Hillary Clinton delivers a striking assessment of Donald Trump’s Iran war, arguing that the United States emerged weaker while Iran came out stronger. In a June 2026 conversation with David Remnick, the former Secretary of State discussed the Trump Administration’s memorandum of understanding to end the conflict and explained why she believes the war ultimately failed to achieve its goals. Clinton also reflected on Israel’s past pressure for military action against Iran and criticized Joe Biden’s decision to seek a second presidential term. Her comments raise major questions about U.S. strategy, Iran, Israel, and the political consequences of the conflict.
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00:00And it does seem to me that that's where the best pressure would come, if Trump were willing to actually
00:05use diplomacy instead of bluster.
00:08So would you impose secondary sanctions on China?
00:11I would certainly tell the Chinese I was, unless the Chinese were going to help us to try to get
00:17the Iranians to open the strait and to try to go back at least to the status quo ante.
00:23And would you blockade the strait to prevent Iran from earning any oil revenue?
00:28Well, that's what we're doing now.
00:30We've got it blockaded.
00:31They are now, as I'm told, taking out a lot of their their oil overland and to other ports.
00:39The Chinese have the highest interest in trying to get this resolved.
00:46And that's who I would be pressuring more than anybody else right now.
00:51Let's go to Russia and Ukraine.
00:55I mean, you famously presented the Russians with a reset button once upon a time.
01:01We had great hopes that we could bring Russia towards the West, that they could operate like a normal country.
01:07Clearly, years have gone by and things have become very different.
01:11Again, given where we are today, what do you think needs to happen?
01:14You've spent a lot of time with Putin over the years.
01:16What needs to happen to change Putin's attitude towards the war so that a real negotiated settlement could be reached?
01:24Well, the one thing we are not doing, which is to do more to help Ukraine, we need to do
01:33everything we can to provide some kind of air defense.
01:37And we have wasted so much of our munitions in Iran.
01:41And we, of course, have sent a lot to our allies in the Gulf, and they have used it to
01:48defend themselves.
01:49So we are in a difficult position because we are ourselves not adequately able to meet unforeseen dangers.
02:01Or if, you know, China were to move against Taiwan, we would be, even if we were so inclined, and
02:07it's not clear what Trump would do,
02:09we would be in a difficult position to try to help defend Taiwan.
02:12So we have gotten ourselves into this deep hole, but if there is any chance to do on a faster
02:20track what Trump said he wanted to do,
02:23which is to allow Ukraine to get a license to start trying to manufacture a form of a patriot air
02:30defense system, we should be doing that.
02:33And the fastest way to try to end this war is for Trump to weigh in much more forcefully on
02:40Ukraine's side.
02:41Sadly, I don't think he will do that, Mike.
02:44I think whatever the hold that Putin has on him, whether it's the admiration he has for dictators,
02:51that he wants to be a leader like Putin, or the money that he's making from all these side deals,
02:58which very clearly there is a path back to Moscow with a number of these, you know, business opportunities that
03:08he and his family have taken advantage of,
03:10or they have something on him, what the Russians call kompromat, or it's a combination of all of that.
03:16He cannot bring himself to criticize Putin or to really take any lasting position of strength against Putin.
03:25So the Ukrainians are doing the best they can under very difficult circumstances, and we all need to do more
03:32to help them.
03:32And the Europeans have been very forward-leaning, even emptying their warehouses of a lot of their munitions.
03:40But it's going to be a very terrible winter for the Ukrainians, because we are not doing enough to help
03:47them.
03:48And I was glad Andy Burnham, the new prime minister of the U.K., was there, saying that they're going
03:54to work with the Ukrainians on some more medium-range,
03:58maybe even longer-range missiles.
04:00And, you know, we just all have to do much more to help the Ukrainians.
04:04The best way to bring Putin to any negotiating table, to get any kind of acceptable peace agreement,
04:11is to defend the Ukrainians and give them everything they need to do that for themselves.
04:15We're going to ask everybody to start writing their questions on the pieces of paper that some of you have
04:20here.
04:21In about 20 minutes, we'll start taking questions from the audience and pass them to the edge of your rows.
04:27But to go back to Russia for a second, are you concerned at all that as Ukraine becomes more adept
04:33at long-range attacks into Russia,
04:37to oil infrastructure, other targets, that Putin, with his back against the wall, might escalate and use nuclear weapons?
04:45Not at this moment. I'm not. I'm not.
04:48Look, you can always, you know, look at Putin and try to understand what his ultimate, you know, game is,
05:02because what he cares about is staying in power, staying alive, and promoting what he considers to be Russia's rightful
05:13position in the pantheon of great nations.
