March 26, 2026 - Trump claims Iran is "afraid to say" they want to make a deal, as his approval ratings crater

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US President Donald Trump has insisted that Iran is taking part in peace talks as he continues to push back on Tehran's denials of being at the negotiating table.

I tell you, we're winning so big. Nobody's ever seen anything like we're doing in the Middle East with Iran.

And they are negotiating, by the way, and they want to make a deal so badly, but they're afraid to say it.

Because they figure they'll be killed by their own people. They're also afraid they'll be killed by us.

What we had to do is get rid of the cancer. We had to cut out the cancer. The cancer was Iran with a nuclear weapon.

We've cut it out. Now we're going to finish it off.

Now I just see in the last couple of minutes that Israel says that it has killed the man directly responsible for the terrorist act.

This is a direct quote from the Israeli defense minister of bombing and blocking the state of hormones.

They're saying they have killed Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy, the head of it.

Ali Risa Tansiri. Simon Marx is chief correspondent of feature story news.

Simon, thanks for being with us this morning.

And we want to focus on what's happening in the United States and what the public response has been to this continued conflict in the Middle East.

Because we saw during the week the latest news on Donald Trump's approval ratings will not make for happy reading for him.

And he doesn't like this to see. I mean, he's an office for another two and a half years or thereabouts, but he will not be happy at his approval rating being at in the 30s.

Oh, absolutely clear. I mean, I suspect publicly he will dismiss it and say that it's a fake poll.

But this latest poll for USA today shows the president's approval rating now at a record low for his second term in office of 36%.

And critically, his approval rating on his handling of the economy, which is going to be absolutely critical, of course, in November's midterm elections for his fellow Republican lawmakers, many of whom are up for re-election.

That approval rating stands at just 25% and with each passing day here as the price of petrol, diesel, jet fuel continues to soar.

Because of all the uncertainty that he and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have created having chosen to wage this war on Iran, upending those talks that were taking place in Geneva.

And according to Omani negotiators who were mediating between the two sides were making progress.

Well, he's very much paying the political price for that now in these opinion polls.

But the Republicans, I mean, if you look at the Republican numbers, they are broadly supportive, aren't they?

Of this a war and of Donald Trump. But there you've got to imagine there's a certain amount of holding of the nose here because they care too about pounds,

chillings and pence or dollars and send as it is in the United States. And there's a big problem there for consumers.

Yeah, there's a holding of the nose and there's a shifting of the ground as well because yesterday Republican lawmakers were given a classified briefing about the future direction of the conflict.

And several of them, not just dissident Republicans who have turned against Trump on other issues.

But other in some cases, Congressman Mike Rogers, a leading foreign policy voice within the Republican Party, came out and expressed grave anxiety about suggestions that there's the possibility now of ground forces being deployed in Iran at a time when there have not been formal consultations under the war powers resolution with Congress as the law requires.

And you can sense that these Republicans are willing to give Donald Trump a certain amount of rope in Iran, but they're not prepared to write him a blank check.

And remember that with all of this clear, the president and his government did nothing to prepare the American public for war in the first place.

It was a complete surprise to everybody when we woke up on March 1st to discover that he'd gone in the previous night.

But also they've done completely nothing to prepare the country for the possibility of a ground deployment boots on the ground, the protracted kind of warfare that that could entail.

And there is no appetite publicly in the United States for that at all.

I played a clip there of Donald Trump at the start of this Simon and it appears and you might tell me if this is the general assessment that his statements, his public pronouncements on this conflict and what is going on around the negotiations, they're becoming less and less predictable and they make less sense as time goes on.

Absolutely. And at times it sounds like he's making it up as he goes along earlier in the week, he was asked by a reporter, you know, if these negotiations work out, what would the future be for the straight of four moves?

And he sort of undenied a bit and said, well, maybe I'll run it or maybe I'll run it in conjunction with the Ayatollah, whoever the new Ayatollah turns out to be.

I mean, it literally was extemporized as indeed much of this military strategy and that's not necessarily the most appers it would to describe what's been taking place here over the last three and a half weeks has rolled out in Iran.

So on the one hand, you have the president of the United States saying talks are underway, he wants to give them more time to bear fruit, he's the Iranians are begging for a deal.

On the other hand, you've got the president of the United States simultaneously sending thousands of additional troops, including the 82nd Airborne, I mean, literally the men who throw themselves out of airplanes, parachute down and land on enemy terrain in ground operations, plus all sorts of additional military resources heading to the theater.

So there is tremendous unpredictability about where all this is heading in the next few days.

You know, Simon, I want to ask you as well about another story, which I know has been dominating the headlines where you are in the United States for weeks now. And this is the kidnapping of the mother of Savannah got three who is a television star presenting on a very high profile breakfast program in the state.

Savannah has has given an interview her first full length interview about all of this. Let's have a listen to some of what you have to say.

Someone needs to do the right thing. We are in agony. It is unbearable and to think of what she went through. I wake up every night in the middle of the night, every night.

And in the darkness, I imagine her terror. And it is unthinkable. But those thoughts demand to be thought. And I will not hide my face. But she needs to come home now.

Yes. Hold a card there is the interviewer Savannah got three really distressing to hear that Simon and there has been absolutely no news on the disappearance of her mother Nancy has there.

None at all since February the first February the first nearly two full months since Nancy got three appears to have been abducted from her home in Arizona.

And what is so distressing I think to members of the American public when they hear that interview and she gave that interview to her colleague on the today program that she was presenting and is still the presenter of officially at the time of her mother's disappearance.

Is that it is in such extraordinary contrast to the effervescent, bubbly, fun personality that Savannah got three has always demonstrated in every broadcast that she's anchored even when she's dealing with serious stuff like Helming a town hall meeting with President Donald Trump during the 2024 election campaign.

So this is a family now in complete agony as you could hear there and the agony is obviously fueled by the fact that there seem to be no leads.

I mean, there are ongoing reports of neighbors close to Nancy Guthrie's home being interviewed and re interviewed about anything that they may have seen in the weeks leading up to Mrs. Guthrie's disappearance.

There were suggestions that they were looking into the possibility that she'd been taken across the border to Mexico, but it has been complete radio silence from the authorities and no indication of progress being made.

Simon, thank you very much. Simon marks their chief correspondent with feature story news.

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