A candid remark by President Trump during a televised Cabinet meeting sent shockwaves through Washington and drew fierce criticism from MS NOW host Lawrence O’Donnell, who devoted an entire segment of “The Last Word” to what he characterized as an unprecedented political blunder.
When asked about negotiations to end his war on Iran, the president openly stated he doesn’t “care about the midterms” — words O’Donnell argued no president has ever spoken, publicly or privately.
Trump’s comment came as he explained his approach to Iranian negotiators. “They thought they were going to outwait me, you know?” Trump said. “‘We’ll outwait him. He’s got the midterms.’ I don’t care about the midterms.”
The admission may prove politically costly as Republican lawmakers in both chambers increasingly distance themselves from the White House ahead of elections that even right-wing pundits anticipate will devastate the GOP. O’Donnell noted that while Trump dismissed the political calendar, his party cannot afford to ignore it.
The Iran War Looming Over Everything
The conflict with Iran has now stretched to its 88th day, with at least 13 U.S. military service members and thousands of Iranians killed in what Trump has labeled his “smart war.” The fighting has sparked fears of a global energy crisis and sent gasoline and diesel fuel costs soaring domestically. U.S. and Iranian negotiators had reached a tentative agreement to extend the ceasefire for 60 days and open nuclear talks, but Trump had yet to formally approve the deal, making a series of new demands after a Situation Room meeting in which he had promised a “final determination” — even as Secretary of State Marco Rubio had predicted “good news” within hours, according to NBC News and CNN.
Polling shared by O’Donnell revealed that 83 percent of voters say gas prices are going up, with not a single respondent saying prices are dropping significantly — except, the host noted dryly, Trump himself, who made that very claim during the session. The president also spent nearly nine minutes of the meeting expounding on his plans to renovate the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in Washington, D.C., a fixation that exists alongside his obsession with the controversial White House ballroom project.
A Cabinet Meeting Turned Reality Show
During the Cabinet meeting, Trump opened the gathering to the White House press corps, transforming what is traditionally a sensitive deliberative session into what O’Donnell argued resembles “the kind of cheap reality TV” the former “The Apprentice” host built his celebrity brand around. Trump bragged about inviting reporters inside — a flourish O’Donnell described as emblematic of the spectacle that has replaced substantive governance.
The host said officials are prevented from “speaking freely to Donald Trump,” reduced instead to taking turns offering praise. Cameras captured exactly that pattern, with Cabinet members fawning over the president in a now-familiar ritual that has played out repeatedly over the past year.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth was among the most effusive, praising Trump for what he called a “smart” war on Iran. The president responded by literally patting Hegseth on the back and laughingly stating, “He loves war.”
“The Cabinet room has never reeked of such stupidity and inhumanity before, and it never will again after the Trump presidency,” O’Donnell said.
Republicans Quietly Breaking Away
On the evening of the Cabinet meeting, Lawrence O’Donnell devoted a blistering monologue on “The Last Word” to dissecting what he framed as a historic moment of political self-sabotage. The MS NOW host argued that no occupant of the Oval Office has ever uttered such words — privately or otherwise — and that Trump chose to do so in front of cameras while his Cabinet looked on.
Republicans in the Senate and in the House do care about the midterm elections, and they know Donald Trump is not helping them, and they know nothing is hurting them more than Donald Trump’s war in Iran and the inflation it has caused in this country.
Signs of GOP fractures have been multiplying. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse has torched the Trump Department of Justice’s $1.776 billion fund as a “cop beaters’ slush fund,” and a majority of GOP voters now oppose it. In Texas, Ken Paxton defeated Sen. John Cornyn in the Republican primary runoff, scrambling the map further. House Speaker Mike Johnson is struggling to hold his caucus together, and FBI Director Kash Patel has been forced to fire a far-right agent over a bigoted attack. In Florida, Representative Byron Donalds is grappling with MAGA infighting during his gubernatorial primary.
Democrats, meanwhile, are seizing the opening. Sen. Cory Booker has hammered Trump-era ICE detention practices, former North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper is mounting a Senate bid focused on voters “hit hard” by Trump’s economy, and Texas State Representative James Talarico is running against what he calls the nation’s “most corrupt political system.” Former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms recently captured the Democratic nomination for Georgia governor, and Representative Terri Sewell has been rallying voters against new GOP-led voting restrictions.
For O’Donnell, the through line was unmistakable: a president performing for the cameras while his own party scrambles to outrun the consequences of his choices. As reaction continued to spread, fellow MS NOW personalities, including Nicolle Wallace, weighed in on the moment, while critics from Stephen Miller’s orbit to podcaster Joe Rogan have spent the past weeks dissecting Trump’s ever-more-theatrical style of governance.
