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In case you blinked and didn’t notice, President Donald Trump has threatened Iran again.
And that seems to undermine the idea that his envoys are having very good talks, through intermediaries, with the Iranians.
Just look at the tone of his Truth Social post yesterday:
“The United States of America is in serious talks with A NEW AND MORE REASONABLE REGIME to end our military operations in Iran. Great progress has been made but, if for some reason an agreement is not reached shortly, which it probably will be, and if the Strait of Hormuz is not immediately ‘open for business’, we will conclude our lovely ‘stay’ in Iran by blowing up and completely destroying all of its Power Plants, Wells Oilfields and Kharg Island (and possibly all desalination plants!), which we have deliberately not ‘touched’ yet. This will be retaliation for our many soldiers, and others, that Iran has massacred and murdered during the former regime’s 47-year ‘Reign of Terror.’
Does that sound like someone who thinks they’re close to a deal?
WHY TRUMP AND IRAN LOOK LIGHT YEARS AWAY ON ANY POSSIBLE DEAL TO END THE WAR
President Donald Trump has once again threatened Iran. (Yuri Gripas/Abaca/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
I don’t think Trump wants to bomb Iran’s energy facilities. He is fully aware that this would escalate the war and keep the United States trapped in the conflict for many months at least – the worst-case scenario for a man who campaigned against involvement in foreign wars.
That is why he extended his deadline by 10 days, to try to reach an agreement with what remains the main terrorist state in the world. It is difficult to feel an ounce of sympathy for these murderous dictators who are responsible for so many thousands of deaths, including those of their own people.
The president told the New York Post yesterday that the administration has been dealing with Iran’s parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Ghalibaf, saying that within a week we will know “if he is someone the United States can really work with.”
From Iran’s point of view, all the regime needs to do is survive and subsequently claim victory. (AFP via Getty Images)
Press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters yesterday: “I hope that the journalists in this room are sensible enough not to take[the word of] “an Iranian regime that has lied repeatedly about our country, about our values, about everyone in this room, frankly, for almost five decades.”
From the point of view of Iran, which was invaded by British and Soviet forces during World War II, all the regime has to do is survive and then claim victory.
The president is in a kind of box. He clearly wants to end our military involvement in Iran, but he cannot be seen as backing down on his threats.
Trump, at a minimum, needs two things. One is a deal that can be sold as limiting Iran’s ability to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons. The other is to end Tehran’s blockade of “hostile” powers using the Strait of Hormuz, which has blocked 20 percent of global oil traffic.
Now that the president is deploying tens of thousands of troops to the Middle East, he certainly has the boots he needs for a sustained attack.
As everyone knows, Trump is paying the price at home. The stock market has plummeted, reducing the retirement accounts of millions of Americans. The cost of living, led by rising gas prices, continues to rise after an election that focused on “affordability.”
And the president’s reputation has plummeted among young people, many of whom do not want to participate in this war or feel they were misled about foreign wars.
MEDIA UNDER FIRE: JOURNALISTS CONTINUE TO QUESTION IRAN WAR AS HEGSETH CALLS THEM ‘UNPATRIOTIC’ AND ‘ANTI-TRUMP’
Meanwhile, Iran’s military machine has been decimated, but still has the ability to inflict damage with cheap drones. Over the weekend, one of those drones injured at least 10 U.S. service members at a Saudi air base, two of them seriously, and others caused damage in Israel, killing at least 20 people.
The New York Times says that “there has been little apparent progress in the negotiations. Iran has denied having held substantive talks with the United States and has rejected the Trump administration’s conditions as unreasonable. The war has continued, drawing in much of the Middle East, sending oil and gas prices soaring and fracturing Mr. Trump’s political support at home.”
The Wall Street Journal reports that the president “is weighing a military operation to extract nearly 1,000 pounds of uranium from Iran, according to U.S. officials, a complex and risky mission that would likely leave U.S. forces inside the country for days or longer.” While he “considers the danger to American troops,” Trump is “open” to the idea “because it could help achieve his central goal of preventing Iran from ever developing a nuclear weapon.”
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth says the “Trump-hating” press constantly reproduces negative news. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Trump is no stranger to shifting rhetoric. After promising to block any oil shipments to Cuba, Trump lets a Russian tanker pass, saying it doesn’t matter because the island’s economy is collapsing anyway. An alternative view: He wanted to avoid a confrontation with Moscow while focusing heavily on the Middle East.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth says the “Trump-hating” press constantly replays negative news. While the coverage has been overwhelmingly pessimistic, I don’t know how else the latest exchanges between Washington and Tehran could be reported.
Hegseth, a decorated Army veteran, is receiving criticism for his repeated emphasis on Christianity, including, as the Washington Post notes, bringing clergy from his small Christian denomination to preach at the Pentagon.
The other day, speaking of the war, Hegseth prayed that American troops would bring “overwhelming violence against those who deserve no mercy…We ask these things with bold confidence in the mighty and mighty name of Jesus Christ.”
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It sounds quite melodramatic to say it, but we are at a critical turning point. Either some kind of deal is reached, face-saving or not, or an airstrike is unleashed on Iran, prolonging the war and raising the prospect of an Iraq-style quagmire.
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If Iranian leaders were rational, they would want to avoid further destruction. But I’m not sure they are. They are infuriatingly disingenuous negotiators who deserve everything they get. But the consequences of an all-out bombing for the United States and for the president himself could be equally serious.