The president has no idea what he’s doing in Iran, argues his longtime frenemy, Piers Morgan.
The English broadcaster appeared on the BBC on Sunday morning to talk about the U.S.-Israeli joint offensive in Iran, just two weeks after it began on Feb. 28, and how 79-year-old President Donald Trump’s handling of the situation has raised more questions than it has answered.
“Piers, you’re someone who’s had lots of interactions with Donald Trump,” host Laura Kuenssberg asked Morgan, 60. “Do you think he has a clue what he’s trying to achieve in the Middle East?”
“No. I don’t,” the journalist replied curtly. “I think he’s thought he could pull a Venezuela here, decapitate the leadership of Iran, and it would all get settled quite quickly. And I think, two weeks in, what is very clear is this is not going to get settled quickly.”
“All the mission statements he’s laid out have changed day by day, sometimes hour by hour,” he continued. “It was going to be regime change. It was after the nuclear capability, which we’d been assured only 10 months ago had been dismantled already.”
Morgan, who entered Trump’s sphere after winning his reality show The Celebrity Apprentice in 2008, said this war was especially interesting given the “overwhelming” military strength of the combined American and Israeli forces facing Iran, which has focused on a different approach.
“They’ve gone after a war economically, and they’ve been very successful so far,” Morgan said about the Iranians. “But by controlling the Strait of Hormuz, and by attacking these neighboring Gulf states in the touristy areas, they are sending a signal that we can’t beat you necessarily militarily, but economically we can paralyze you.”
Since Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz on March 2, global oil prices have shot up as the crucial trade corridor‘s daily traffic has plummeted. Americans have felt the war at the pump, as domestic gas prices have shot up to an average of $3.70 per gallon, up more than 22 percent from $2.94 just a month ago.
“I think, whether you like Trump or not - and I’ve known him a long time, I like him, but I don’t like what he’s doing at the moment,” Morgan said, the UK’s Express reported. “I think it’s a miscalculation that, in the end, could define his presidency.”
Despite his friendliness with Trump for almost 20 years, the British journalist has insisted he is not a “MAGA supporter,” instead labeling himself as “an old school non-woke liberal centrist.”
Morgan has been critical of Trump throughout his second term, including when the president reposted an AI video on Truth Social depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as apes, which he called “vile” and “racist.”
