to poo poo diplomacy just because Donald Trump is doing it. Like, I do think it’s good that we’re talking and maybe we can get to some sort of peace agreement, um I know Max Seddon, a really smart reporter at the FT, went through the Russian language version of the readout of Trump’s call, and Putin didn’t really back away from any of his maximalist positions. 

Jane Coaston: I’m again– 

Tommy Vietor: Shocked, right? 

Jane Coaston: Shocked. 

Tommy Vietor: Yeah. 

Jane Coaston: Shocked. This plan still needs approval from the Ukrainians, which had already agreed to a broader unconditional ceasefire with Russia, which you mentioned. As of our recording time Tuesday afternoon, they had not responded to the offer. Is it in their interest to take it, given Trump’s willingness to throw Ukraine to the wolves in favor of a better relationship with Putin, but also the fact that Putin is a liar? 

Tommy Vietor: Yeah. I mean, I think is you just got at the enormous challenge for the Ukrainian side. Like they have no choice but to do whatever Trump says because if they don’t, he has cut off weapons, he’s cut off intelligence sharing, he’s you know just making life as hard as he possibly can for the Ukrainian side while seemingly exerting no actual pressure on Vladimir Putin, who as you pointed out, has broken ceasefire after ceasefire after ceasefire, who is a liar who invaded Ukraine in the first place. So it’s um not a good setup. 

Jane Coaston: And this isn’t exactly what the Trump administration wanted either, right? Like they wanted the unconditional ceasefire they helped broker with Ukraine. That was the deal Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he was taking to the Russians. So where does that leave the US? 

Tommy Vietor: Yeah, I mean, it’s like Trump is now in kind of a challenging political spot. Putin doesn’t have to do what he says. 

Jane Coaston: No. 

Tommy Vietor: Putin loves to give the middle finger to American presidents. I imagine that this, this call was an hour and a half in part because of, you know, translation takes a long time. 

Jane Coaston: Right. 

Tommy Vietor: But also Putin loves to just sit there and lecture you about history and NATO aggression and like, you know, pull, he goes deep into the history books. 

Jane Coaston: Oh yeah, he’s going to be talking about like the Muscovite era. 

Tommy Vietor: [laugh] Yes. 

Jane Coaston: And how this all goes back to Peter the Great, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, Sweden. 

Tommy Vietor: That’s right. And now Trump like he’s got to deliver and it’s going to be challenging. 

Jane Coaston: Well, speaking of Putin wanting things that nobody wants him to have, the political news website Semaphor reported Tuesday that the administration is considering recognizing Crimea as Russian territory, as part of a future agreement to end the war. This would, of course, be the Ukrainian peninsula that Russia invaded in 2014, an area of the world people have been fighting over for like 200 years. Would that be, in your view, a reasonable concession for Ukraine to make at this point? 

Tommy Vietor: I feel like there is no outcome that ends with Ukraine controlling Crimea. But to offer that up on the front end, when Putin has offered nothing, seems once again to be getting ahead of the negotiations in a way that is really unproductive, much like when Pete Hegseth went to Brussels and declared that Ukraine would not be a part of NATO and would not get territory back, like it just seems like we’re giving up all our negotiating positions. 

Jane Coaston: What’s Putin’s end goal here? I mean, besides to reestablish a weird version of the Soviet Union, slash the Russian territory or something like that. 

Tommy Vietor: Yeah, um, it seems like he wants to play thing. I bet he’s gonna play this out this process for as long as humanly possible knowing that his forces are slowly but steadily taking back territory in the Kursk region. Which is that part of Russia that the Ukrainians had occupied, but also just making gains along the eastern edge of the battlefield. So I I think he’s going to try to put himself in a maximalist negotiating position. And try to end, you know with Russia occupying a fifth of Ukraine’s territory, maybe more, and and with them not having a real military um after any peace agreements over and not being part of NATO and just kind of getting what he wants. 

Jane Coaston: Tommy, as always, thanks for joining me. 

Tommy Vietor: Thank you for having me. 

