President Donald Trump’s petty bullying behavior is threatening to torpedo negotiations to end the war with Iran, according to U.S. and Arab officials.
Trump’s long-running habit of holding grudges, mocking his opponents, and insisting on total victory for himself complicates efforts to end the two-month-old war through diplomacy, Politico reports, citing interviews with 10 current and former U.S. and Arab officials.
The officials’ main worry is whether Trump, 79, can tolerate giving Iran’s leaders enough room to save face and claim some degree of victory, even if they agree to U.S. demands that weaken them militarily.
Both sides have strong incentives to end the war, which has devastated Iran’s leadership and military while also damaging hundreds of U.S. military assets across the Middle East and sending gas prices soaring back home.
A Gulf Arab official familiar with the peace talks said both Tehran and Trump have so far refused to give the other side the political cover they seek in order to wind down the war.
Trump “badly wants this to end,” the official told Politico. “But the Iranians are so far refusing to give him what he needs to save face and leave. And he does not seem to understand that they need to save face, too.”
The smoothest path towards peace, according to former U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Michael Ratney, would require Trump to bite his tongue while his envoys negotiate with the Iranians.
“Not a tweet, not a public comment, not a threat, not a compliment. Just let his negotiators negotiate,” Ratney told Politico.
But Trump fires off an average of 18 Truth Social posts a day, and regularly derails entirely unrelated events—such as an Oval Office proclamation signing with kids—to rant about the war.
In his seemingly off-the-cuff remarks and posts, he constantly zigzags between crowing about progress in peace talks and lobbing insults and threats at Iran.
He has threatened to wipe out Iran’s “whole civilization,” called Tehran’s leaders “crazy b-----ds” who are “mentally ill,” demanded “unconditional surrender,” and repeatedly claimed that the U.S. has defeated Iran even as his envoys continue talks aimed at ending the war.
Trump’s demands reflect “a misperception that Iran will capitulate,” Nate Swanson, who dealt with Iran as a national security official under multiple administrations including Trump’s, told Politico. “This hasn’t and won’t happen no matter how much pressure Iran is under.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The president may need to change course if he hopes to bring a swift end to the war, which he initially said could take two to three weeks, and ease his deepening political crisis at home.
The conflict is facing overwhelming disapproval among Americans that rivals the anti-war sentiment seen during the Vietnam War and the peak of the war in Iraq.
The latest Washington Post/ABC News/Ipsos poll found that 61 percent of Americans believe that the U.S. using military force against Iran was a mistake. Just 36 percent believe it was the right decision.
The same poll found that disapproval of Trump’s performance in office has climbed to 62 percent, the highest level seen in either of his two terms.
