On Wednesday Night’s The 11th Hour on MS NOW, host Stephanie Ruhle and her panel bizarrely praised the Iranian regime for how they held “deep beliefs” “that they will die for,” and chided President Trump for not holding America in a similar regard.
Former Under Secretary of State Rick Stengel also claimed that the president was wrong to think those forming human chains were paid protestors, and compared them to those with American patriotism, as he said Trump had no "ideological belief” or “patriotism” for America.
Amid a now-constant media news cycle built with fear and belief of the ceasefire between Iran and the U.S. had faltered, the panel discussion went from talk about the Strait of Hormuz to Trump’s apparent failure to understand Iran, since he has no ideological beliefs of his own.
Under no circumstances do you 'have to hand it to them.'
— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) April 9, 2026
MS NOW's Stephanie Ruhle commends Iran for "the fact that they have a deep belief in something. That's unfathomable to [Trump]. That they will die for." pic.twitter.com/I9aJhtWwrs
A member of the Financial Times editorial board, Gillian Tett, started the ‘you have to hand it to them' commentary towards Iran with a reference to Trump’s love of money:
So, the fact that the Iranian regime has a really strong conviction, which frankly, at this point has doesn't have much to do with money, it's to do with survival and their vision of what the nation is -
Bloomberg Opinion senior executive editor, Tim O’Brien, described by program graphics as a “Trump biographer,” mentioned their religion drove them. Tett continued, “You know, and we might hate it. We might like it, whatever. But it's a very different mentality that President Trump is the very worst person to try and empathize with and understand. And if you don't empathize with your opponent and understand what's driving them, it's very hard to make a deal.”
After Stengal said Trump “doesn't understand anybody who believes in anything,” Ruhle implied one might disagree with Iran, but you do have to commend them on one thing:
RUHLE: I mean this is a phenomenal point because you could disagree with Iran and what their point of view is, but it's - the fact that they have a deep belief in something. That's unfathomable to him.
STENGEL: That they will die for.
RUHLE: That they will die for. That they’ll destroy their country for.
Yeah, let’s just hand that to them, at least they have a radical Islamist religious ideology that they believe in that has made them the lead source of terror in the Middle East, and has killed many American troops. No issues here.
Moving on from whatever that was, Stengel said Trump didn’t understand Iranian “patriotism” since he held not ideological patriotic beliefs about America. He then said all the human chains around power plants, a war crime, were organic:
Yes. I mean, he has no ideological belief or patriotism about America, and he doesn't think anybody else does. So, when he sees Iranians lining up around power grids, he can't understand that. He thinks they're being paid to do it.
It does not seem organic for women and children to form chains around power plants dressed in the same all black garb while they wave Islamic Republic flags.
For a regime that used their civilians as shields on bridges and powers plants, you probably should not praise their ideology just to get back at your disliked politicians. Or, it is better put this way:
issuing correction on a previous post of mine, regarding the terror group ISIL. you do not, under any circumstances, "gotta hand it to them"
— wint (@dril) February 15, 2017
The transcript is below. Click "expand":
MS NOW’s The 11th Hour with Stephanie Ruhle
April 8, 2026
11:08:30 PM Eastern
(...)
GILLIAN TETT: The other thing is what this reveals is that President Trump comes from a background where he assumes that money can buy everything and money drives everything, and he wants to cut a deal with everyone using money. And he assumes that other people will basically fall in line on the back of that.
So, the fact that the Iranian regime has a really strong conviction, which frankly, at this point has doesn't have much to do with money, it's to do with survival and their vision of what the nation is -
TIM O’BRIEN: And religion
TETT: - a religion. You know, and we might hate that. We might like it, whatever. But it's a very different mentality that President Trump is the very worst person to try and empathize with and understand. And if you don't empathize with your opponent and understand what's driving them, it's very hard to make a deal.
RICK STENGEL: He doesn't understand anybody who believes in anything. And by the way, the people who are really -
STEPHANIE RUHLE: I mean this is a phenomenal point because you could disagree with Iran and what their point of view is, but it's - the fact that they have a deep belief in something. That's unfathomable to him.
STENGEL: That they will die for.
RUHLE: That they will die for. That they’ll destroy their country for.
STENGEL: Yes. I mean, he has no ideological belief or patriotism about America, and he doesn't think anybody else does. So, when he sees Iranians lining up around power grids, he can't understand that. He thinks they're being paid to do it. But the people who can identify with this, who are very, very unhappy about this are the Gulf States.
The Gulf States were - America is protecting them. They signed the Abraham accords. They always were against Iran. They worried about Iran. When I was in the State Department and visited all the Gulf States to talk about ISIS, they would go “ISIS-[schismus],” were much more concerned about Iran.
And now big brother, big daddy that was supposed to deal with Iran has not. Iran is more empowered over the straits. All of their oil goes through the straits. I mean, they feel like now they're out there on a limb with nothing.
(...)
