Lawrence O’Donnell thinks Donald Trump’s rambling national address about his war on Iran was actually a surrender.
The president’s 19-minute primetime speech on Wednesday has been largely dismissed as free of news, with Trump saying nothing he hadn’t already said in his repeated rants on Truth Social.
It came as the U.S. bombardment of the Middle Eastern country entered its second month. U.S. and Israeli strikes have claimed the lives of thousands across the region, including 13 U.S. service members, prompting Iran to close off the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow shipping lane through which a fifth of the world’s oil passes.
”Well, tonight Donald Trump officially surrendered in his war for control of the Strait of Hormuz,” MS NOW host O’Donnell said in his monologue at the top of the show. “Last night, we reported to you that Donald Trump said yesterday that the Strait of Hormuz would open as soon as he ended his war. In other words, Iran would open the Strait of Hormuz as soon as Donald Trump gives up.
“And tonight, after saying, ‘We are going to finish the job,’ Donald Trump said it is up to what he called the countries of the world to open the Strait of Hormuz now that he has completely failed to do it after threatening military power that he would use to open the Strait.”
The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell host then read out a diktat from Trump, 79, who told countries not involved militarily that they needed to be.
“The countries of the world that do receive oil through the Hormuz Strait must take care of that passage,” he bossed. “They must cherish it. They must grab it and cherish it. They can do it easily. We will be helpful, but they should take the lead in protecting the oil that they so desperately depend on.”
Gas prices in the U.S. rose past the $4 gallon mark this week for the first time in four years.
O’Donnell wasn’t buying Trump’s rhetoric. “Those are surrender words from Donald Trump on the Strait of Hormuz,” he said. “Donald Trump insulted the intelligence of every one of his voters and supporters tonight, and he insulted the commitment of every member of the American military involved in Donald Trump’s war by calling his war, ‘That little journey to Iran.’
“No president of the United States in our history has ever demeaned military service in war by calling a war a little journey. And Donald Trump blatantly lied about the reasons he launched his war. Donald Trump said that Iran was on the verge of obtaining a nuclear weapon and using it against the United States. He said, ‘They were right at the doorstep.’ That is a Trump pathological lie. Iran was not close to being able to manufacture a nuclear weapon, according to intelligence officials.
“And the other component lie in that statement is that Iran was somehow developing a nuclear weapon at high speed,” the 74-year-old continued. “Iran has been working on the possibility of obtaining a nuclear weapon slower than any country in history that has actually obtained a nuclear weapon.”
It comes after a Wall Street Journal report that said Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps still has control of the Strait and brushed off Trump’s bluster as “performative actions.”
The regime has also denied claims from Trump that it has asked for a ceasefire. Despite Trump threatening to bomb Iran back “to the Stone Age,” Tehran’s Foreign Ministry has vowed to fight back as long as bombings continue.
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
