TOI correspondent from Washington: US President Donald Trump bluntly threatened to resume the destruction of Iran if its leaders did not come to a negotiated settlement, even as his vice-president JD Vance began talks with an Iranian team primed by an obdurate Tehran which is refusing to fold and wants Washington to unfreeze its assets, among other concessions it is seeking. There was no word from Islamabad about any progress in the talk between Vance and the Iranian team till the time of writing, but there was plenty of output and volume from the US President, who kept up a barrage of social media posts during the talks, attacking everyone from Iran to European nations to his favorite target – the “fake news media.”Asserting that the US.is winning militarily and negotiating from strength, Trump warned that Iran must comply quickly or face escalation. “The Iranians don’t seem to realize they have no cards, other than a short term extortion of the World by using International Waterways. The only reason they are alive today is to negotiate!” he thundered in one post. In another post he lashed out at the “fake news media” for suggesting the US is losing the war even though it has demolished Iran. Many US commentators, including some from the MAGA world, have argued that Trump has gotten sucked into a needless war and Iran is winning simply by surviving the American onslaught. Some others have suggested Iran now has the high moral ground, particularly after US attacks killed school children and civilians. Although Trump claimed that the US has won the war and the Strait of Hormuz “will soon be open,” he betrayed uncertainty on this front in two other posts in which he boasted that “empty ships are rushing to the United States to ‘load up,’” implicitly acknowledging that Iran had succeeded in imperiling energy exports from the Gulf. “Massive numbers of completely empty oil tankers, some of the largest anywhere in the World, are heading, right now, to the United States to load up with the best and “sweetest” oil (and gas!) anywhere in the World. We have more oil than the next two largest oil economies combined – and higher quality. We are waiting for you. Quick turnaround!” he boasted, turning into a salesman for US energy. He also mocked European nations for not helping regain control of the Strait of Hormuz. In another post, he warned that he was “watching fertilizer prices CLOSELY during our FIGHT FOR FREEDOM in Iran,” and “the US will not accept PRICE GOUGING from the fertilizer monopoly,” an implicit acknowledgement that the crisis was affecting American farmers. The MAGA supremo is getting slammed at home for getting suckered into a war, ostensibly by Israel, with very little public support for yet another distant conflict. As he keeps up a barrage of social media posts and statements that often contradict each other, critics are likening him to a senile grandpa who should be committed to a nursing home, while supporters maintain he is playing “4-D chess” with moves aimed at stamping American primacy on the world. Claims of watching fertilizer prices closely during the “fight for freedom in Iran,” is also being panned by critics who are calling out the “b.s” pointing out that he’s actually heading out to Miami this weekend, reportedly to watch the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), a mixed martial arts scrap that involves fighters beating each other in an octagonal cage, even as his vice-president is engaged in high-stakes diplomacy. For Vance, the Pakistan mission is a defining political gamble. Success—defined as stabilizing the ceasefire, reopening the Strait of Hormuz, and sketching a path toward a broader agreement—would instantly elevate him into the top tier of Republican presidential contenders. In a party where foreign policy credentials are often thin, brokering peace in a major conflict would give him a formidable advantage in any future GOP primary. Failure, however, carries equal and opposite risks. If talks collapse or the ceasefire unravels, Vance could be saddled with responsibility for a diplomatic debacle—and possibly a renewed military escalation. Meanwhile, Trump continues to oscillate between threats and overtures, reinforcing the sense that the negotiations are as much about brinkmanship as diplomacy.
