As Donald Trump’s war on Iran enters its 23rd day, the administration is putting out signals that it would like to begin peace talks at the same time that the president is raising the threat that he will destroy the country’s energy infrastructure within two days.
Appearing on MS NOW, to discuss the mixed messaging, AXIOS reporter Eli Stokols stated that the president is clueless about the best path to proceed down, and events on the ground –– particularly the closing of the Strait of Hormuz –– show no signs of being easily resolved.
Speaking with the hosts of “The Weekend, “ he explained, “Look, I think the president has been sort of all over the place. And I think the post overnight, with the threats if they don't, you know, open up the strait, we're going to blow their power plants to smithereens; the president's grappling with a lack of control. He started this conflict. He is not capable of ending it on his own.”
“Iran has a say here,” he observed. “And I think, you know, he's frustrated about not getting more help from European allies, which, like we all know why that is. And I think there's a sense, as much as they are saying, 'Well, we need $200 billion, we need all this money to keep this war going.'”
“There's a clear sense that the president would probably like to wrap this up, but that doesn't mean he can't escalate if he gets frustrated,” Stokols predicted. “And so I think there's a lot of uncertainty and incoherence in the strategy, because that reflects an uncertainty about how to proceed and what he can actually do to bring about an outcome that he'll be happy with a sort of clean ending to this war that he started.”
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