“Stop Shooting” — Trump’s response to waves of strikes between Iran and Israel
Regional catastrophe brews as Trump tries to post his way through it. Meantime, the bombs are falling.
Justin here. Chloe has a good breakdown of the latest on the Iranian conflict today. Bottom line: Trump is trying to post and/or brand his way out of a mess that he caused. Plus, he and Republicans continue to push false election fraud claims to sow doubt in the November midterms. On another note, my book is out and you can order it here, wherever books are sold, or by asking your local bookstore to order a copy. I hope you’ll read it. As always, the best way to support the fact-based, adversarial journalism we perform here at Doom is through a paid subscription or by throwing a few dollars into our Coffee Fund. Now, on to the news… -jg
The fragile ceasefire between Israel and Iran has been upended with a series of attacks between the two countries and their proxies in the region. None of these developments should be surprising to those who have been paying attention to the general absence of U.S. leadership under President Donald Trump.
Trump is now firmly a lame duck president with historically low approval ratings, and Iran and Israel both know this, as well as the fact that Trump can’t be counted on to put together a coherent thought.
Israel and Iran say they’ve now halted strikes after waves of firefights between the two nations. Israeli warplanes struck the southern suburbs of Beirut in retaliation to alleged Iranian attacks, according to NBC.
Amidst this fighting, two U.S. Army aviators had to be rescued by a Navy sea drone near the strait of Hormuz after their helicopter was struck down by Iranian forces. President Trump took to Truth Social on Tuesday, saying that “the United States must, of necessity, respond to this attack.”
As of Wednesday night (Thursday morning Tehran time), the U.S. has resumed airstrikes in Iran. A peace deal, for now, appears all but dead.
The situation is just the latest escalation in the constant, will-they-won’t-they of Trump’s largely failed attempts at a peace agreement. With previous ceasefires and discussions of mutual cooperation falling through repeatedly, Iran and Israel are doing whatever they deem to be justified in the absence competent U.S. leadership. Because the Trump administration is effectively an authoritarian government, nothing as big as a peace deal with Iran can get done without Trump’s approval — and he simply doesn’t care anymore.
As the war eclipses the 100-day mark, it appears no closer to ending — with both sides seemingly unwilling to back down.
The Times of Israel reported that just four days before the Iranian missile strikes on Sunday, Trump admitted to calling Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “fucking crazy.” On Sunday, June 7, Iran launched multiple waves of ballistic missile strikes that were intercepted by Israeli defenses. Israel returned fire, and Iran subsequently launched a sixth wave of strikes.
In other actions taken against Israel, Houthis in Yemen announced missile strikes on the country and declared a ban on Israeli shipments coming through the Red Sea.
Prior to this, talks of mutual ceasefire between Hezbollah, Iran’s terror-proxy, and the U.S. were beginning to take place. On June 1, Lebanon confirmed that Hezbollah had agreed to the U.S. proposal for a mutual ceasefire with Israel, according to Daily Beirut.
While Trump has been golfing, posting on social media, falling asleep in the Oval Office and attending the NBA Finals, the situation in the region deteriorated rapidly. After alleged Hezbollah attacks that led to Israeli intervention in Beirut, the Iranian Foreign Ministry defended the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ right to defend itself after citing multiple Israeli ceasefire violations.
Israel has also continued to act against Hezbollah outside Iran, complicating the existing ceasefires. Israel continued to carry out daily strikes in southern Lebanon over alleged Hezbollah attacks in northern Israel, despite those attacks being halted by negotiations in Washington.
Iran warned that attacks on the Lebanese capital would trigger a broader response across the Middle East once more.
In response to the devolving situation, Trump has continued his efforts to post his way to peace, making breathless demands on Truth Social. From almost the first day of the conflict, Trump has repeatedly claimed that a peace deal is just around the corner.
Trump repeated the claim again in recent days, saying that the U.S. and Iran are “very close to making a deal” in an interview with Kristen Welker on Meet the Press. Trump has repeatedly teased such deals that have yet to happen — a throwback to his deal-making background as a businessman. But unlike an ice-skating rink in Central Park, Trump’s branding bravado isn’t working with Iran.
In the interview, Trump expressed his disdain for “endless wars” — a campaign promise that Welker pointed out he has now threatened with his “excursion” into Iran — and repeatedly boasted of a forthcoming peace deal. Trump also suggested the U.S. would “work with Iran to retrieve and destroy its highly enriched uranium” if they are unable to reach a deal. (Yes, you read that correctly.)
“If we make a deal that now we’re friendly, we’ll all go together. It’ll be our equipment. We’ll take it out and destroy it, whether it’s on-site or whether we take it off-site,” Trump told Welker.
“And we will go with them, or without them. But we won’t have people shooting at us, OK?” Trump went on. “Now, if we don’t make a deal, then we’re going to take them out militarily very harshly. And we’ll wait till we do that before we go, in which case we’ll have safety either way.”
Trump also said, bluntly and strangely, that Iran and Israel have “both had their fun” but that he does not want this to “blow up” a final deal with Iran — ignoring the U.S. role in the conflict.
All of this is why it’s so dangerous to continue to allow Trump to serve as president. He started a war that he’s realizing he can’t end simply by posting, risking regional catastrophe.
In the same interview, Trump walked out on Welker after making various false claims about his “landslide election victory” in 2020, the unfairness of the press, and rigged elections, calling Welker, NBC, CBS and CNN “crooked.”
Notably, Trump’s blowup came after Welker pressed him on false claims of election fraud in 2020, which came as Trump made similarly unfounded claims of elections in California.
The wait for results of elections in California that will decide the next mayor of Los Angeles have created a vacuum into which Trump and Republicans have firmly stepped, claiming that the normal vote-counting procedures in the state are evidence of fraud. These claims are part of broader efforts to sow doubt in November’s midterms.
Meantime, the bombs are again falling in a war that few asked for.
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