Trump 'incapable' of accepting US has lost the war with Iran: Nobel laureate

President Donald Trump has lost the war with Iran but is refusing to accept it, according to a Nobel Prize winner.

Paul Krugman believes that Trump is flat out unable to deal with the fallout of the war in Iran, and that it has not yet set in that the United States' intervention in the Middle East has failed. Writing in his Substack earlier Saturday, Krugman claimed, "It’s been clear for a while that the United States has basically lost this war.

"The goal was to achieve regime change, possibly to take Iran’s uranium. Neither of those is going to happen. The Iranian regime is a harder line than it was before. Iran has ended up strengthened because it’s demonstrated its ability to shut off traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.

"Well, as best I can tell, and this is all speculation now, I don’t think that Trump has taken on board, maybe he’s emotionally incapable of taking on board the reality that he screwed up, that he took us to war and lost, that he, in his mind, still thinks that America has the upper hand and that the Iranians are cowering in fear over the might of the U.S. military, and that he doesn’t need to make any concessions."

The Strait of Hormuz had briefly been opened by Iran but was again closed over a US blockade. A new closure of the Strait of Hormuz was confirmed by Iranian military operational command, Khatam Al Anbiya, with a statement accusing the US of "maritime piracy and theft".

The statement reads, "For this reason, control of the Strait of Hormuz has reverted to its previous state, and this strategic waterway is under the strict management and control of the armed forces."

"Until the US restores the complete freedom of navigation for vessels from an Iranian origin to a destination, and from a destination back to Iran, the situation in the Strait of Hormuz will remain strictly controlled and in its previous state."

President Trump previously imposed a naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz as part of his escalating Iran war strategy, declaring he would "immediately eliminate" Iranian Navy vessels attempting to breach it.