{"id":145,"date":"2026-05-28T13:12:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T13:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/relocationacrossamerica.com\/?p=145"},"modified":"2026-05-28T13:12:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T13:12:10","slug":"there-is-no-art-to-trumps-iran-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relocationacrossamerica.com\/?p=145","title":{"rendered":"There is no art to Trump\u2019s Iran deal"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Over Memorial Day weekend, Donald Trump made a <\/span>sudden announcement<\/span> that an agreement between the United States and Iran to end the war, which is approaching its three-month anniversary, was imminent. The two countries have been at a stalemate for the past several weeks, and in that time, rumors of deals have proven to be just that. But this time seemed to be different. On Friday the president <\/span>begged off<\/span> attending his son Donald Jr.\u2019s wedding in the Bahamas, <\/span>saying<\/span>, \u201cThis is not good timing for me. I have a thing called Iran.\u201d Then he canceled his scheduled golf outing at his Bedminster club to return to the White House. Trump never cancels his golf game, so when he posted that a deal was \u201clargely negotiated\u201d and close to \u201cfinalization,\u201d it seemed as though it might be real.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Read more Americans know something is deeply wrong. They\u2019re not imagining it<\/a><\/p>\n

Five days later, we\u2019re still waiting.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Islamic Republic quickly disputed Trump\u2019s characterization, and everyone realized this was likely just another of his premature declarations of victory that he has taken to issuing every few days since the war began. (They have often alternated with threats to blow everyone and everything in Iran to smithereens if the country\u2019s leaders didn\u2019t do what he wanted them to do.) Trump began backpedaling, <\/span>posting<\/span> that \u201cif\u201d he made a deal, \u201cit will be a good and proper one, not like the one made by Obama.\u201d Then came the clincher: \u201cUnlike those before me who should have solved this problem many years ago, I don\u2019t make bad deals!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

There is no dealmaking in the first place. It\u2019s all just bravado and illusion in a show where the magician has no bunnies left to pull from his top hat.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Despite what his bestselling book once proclaimed, there is no art to Trump\u2019s dealmaking, because there is no dealmaking in the first place. It\u2019s all just bravado and illusion in a show where the magician has no bunnies left to pull from his top hat. During Wednesday\u2019s Cabinet meeting at the White House, Trump shrugged off his inability to reach an agreement with the Islamic Republic. \u201cWe don\u2019t need oil,\u201d he <\/span>said<\/span>. \u201cWe don\u2019t need the Strait [of Hormuz]. We don\u2019t need anything.\u201d The U.S., he implied, was doing just fine without a deal. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum appeared to agree, <\/span>crediting the president<\/span> with \u201chelping to keep the price of gas down at home.\u201d (The national average <\/span>currently stands<\/span> at $4.459 per gallon, and over $6 per gallon in California. Prices <\/span>dropped 7%<\/span> following Trump\u2019s announcement that a deal was coming.) If Iran fails to make concessions, Trump <\/span>said<\/span>, referring to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, \u201cthen the man on my left is gonna finish them off.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Details that have leaked about the proposed deal haven\u2019t helped matters. What\u2019s on the table is, in fact, much weaker than the <\/span>Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action<\/span> that was meticulously negotiated over the course of two years under the Obama administration between Iran and the U.S., the United Kingdom, France, Germany, China, Russia and the European Union\u00a0\u2014\u00a0and which Trump tore up upon taking office in 2017. In return for the U.S. lifting sanctions and unfreezing billions in assets, withdrawing the military from the region and allowing Iran to keep certain aspects of their nuclear program, the Islamic Republic would reportedly re-open the Strait of Hormuz, which had been unrestricted before Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu attacked the country on Feb. 28.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The plan\u2019s rumored commitments caused Republican hawks to wail about what was clearly a full capitulation on the part of the president. South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham <\/span>said<\/span> the provisions made him wonder \u201cwhy the war was started to begin with\u201d \u2014\u00a0as if he hadn\u2019t been the one whispering sweet nothings in Trump\u2019s ears about being remembered as the Alexander the Great of his time if only he would topple Iran\u2019s government and liberate its people. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz <\/span>wrote<\/span> that the terms being discussed \u2014 \u201cbillions of dollars, being able to enrich uranium & develop nuclear weapons, and having effective control over the Strait of Hormuz\u201d \u2014 would amount to \u201ca disastrous mistake.\u201d From secretary of state Mike Pompeo went so far as to <\/span>compare it<\/span> to the Obama team\u2019s efforts that would allow \u201cthe [Revolutionary Guard] to build a WMD program and terrorize the world,\u201d which prompted an unprecedented <\/span>f-bomb laden retort<\/span> from the White House warning him to \u201cshut his stupid mouth and leave the real work to the professionals.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

