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Jun 22, 2026
Timothy Snyder
In promoting his “deal” with Iran, US President Donald Trump has tried to dress up a humiliating defeat as a victory. While it’s tempting to blame this outcome on incompetent leadership, it stems more from the policies and institutions that have allowed entertainers and profiteers to rise to power.
TORONTO—America has capitulated to Iran. The “memorandum of understanding” signed by the two sides specifies terms that spell victory for the Islamic Republic and humiliation for President Donald Trump and the United States. War, as some people apparently needed to learn, is not about the pleasure one takes in watching things blow up. It is politics by other means. And as Iran has just demonstrated, winning means changing the enemy’s politics so that they are forced to surrender.
