On June 16, President Donald Trump called Iran’s leaders “very rational people” who were “nice to deal with.” He even assured they were “not radicalized.”
On Wednesday, Trump offered a nearly polar-opposite take. He called Iran’s leaders “cuckoo,” “evil” and “sick,” “dirty players” and “scum.”
“They violate the agreement every day,” Trump said at a NATO summit in Turkey. “They lie. They cheat.”
The president offered his sharply revised review of Iran’s leaders as the tenuous ceasefire between the US and Tehran looks to be more endangered than ever after Iran targeted three ships in the Strait of Hormuz and the US launched strikes in response. Trump on Wednesday even declared the ceasefire to be “over,” though he has at other times suggested he holds out hope for a peace deal.
One way to look at Trump’s rosy words in mid-June was that he was just flattering people with whom he was engaged in high-stakes negotiations. That’s not unheard of.
