Donald Trump’s much-vaunted draft deal to end the war with Iran is not worth the paper it was written on, according to the president himself.
Trump signed his Memorandum of Understanding with a flourish at Versailles less than a month ago, on June 17, after claiming it was a blueprint for peace.
It was seen as appeasement to end an unpopular war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, with billions pledged to Tehran for reconstruction, U.S. sanctions lifted, and funds unfrozen.
But the president appeared keen to close the book on a conflict that had already lasted longer than the four to five weeks he had originally predicted. “We are not investing any money in Iran, by the way,” the president said at the G7 summit in France. “The rumor got out there yesterday, it was ridiculous,” he added, insisting it was a great deal.
It was only a matter of time, he suggested, that the full deal would be completed.
And now he is left trying to save face after Iran blew up the peace talks.
With the ceasefire in tatters, Trump admitted the MOU is “over.” The Iranians he once said were good negotiators were now “scum” and “sick people.”
He is suggesting it was just a “test” to see how serious the enemy was about a deal. “When you are dealing with despicable people, an MOU doesn’t mean much. Because it’s just an MOU,” he said in a phone interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt.
So much for the memorandum of understanding," wrote historian and foreign policy expert Max Boot on the Council on Foreign Relations website.
He added that, “for all of Trump’s bluster—and that of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth—they have no good military options to bring Iran to its knees. Truly defeating Iran and overthrowing its regime would require an invasion by hundreds of thousands of U.S. troops.
“This contingency is impossible to imagine given how unpopular the war already is with the American public. In one recent poll, 60 percent of those surveyed said the Iran war was not worth it.”
The reactivated hostilities have also pushed oil prices back up, with the international benchmark Brent crude oil shooting up to a one-month high over $86 a barrel after Trump announced the U.S. was blockading the Strait of Hormuz and planned to charge a 20 percent fee for shipping.
It came after a third successive night of U.S. strikes on Iran. The attacks lasted about five hours, according to the Pentagon.
“Four points in the city of Bushehr were hit by enemy projectiles,” the Iranian news agency IRNA quoted deputy provincial governor Ehsan Jahanian as saying.
The president wrote on Truth Social that, “the Strait of Hormuz is open to ALL Ship traffic except for Iran—and that is because of their lying, violent, malicious leadership, which is taking them down the path of TOTAL DESTRUCTION.
“We will therefore have a FULL Blockade, but only on Ships coming to and from Iranian ports, or carrying anything have to do with Iranian cargo,” he added.
He had earlier said it wasn’t appropriate to charge a fee but said leaders of allied nations persuaded him it was a good idea.
