Newsmax guest: “If the Strait of Hormuz isn't really open, freely open, the president is going to look like he did not win this war”
Host Rob Schmitt: “Even if there's just a last gasp of this regime still there, if we walk away, I think that's going to look like a failure. It's going to be a political disaster for” President Trump.
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Citation
From the March 30, 2026, edition of Newsmax's Rob Schmitt Tonight
ROB SCHMITT (HOST): That's — I mean, I feel the same way. I also feel that they could just act and pretend and lie and cheat a deal the way they always have and try to just get away with something. And if you don't think that that's possible — and it seems like Rubio is along with you on that, that he feels like there's a probability that there's not going to be a change internally, that it's just — we're going to have to just batter them until they're until they submit, until there's a revolution in the country, until there's a new government. Is that a possibility, though? Can we actually get to that point with the way this war is being fought? Can you end this regime?
ELLIOTT ABRAMS (GUEST): I don't think you can end the regime without putting, you know, hundreds of thousands of troops in now, right now at the end of the war. But we've really, really weakened this regime. It will fall. None of us can predict — you know, is it a month or a year? Is it five years? But we're leaving a regime that's much, much weaker and an economy that's much, much weaker. And by the way, it'll be a lot weaker by Saturday, by this weekend, because we're starting to hit the economic targets.
SCHMITT: You're starting to hit the economic targets. I guess, I don't think that's politically viable for the president to walk away. And even if there's just a last gasp of this regime still there, if we walk away, I think that's going to look like a failure. It's going to be a political disaster for him.
ABRAMS: Yeah, he's got to make sure that, for one thing, the Strait of Hormuz is open and all the oil can move, which may mean taking some of those islands. It may mean taking part of the southern coast of Iran. But if the Strait of Hormuz isn't really open, freely open, the president is going to look like he did not win this war.
SCHMITT: Is that — I mean, is that something that we're going to be willing to do? Is — I'm just — I'm trying to figure out how this thing is going to end, you know, and I'm looking at it the same way you are. And I'm just trying to figure out what what will the end of this look like. Because he wants to be gone in a week or two.
ABRAMS: Right.
SCHMITT: You know, you've heard him talk.
ABRAMS: I'll tell you how I think it's going to end. I do not think it ends with some kind of lengthy negotiation of a treaty, which, as you just said, they're going to lie and cheat on anyway. I think it's going to end at a date maybe a week from now or something like that, where the president says to them, OK, I'm going to stop hitting you. If you stop hitting anybody else and the strait has to be open. There's no deal. They'll claim victory. You know, they'll say, we got everything we needed and then we just stop. I don't think there'll be a signed agreement here.