Jane Coaston: That was my conversation with Tommy Vietor, co-host of Crooked’s Pod Save the World. We’ll get to more of the news in a moment, but if you like the show, make sure to subscribe, leave a five-star review on Apple Podcasts, watch us on YouTube, and share with your friends. More to come after some ads. [music break]

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Jane Coaston: Here’s what else we’re following today. 

[sung] Headlines. 

[clip of unnamed interviewer] Going forward–

[clip of President Donald Trump] I had judges that were so corrupt–

[clip of unnamed interviewer] –would you would you defy a court order? Is that we all know that and that was out. 

[clip of President Donald Trump] I never did defy a court order. 

[clip of unnamed interviewer] And you wouldn’t in the future? 

[clip of President Donald Trump] No, you can’t do that. However, we have bad judges. We have very bad judges. And these are judges that shouldn’t be allowed. I think they I think at a certain point, you have to start looking at what do you do when you have a rogue judge? The judge that we’re talking about, he’s you look at his other rulings. I mean, rulings unrelated. But having to do with me, he’s a lunatic. 

Jane Coaston: The girls are fighting, and by girls I mean our judiciary and executive branches. The Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court issued a public statement Tuesday rejecting calls to impeach federal judges just hours after, you guessed it, President Donald Trump said a federal judge should be impeached. Trump took to social media Tuesday to whine about the judge who issued an order trying to stop the administration’s deportation of more than 200 migrants, including alleged Venezuelan gang members. He repeated his complaints later in the day during his Fox News interview. Chief Justice John Roberts issued a statement Tuesday in an apparent rebuke of Trump’s calls. He said, quote, “For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision. The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose.” The statement echoed one Roberts made in 2018 after Trump called a judge who disagreed with him a, quote, “Obama judge.” But even so, one of Trump’s minions in the House said he introduced articles of impeachment against the judge Tuesday. Republican representative Brandon Gill of Texas argued the judge, quote, “compromised the impartiality of the judiciary and created a constitutional crisis,” which he did not do. That judge gave the Trump administration until today to offer up more information about the deportation flights that ended up carrying some migrants to El Salvador over the weekend. Crazy. A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to reinstate email and other electronic systems at the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID, and pause efforts to shut the agency down. The judge said that the Department of Government Efficiency’s effort to shutter USAID was likely unconstitutional. The ruling also requires billionaire Elon Musk to allow USAID to reoccupy its headquarters in D.C. Musk has touted his dismantling of USAID as a victory in his effort to downsize the federal government. But the shuttering of the agency had immediate consequences for folks overseas who rely on agency funded humanitarian aid and Americans who did work for the agency. Musk and DOGE officials have a week to submit a written agreement to the court saying they’ve complied with the ruling. The Trump administration is expected to appeal the decision. 

[clip of Sean Parnell] I think that the president and the secretary been very clear on this that anybody that says uh in in the department of defense that diversity is our strength is is frankly uh incorrect. 

Jane Coaston: Oh, we know that’s what you think, Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell, you don’t need to remind us. The Pentagon is continuing its purge of internet pages honoring minority groups, following the Trump administration’s directive to weed out diversity, equity, and inclusion across the federal government. As of Monday, multiple articles referencing Native American code talkers were gone from some military websites. Axios was the first to report the story. It said several URLs were labeled DEI. In response to the missing pages, Pentagon press secretary John Elliott reiterated that DEI is, quote, “dead at the Defense Department.” But separately, the Pentagon said Monday a page honoring a Black Medal of Honor recipient was accidentally taken down. Uh, we’ve heard that excuse before. The profile dedicated to Army Major General Charles Calvin Rogers, the highest-ranking Black service member to receive the Medal of Honor was removed last week. A screenshot by the Internet Archive showed quote, “DEI Medal of Honor” was inserted into the URL. The Defense Department told NPR in a statement the page had been taken down during an automated process. It has since been restored. 

