The ink was not yet dry on the possible ceasefire extension agreement between Donald Trump and Iran’s brutal, hardline regime when the US leader started taking a victory lap.
Seeking to control the narrative concerning an historically humiliating American climbdown, Trump used his social media account on Friday to insist he was on the brink of securing a victory of historic proportions. Reposting the musings of Newt Gingrich, who served as Speaker of the House of Representatives as far back as the 1990s, Trump endorsed the view that he was “on the edge of an astonishing victory for our values and for a safer Middle East”.
In a post of his own, he then announced he was heading straight into the Situation Room “to make a final determination” and boosted expectations that a deal was at hand.
He claimed (without any supporting evidence) that the Iranians would “complete the immediate removal and/or detonation of any mines that are left, which will not be many!”, and he even encouraged the 20,000 seafarers who have been stranded aboard tankers and other vessels for the last three months to “say HELLO to your wives, husbands, parents, and families from me, your favorite President!”.
But the gleeful bonhomie was all for naught. After two hours surrounded by top members of his national security team, word emerged from the White House that, yet again, there was still no deal.
