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‘They hold the cards now’: Trump allies fear Iran is slipping beyond the president’s control
(www.politico.com)
Trump and Hegseth should use AI about it.
this post was submitted on 17 Mar 2026
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politics
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"wars begin when you will, but they do not end when you please". -Machiavelli
It was so easy to steal America with Elon's help. Surely stealing Iran and all of its oil will be much easier.
The sad thing is that even after this war decimates the US economy and leaves america as a complete laughingstock, the MAGats are going to happily vote for the next Trump.
Losing Vietnam didn't teach them anything, and neither will this fiasco.
Decimated is only 1/10th. Trump likes to use it a lot, but doesn't know what it means.
happily vote for the next Trump
You mean Trump himself? There's no chance in hell he wouldn't try to run again if he hasn't kicked the bucket by then.
It's pretty unlikely he'll make it until then and if he does die I'm not sure who will be his successor (definitely not charisma black hole JD) but if not then he's too proud to give anyone else a chance.
He could run as VP...
MTG played it pretty smart.
She retired from Congress and isn't running in November. I predict she will be omnipresent as a pundit and set herself up nicely for 2028 GOP Convention.
He has plenty of successors in waiting.
It's the Paul Ryan gamble.
The equivalent of pulling your funds out of a market before a crash and hoping to buy back in low.
She's hoping trump goes down and then she can fill the void
Yup, both the Paul Ryan and stock market metaphors are apt.
But taking the Paul Ryan comparison to its conclusion is probably also apt - he never had the chance to buy back in low, because he didn't factor in that this particular market has no bottom. The only rational move with the GOP, ever, is to just cash out and leave forever.
and leave forever
I wish I thought Paul Ryan has left forever...
Ignorance is bliss and all
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(1 replies)
She's dumb enough to lead the GOP.
They're going to frame it as "See? The most powerful navy in the world is struggling, imagine how worse a threat Iran world be if Trump hadn't intervened! He's a tactical jenius!"
You might be right.
On the other hand, if enough families of upcoming casualties speak out, that might get through to the MAGA minds.
They already don't give a damn about veterans as is
even after this war decimates the US economy
War has traditionally been a boon to the American economy, as the US workforce is heavily integrated into the Military Industrial Complex. The surge in state spending under the Trump administration, combined with the construction boom from AI, is what's currently keeping us out of recession. And domestic oil exports only benefit when countries like Kuwait and Qatar can't export fossil fuels.
Losing Vietnam didn’t teach them anything
It's the Max Bialystock strategy. You win by losing. Another multi-decade long military engagement means multiple trillions of dollars invested in equipment, technology, and private contractors.
Iran, Ukraine, Venezuela, I guess Cuba is next, maybe we get to Nigeria or North Korea down the line... the wars never end and the profits never stop flowing.
The problem has been "the only other option" was neoliberal who won't help us either, but are bad liars about it.
We got a fair DNC again, we can get a FDR style Dem who actually helps people, meaning Dem turnout doesn't get depressed and the next shitty Republican doesn't get an open court layup.
That's all it takes to break that cycle. It's why neoliberals were always willing to lose a general in the primary if it meant stopping a progressive.
They never had the same goal as Dem voters, but Dem voters got the DNC back from neoliberals over a year ago.
I appreciate your optimism, but I am skeptical that anything is really changing for the DNC.
Martin ran Minnesota for a decade and the results are very easy to look into.
We're a year into the largest reinvesture from DNC to state parties. Which is important because:
-
The victory fund stealing that money is why we lost the House
-
The money going back is why we keep winning special election.
-
The victory fund and the legitimate threat that money would be withheld was the threat that kept neoliberala in congressional leadership.
And Martin has publicly said he wants a charismatic progressive presidential candidate, his example was Mamdani. And he said that right after his primary before he was a sure thing.
There's more going on, I'll never be blindly optimistic about anything.
Time for our totally not completely manipulated stock market to inexplicably go up!
Watching the markets the last few weeks certainly supports the notion that the markets are decoupled from reality.
Ya pretty much since Covid. It’s hard to have a free market when all the capital is in the hands of a handful of people.
We clearly just kicked [Iran’s] ass in the field,
hahahahahahah
“Thanks to a detailed planning process, the entire administration is and was prepared
hahahahaHAHAHAHAhahahahaha
President Trump knew full well
HAHAHAHahahaaaahahahaaaa.... oh man...
any disruptions to energy are temporary and will result in a massive benefit to our country and the global economy
hahahahahhahaAHHAHAHAHAHaaahhhahaha
Hold the cards? That orange shitgibbon has a handful of Uno cards while everyone else is playing poker-- he's not even playing the same game. He needs to be put in a home for criminals with dementia then sealed in.
