Heather Cox Richardson sums up the quagmire in which Trump is stuck, unable to bully Iran, and, according to him, “bored” by the stalemate in negotiations. His response, as she shows, is to unleash a flurry of unhinged tweets about his grandeur, his historical significance, and his self-regard. One can only imagine the reaction of the media and the public if any other president posted similar images and words. At minimum, there would be widespread concern about his deepening megalomania.
She wrote:
As we enter the summer months, we’re hitting the ground running. There is so much news today, I’m going to have to let some of it splash over into tomorrow to do it justice. For today, Iran and its role in the president’s deteriorating mental condition are going to take center stage.
Over the weekend, there were what I’m going to have to call the usual reports of an imminent agreement between the U.S. and Iran to end hostilities, with the usual outcome.
Last week the U.S. and Iran appeared to be making headway on a 60-day memorandum of understanding to continue the ceasefire and to establish a framework for further talks about Iran’s nuclear program. But President Donald J. Trump is caught between a rock and a hard place in these negotiations.
His base demands that he look strong and accomplish what, after the initial strikes failed, he claimed to have started the war for: to make sure Iran doesn’t have the capacity to produce a nuclear weapon. He also needs to reopen the Strait of Hormuz—which was open before he began the strikes—and get oil flowing again from that region of the Middle East. Prices in the U.S. are rising, and the looming threat of oil reserves running out adds even more pressure to consumer prices.
And Congress returns to work tomorrow, raising the possibility that lawmakers will pass a war powers resolution requiring Trump to withdraw American forces from the region. House speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) sent House members home a day early before the Memorial Day holiday out of concern such a measure would pass.
But Iran is in no hurry to throw Trump a lifeline. Their negotiators now maintain they have a right to control the Strait of Hormuz. They are demanding reparations for the damage inflicted in the country during the war, and they say they won’t negotiate over the nuclear program until there is a ceasefire.
But these conditions are all problematic for Trump’s negotiators. Permitting Iran to control the strait is not just about oil; it’s about the principle of freedom of the seas set out after World War II. Global trade depends on that concept. The exchange of money is also a problem for Trump. He has spent much of his political life attacking the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action that China, France, Germany, Russia, the U.K., the U.S., and the European Union negotiated with Iran during the Obama administration, claiming that former president Obama “gave” Iran $1.7 billion. In fact, the JCPOA simply permitted the release of Iranian assets frozen overseas by sanctions, but much of Trump’s base believes that Obama showed weakness by buying an agreement.
And then there is the nuclear issue.
So what has tended to happen in negotiations is that the teams come up with a framework, details leak to the media, and Trump’s base hears that Trump has weakened on some of his maximalist demands. They complain, Trump then posts something false about the talks or incendiary about Iran, and the negotiations fall apart.
And the cost of the war, in both lives and treasure, and the pressure on U.S. consumers and the economy continue to mount.
Last Friday, Trump and his advisors spent two hours discussing the latest round of negotiations in the Situation Room. According to Erika Solomon and Farnaz Fassihi of the New York Times, that agreement included the release of about $24 billion in frozen Iranian assets and a postwar “investment fund” to rebuild Iran, with one diplomat telling the journalists the number on the table was $300 billion. Talks about Iran’s nuclear program would be deferred.
On Friday morning, Trump posted, once again, that the strait would be opened and that Iran must never have a nuclear weapon. But then he emerged from the Situation Room without the “final determination” on the agreement he had promised. On Saturday, Mohsen Rezaie, one of the advisors to Iran’s supreme leader, posted: “As predicted, the President of the United States is betraying diplomacy for the third time.”
Over the weekend, Trump’s social media account posted repeated attacks on Democrats and on the judges who have been deciding against him in legal cases. He posted long defenses of his alterations to monuments in Washington, D.C., and AI images of capital landmarks covered in trash and graffiti juxtaposed with ones gleaming and fresh, with captions that blame Democrats for the former and praise Trump for the latter.
