This is the March 30, 2026, edition of “The Tea, Spilled by Morning Joe” newsletter. Subscribe here to get it delivered straight to your inbox Monday through Friday.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“This show of unity should remind our country that the people, not just the wealthy few, hold the power.”

— Rep. Ro Khanna, on the No Kings protests across the country this weekend

CHART OF THE DAY

Sources: MS NOW, Wall Street Journal

NO KINGS: TAKE 3

Bruce Springsteen plays at a No Kings protest outside Minnesota’s state Capitol building yesterday in St. Paul, Minnesota.

• More than 8 million people attended the rallies, organizers said.

• More than 3,300 protests took place, as many events as there are U.S. counties, per CNN. One of them was on the Arctic Circle.
• All 50 states held rallies.
• In Minneapolis — the movement’s flagship rally — about 100,000 attended, per Minneapolis State Patrol. Organizers say the number is closer to 200,000.

ON THIS DATE

On March 30, 1981, two months into his presidency, Ronald Reagan was shot. At the hospital, he told his wife, Nancy, “I’m sorry, honey, I forgot to duck,” and joked to his doctors, “I hope you’re Republicans.” One of them, a liberal Democrat, replied: “Today, we’re all Republicans.”

A CONVERSATION WITH REP. ADAM SMITH

Thirty-one days into the war with Iran, oil is surging past $115 a barrel, and the Strait of Hormuz — through which roughly a fifth of the global supply flows — remains under threat. Rep. Adam Smith, the ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, joined “Morning Joe” to discuss where the conflict stands — and why he says it’s time to end it now.

JS: Mr. Chairman, two things can be true at once. Iran’s military capabilities have been degraded, but this could also be creating a much bigger geopolitical problem. How do you see it?

AS: It comes down to two goals: degrade Iran’s military capability and fundamentally change its role in the region. We’ve made progress on the first. But that doesn’t matter much long-term if we’re not seeing progress on the second.

DI: There are reports of additional U.S. forces moving into the region — Marines, paratroopers, special ops. Are you concerned ground operations could be next? 

AS: Very concerned. This is a large enough force that you have to ask why — and we’re not getting a clear answer.

Katty Kay: The president floated the idea of an assault on Kharg Island. How would that play out?

AS: Any military expert would tell you that’s an incredibly risky operation. And I worry no one is telling him that. 

JL: So what actually changes here? Are we seeing any shift in Iran’s behavior?

AS: The point wasn’t a different regime — it was a strategic change in Iran’s behavior. And we’re not seeing that. If anything, they’ve hardened.

We went into this conflict with three major concerns. Now there’s a fourth: the Strait of Hormuz. You can’t guarantee ships won’t be attacked, and without that, commercial traffic won’t return. Changing Iran’s intentions is much harder.

So the question is: toward what end? We’re degrading their capabilities, but not changing their behavior.

JS: If you were advising the president this morning, what’s the best achievable outcome?

AS: Stop now. Negotiate the best possible ceasefire. The longer this goes on, the more we lose. 

I don’t buy the sunk cost argument. Nothing about continuing this improves the outcome. 

This conversation has been condensed and edited for brevity and clarity.

EXTRA HOT TEA

80% 

— The approximate percentage of American counties that saw population declines between the summers of 2024 and 2025, according to the U.S. Census Bureau

ONE MORE SHOT

A man holds a goldfish in a bowl, recovered from an apartment damaged in an airstrike Monday in western Tehran, Iran. The fish had been part of a Haft-sin table for Nowruz, the Persian New Year.

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From MS Now.