This is the May 6, 2026, edition of “The Tea, Spilled by Morning Joe” newsletter. Subscribe here to get it delivered straight to your inbox Monday through Friday.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“As the president of the United States has said, we got a little — a little blip in the Middle East.”
— Vice President JD Vance yesterday, offering the latest White House description of the Iran war
JOE’S NOTE
The secretary of defense says the ceasefire is holding. The secretary of state says the war has concluded. The president says “great progress” has been made.
That was yesterday.
This morning, an Iranian spokesperson calls the U.S. peace proposal a “wish list.” Donald Trump threatens to bomb Iran “at a much higher level and intensity than it was before.”
During Vietnam, journalists coined a term for when a government’s words stopped matching reality: the credibility gap.
This isn’t that.
This is credibility chaos.
The president had five goals when he launched this war: Liberate the Iranian people. Destroy the nuclear program. Wipe out the ballistic missiles. Dismantle the terror networks. Sink the navy.
We sunk the navy.
That’s one out of five — at a cost of $25 billion in taxpayer money.
Donald Trump has called it a “little excursion.” A “mini war.” A “little skirmish.”
Yesterday in Iowa, JD Vance said it was “a little blip.”
More than 100 schoolchildren killed on the first day of this war. Communities across Lebanon wiped off the face of the Earth. As many as 6,500 Iranians dead.
If that’s a blip, JD Vance is not a serious person.
Meanwhile, our allies in the United Arab Emirates have absorbed Iranian missiles for two straight days. They didn’t want this war. They weren’t notified. All they asked: Since you started it, finish it.
If Donald Trump cuts and runs now, Iran keeps its nuclear program, its ballistic missiles, its terror networks. And instead of regime change, you have a government that’s more hard-line and angrier than it was before with the Revolutionary Guard in charge.
That’s where we are.
The war is over. The missiles are still flying.
STEVE RATTNER’S CHARTS
Skyrocketing Premiums
Middle-Class Cliff
Millions more uninsured
ON THIS DATE
On May 6, 1957, the last episode of “I Love Lucy” — starring the iconic Lucille Ball and her real-life husband Desi Arnaz — aired on CBS. Six seasons that never got old, and never will. (One of our own Generation Z team members’ favorite parts? That Lucy and Ricky sleep in separate twin beds.)
A CONVERSATION ABOUT A POSSIBLE DEAL WITH IRAN
In the past 24 hours, the U.S. launched a military operation to reopen the Strait of Hormuz — and called it off — as both sides trade contradictory signals over a one-page peace memo.
MS NOW senior national security reporter David Rohde and MS NOW international affairs analyst and former U.S. ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul joined “Morning Joe” to discuss whether a real deal is possible.
JS: David Rohde, walk us through what’s just happened.
DR: It’s remarkable. Project Freedom was the strategy that takes away Iran’s biggest card: control of the Strait of Hormuz. The president reversed course roughly 24 hours in. He blinked on the one effort that actually removed Iran’s leverage.
JL: What do you know about the one-page memo being discussed?
DR: Bearing in mind that MS NOW has not yet independently confirmed the details: The administration is trying to call a one-page memo a peace agreement. It is not a peace agreement. The Obama-era nuclear deal — the JCPOA — was 159 pages long.
A day after the U.S. militarily starts taking control of the strait, the president pauses that effort and agrees to a document that leaves it up to Iran to gradually reopen the waterway. That is an extraordinary outcome for the most powerful military in the world.
Mike Barnicle: Ambassador McFaul, what does this do to America’s image and standing around the globe?
MM: The president doesn’t seem able to focus long enough to achieve the objectives he sets out. He changes his mind. It’s deeply troubling for our long-term national security interests.
JS: Let’s turn to Ukraine. You’ve been talking to people on the ground. What are you hearing?
MM: There’s no way you can say Russia is winning — no matter what the president keeps insisting. The rest of the world is going to be buying Ukrainian drone technology because it’s performing so well. There’s one war that doesn’t seem to be going well, and the one that’s going really well, we’ve chosen to walk away from. It’s a real tragedy for America.
WG: Why does this president keep putting his thumb on the scale for Vladimir Putin?
MM: They’ve never put any pressure on Vladimir Putin — they always put pressure on Zelenskyy. What they’re serious about is economic deals with Russia, and tragically, mixing those two things up has not led to any serious negotiations. We’re farther from a negotiated solution today than we were in January 2025.
JS: We’re losing leverage in Iran and walking away from Ukraine. What does that tell you about where this administration is taking American foreign policy?
MM: The United States has immense military and economic power. We have better ideas than the autocrats — the Chinese, the Russians, the Iranians. But we’re squandering all of it because we can’t run a long-term game plan. We don’t have a grand strategy, in part because the president doesn’t believe in alliances. We’re better off with allies. We’re better off with friends.
This conversation has been condensed and edited for brevity and clarity.
IN MEMORIAM 
: TED TURNER, 1938 – 2026
Ted Turner, a brash and outspoken television pioneer who raced yachts, owned huge chunks of the American West and transformed the news business by launching CNN and introducing the 24-hour news cycle, died Wednesday. He was 87.
Turner died surrounded by his family, according to Turner Enterprises, the company that oversees his vast business interests and investments.
Turner owned professional sports teams in Atlanta, defended the America’s Cup in yachting in 1977 and donated a stunning $1 billion to United Nations charities. He married three women — most famously actor Jane Fonda — and earned the nicknames “Captain Outrageous” and “The Mouth of the South.”
He once bragged: “If only I had a little humility, I’d be perfect.”
EXTRA HOT TEA
87%
— The percentage of Americans who had a negative reaction to Trump posting a Jesus-like image of himself, according to a new poll.
ONE MORE SHOT
Street art stencil graffiti in Poland, depicting Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin making a deal on Ukraine, in February.
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