His posts seemed designed primarily to reassure himself. By Saturday, so many of the musical acts his team had lined up to play at his Freedom 250 “Great American State Fair” from late June through the beginning of July had bailed that Trump posted that he was “thinking about bringing the Number One Attraction anywhere in the World, the man who gets much larger audiences than Elvis in his prime, and he does so without a guitar, the man who loves our Country more than anyone else, and the man who some say is the Greatest President in History (THE GOAT!), DONALD J. TRUMP, to take the place of these highly paid, Third Rate “Artists,” and give a major speech, rallying the Country forward like I have done ever since being President!” He continued: “Two years ago, the United States was DEAD. Now we have the “HOTTEST” Country anywhere in the World. I don’t want so-called “Artists” that get paid far too much money, who aren’t happy. I only want to be surrounded by Happy People, Smart People, Successful People, and People that know how to WIN. So, by copy of this TRUTH, I am ordering my Representatives to look at the feasibility of doing an AMERICA IS BACK Rally on Wednesday, Washington, D.C., same time, same location. Only Great Patriots invited—It will be a Wild and Beautiful Celebration of America! President DONALD J. TRUMP”
It was an odd echo of his December 19, 2020, tweet calling his base to Washington, D.C., in which he wrote: “Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!”
Odder still was what followed: image after image of Trump as a great leader. There were images of Trump alongside first president George Washington, one of them showing the two presidents riding horses together in colonial garb beside a racecar with TRUMP across the hood, the White House in the background, and the Space Shuttle overhead. In an AI image, Trump is dunking a basketball over an exhausted New York governor Kathy Hochul, a Democrat; in another image, he and Patriots football player Tom Brady stand talking, backlit, under a caption that reads “GOAT.”
There were pictures of Trump kissing the American flag; Mount Rushmore with Trump’s sculpture in line with those of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln (who looks somewhat alarmed); Trump apparently as a superhero admiral with armor on his chest that bears an American eagle; Trump standing near King Charles; Trump with China’s president Xi Jinping.
A series of AI images in the style of the 1950s Dick and Jane readers show a town parade festooned with flags and patriotic bunting, little girls laughing together at an old-fashioned town fair, and little boys in a suburb playing ball. All of the images read: “AMERICA IS BACK!” And in them, all of the people are white.
He posted an image of a white family from that era standing beside a Cadillac Coupe DeVille parked on a suburban street, with the caption: “BILLIONS WERE SPENT TO CONVINCE YOU THIS IS EVIL.”
Then Trump’s account posted a series of images contrasting his vision of Biden’s America versus his own. In his images, Biden’s world was one of theft, illegal squatting, violence, and illegal immigration. The images of Trump’s “solutions” to these problems showed people imprisoned, arrested, and deported.
At 1:02 this morning, Trump posted: “Iran really wants to make a deal, and it will be a good one for the U.S.A. and those that are with us. But don’t the Dumocrats, and various seemingly unpatriotic Republicans, understand that it is MUCH tougher for me to properly do my job and negotiate, when political hacks keep negatively ‘chirping,’ at levels never seen before, over and over again, that I should move faster, or move slower, or go to war, or not go to war, or whatever. Just sit back and relax, it will all work out well in the end—It always does! President DJT”
A minute later, his account posted: “Has anyone ever seen a happy Dumocrat???”
Then, later this morning, Iranian officials said they were suspending negotiations with the U.S. until Israel, which entered the war alongside the U.S., stops its strikes on Lebanon, strikes they say violate the ceasefire agreement. They warned they would close the Strait of Hormuz entirely—a few ships have been making the transit—and move against the Bab al-Mandab strait at the outlet of the Red Sea, as well. On CNBC, Trump told Eamon Javers that he doesn’t care if peace negotiations with Iran end. “I couldn’t care less,” he said. Negotiations were starting “to get very boring.”
