Did Trump Surrender to Iran?

He wonders if, after Trumpism is defeated, Americans can go back to solving issues that really matter.Then, David is joined by his Atlantic colleague Vivian Salama to discuss the negotiations between Iran and the United States. David and Vivian talk about the fallout from the now-signed memorandum of understanding between the two countries, both in the United States and across the Middle East.Finally, David ends the show with a discussion of Ann Patchett’s novel Bel Canto.The following is a transcript of the episode:David Frum: Hello, and welcome to The David Frum Show. I’m David Frum, a staff writer at The Atlantic. My guest this week will be my colleague at The Atlantic, Vivian Salama, and we will be discussing the strange aftermath of Donald Trump’s war and weird peace in the Persian Gulf and with Iran. The book this week will be a novel, Bel Canto, by Ann Patchett: a novel about a hostage-taking based on real events, with an ending that both shocked and disturbed me. And I’ll be talking about the reasons for my shock and disturbance in the final segment. But I want to open with some thoughts about something that is very much not in the news.We have had a spring of intense emotion and intense activity: the war with Iran, marches, Israel-Palestine, so many issues, battles inside the Democratic Party. And as all of this has unfolded, I find myself thinking, often, Whatever happened to climate change? Do you remember that? It used to be a big deal, climate change. It used to be an issue that formed the basis of political parties. It was supposed to be the reorganizing form of all of our politics. When President Obama described his hopes for his administration back in 2009, he hoped that this would be the moment when climate change would cease t