05:17So do I think he might go that far?
05:23I think you always have to keep it in the back of your mind, but I don't think we're there
05:27yet.
05:28Because I do think he knows that if the United States under Trump doesn't weigh in significantly, it remains a
05:36war of attrition.
05:37So he not only doesn't care how many Russians he sends to the front lines to die or be injured,
05:45he's now going to have fresh forces from North Korea.
05:49He's recruiting under very fraudulent, you know, circumstances in Africa, sending off, you know, young men from Kenya and Tanzania
05:59and other places
06:00who think they're going for jobs in Russia, and they're literally given a weapon and put on the front line.
06:05So he doesn't care how many people die on his watch, and he's going to continue to just keep hammering
06:12as hard as he can
06:14with civilian targets being his, you know, primary strategic goal, which is to try to at some point break the
06:22will of the Ukrainian people.
06:24I don't think he can do that, but that's why if we push back in a more effective way, we
06:30might be able to force him to come up with some kind of peace deal.
06:36Earlier this month, you published a piece in the Financial Times that, I don't remember the exact title,
06:43but it was basically saying President Trump's Gaza plan may not be ideal, but it's what we've got and we
06:50should work with it.
06:52What brought you to say something so positive about one of President Trump's policies, and what was the reaction to
06:58the FT article?
06:59Well, a couple of things did.
07:01I have been very much involved in a kind of track two effort for the last three years now with
07:13Israelis, Palestinians, Arabs, Europeans, Americans,
07:17to try to figure out how we're going to get ourselves in a position to, you know, not only the
07:27ceasefire and end the conflict,
07:29but, you know, ensure Israel's security, ensure, you know, a decent life for the Palestinians,
07:35create a vision of a future that might keep some kind of peace and prevent war from breaking out again.
07:46So I've been very much focused on that, and I know a number of the people who've been working on
07:55the Board of Peace
07:56and trying to implement this 20-point plan.
07:59And my point in writing it, and I put it in the Financial Times because I really was aiming it
08:04more at Europeans
08:06and Arabs than Americans at this juncture, is that if you really care about what's going to happen in Israel
08:15and to the Palestinians, then there isn't any other option than this 20-point plan.
08:20Nobody else has a chance of coming up with anything that might possibly disarm Hamas,
08:27create a civilian authority within Gaza, provide the kind of options that could lead the, you know,
08:38the Palestinians to, you know, re-engage in a productive way.
08:42And so when I wrote that, I meant for it to push the, you know, the Europeans and the Arabs
08:50to do more to disarm Hamas,
08:52because unless we get Hamas disarmed, none of this is going to mean anything.
08:56So, yeah, I got a lot of interesting response.
08:59I heard from Arabs.
09:01I heard from Europeans.
09:02But the funniest thing that happened is when Prime Minister Netanyahu rejected the deal
09:11that had been in negotiations for months to try to disarm Hamas,
09:17and Hamas had agreed to it, at least on paper, you know,
09:24Trump was very upset that Netanyahu had said he wasn't going to accept the disarmament plan.
09:31And then Trump, you know, not only expressed his feelings about Netanyahu's position,
09:41but Trump then on his, you know, tweeting or his social, you know, media that he does.
09:48Yeah.
09:48What's it called?
09:49Truth.
09:50So, yeah.
09:50What an axi-moron.
09:52So he posts or, you know, somebody working for him posts.
09:58Well, you know, even Hillary Clinton thinks it's a good deal.
10:01And so in my article in the Financial Times, I had said, look, I'm an implacable opponent of Donald Trump,
10:10but I do think this is the only path forward, and we should hope that we can make it work.
10:16And I still believe that.
10:18And, you know, maybe the disarming of Hamas is on hold until after the Israeli election.
10:25But if you don't disarm Hamas, and disarmament doesn't happen just at one time and it's over.
10:31You know, the disarmament I'm most familiar with is what it took to disarm the IRA in Northern Ireland.
10:39And you had an agreement.
10:41Everybody signed off on the agreement.
10:43The IRA agreed to disarm.
10:44It took 10 years to find every cache of weapons to prevent every rogue member of the IRA from trying
10:53to go back and buy more weapons.
10:55It took 10 years, but it worked.
10:58And so do I think that this is going to, you know, happen because the plan says it's going to
11:04happen
11:04and even Hamas allegedly says that they will agree?
11:07No.
11:07But you've got to start with what you have, and that is a still very well-armed Hamas,
11:15still occupying tunnels, and still basically oppressing the people of Gaza.
11:22So you've got to start the process, and that's what this plan at least lays out.
11:28Let's talk China for a moment.
