Trump Desperately Tries to Spin His Massive Surrender in Iran as a Win

Iran called Donald Trump’s bluff. After spending days threatening to completely annihilate Iran, the U.S. president is suddenly open to giving them a lot of money.

In a semi-incoherent post on Truth Social Tuesday evening, Trump called for a two-week ceasefire and suggested that he was amenable to Iran’s 10-point plan, a proposal that the country’s leadership offered the day before. But experts quickly noted that the peace deal was lopsidedly in favor of Iran.

Chief among the concerns was one major concession that would allow Iran to collect millions of dollars in tolls from ships that pass through the Strait of Hormuz, a vital tradeway in the region for oil and gas.

But never fear: “We’re thinking of doing it as a joint venture. It’s a way of securing it—also securing it from lots of other people,” Trump told ABC correspondent Jonathan Karl on Wednesday. “It’s a beautiful thing.”

Political commentators did not agree with the president’s analysis of the new trade tariffs.

“Trump went from ‘we’re going to wipe Iran off the map’ to ‘maybe we’re going into business with them’ literally overnight,” wrote Bulwark founder Sarah Longwell.

“Are we gonna do joint ventures for tollbooths at all the major global straits—Malacca, Gibraltar, etc—or are joint ventures possible only if we have a costly war first with the littoral states?” wrote SUNY Albany political science professor Christopher Clary.

“Dude is insane. 25th amendment,” wrote former MS NOW host and Zeteo News chief Mehdi Hasan.

The strait has been closed since March 2. Situated between Iran and the United Arab Emirates, the waterway funnels approximately one-fifth of all crude oil shipments. In 2024, the U.S. imported roughly 500,000 barrels of crude oil per day through the strait, accounting for about 7 percent of total U.S. crude imports, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

The ramifications of closing the choke point have been felt around the world. In the U.S., the price per oil barrel has exploded due to the strait’s closure, pushing gas over $4 per gallon in most states (in some areas of California, gas has leapt past $7 a gallon). Diesel shot up by 20 cents over the last week alone.

Trump has waffled on the strait’s significance to American markets. Last week, the president rapidly cycled through his opinions on the transit point, claiming in succession that he didn’t care if the strait remained closed and that he needed it reopened.

Iran has let very few ships pass through the channel, even for a fee, over the last five weeks.

Defense Secretary Peter Hegseth snapped at a reporter Wednesday who raised a simple question regarding the administration’s claims of a ceasefire and the reality on the ground.

“Iran has said that safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz will be possible in coordination with Iran’s armed forces and ‘technical limitations.’ What do you believe that means?” the Daily Wire’s Mary Margaret Olahan asked Hegseth at his Wednesday morning press briefing. “And then we’ve also heard reports that Iran has continued striking targets well into this morning. At what point are we beyond a grace period?”

“What we know is that Iran is gonna say a lot of things,” Hegseth replied. “What has been agreed to, what’s been stated is the strait is open.… As far as shooting, we were monitoring it last night, in real time—of course we are. Iran would be wise to find a way to get [a] carrier pigeon to their troops out in remote locations to know not to shoot, not to shoot any longer.”

“If they’re still firing ballistic missiles—” another reporter interrupted suddenly, referring to reports that Iran continued to attack Israel and Gulf countries Wednesday.

“Excuse me? Why are you so rude?” Hegseth replied, visibly annoyed. “Just wait, I’m callin’ on people … so nasty.”

Hegseth likely knows this, and responded to an honest question about a major sticking point in the ceasefire with a personal attack to avoid answering. But while he, President Trump, and the GOP try to spin this as some mastermind dealmaking victory for them, Iran seems to be continuing to do what it wants, at least for the time being. It’ll control the Strait of Hormuz, the Iranian government will remain in place, and it may even continue to fire on Israel and the Gulf allies, as Israel too continues to bomb Lebanon.

At the eleventh hour Tuesday night, Donald Trump announced a two-week ceasefire in his war on Iran, saying that Iran’s proposed 10-point plan was a “workable basis” for negotiations and claiming victory. But already cracks are forming.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is denying that Lebanon is included in the deal, contradicting Iran, mediator Pakistan, and French President Emmanuel Macron. Lebanon was bombed relentlessly by Israel hours after the deal was announced, with strikes hitting the city of Tyre on the southern coast. Multiple airstrikes have hit Beirut, with Israel claiming to have hit 100 Hezbollah targets across the country in a span of 10 minutes.

Israel’s chief of the general staff, Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir, said in a statement Wednesday, “We will continue to strike the terrorist organisation Hezbollah and seize every opportunity.”

“We will not compromise on the security of the [Israeli] residents of the North. We will continue to attack without pause,” the statement said.

Meanwhile, an oil refinery on Iran’s Lavan Island was bombed, with the National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company saying that “safety and firefighting teams are controlling and extinguishing the fire and securing the facility.”