[clip of unknown news reporter] And splashdown, crew nine, back on earth. [cheers and applause]

Jane Coaston: Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, the two NASA astronauts who have been stuck in space for nine months, are finally back on Earth. Wilmore and Williams safely splashed down off the coast of Florida Tuesday in a SpaceX capsule. The two launched into space last summer for a mission at the International Space Station. They were only supposed to be up there for about a week, but their spacecraft, the Starliner, malfunctioned. NASA brought the Starliner back to Earth without a crew due to safety concerns. Wilmore and Williams have been up there ever since. They began their journey back to Earth on Sunday. Welcome home, Butch and Suni. Stay a while, please. And that’s the news. [music break] One more thing. Project 2025. Remember that? Here’s the Wall Street Journal explaining it back in July. 

[clip of unnamed Wall Street Journal reporter] This 920-page document would usher in the most conservative executive branch in modern American history, if enacted. It’s called Project 2025. 

Jane Coaston: Stewarded by the right-wing think tank, The Heritage Foundation, Project 2025 was a detailed to-do list for an incoming Trump administration. Think of it like a wish list for right-wing groups, conservative organizations, and generally the worst dudes you know. Or as SNL’s Kenan Thompson put it at the Democratic National Convention:

[clip of Kenan Thompson] You know how when you download an app and there are hundreds of pages there that you don’t read, and it’s just the terms and conditions and you just click agree, right? Well these are the terms and conditions of a second Trump presidency. You vote for him, you vote for all of this. 

Jane Coaston: Another thing about Project 2025? It was broadly unpopular. The guy who directed Project 2025 at the Heritage Foundation, Paul Dans, got pushed out. When NBC News pulled it alongside a host of other topics, socialism, capitalism, both the Republican and Democratic campaigns, and Taylor Swift and billionaire Elon Musk, it was less popular than all of that. So Donald Trump denied having absolutely any knowledge of Project 2025 and probably would have denied knowing what the words project and 2025 meant too if he could have. Here he is debating Vice President Kamala Harris in September. 

[clip of President Donald Trump] I have nothing to do, as you know, and as she knows better than anyone, I have nothing to do with Project 2025. That’s out there. I haven’t read it. I don’t want to read it purposely. I’m not going to read it. This was a group of people that got together. They came up with some ideas, I guess some good, some bad, but it makes no difference. I have nothing to do. Everybody knows I’m an open book. 

Jane Coaston: And that denial became the story. Case closed. Except for one small, probably unimportant thing. He’s doing Project 2025 right now. Here’s Georgia Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock on MSNBC. 

[clip of Senator Raphael Warnock] They’re trying to reshape government according to the vision of Project 2025, which he denied over and over again, but we are literally seeing it being played out before our very eyes. 

Jane Coaston: The senator is not wrong. From dismantling the Department of Education to increasing the power of the presidency, a ton of what Donald Trump is doing is exactly what Project 2025 prescribed. In fact, Politico spoke with Paul Dans on Sunday, who said that Trump is achieving the aims of Project 2025 to an extent, quote, “Beyond my wildest dreams.” Adding, quote, “We had hoped, those of us who worked putting together Project 2025, that the next conservative president would seize the day, but Trump is seizing every minute of every hour.” In short, Project 2025 was real the whole time, and it was unpopular, so Trump, who has a complex relationship with truth, said basically, I don’t know anything about it, and a bunch of media outlets, and even some liberals, apparently went cool, sounds good. There is a lesson to be learned here. When Donald Trump says something, it is perhaps best to think, there is a decent chance this is not true, which seems pretty basic to me. And yet. [music break] That’s all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, enjoy reading the declassified JFK files, and tell your friends to listen. And if you’re into reading, and not just about how remember, the best explanation for JFK’s assassination is that a depressed Marine veteran who was too weird for the Soviet Union killed the president of the United States, who was riding in an open car through a city that hated him, like me. What a Day is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at Crooked.com/subscribe. I’m Jane Coaston and some stuff actually does just happen. [music break] What a Day is a production of Crooked Media. It’s recorded and mixed by Desmond Taylor. Our associate producers are Raven Yamamoto and Emily Fohr. Our producer is Michell Eloy. We had production help today from Johanna Case, Joseph Dutra, Greg Walters, and Julia Claire. Our senior producer is Erica Morrison, and our executive producer is Adriene Hill. Our theme music is by Colin Gilliard and Kashaka. Our production staff is proudly unionized with the Writers Guild of America East. 

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