11:31Over the last several decades, the approach of the United States had been to really urge China
11:37to become more open, more market-based, to get rid of a lot of their subsidies,
11:42get rid of a lot of their protectionism, to become a better citizen when it came to international economic policy.
11:47And we've now seen China's developed this huge amount of excess capacity.
11:51They're exporting it to the rest of the world.
11:53It's hurting manufacturing everywhere.
11:56Where do you see the U.S.-China relationship going?
11:58We've got a second summit coming up of the year, perhaps in about a month's time.
12:04And what lessons should we take of the last 20 years in terms of how to manage the China competitive
12:10element going forward?
12:12Well, Mike, you're really the expert on this, and you've just written a long, very thoughtful piece about it.
12:18And in summary, as you just said, China now has as dominant a position in the global economy as the
12:28United States did after World War II.
12:30And the United States had that position in part because Europe was in ruins, Japan was in ruins,
12:37the rest of the world was devastated in all kinds of ways from the horrors of World War II.
12:45So the United States was preeminent economically as well as militarily.
12:52China has that position in part because of its rather remarkable economic model's growth.
12:59But now it's like the apprentice, you know, the sorcerer's apprentice.
13:04It can't turn off its overcapacity.
13:08It is absolutely dominating the world's export markets to the point that it's going to, as you point out in
13:19your article,
13:20raise serious questions about whether nations will have the capacity to compete at all.
13:26I mean, the electronic vehicle and automotive sector of China is just swamping Europe.
13:33And if Europe doesn't take protectionist measures, Europe is going to lose their automobile manufacturing capacity.
13:40They are in a race for, you know, technological superiority over us.
13:47And, you know, we have to compete.
13:49But why is this happening?
13:51Well, part of it is, and this is what I find so fascinating,
13:54I think it betrays a fundamental level of insecurity by the Chinese government, including President Xi,
14:05because it happens in large measure because they will not stimulate domestic demand.
14:11They will not create social programs that are necessary for keeping the fast aging population of China from being impoverished
14:23because they won't have pensions or Social Security or, you know, guaranteed health care.
14:30So there's no social spending by the government equivalent to what the need is.
14:35And there's no commitment to stimulating consumer demand among the population.
14:42They only know how to keep generating more output in order to export.
14:50That is their, you know, model, and they are wedded to it.
14:54So we have our own problems in the United States, as you know, but they have a big problem as
15:00well.
15:01But their big problem can cause big problems for the rest of us.
15:05So right now, I think what we need is, you know, very steady, sober leadership, which we don't have from
15:15the top in our government.
15:16There are people, I'm sure, within agencies and in decision-making positions who understand this.
15:23You need to engage with the Chinese in a very patient and consistent manner if you're going to move them
15:33and if you're going to make an argument about why they should adjust their economic model for their own good
15:42as well as the good of the rest of the world, we're not making that argument, you know.
15:47And it would require the equivalent, and there are a bunch of things.
15:52We should be doing, you know, global, international efforts on how to govern AI, you know,
16:00how to deal with oversupply and therefore overexporting out of China
16:05and how countries can better manage that and defend against it.
16:10There are a lot of things that we should be putting on the international agenda,
16:14but that's not how Trump thinks.
16:16That's not how he works.
16:18So I don't know what we're going to see come out of this second summit that is going to be
16:24useful for us
16:26and that's going to send the right signal to the Chinese.
16:29I'd love to hear you say something about that because you've thought about it for years.
16:32I'm sure everybody came here to hear my views on the matter, so I...
16:35Give a minute or two, Mike.
16:39No, look, I agree completely with you, and it is, in fact, that they have a model that's very hard
16:43for them to stop or get off of,
16:44and yet they're growing so large and going so fast that at some point they're going to run out of
16:49customers
16:50and other countries are going to close their markets, as the U.S. is doing,
16:52and that may create a need for them to fundamentally change their policies,
16:56and that will have effect on the rest of the global economy, too.
16:59That's right.
16:59It'll keep you messy.
17:00China is one of the few areas where there seems to be something as close to a bipartisan consensus as
17:07anywhere in foreign policy.
17:08Where else?
17:09What else is the bipartisan consensus going forward?
17:12And when we get through the next couple of years, we know it's probably unlikely we're going back to the
17:18way things were before.
17:19The pendulum won't swing all the way back.
17:21Where do you see American foreign policy on a bipartisan basis going?
17:26Well, you know, Mike, I do think that there's actually more bipartisan agreement on some of these thorny issues
17:36than we perhaps see because Trump squashes it.
17:41I think there still is in the Congress bipartisan support for Ukraine.
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