We will never be able to unsee the monster Trump revealed on Tuesday morning with his genocidal threat to destroy Iran’s “civilization.”
The tried and true techniques Trump has employed in the past to change the subject from his manifold past failures and catastrophes will not work in this case.
Certainly, the sham ceasefire cooked up at the last minute to create the illusion of sufficient progress to warrant calling off Trump’s planned apocalypse will not do the trick.
It was obvious from the start it was a face-saving measure designed to create the illusion of agreement between the U.S. and Iran in a way that would enable both sides to claim victory.
In reality, of course, there was no agreement except to pretend to agree.
Within moments of the so-called deal’s announcement, it was being violated. Within minutes, it was clear that the Iranian 10-point plan Trump said would be the basis for the deal was both a major win for Iran and at the same time, was, almost point-by-point, contrary to Trump’s stated objectives and positions.
Within hours, outrage at the new leverage the deal gave Iran over the Strait of Hormuz grew among members of both parties in the U.S. and among our friends throughout the Middle East and nations worldwide. It was also apparent that Israel was not a party to the discussions and that it would, contrary to the “deal,” continue its onslaught in Lebanon.
By Wednesday, on points from the future of Iran’s enriched uranium to whether Lebanon was even part of a deal, the degree of differences between the sides grew—as did the possibility of the entire thing breaking down before the two-week break that was announced Tuesday had expired.
In short, the last-minute “agreement” was a sham wrapped in a deception, placed inside an avalanche of lies.
The only part of it that seemed to be holding—that Iran would be able to control the strait and cash in big-time on that control, both in terms of revenue and in terms of geopolitical clout—immediately raised more questions as Trump seemed not only to embrace it but to actually want a piece of the action. (He said he was thinking of it as a kind of strategic partnership. With Iran.)
Whereas traffic flowed freely through the strait before the war, now it is clear that Iran has a new and potent lever. Whereas Iran was struggling financially before the war, the toll booth deal for the strait and the lifting of sanctions promises a windfall that would make the amount of Iranian money returned to that country after the Obama-era nuclear deal was struck pale by comparison.
Whereas America’s friends in the Gulf region felt secure and as though they had the strategic upper hand with Iran prior to the war, now they reportedly feel blindsided and weakened. Whereas America’s allies in Europe had not been consulted on undertaking the war, it is clear Trump now wants to punish them for not volunteering to help with his illegal war.
In other words, by virtually every strategic metric, the deal that Trump and his aides are spinning is not looking good and therefore, declaring victory and going home is just not looking like a plausible option.
But beyond that, Trump, with his threat of wiping Iran from the face of the earth, has revealed a side of himself that seemed more hideous, more extreme, more dangerous than he ever has before.
Trump had announced that he was ready and willing to commit war crimes to achieve his ends, the law and human decency be damned.
It was not the first time he had revealed his contempt for the law, but it the scope and repugnance of what he promised to do was on a different level this time—true genocide.
And that is saying a lot when referring to a man whose decisions last year to withhold vital international aid are expected to result in the deaths of 14 million people worldwide before the end of the decade, of a man who launched an illegal attack on Venezuela and was ordering the commission of serial war crimes with attacks on small suspected drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean and the Pacific, or of a man who threatened to invade and annex neighboring countries, allies.
No, this was even more horrifying than all that. What is more, by the terms of the Geneva Convention, even such a threat was itself already a violation of international law.
Perhaps just as unsettlingly for the American people, America’s allies, and the world at large, not only did Trump’s threat reveal his capacity to join the very worst of history’s villains, it also was a sign of the increasingly unstable and erratic nature of the president.
In recent days and weeks, the aging and infirm U.S. commander-in-chief has veered from one extreme to another (Iran’s people are animals, Iran is our friend). He has lashed out uncontrollably at anyone who challenged him. He has been unable to control his language, peppering his rants with expletives. He has at times lost his train of thought and, according to multiple reports, as bad news about his serial failed initiatives has reached him in the Oval Office, at Mar-a-Lago or on the golf course, he has blown up. Thrown fits. Loyal aides have been fired. Threats have come fast and furious via his Truth Social account.
In other words, he’s not just a profoundly immoral man without a hint of conscience or human decency, he’s losing it. He’s a monster and he’s a madman.
He can write all the “see, everybody, everything is going to be ok” social media posts he wants to. He can have Steve Witkoff work out all manner of deals to try to paper over the calamities caused by his lack of impulse control, his psychosis, and his megalomania. He can invoke religion or banter jovially with Fox News couch potatoes.
None of it is going to erase from the minds of the people of this country and of the world that if pressed, if challenged, if cornered, he is capable of unleashing Hell on earth.
A psychopath controls the nuclear codes.
The U.S. military has undergone a purge to assure its leadership is more agreeable to whatever he demands of them. The same is true of other critical cabinet agencies.
He’s a monster and a madman and he has immense power.
But what is more, what is more unsettling, what makes what we saw so much more chilling and indelible, is that in all likelihood in the months and years remaining in his term he is likely to be under even greater pressure. His political power will wane. His opponents’ power and resources will grow. Investigations will unfold. There is new talk of impeachment. Internationally, too, he is likely to be challenged. The strategic gains enjoyed by Iran will be cited as proof he can be bested.
While it is impossible to predict the future, we can rest assured that between now and January 2029, Trump will face more of the kind of situations that are likely to bring out the worst in him, that will reveal again the Mr. Donald J. Hyde that lurks beneath the spray-tanned exterior of his con artist, reality-show host, smarmy Dr. Donald J. Jekyll.
On Tuesday morning, we caught a blood-curdling glimpse of the true Trump.
We now know even more clearly just how catastrophic a decision it was to re-elect and re-empower him. And frankly, over the course of the next three years, unless efforts to remove him grow far more serious and the collective action of other powerful forces in the world grow more purposeful, the one thing that seems certain is that the abomination, the fiend, we saw revealed on Tuesday will manifest himself again.
Chillingly, what we cannot know is whether the next time he will finally trade threats for the kind of despicable, devastating, world-rending action he promised to unleash just a day ago against Iran.
