It's rare to see pointed criticism of Donald Trump come from inside Fox News airtime but that's exactly what happened last week, and it's worth paying attention to.
During the May 7 edition of America Reports, host John Roberts brought on Marc Thiessen, a veteran political commentator and Washington Post columnist, to break down the current state of U.S.-Iran negotiations. What followed wasn't the usual cheerleading. Thiessen delivered a blunt, strategic critique and Roberts, notably, didn't push back.
"They Think They Have the Cards"
Thiessen's core argument was about perception and leverage. He told Roberts that Iran is watching U.S. behavior closely and what they're seeing is giving them confidence they shouldn't have.
After Iran struck targets in the UAE and fired on an American naval vessel without triggering a U.S. military response, Washington went a step further and paused its Strait of Hormuz operations. For Thiessen, that sequence sent exactly the wrong message.
"They hit the UAE and fired on a U.S. ship, and we didn't respond," Roberts read from Thiessen's social media post during the segment. "Instead, we suspended the Strait of Hormuz mission. They take that as weakness. They don't think Trump is willing to bomb them again. They think they have leverage."
When Roberts asked what advice he'd give the president directly, Thiessen was careful to credit Trump first calling the original decision to launch military operations against Iran "one of the most courageous things an American president has done" in recent memory. He pointed out that four previous presidents had failed to take meaningful action against Iran's nuclear ambitions, and Trump was the first to actually do something.
But that praise came with a serious caveat.
"The Iranians are not seeing that Donald Trump has all the cards," Thiessen said. "They think they have the cards."
He stressed that the U.S. currently holds overwhelming military firepower double what it had at the start of the conflict and that Iran should be fully aware of how outmatched they are. Instead, mixed signals from Washington are convincing Tehran they still have room to maneuver.
"They should know that they have no cards. But they think they have cards because we're sending signals to them that they have cards," he said plainly.
Roberts nodded along throughout, a telling sign that even within the network, there's growing unease about the direction of these negotiations.
Iran's Demands and Trump's Flat Rejection
The backdrop to all of this intensified on May 10, when Iran formally laid out its conditions for ending the war delivered through a Pakistani intermediary and broadcast through Tehran's state media. The proposal included terms for a permanent ceasefire, reopening the Strait of Hormuz, and some form of agreement around Iran's nuclear program.
It didn't go over well in Washington.
Trump took to Truth Social within hours, making his position crystal clear. He wrote that he had read Iran's response and found it in his words "TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE," leaving little room for diplomatic ambiguity.
The U.S. side had also been exploring a potential framework that would address the Strait of Hormuz standoff and roll back Iran's nuclear capabilities, but Trump's post signaled that whatever Iran put on the table fell well short of what he was willing to consider.
How the War Started
For context, the conflict began on February 28, when the United States and Israel launched coordinated airstrikes against Iran in what marked a significant escalation in Middle Eastern tensions. Since then, the situation has evolved into a complex military and diplomatic standoff, with both sides probing for weaknesses and leverage.
Thiessen's concern shared quietly by Roberts on air is that the U.S. may be negotiating from a position of perceived weakness at exactly the moment it should be projecting strength. Whether the Trump administration adjusts its approach remains to be seen, but the fact that the conversation is happening openly on Fox News suggests the pressure is building from all directions.
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