“The Deal with Islamic Republic of Iran is now complete. Congratulations to all!” President Donald J. Trump 🇺🇸

So one assumes Trump will add the war he started to the growing list of wars he ended.

Seen a great many Trumpists say "No other president even got the Strait of Hormuz open!" I've responded sometimes with "First president since February 2026 to do it!"

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Until the text of the US-Iran deal is signed and released, there is going to be a lot of spin on both sides. But here is my initial take. This war was a mistake, and it needs to end. The President thought that the Iranian regime would collapse quickly, but it did not. In fact, it has been strengthened strategically by its survival against a heavy US-Israeli assault and carrying out some effective counterstrikes. Many countries in the region are now courting Iran and looking to deescalate and rebuild ties. A sign of which way the wind is blowing. Getting the Strait of Hormuz open is the most important outcome of this MOU. Of course, the Strait was open before the war. Now we are paying to reopen it with sanctions relief. Iran has taken a theoretical point of leverage and turned it into a very real and powerful one, imposing costs across the global economy and rattling President Trump. As for the nuclear issues, there really is no agreement, other than to negotiate over the HEU stockpile and an enrichment moratorium. Iran knows how to drag out those negotiations, and try to pocket concessions along the way. It is possible that no deal will every be reached, and very likely that if one is reached, it will be worse than what we could have achieved through diplomacy before the war. Iran is not likely to take seriously that the US would return to war, certainly before the US midterms. So that means we will be conducting diplomacy without a credible threat of force. If any agreement ultimately reached actually safely puts Iran's nuclear ambitions out of reach, I'll acknowledge it. It's just too early to make that judgment. Trump is mainly focused on comparing his deal favorably to the JCPOA. But we are a long way from being able to make that comparison, and it may end up no better, or weaker than that deal. But in some ways, Trump's deal and the JCPOA are already similar. Nothing on ballistic missiles, nothing on proxies, nothing on weakening the regime or helping the Iranian people. And plenty of sanctions relief that will strengthen the regime, and be poured into the missile program and proxy network. Honest critics of the JCPOA will not twist themselves into pretzels to defend Trump's approach. Israelis are deeply disappointed in this outcome, but they should not be surprised. After some initial overlap of Trump's and Netanyahu's interests, there was a strong divergence. The United States needed this war to end. Netanyahu wanted to continue. Trump's claim to include Lebanon in the ceasefire and his harsh shutting down Israeli attacks on Hezbollah is also a win for Iran. After the JCPOA was signed, Obama and Netanyahu worked together to strengthen Israel's campaign of strikes in Syria to intercept Iranian weapons shipments to Hezbollah in Lebanon. So let's hope we see the removal of Iran's enriched uranium and a long-term suspension of enrichment, with full verification. But to achieve those goals, Trump's team is going to need to engage in far more sophisticated diplomacy, backed by qualified experts, than they have to date. If it is a phase one splash with no follow-up on implementation of later phases, like in Gaza, we will be much worse off after, and because of, this war.

Has Trump signed the "deal" with the voices in his head yet?

It's good that Trump wants to end the war. But this deal underscores how pointless it was, and how he massively overestimated how easy it would be to topple the regime.

The Trump name is "Finally" removed from the Kennedy Center. HE tried everything he could to stop its removal. His dreaded name never belonged there in the first place. Donald Trump has NO true greatness whatsoever.

Trump just bragged that US troops executed a criminal suspect in Venezuela. How is this legal? I just wrote a Substack. bit.ly/43AGiRL

Musk became Donald Trump's #1 political donor, assumed a high-profile role early in his administration, and in that role inflicted incredible harm on some of the most vulnerable people in the world while failing to achieve any of his stated goals. slowboring.com/p/yes-doge-fa…