Donald Trump first declared victory in the war in Iran just a few days after launching the military offensive, and the president continued to spend the days and weeks that followed boasting about the ersatz “win.”
Two weeks ago, when the editorial board of The Wall Street Journal warned the White House about a “premature” declaration of victory, the Republican turned to his social media platform to argue, “Actually, it is a Victory, and there’s nothing ‘premature’ about it!”
Late last week, however, Trump’s boasts were qualitatively different — and more definitive.
On Friday morning, he declared online that it was “A GREAT AND BRILLIANT DAY FOR THE WORLD!” Minutes later, the president added that Iran had “agreed to never close the Strait of Hormuz again.” As the day progressed, Trump published a flurry of missives, telling the world how awesome his awesomeness was, and demanding credit for his historic triumph for the ages.
By Friday afternoon, the president told Axios that he expected to wrap up a deal with Iranian officials “in the next day or two,” which roughly coincided with Trump telling CBS News that Tehran had “agreed to everything.” This came on the heels of comments he delivered in Las Vegas, in which he said, “You notice that we’re doing very well, and I will say the war in Iran is going along swimmingly.”
Fueled by presidential happy talk, markets soared and oil prices declined. The public was led to believe there was reason to be optimistic as the seventh week of the war neared its end.
As the eighth week of the war gets underway, a variety of words come to mind to describe the state of the conflict. “Swimmingly” isn’t one of them.
On Saturday, just one day after Trump said that Iran had “agreed to never close the Strait of Hormuz again,” Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz anew. What’s more, Iran appeared to fire on two Indian-flagged ships, shortly before U.S. forces attacked and seized an Iranian cargo ship in the Arabian Sea that was trying to defy the U.S. blockade.
Meanwhile, as the White House deploys a delegation to Pakistan for a second round of talks — JD Vance was initially not supposed to participate, though it now appears the vice president is scheduled to attend — Iranian officials have expressed some skepticism about whether they’re prepared to join Americans at the negotiating table.
What’s more, Trump has gone from patting himself on the back for winning the war to renewing his threats about renewing combat operations.
On Saturday night, the president briefly spoke to reporters on Air Force One, explaining that if Tehran failed to accept his demands, “unfortunately we’ll have to start dropping bombs again.”
On Sunday morning, Trump published another online statement, also threatening to target Iran’s domestic infrastructure — a move widely recognized as a war crime — writing, “We’re offering a very fair and reasonable DEAL, and I hope they take it because, if they don’t, the United States is going to knock out every single Power Plant, and every single Bridge, in Iran. NO MORE MR. NICE GUY!”
Around the same time, the Republican told Fox News, in reference to Iran, “We’re preparing to hit them harder than any country has ever been hit before.”
If you believed Trump’s boasts on Friday about resolving the crisis in Iran, I have some very bad news for you.
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