Anyone saying he plays 3D chess needs to understand that's a stupid thing to do when the game is checkers.
Iran is slipping beyond the President’s control
I’ve become more critical of the way I’m reading headlines lately and this one stuck out to me. The implication is that a sitting leader of one sovereign nation should have control of another sovereign nation or that the latter nation should be “subservient” to them. It’s really interesting how the build the intended power dynamic with that one sentence.
Definitely nothing to do with the editorial bias of Politico's owners...
I read it differently. That sentence makes it sound like the “President” is actually a competent leader whose plans are falling apart, rather than the dangerously stupid puppet that he is. All media outlets keep sane-washing him like he has plans to begin with, is capable of strategic thought, and is somehow actually trying to do any kind of good for anyone but himself and his handlers.
America is rat-fucked until the people can establish at least one media outlet that isn’t indifferent to all the evil being perpetrated against them.
I read it as control of the situation, particularly his self perceived control of the war. Weird for a headline to play to that. Your critique is valid, the headline is poorly written.
Yeah, pretty sure it's meant to mean [The war in] Iran...
I particularly liked the underlying assumption throughout the article that Trump absolutely has to have Iran capitulate and therefore the only thing they can do is to continue to escalate. That "declare victory and leave" isn't something they've even considered.
The problem with the 'declare victory and leave' is that the enemy gets a vote. Even if shitler pulled forces back, Iran ain't got no reason to stop shooting tankers now.
Also... Do we just have two carrier groups trapped in the Gulf now? Guess our navy is just gonna have to 'man up' like he told the tankers to? That could get real spicy REAL quick.
I don't believe they're actually in the Gulf, for that exact reason.
Also, fun fact! We decommissioned our minesweeper fleet in the Gulf, the last of them were shipped out from Bahrain in January. You know, just weeks before we started a damn naval war. All we got now is some equipment bolted onto repurposed LCS...
implication is that a sitting leader of one sovereign nation should have control of another sovereign nation
This is normal US media implication since 1940s. Supreme right. The control reference in article seems to be that there may have been some minor miscalculations about whether "allies" would be made to die to impose US authority on Iran, and to obtain certain glory, we'll just start a mandatory draft, and shoot any protestors. It's the only way, and we are not allowed any other ideas.
HE NEVER HAD ANY CONTROL TO BEGIN WITH! Trump has about as much control of Iran as he does with his bowels.
Special Military Operation 2: Desert Boogaloo
slipping beyond the president's control.
Much like his ability to not shit his pants.
Strait of Hormuz => Strait of Hormlose
Time to pivot to Cuba!
I'm actually shocked that he hasn't already declared victory and pulled all ships from the area.
I’m actually shocked that he hasn’t already declared victory
He did do that part
This is SILLY because Trump OBVIOUSLY took us to War with FULL Knowledge of Who and What he was Up against! Trump would NEVER Risk American Lives so Silly like That! THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER!
I mean, the US, for all its big guns have never won a war without Britain and/or France riding along to do the hard work. All the US knows how to do is make big explosions real good. That's not war, that's just state terrorism.
Media and Congress extremely complicit in dysfunction against peace and negotiated settlement with Iran.
DNC would prefer the political win of "Trump defeat" but Adam Schiff called Iran "the enemy" this week, and Schumer was apoplectic about "Trump's plan to TACO with (ominous secret) deal with Iran" during last "excursion". Demonic pig fucking zionazi unanimity just wants to bicker about "plan coherence/success metrics".
Rand Paul, normally (voted recently) against war, repeated Trump's biggest lie of all. "There is no Iranian leadership to negotiate with"... and so somehow, "our only option is boots on the ground or inspired revolution." Iran has a UN and a Geneva mission.
Media could strongly challenge the absurdities. "Either US was serious about nuclear negotiations, or it was always a ploy for Israel surprise attack and genocidal expansion ambitions". Since Iran was attending negotiations, there is an offer to Iran they will accept to "sell" enriched uranium to US. Politico/OP, like other media and even diplomatic allies, is categorically complicit in avoiding all reasonable offramp exposure/pressure.
There are two ways to bring the USA to its knees, stop the flow of oil or fried chicken.
Well frying chicken requires oil so that's one in the same
Expect drone strikes on poultry plants
It was never in his control, he and the civilian leaders in DoD don’t understand and don’t want to understand the complexities of Iran either social or political
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