Iran shrugs as Trump continuously flip-flops between threats and extending peace talk deadlines

Nearly three months after President Donald Trump took a hammer to Americans’ disposable income by launching an air war against Iran, it appears the Middle East nation has figured out the best way to handle the threats and intermittent bouts of bluster from Trump’s social-media-based diplomacy: Ignore it.

Trump was set to convene top advisers in the White House Situation Room Tuesday to discuss options for a return to the bombing campaign he has spent months claiming as a “total victory” over Tehran before he announced Monday on Truth Social that he’d be postponing renewed attacks at the request of Qatari, Saudi and Emirati leaders, who he claimed are involved in “serious negotiations” towards “a deal which will be very acceptable to the United States of America, as well as all Countries in the Middle East, and beyond.”

“Based on my respect for the above mentioned Leaders, I have instructed Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, The Chairman of The Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Daniel Caine, and The United States Military, that we will NOT be doing the scheduled attack of Iran tomorrow, but have further instructed them to be prepared to go forward with a full, large scale assault of Iran, on a moment’s notice, in the event that an acceptable Deal is not reached,” he said.

Trump’s latest eleventh-hour reversal comes a day after he told Axios that he believes Iranian leaders still want to come to some manner of agreement and warned that Tehran is “going to get hit much harder” if they don’t capitulate to his demands.

The president also cautioned that “there won’t be anything left of them” if they fail to rush through a deal to end the war, writing on Truth Social that “the clock is ticking” for Iran.

“They better get moving, FAST, or there won’t be anything left of them. TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE!

At the same time, the president remains fixated on demonizing news reporting on how the “total victory” he has been boasting of since mid-March isn’t nearly as “total” as he has claimed.

In the midst of a days-long stream of Truth Social posts about upcoming House and Senate primaries interspersed with AI-generated slop content showing him with captured aliens, among other things, Trump lashed out at the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and CNN for reporting about the war’s depletion of American munitions stockpiles that defense experts say will take years to rebuild as well as how Iran’s own capabilities remain largely intact despite Trump’s insistence that their forces have been “decimated.”

Meanwhile, Tehran is carrying on with its efforts to inflict as much economic pain on the global economy as possible without regard for anything Trump tells journalists or thumbs into his social media account. Iran has closed the Strait of Hormuz leading to a spike in gas prices across the globe.

On Monday, Iranian officials created an X account for what the regime is calling the “Persian Gulf Strait Authority” — as prosaic and anodyne-sounding an organization as, say, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

A post announcing the establishment of the new agency described it as the “legal entity and representative authority of the Islamic Republic of Iran for managing the passage and transit through the Strait of Hormuz.”

It appeared to be a giant middle finger raised defiantly in Trump’s direction ahead of his reported war council session and came on the same day that Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei warned that his country is “fully prepared for every scenario” and “will not be subdued by contradictory behavior and threats” from the U.S. side of the conflict .

“In the event of any reckless action we will respond with full strength, and I assure you that our armed forces will definitely have new ‘surprises’ for the enemy,” he said.

There was a time when Trump’s Twitter tantrums could be said to have garnered at least some results.

His threats of “fire and fury” against North Korea and talk of a “nuclear button” arguably brought about a lull in Pyongyang’s provocations against South Korea and Japan during his first term, even as a pair of summits with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un failed to bring about anything remotely resembling progress towards the longstanding goal of denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula.

Not anymore.

By now, Iranian leaders can see Trump’s appetite for more war falling just as fast as his approval rating — or as fast as gas prices continue to rise while they choke off the world’s access to a fifth of its oil supply by seizing control of the Strait.

They know that Trump hasn’t had the fortitude to order American naval forces to reopen what is supposed to be an international waterway and clear any mines Tehran has laid. And because he’s alienated most of America’s allies — including those who could assist in mine-clearing or escorting civilian ships — they know they effectively control the strait and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.

They can also read the same newspapers and polls that Trump and his aides can.

They see the American public is widely set against the war and disapproves of Trump’s handling of the entire matter.

And because they have managed to keep much of their own capabilities in reserve by hiding missile infrastructure and other military materiel deep underground, they can keep up a defense that will make Trump’s continued boasts of “total victory” look ever more ridiculous, even in the face of what could be a punishing renewed air campaign.

So long as they can hold the strait, to borrow a phrase from Trump, they “hold all the cards.”