The Super Grifter Responsible for the Iran Debacle

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Julie Roginsky

Everyone, from Republican senators to Donald Trump himself, is blaming JD Vance for helping sell Donald Trump’s grotesque Iran deal. Vance, of course, deserves every ounce of ridicule coming his way. He is the human podcast microphone, the sycophant sent out to wrap humiliation in pseudo-strategic gibberish and call it victory.

But Vance is not the real bad guy here, even though he will be portrayed that way by his enemies inside the White House and Congress, who are legion. He was the one person in Trump’s inner circle who opposed this dumb war from the start, which is why his punishment is to go out and sell its loss. In reality, Vance is the beard, the fall guy, the useful loudmouth shoved in front of the cameras so the real villain can slither away from the wreckage.

Trump’s stunning turnaround has shocked even the president’s strongest allies, who were promised regime change and a denuclearized Iran, only to see the president praising the current Iranian regime and acquiescing to a plan that gifts Iran billions of dollars, allows it supremacy over movement in the Strait of Hormuz, and leaves its nuclear and ballistic missile programs alone. One of Trump’s biggest megadonors is Miriam Adelson, the Israeli-American who owns Israel Hayom, a right-wing newspaper. In an open letter to Trump, the paper’s apoplectic columnist wrote:

I am trying, and failing, to understand what caused this absurd change of direction, so contrary to everything you have said and done until now. The midterm elections are a flimsy excuse. You are in your second term, and the surrender memorandum of understanding will hurt the Republicans more than it will help them. Economically too, the excuse you are leaning on does not work. Perhaps oil prices will fall now and the stock market will rise temporarily, but what will happen when Iran uses, and it will use, the power you so rashly granted it and restricts movement through Hormuz?

https://saltypolitics.substack.com/p/the-super-grifter-responsible-for

[snot]

1. I think Trump's only ideology is

basically his own deification. In some ways, he's practical: he's not going to continue to pursue something that looks more and more like it will tarnish his image as a powerful winner.

Hawkish constituencies have been trying to push US admins into attacking Iran ever since the Shah was overthrown and replaced with a regime less amenable to US exploitation.

I think the "success" of Trump's action in Venezuela deceived him into believing the arguments of those hawkish constituencies that knocking over Iran would be relatively easy. Now that that's proved not to be the case, I think he's looking both for a way out and for scapegoats to blame.