An administration appointee blew off President Donald Trump as a "lazy warmonger" after his approach to the military conflict in Iran led to what that official called an inevitable defeat.
While the self-described "Peace President" has proven adept at initiating wars, even his own senior officials believe the 80-year-old lacks the sustained commitment to prosecute them with the required intensity, and they told Zeteo that left the U.S. in a bad position entering peace negotiations.
“They’ve got him by the balls,” said another senior U.S. official, who requested anonymity to avoid being fired or jailed. “We want out, and [the Iranians] know we don’t have all the cards.”
Trump signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Wednesday with Iran at the Palace of Versailles, symbolically invoking one of history's most infamous treaties while attempting to frame the agreement as anything but a surrender.
Senior administration officials and Pentagon aides told analysts that the U.S. had exhausted its negotiating position and faced an imminent economic crisis if hostilities continued.
Multiple Trump advisers acknowledged the administration lacks the leverage it publicly claims, with officials citing concerns that prolonged conflict could destabilize the global economy, undermine Republican midterm prospects, and potentially destabilize the administration itself.
Trump's repeated threats of resumed bombing campaigns have lost credibility with both Iranian and American officials. His pattern of threatening "mass slaughter" and ground invasions before withdrawing has convinced senior government figures in both countries that he lacks the political will to resume the conflict in any meaningful way.
At the G7 summit, Trump attempted to project toughness, saying "if I don't like it, we'll go back to shooting at them, dropping bombs on their head," and "if they don't behave, we'll go back to dropping bombs right smack in the middle of their head." Yet these threats carry diminished weight given his demonstrated reluctance to sustain military operations.
"This is true of many officials and aides I’ve spoken to lately at the Pentagon, White House, and elsewhere," reported Zeteo's Asawin Suebsaeng. "Trump lost this one, badly."