But oil prices jumped sharply with the announcement of the suspension and the threat to the Bab al-Mandab, and at 1:43 in the afternoon, Trump posted: “Talks are continuing, at a rapid pace, with the Islamic Republic of Iran.” At 5:47, he posted on social media that he had spoken with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and indirectly with Hezbollah, and that they both agreed to stop striking each other.
The Pentagon has been trying to control information coming out about its actions for months now, but that effort is now ramping up. This afternoon, Scott Nover of the Washington Post reported that the Pentagon has designated its press office as a classified space—a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility, or SCIF—and even those journalists who have not had their press badges rescinded will require an appointment to talk to the press secretary.
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Notes:
X:
ir_rezaee/status/2060634659646484743
scottbudman/status/1604915748693909504
HamidRezaAz/status/2061439791132996026
Trump’s Truth:
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Could not “Trump Is Stuck in a Quagmire, Lashes out at Critics, and Praises Himself https://dianeravitch.net/2026/06/02/heather-cox-richardson-trump-is-stuck-in-a-quagmire-lashes-out-at-critics-and-praises-himself/” be the headline of any day in Trump World?
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YES!
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TRUMP DECLARES THAT “WE SHOULDN’T HAVE BEEN IN IRAN.”
Trump admitted his mistake to Lara Trump when she interviewed him on Fox News on Saturday, May 30.
“Operation Epic Fury” has turned into “Operation Epic Failure” with Trump now offering the leaders of Iran a $300 BILLION BRIBE labeled as “rebuilding” money, but which will go right into the pockets of Iran’s religious and military leaders.
WHEN TRUMP VISITED CHINA, China President Xi Jinping flatly warned Trump to his face to butt-out of anything that China does to Taiwan or else Trump will “collide” with China. Trump went hurrying home.
CHINA CAN TALK TO TRUMP LIKE THAT BECAUSE CHINA HAS BEEN WATCHING America’s military drain its defensive weapons inventory in “Operation Epic Failure” in Iran and transfer defensive missile systems from its Pacific Navy Fleet and Pacific land bases to the Iran conflict to the point where U.S. forces in the Pacific region have barely sufficient defensive systems to protect themselves and not enough to challenge China.
The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) reports that the U.S. military has EXPENDED HALF OF ITS INVENTORY of key missile/drone defense weapons trying to ward off the blizzard of drones and missiles that Iran clobbered U.S. bases with in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman and other areas.
SO, THOSE NATIONS ordered Trump to call the cease-fire because it became clear that the U.S. can no longer protect them from retaliation by Iranian drones and missiles and can barely protect its own forces.
HEGSETH THOUGHT THAT ATTACKS BY STEALTHY F-35s would do the trick — but Iran’s advanced high-tech has made expensive stealth aircraft obsolete. Iran’s new Majid AD-08 short-range air defense system stymied U.S. air attacks. The Majid AD-08 is designed specifically to counter stealth aircraft, drones, and cruise missiles by using passive infrared targeting instead of conventional radar guidance. Unlike traditional surface-to-air missile systems that send out radar waves that can be detected by U.S. electronic countermeasures, Iran’s new Majid system uses electro-optical and thermal sensors that are electronically undetectable while the system tracks a stealth jet to destroy it.
This new technology of the Iranian system can detect aerial targets at distances up to 15 kilometers and engage them at ranges of 8 kilometers and altitudes up to 6 kilometers. Each launcher carries four AD-08 missiles equipped with imaging infrared seekers and proximity fuses, allowing them to destroy targets without needing a direct hit…close enough is good enough to destroy the aircraft.
This passive method of detection of aircraft by the new Iranian system makes America’s costly stealth aircraft just as easy to shoot down as any ordinary aircraft.
