Trump Knows He Screwed Up On Iran
Well, as I am sure everyone knows by now, it has been over three weeks since the United States’ military initiated an attack on Iran in conjunction with the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). The big question, why did we do it? No one seems to really know for sure.
It actually really all started on June 22, 2025, when the United States Air force and Navy attacked three nuclear facilities in Iran as part of the Twelve-Day-War under the code name “Operation Midnight Hammer. After the attacks, Donald Trump stated that Iran’s nuclear facilities were obliterated and would not be a threat going forward. That assertion was highly debated among defense experts and for that matter the media.
Fast forward to February 26, 2026, when Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner began negotiations with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in Geneva for a third round of Omani mediated talks aimed at reaching a nuclear agreement. The Trump administration has claimed, without providing any evidence, that Iran nuclear facilities was being used to covertly stockpile uranium that would become weapons-grade. Nuclear experts weren’t buying it. Despite Omani Foreign Minister Badr bin Hamad Al Busaidi’s assessment that the United States and Iran made “substantial progress” toward a nuclear deal during the Feb. 26 talks and agreed to meet again on March 2 for technical talks, Trump said, “He was not happy with the progress or the “way they’re negotiating.” The following day, the United States and Israel attacked Iran, using Tehran’s nuclear program as one justification for the attack, without buy-in from congress, which is illegal.
Whatever Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner told Donald Trump after the February 26 meeting in Geneva was cause for Trump to initiate the attack on Iran. We need to be very clear here; Israeli Prime Minister Bebe Netanyahu was a key player in the decision to attack Iran and may have duped the Trump administration into attacking Iran in conjunction with Israel.
People need to understand Netanyahu’s motives for attacking Iran or any country for that matter. Netanyahu is basically fighting for his political life and actually his personal freedom. There is a reason Netanyahu seems to promote perpetual wars and attacks many neighbors seemingly unprovoked is because Netanyahu’s most immediate concern is delaying or ending the court cases against him for breach of trust, fraud and bribery. Since the start of these legal proceedings in May 2020, his central focus has been evading judicial accountability. The Gaza war an opportunity to postpone legal proceedings against him. Did you ever wonder why during the Gaza war, it seemed that Israeli forces were only bombing rubble for the heck of it and claiming that Gazans weren’t starving. On top of all of that, Netanyahu is still facing extreme criticism from Israeli citizens because of his slow response in responding to the October 7 attacks carried out by Hamas and several other Palestinian militant groups in 2023 during the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah.
As long as Netanyahu keeps Israel embroiled in wars, he avoids prosecution, stays out of jail and may even run for re-election as Israeli Prime Minister. Somehow Netanyahu coerced Trump into attacking Iran with the help of Witkoff’s and Kushner’s inputs, and now Trump finally realizes that he made the biggest mistake of his political life, and he doesn’t know how to find an offramp. He looks like a deer in the headlights and is now seeking support from allies that he has mocked, insulted and bullied with various tariffs on a whim expecting them to grovel before his feet, and Trump is wondering why his so-called allies aren’t coming to his aid.
There are other so-called justifications for the attack on Iran by US forces. The destruction of Iran’s ballistic missile program is one, even though per defense experts, Iran’s ballistic missile program was years away from producing a ballistic missile capable of reaching the US.
Next was the excuse that Iran was within 2-weeks of producing a nuclear weapon. Nuclear experts balked at that excuse. Most nuclear reactors that produce electricity only require uranium that is enriched to between 3 percent and 5 percent. Highly enriched uranium is anything above 20 percent, and weapons-grade uranium is enriched above 90 percent. As of September 2025, Iran had 440.9 kilograms of 60% enriched uranium. It was reported that during the Geneva talks, Iran offered to turn over to the U.S all of its’ stored 60% enriched uranium, but the offer was still not enough to quell a U.S. attack.
It gets even worse. Joseph Kent, director of the National Counterterrorism Center in the Trump administration, resigned his position on Tuesday to protest the war with Iran becoming the leading right-win critic of the conflict. Joseph Kent is not some bleeding liberal or even moderate, he’s about as maga as they come. Joe Kent knew that there was no imminent threat from Iran due to a nuclear weapon being deployed in weeks, probably not in years, which was contrary to the Trump administration narrative. Kent knew the handwriting was on the wall.
Ironically, Joseph Kent is now under FBI investigation for allegedly leaking classified information prior to his resignation. I can’t make this up! Amazingly, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard was not aware that former National Counterterrorism Center Director Joe Kent was under FBI investigation for allegedly leaking classified information prior to his resignation, a senior intelligence official told Fox News. Sen. Jon Ossof (D-GA.) asked Gabbard whether it was the intelligence community’s assessment that the Iranian regime posed an “imminent nuclear threat,” to which she said the IC assessed that Iran maintained the intention to rebuild its nuclear enrichment capabilities.