“Fortunately, no casualties have been reported so far due to the timely evacuation of employees,” the company said in a statement to the Mehr news agency.

The United Arab Emirates said that its air defense systems had to handle 17 ballistic missiles and 35 drones from Iran Wednesday, and the Kuwaiti military said 31 Iranian drones targeted its oil, gas, and water desalination facilities.

Meanwhile, Pakistan says Iran will be in attendance for talks in Islamabad Friday. The terms of the ceasefire deal state that the U.S. will pause its bombing campaign and that Iran will reopen the Strait of Hormuz. But will Israel’s insistence that it continue bombing (and occupying) Lebanon derail the whole thing? Will Trump seek to protect the deal and tell his friend and fellow war criminal Netanyahu to back off? He may have to if he wants the ceasefire to hold.

The most bloodthirsty MAGA acolytes are fuming at President Trump’s two-week ceasefire deal with Iran and his capitulation to its 10-point plan—a major win for the Iranian government.

On Tuesday, after he threatened to kill “a whole civilization” and just 90 minutes before his deadline to reach a deal, Trump announced that he’d “suspend the bombing and attack of Iran for a period of two weeks.” He credited positive talks with Pakistan and Iran for the agreement, citing Iran’s 10-point plan as a “workable basis on which to negotiate.” This was devastating news for some of the worst people in the MAGA-verse.

“The Islamic terrorist regime of Iran is now more legitimized and emboldened than ever before. Terrorists can’t be negotiated with. They can only be destroyed. The US doesn’t get anything out of this ceasefire that isn’t a ceasefire,” MAGA commentator, Zionist, and proud Islamophobe Laura Loomer wrote on X. “How many missiles did Iran fire into allied countries last night? A lot.”

“A ceasefire that leaves the IRGC in power isn’t peace. It’s permission,” self-described “MAGA Jew” Matthew Feinberg wrote on X. “Permission to regroup. Permission to rearm. Permission to do it all over again. That’s not a win. That’s a delay.”

“This is a cancer. If you don’t fully get rid of a cancer, it will grow back,” conservative Iranian American commentator Dr. Sheila Nazarian told News Nation Tuesday evening. “China will help, Russia will help, and we will leave a nuclear, fully stockpiled, more knowledgeable Iran for our children and grandchildren to deal with.”

The Truth Social comments (at least the few that weren’t bots) weren’t much better for Trump, either.

“I’m extremely disappointed in President Trump tonight. I don’t understand how you can possibly believe anything the IRGC says!!” one user replied to Trump’s announcement. “FUCK THAT!!!! END THIS FUCKING SHIT ALREADY!!! YOU CAN’T NEGOTIATE WITH FUCKING TERRORISTS FOR FUCKS SAKE,” said another.

This ceasefire is only temporary, and comes as the U.S. and Israel have already killed more than 3,000 civilians in Iran and Lebanon. And yet MAGA’s reaction demonstrates the constant whiplash Trump is oscillating between—from the genocidal Laura Loomer route to the “end to endless wars” route he ran on. Right now, both sides are unhappy.

The leader of the Catholic Church has denounced Donald Trump’s warmongering rhetoric.

Pope Leo XIV described the U.S. president’s recent threats to obliterate Iranian civilization as “truly unacceptable.”

“Today as we all know there was this threat against all the people of Iran. This is truly unacceptable,” Leo said Tuesday. “Here there are certainly questions of international law, but even more than this a question of morality for the good of people.”

Trump earlier Tuesday had pledged that Iran’s “whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again” unless the country’s leadership agreed to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a vital tradeway in the region that only closed because of Trump’s intervention. He similarly promised to “blow up the whole country.”

Trump has repeatedly escalated his threats against Iran since Sunday, demanding that the country’s leadership either reopen the waterway or face total annihilation, highlighting various possible strike targets such as Iran’s power plants and bridges. The president said this despite the fact that carrying out this threat would constitute a war crime.

Leo referred to the conflict as an “unjust war” and said that the war is “continuing to escalate” with no clear resolution. It “is only provoking more hatred throughout the world,” he said, according to the Associated Press’s English translation of the pope’s comments, which were made in Italian.

But such a severe attack on Iran wouldn’t just be immoral—it would also violate the laws of war. Targeting noncombatants such as civilians and civilian infrastructure is a blatant violation of International Humanitarian Law. Exterminating a “whole civilization” would break several components of the Geneva Conventions, which the U.S. played a foundational role in creating nearly a century ago.

The pope urged people of goodwill to contact their local lawmakers to create pressure against the White House–led war effort. Leo emphasized that attacks on civilian infrastructure are “against international law” as well as a “sign of the hatred, the division, the destruction human beings are capable of.”

“We all want to work for peace,” the pope said.

Trump wrote on social media that Iran had the opportunity to act until Tuesday 8 p.m. Iran has so far rejected potential peace deals.