Trump TACOs Again!
Iran does not waver and doesn't even attend the ceasefire meeting. Trump blinks on his bluff of bombing them as he said earlier today he was certain he was going to have to do.
Let’s lead off with an explanation of Trump’s always erratic behavior from Trump’s own press secretary: (Sometimes even the White House just hands you a gift.)
Yes, Karoline, actually posted that on her validated X account. My first thought was that is announcement was awfully late in coming, but THANK GOODNESS they are finally recognizing the problem! I doubt, however, it will bring improvement for the president in time to avoid another war.
And the gifts keep coming today:
Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson apologized on Monday for campaigning for President Donald Trump, declaring that he would be “tormented” by the decision “for a long time” to come….
“You wrote speeches for him, I campaigned for him. I mean, we’re implicated in this, for sure,” said Carlson to his brother on The Tucker Carlson Show. “It’s not enough to say, ‘Well I changed my mind,’ or like, ‘Oh this is bad, I’m out.’ It’s like in very small ways, but in real ways, you and me and millions of people like us are the reason this is happening right now.”
I nice little validation of my last “Deeper Dive into the Don”:
People caught up in the MAGA madness never admit that they are the ones who powered Trump all the way to the presidency, even as others warned them that Trump was deranged. They don’t ever admit they were wrong for accusing those who pointed out Trump’s obvious and DEEP character flaws all along the way of being the ones who were deranged….
And, yet, Carlson FINALLY DOES ADMIT IT, shortly after I wrote that.
I suppose I’m glad, regardless, that they are seeing a glint of the light, albeit long after they put the devil in power and inflated him with their adoration and voted empowerment from a blighted soul into the beast he is today. Absolute power corrupts absolutely, and the’ve have allowed him to have absolute power by doing nothing to restrain him at anything he tries to do.
So, Carlson, finally admits he was part of the problem. He was a big part of what enabled this mess:
The former Fox News host continued, “So I do think it’s like a moment to wrestle with our own consciences. You know, we’ll be tormented by it for a long time. I will be, and I want to say I’m sorry for misleading people, and it was not intentional. That’s all I’ll say.”
Except that, even then, Carlson doesn’t go far enough. He says it was “not intentional.” Yes, it was. We have his emails to Fox executives after Trump’s failed election telling them that Trump was the devil—a horrible person—but that they needed to present him in a positive light because that is what the huge audience Fox had worked to build up wanted (demanded!). If they didn’t promote Trump in every story they did about him, they would keep losing audience share. What Carlson forcefully advocated to Fox execs before he was fired was total pandering to his audience to keep them on board. So, it was intentional!
I concluded my statement about MAGA making the monster what he is this way:
Just wait until it gets worse, and it will until most of the rest of MAGA turn late, too, yet never thank those who tried to point out the danger all along the way.
And that is where we stand today, as I write this out in real time with headlines likely to change before the article is done. As Trump’s deadline for his schmeasefire comes to a close with Iran, Iran indicated again and again that it is not interested in even returning to the negotiation table because Trump always TACOs or never abides by his own word or his own “agreements.” (He tears up tariff deals as quickly as he makes them.) The talks are dead:
JD Vance remains at the White House as uncertainty surrounds whether he will depart for Pakistan, with Iran peace talks hanging in the balance less than 24 hours before the ceasefire expires.
Donald Trump claims he’s poised to resume bombing if Tehran refuses to come to the table, he told CNBC Tuesday morning.
So, tonight it could get very bad very quickly if Trump doesn’t find a way to TACO again, because he has gone back to his threats of annihilating Iran’s civilization by blowing up all their electrical generation facilities and their bridges.
Pakistan is ready to host the talks. They are planning for them to take place on Wednesday at the highest level. But the White House has been very tight-lipped about when JD Vance will be leaving Washington.
What appears to be going on is the US trying to protect itself from embarrassment.
If it is to send its team, which ends up sitting in Islamabad without Iran showing up, that would be a huge embarrassment. As a result, there now appears to be a game between the US and Iran over who is going to get on their plane first.
Pakistani officials say there are no teams of the highest-level delegations on the ground, but that support staff have been arriving over the last couple of days.
However, the big news in that story is that Iran says it has some “new cards” to play on the battlefield in the new round of war that is about to burst into the open. There is evidence that the “new cards” came from Russia and China during the opportunity afforded by the Schmeasefire. So, we are likely to see some far more powerful weapons deployed by Iran, which has now stated outright that it used the pause in the war to restock its weaponry.
Trump says the US military has used the ceasefire period to restock on equipment and is ready to resume attacks against Iran if he orders them.
“We’re loaded up,” Trump told CNBC. “We have so much ammo, so much of everything… we’ve used this to restock and they probably have done a little bit of restocking.
