Appearing on MS NOW, Bloomberg reporter Jeff Mason lightly laughed when discussing a Monday interview with Donald Trump and admitted the president became abusive when cornered on his Iran difficulties.
During a segment on the on-again, off-again Iran war negotiations that has the president scrambling for good news, co-host Willie Geist pressed Mason for what is going on inside the White House.
“So as you talk to people, perhaps not the president himself, but around the administration, where are they feeling right now? How are they about the state of the war?” Geist asked.
“Well, what I will tell you, Willie, is in our conversation yesterday,” Mason explained. “When I asked the president about whether or not he thought Iran had leverage because of the Strait of Hormuz, that question really got under his skin, and he kind of went after me, which he's done before. So I'm used to that.”
“But it was telling to me that any suggestion, and in this case, it was just a straightforward question that the other party may have more leverage than he does or than the United States does, something that sets him off — and it did,” he added. “So, to your broader question, I think that people around him are concerned about the political impacts of this. Certainly, the White House is keeping an eye on polls and is looking towards the midterm elections, as I don't need to tell you or your viewers, there's a lot of political risk from this war for President Trump because of the high gasoline prices that David [Rohde] was just referring to, and because of the impact that that could have on Republicans in the midterm elections.”