But the so-called professionals\u00a0\u2014\u00a0a team led by Trump\u2019s roving \u201cpeace envoys\u201d Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner \u2014\u00a0just can\u2019t seem to get the deal done. Perhaps the best illustration of the state of things came from GOP pollster and strategist Frank Luntz, who<\/span> tweeted unironically<\/span>, \u201cInsider reporting from an unnamed White House official says the Iran deal is \u201895% done.\u2019 The remaining 5% of negotiations are focused on Iran opening the Strait of Hormuz and turning over all nuclear material.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Read more A battle over dark money is brewing in Hawaii and Montana<\/a><\/p>\n

In other words: The most difficult issues are the ones on which the parties haven\u2019t been able to reach an agreement. And no amount of assurances from Trump \u2014\u00a0that he doesn\u2019t want to rush things, that he doesn\u2019t care about the midterms \u2014\u00a0can distract from this fact.<\/span><\/p>\n

Whatever this agreement, if there is one, turns out to be, it will not change the fact that under Trump, the U.S. has lost another war in the Middle East. And in a blunder of historic proportions, he has put the fate of the world\u2019s oil supply and international economy in the hands of a strengthened Iran.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Trump thought this war would be easy. High from his glorious conquest of Venezuela, he became convinced it would be simple to topple the Iranian leadership and install a friendly leader who would do his bidding, along the lines of what Venezuelan president Delcy Rodriguez has done. In fact, one of the more <\/span>bizarre revelations<\/span> of the past couple of weeks is that the U.S. and Israel thought they could easily kill Iran\u2019s existing leaders and bring back former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, perhaps best remembered for his fervent declarations of \u201cDeath to America.\u201d One supposes that Trump was convinced he could make a nice little oily side deal with him and all would be well.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

That plot went awry when they bombed Ahmadinjad\u2019s house in the early days of the campaign \u2014\u00a0apparently in an attempt to free him from house arrest\u00a0\u2014 and he reportedly became \u201cdisillusioned\u201d with the plot. The Atlantic\u2019s David Graham <\/span>analogized it<\/span> by saying that \u201cbacking Ahmadinejad as a coup leader is like backing a coup against Donald Trump led by Al Gore.\u201d But then there\u2019s not much about this war that wasn\u2019t ill-conceived and half-baked.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Trump further threw sand in the gears when he gathered all the Arab leaders on the phone early in the week to talk about the negotiations and threw in the demand that they all sign on to the Abraham Accords to recognize Israel and normalize relations \u2014\u00a0a move that reportedly shocked them into silence.<\/span><\/p>\n

Trump is still laboring under the illusion that he can be a triumphant savior of the Middle East \u2014\u00a0and win his coveted Nobel Peace Prize \u2014 when, in reality, his impulsive actions have left America diminished on the world stage and Iran firmly ensconced as a regional power that the international community will have to reckon with. To all intents and purposes, it\u2019s all over but the phony victory celebration \u2014 and the sycophantic paeans to his masterful non-achievement. <\/span><\/p>\n

Read more Trump\u2019s war on free speech extends far beyond campus walls<\/a><\/p>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rumors of an agreement keep coming. But the president says \u201cWe don\u2019t need anything\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":144,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[208,272,5,273,134,105,274],"class_list":["post-145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting","tag-analysis","tag-diplomacy","tag-donald-trump","tag-foreign-policy","tag-iran","tag-iran-war","tag-strait-of-hormuz"],"yoast_head":"\nThere is no art to Trump\u2019s Iran deal - Relocation Across America<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/relocationacrossamerica.com\/?p=145\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"There is no art to Trump\u2019s Iran deal - Relocation Across America\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Rumors of an agreement keep coming. 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