Actually, they did a lot!
“We’re ready to go. The military is raring to go.”
As early as this morning, Iran has refused to confirm if it will attend the meeting.
Trump has already said it is “highly unlikely” the two-week ceasefire will be extended past the deadline especially if a permanent end to the fighting can’t be hashed out.
Iran’s lead negotiator issued a chilling statement saying that the two weeks of no fighting has only helped the regime get back on its feet….
He went on to warn: “In the past two weeks, we have prepared to reveal new cards on the battlefield.”
It is widely known that at least four military cargo jets from China, arrived in Iran during the ceasefire. It is also known that a number of ships arrived via the Caspian Sea, from Russia.
It is widely believed these planes and ships have brought new, advanced, weaponry from both China and Russia to Iran.
So there could very well be some ugly surprises for the US and Israel if fighting resumes.
Ghalibaf, who at the start of the month said the US will be dragged into a “living hell” and the Middle East will all “burn”, is known to be a loyalist of the Ayatollah.
And then it happened: Trump TACOed all over himself
That’s where we stood as I was writing this article this afternoon, hours away from the moment when Trump said it would be “highly unlikely” the two-week ceasefire would be extended. And then ….
Trump extends Iran ceasefire after Pakistan talks appear to collapse as Don vows to keep up blockade
The president is still vowing to maintain a blockade on the Persian Gulf and has given no date which the pause in fighting will now end.
This time Trump seems to be struggling to come up with a reason for capsizing on his big threats, such as the usual, “Some big progress has been made, so we’re going to see where that goes. Iran really wants to make a deal.” He couldn’t run that one again because Iran didn’t even show up at the talks. Neither did JD Vance. No deal. No talks even. So, instead, we got this:
In a bombshell statement Trump said on TruthSocial: “Based on the fact that the Government of Iran is seriously fractured, not unexpectedly so and, upon the request of Field Marshal Asim Munir, and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, of Pakistan, we have been asked to hold our Attack on the Country of Iran until such time as their leaders and representatives can come up with a unified proposal.
Blah, blah, blah. In other words, “Nothing happened; we don’t even know who we’re talking to, so we are going to extend and pretend for an unknown amount of time until we figure that out. At some time we hope there will be some leaders and representatives who will come up with a unified proposal because we never actually had anything in writing on the Schmeasefire anyway.”
I pointed out when there was no unity as to what the ceasefire even said that the disagreements were because nothing was in writing. That is how flimsy the claims of negotiation were.
“I have therefore directed our Military to continue the Blockade and, in all other respects, remain ready and able, and will therefore extend the Ceasefire until such time as their proposal is submitted, and discussions are concluded, one way or the other. President DONALD J. TRUMP.”
What a gas bag. Iran called his bluff of a deadline for big action and was a no-show to the talks at all; Trump didn’t carry out the bluff but is waffling to find a reason to postpone indefinitely. He probably chickened out when he realized Iran used the opportunity to rearm with some much more heavy-duty artillery from Russia and China.
Trump blinked.
A US government plane due to carry envoys including Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to Islamabad failed to depart as scheduled, instead turning back mid-plan and heading to Washington.
Trump had earlier declared “I expect to be bombing” if talks fail before the ceasefire deadline at 1am on Thursday (8pm ET Wednesday), adding that “the military is raring to go”.
Vance had been due in Islamabad to hammer out a deal with Iran and end weeks of escalating conflict.
Despite previously signalling openness, Iran has yet to decide whether it will even come to the table.
Uh huh.
Iran didn’t even come to the table.
Extending the Ceasefire Disagreement, as I’ll now call it, with an indefinite postponement until a proposal arrives in writing is warranted, Trump says as his justification, because he’s learned the government of Iran is severely fractured? I think he pretty well knew that when he boasted about decapitating them and that the victory had been won. Such a gas bag!
“Iran ultimately announced today that under these circumstances, attending the negotiations is a waste of time because the US prevents reaching any suitable agreement,” Tasnim reported.
Earlier on Tuesday, Trump, during an interview with CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” said, “I don’t want to do that,” after being asked if he would extend the ceasefire to allow for peace talks to reach a deal.
While it’s great that he’s not going through with destroying millions of civilians by cutting off all power and most transport, hence all refrigeration and water in a scorching desert where large populations are only made possible by modern energy; he’s such a liar in the first place, and he has gotten not a single objective accomplished in this war. (See related article below about how the war has failed entirely at all named and hinted objectives.)
One thing the war has not failed at is creating outrageous inflation and turning a recession into a global depression, but it will take months for all of that to play out. The global economic damage is already in the bag, and we are all going to pay for this objective-free fiasco of one man’s folly for a long time. Pay very deeply.
(For the full story on the quotes above, see the highlighted article headlines below:)