AND THE U.S. DEFENSIVE MISSILE CRISIS will take a LONG time to remedy. Here are the CSIS estimates of time and the huge taxpayer cost:
JASSM (Joint Air-to-Surface Cruise Missile). Cost: $2.6 million EACH. More than 900 were fired in Iran at a cost of $2,340,000,000 (BILLION). Time needed to replace weapons: 2 years
PrSM (Precision Strike Missile Surface-to-Surface ) Cost: $1.6 to $3.5 million EACH, depending on model. More than 1,100 were fired in the Iran war at a cost of between $1,760,000,000 and $3,850,000,000 (BILLION). Time needed to replace weapons used: 2 years.
SM-3 (Standard Missile-3, defensive anti-missile/anti-drone) Block IB Cost: $10 to $15 million; Block IIA Cost: $28 to $36 million. More than 250 were fired in Iran at a cost between $2,500,000,000 and $9,000,000,000 (BILLION). Time needed to replace weapons used: 5 years.
SM-6 (Standard Missile-6, defensive anti-missile/anti-drone) Cost: $3.9 to $5.3 million EACH. More than 350 were fired in Iran at a cost between $1,350,000,000 and $1,855,000,000 (BILLION). Time needed to replace weapons used: 4.5 years.
THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense defensive anti-missile/anti-drone) Cost: $12 to $15 EACH. More than 250 were fired in Iran at a cost of between $3,000,000,000 and $3,750,000,000 (BILLION). Time needed to replace weapons used: 4.5 years
Patriot PAC-3 (Patriot Advanced Capability-3 defensive anti-missile/anti-drone/anti-aircraft) Cost: $3.7 to $3.9 EACH. More than 1200 were fired in Iran at a cost between $4,440,000,000 and $4,680,000,000 (BILLION). Time needed to replace weapons used: 3.5 years.
And this is only a part of CSIS’s much longer list.
TRUMP WILL BE LUCKY if he can get a peace treaty that’s even as good as the one he tore up when he launched his war — so now desperate Trump is offering Iran’s leaders a $300 BILLION BRIBE if they’ll make peace. That’s America’s tax dollars at work — bailing out Trump’s Operation Epic Failure.
MEANWHILE — when China takes over Taiwan, the U.S. economy will crash in a heap because all of America’s core industries depend on computer chips made in Taiwan.
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It is impossible to read the very first sentence – the supposedly most vital point! – of the NYT article linked to above and not realized how much the NYT has become a propaganda tool for the Trump White House and how much that newspaper is essentially lying to readers in its’ daily news stories — what used to be called “journalism” but is now basically the amplification of the comjplete right wing lies with a little twist that only NYT reporters and the rest o thew elite believe reveals their extreme anti-Trump bias.
“High-Wire Negotiations With Iran? Trump Finds It ‘Very Boring.’ NYT, June 1, 2026 by David E. Sanger
“For three months, President Trump has been deeply engaged in the Iran conflict, planning the 38 days of attack, struggling to reopen the Strait of Hormuz …”
LOOK AT THAT ENGAGED PRESIDENT! Is he just saying he is bored, or is that very engaged president upset because the war isn’t going his way?
Trump has professed indifference, but is he really indifferent? The NYT wants readers to know that it is very likely Trump continues to be very concerned (like any president, Trump is concerned about the midterms) and we can all assume Trump is still deeply engaged!
The takeaway of this article is that Trump SAYS he is bored, but is he really bored or is his administration under his orders continuing to work hard to solve this problem?
Thanks, NYT for your hard hitting, absolutely false reporting that leaves out the elephant in the room – Trump’s dementia. It’s so important that you DON’T give any indication that Trump is completely out of touch with reality and a huge danger to our country. After all, you are just reporting the news that’s fit to print, according to right wing standards.
And that “news” is that Trump is deeply engaged in running this country, even if people don’t always like what he does.
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The road to “alternative facts” is littered with denial, juvenile iconography, delusion, grandiosity and endless misogyny. Thanks for this revealing post which reminds me of how 7th grade boys tend to think.
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