Nichols: He really thought that he was going to collapse the Iranian regime and then walk through the streets of a free Tehran while they were dedicating a statue to him. He was on a sugar high from toppling the president of Venezuela. His popularity was cratering, the economy was going in the wrong direction. And I think like a lot of autocrats, he said, a splendid little war in the Middle East where I emerge the hero will be great.
And now he's admitting they blackmailed me with the international economy, and I'm paying the blackmail because I have to.