Call it the Fog of Trump. As the Iran war enters its fifth week, the American president is doing his best to confuse the enemy and the rest of the world.
On Sunday, President Donald Trump took to Truth Social to share his optimism about negotiations with a “new and more reasonable regime to end our military operations in Iran.” That said, Trump’s post continued, if the talks do not end threats to shipping across the Strait of Hormuz, then America will start blowing up power plants, oil wells, and the refineries on Kharg Island.
On Monday, Trump confirmed to the New York Post that his interlocutor in this “new and more reasonable regime” was the speaker of Iran’s parliament, or Majlis, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf. At the same time, he acknowledged he didn’t know if Ghalibaf would play ball. “I’ll let you know that in about a week,” he told the Post, when asked if he would back away from the threats against the Strait of Hormuz.
As if that were not confusing enough, Ghalibaf himself took to X on Monday to accuse Trump of engaging in a little make-believe. “The enemy promotes its desires as news while threatening our nation at same time,” he wrote. And as for a new Iranian regime, Ghalibaf poured cold water on that too. “God willing,” he wrote, “the people of Iran, under the leadership of the Supreme Leader, will make the enemy regret the aggression and reclaim their rights.”