Gabbard contends that only the president can determine whether there is an imminent threat to the U.S. is mindboggling. Donald Trump can’t process whether something is an imminent threat unless he heeds recommendations from intelligence, which he has been averse to do. Tulsi Gabbard could not admit that she agreed with Donald Trump on the potential Iranian threat probably from fear of losing her job.
Bottom line, we have heard from the Trump administration that the reason for the Iranian attack by U.S. forces was due to the nuclear threat, we’ve heard it was due to the development of ballistic missiles that could reach the U.S. and its’ allies, and we’ve heard it was due to regime change even though that appears that theory won’t come to fruition. The need to piggyback on Israel’s desire to attack Iran and garner some of the glory for a successful campaign is possible, but I think it is much deeper than that and maybe not be as complex.
After the successful military operation in Venezuela, and the removal of Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, the U.S. operation, codenamed Operation Absolute Resolve, began around 2 a.m. on January 23rd. The operation was so successful that I believe Donald Trump and his Secretary of War Pete Hegseth’s exhilaration over their success was tantamount to a drug. Essentially, Venezuela was Donald Trump’s crack pipe. Trump needed to experience that same feeling of exhilaration once again in Iran and possibly even again in Cuba.
Trump thought he could just sail two aircraft carrier groups into the Persian Gulf, drop a few bombs on Iran, Iran would capitulate and the Iranian citizens would take over the government, everyone would live happily ever after, and Trump would be a hero. Well, Trump’s thinking didn’t go quite to plan.
Donald Trump was a five-time draft dodger, and being able to command the strongest military in the world must have been a particular thrill to him as long as he didn’t have to suit up. Essentially, Trump and Hegseth aren’t interested in disclosing objectives, they just want to blow up some s**t because it’s fun and it is the greatest video game on Earth. It’s that simple. I kid you not!
President Barack Obama negotiated the U.S./Iran nuclear deal which is formerly known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA in 2015, and five other world powers was involved in the agreement. The deal followed two years of negotiations, and limited uranium enrichment far below weapons grade for 15 years, reduced the enriched uranium stockpiles significantly, and restricted the use of centrifuges in conducting uranium enrichment. All of the terms of the agreement were verifiable.
Iran agreed to allow inspectors of the International Atomic Energy Association (IAEA) around the clock access to nuclear sites. President Obama brokered a nuclear deal that was virtually fool proof but, Trump killed it because he thinks he’s smarter than everybody else, and Obama’s name was on the deal. Now, look at the mess we’re in.
There was never a plan to seek a diplomatic solution to the Iran conflict. You don’t send two aircraft carrier groups to the middle east if you don’t plan on using them.
A typical U.S. Navy Carrier Strike Group includes 7 to 12 ships centered around one aircraft carrier and supported by cruisers, destroyers, frigates, and sometimes submarines. There was a total of up to 24 U.S. Navy Vessels in the middle east. That represents an amazing amount of firepower, and President Trump and Secretary Pete Hegseth don’t mind bragging about it.
The U.S. military is the greatest and most magnificent fighting force the world has ever seen, and does wield great power on land, sea and the air. As Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said yesterday, “We do our negotiations with bombs”. That might be part of the problem.
With all of the U.S. firepower and the expenditure or billions of dollars of ordnance and more importantly the lost lives of 13 military service members. the U.S. still can’t open the Strait of Hormuz. Iran has effectively closed the strait at will with a few cheap drones. The U.S. can spend billions bombing hundreds of Iranian target sites, and Iran can close the Strait of Hormuz for a few thousand dollars in drones, turn the world economy upside down, and essentially bring the Trump administration to its’ knees, even though Trump won’t admit it. Trump is between a rock and a hard place and he’s panicking, but why?
The President has always lambasted the Obama/Iran deal, and obviously he killed the agreement when he assumed office during his first term, which is why he never planned for or wanted a diplomatic solution, so he rushed to implementing a military solution with the encouragement of Pete Hegseth.
Trump knew that any negotiated deal would basically be similar to Obama’s deal 10 years earlier, and it would prove that OBAMA WAS ALWAY RIGHT! Trump’s ego will have difficulty handling that fact and he needs an offramp badly. A diplomatic solution will be the lesser of all of the evils and he will surely face criticism and scrutiny because of it if Iran agrees to a deal.
It will be in the best interests of Iran to make a deal at some point. The problem will be, before that happens, Iran will ensure they take a pound of Trump flesh with it.
With the Strait of Hormuz being closed by Iran with no end in sight, oil prices rising above $100, the prices of all goods rising on an already financially stressed populace and Trump’s beloved stock market taking a hit, Trump finally realized that he effed up! Trump has already begun to throw Pete Hegseth under the bus, and I’m not sure Hegseth realizes it.
All opinions herein are solely the opinions of Herb Booker and hbooker2.com. Comments are welcome and can be sent to hbooker2@yahoo.com, or at the bottom of this page. Next week, “Is Trump Really a Racist”.