{"id":655,"date":"2026-06-19T19:08:56","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T19:08:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movingandmortgagehub.com\/?p=655"},"modified":"2026-06-19T19:08:56","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T19:08:56","slug":"trump-and-iran-stupid-is-as-stupid-does","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movingandmortgagehub.com\/?p=655","title":{"rendered":"Trump and Iran: Stupid Is As Stupid Does"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Donald<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

A version of the below article first\u00a0appeared\u00a0in David Corn\u2019s newsletter,\u00a0<\/em>Our Land. The newsletter comes out twice a week (most of the time) and provides behind-the-scenes stories and articles about politics, media, and culture. Subscribing costs just $5 a month\u2014but you can\u00a0sign up for a free 30-day trial.<\/em><\/p>

Read more There Is No Social Security Crisis<\/a><\/p>\n

Donald Trump\u2019s war in Iran is one of the stupidest foreign policy ventures in US history.<\/p>\n

I know that\u2019s not a new or hot take. When he attacked Iran on February 28, it immediately became clear that he had no idea what he was doing. Karoline Leavitt, his press secretary, said he had initiated the attack based on a \u201cfeeling\u201d\u2014while negotiations to limit Iran\u2019s ballistic missile and nuclear programs were ongoing.<\/p>\n

Trump then had a tough time explaining to the nation what the hell this war was for. To eliminate a nuclear program he had claimed was obliterated by a previous bombing raid? To address an \u201cimminent threat\u201d because Iran was, he falsely claimed, within two weeks of developing a nuclear bomb? To achieve regime change? To wipe out Iran\u2019s arsenal of ballistic missiles? To protect Iranian anti-government protesters? To diminish Iran\u2019s ability to strike at US allies and bases, if Israel attacked Iran? To end Tehran\u2019s support of terrorism? To \u201cget rid of evil\u201d?<\/p>\n

If you don\u2019t know why you\u2019re warring, it\u2019s tough to figure out when to stop. After all, what counts as victory?<\/p>\n

Then the war became mostly a matter of addressing unintended\u2014but utterly predictable\u2014consequences. Iran shut the Strait of Hormuz, which was an easy-to-foresee possibility, and sparked a global economic crisis. Trump had no plan for that\u2014just as he had no plan to achieve any of the assorted aims he had expressed at different times. Now the mission was to undo what his war had caused.<\/p>\n

So dumb. Trump spent gazillions of taxpayer dollars on this endeavor, only to end up fighting for a return to the status quo. He had to put out the fire he started. And\u00a0thousands of Iranian civilians\u2014including\u00a0an estimated 168 schoolgirls\u2014have been killed, as well as 13 American servicemembers. It\u2019s a pointless loss of treasure and lives. With the higher gas prices, the war so far has\u00a0cost Americans $132 billion. This folly has also raised food prices\u2014which has an especially dramatic impact on poorer, food-stressed nations. It further strained US ties with its closest allies.<\/p>\n

The signing this week of a memo of understanding between Washington and Tehran to end the war highlighted the imbecility of this action. The terms met none of the revolving goals Trump had tossed out. It kicked down the road any discussion of Iran\u2019s nuclear and ballistic programs. But the deal handed the repressive government of Iran much-desired deliverables, such as an end to sanctions, an unfreezing of assets, and a $300 billion reconstruction fund. Iran could immediately start to sell oil. Ka-ching! It only had to keep the strait open, as it had always done prior to the war. It looked as if Trump was rewarding the mullahs with tremendous riches for doing what they used to do for free. Art of the deal, right? Trump had previously called for a \u201cunilateral surrender\u201d from Iran. This was not that.<\/p>\n

Critics of all ideological stripes blasted the deal. Hawks and Republicans saw it as a total sellout, as well as an abandonment of Israel. (The agreement called for an end to Israeli attacks in Lebanon\u2014a provision that did not please the Netanyahu crowd.) The\u00a0New York Post<\/em>\u00a0lambasted Trump. Neocons exclaimed on podcasts,\u00a0\u201cWhat\u2019s going on?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Democrats and liberals noted this was the equivalent of an American surrender to a government still presumably committed to running a repressive regime and supporting terrorism, and it fell far short of the agreement that the Obama administration had forged with Iran in 2015. It was good that the fighting was over\u2014at least for the moment\u2014but nothing had been settled. Only the most cultish of Trump cultists (Jesse Watters, I\u2019m looking at you) could hail the deal as a masterpiece of statesmanship and a win for the United States.<\/p>

Read more Trump DOJ Outlines Dubious Path to Force People Into Psychiatric Institutions<\/a><\/p>\n

Trump signed the MOU during a trip to Versailles, which in a previous era hosted the signing of a notoriously lousy accord that led to a conflagration we call World War II.<\/p>\n

What was especially ludicrous was how Trump and his crew talked about the deal. On March 1, the White House\u00a0declared\u00a0that Trump had attacked Iran to \u201cdestroy its ballistic missile arsenal.\u201d On Wednesday, he said it was no biggie for Iran to retain ballistic missiles: \u201cIf other countries have them, it\u2019s a little unfair for them not to have some.\u201d He\u00a0added, \u201cAm I going to let Saudi Arabia have missiles, but [Iran] can\u2019t have them? It doesn\u2019t work that way.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for Iran\u2019s stockpile of highly enriched uranium\u2014which is now not suitable for use in a nuclear bomb but could be refined to weapon-grade level\u2014Vice President JD Vance on MSNOW\u00a0said, \u201cOne of the core parts of the agreement is that the [International Atomic Energy Agency] and the United States are going to help Iran destroy the highly enriched stockpile, and that\u2019s something that\u2019s spelled out very clearly in the MOU.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the MOU said nothing about this. And Trump sent conflicting signals about what he hoped to do about this half ton of material that ostensibly was one of the key reasons for the war. At one point on Wednesday he\u00a0said, \u201cWe\u2019re going to get it.\u201d At another, he\u00a0remarked, \u201cI don\u2019t think anybody could get at it.\u201d (This material is apparently beneath a mountain that was bombed last year by US and Israeli warplanes.)<\/p>\n

Trump zigged and zagged on another issue. At the start of the war, he\u00a0said, \u201cWe\u2019re now totally independent of the Middle East. We don\u2019t need their oil.\u201d A few weeks in, he reaffirmed this: \u201cIt doesn\u2019t really affect us. We have so much oil. We have tremendous oil and gas, much more than we need.\u201d On Wednesday, he asserted that if he didn\u2019t agree to the MOU, we \u201cwould run out of reserves at about four weeks\u2026We would really run out, and there\u2019ll be a time when you wouldn\u2019t be able to get it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Once this war was about ballistic missiles and highly enriched uranium and oil was no concern. Now, who cares about the missiles or the uranium? And Trump had to give Iran so much to get the oil flowing. Meanwhile, instead of regime change, it\u2019s likely there\u2019s been regime worsening. As for helping the Iranian people rise up against the tyrannical mullahs? Fuggedaboudit.<\/p>\n

No sane person expects consistency from Trump. But during a war, erraticism is particularly dangerous and idiotic. His impulsive attack on Iran has accomplished none of his stated objectives. It\u2019s been a foolish waste.<\/p>\n

During a press conference on Wednesday at the G7 meeting in France, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick standing behind him, Trump\u00a0mused, \u201cIn war, terrible things happen. Like you mentioned\u2026the [girls\u2019] school gets hit. Other things get hit. Bad things happen in war. War is a nasty place. I see it. I see it better than maybe anybody has ever seen it.\u201d Yes, even at this point, Trump was claiming he understands this war better than anyone else. But he had no vision of what this war was for, of how to wage it, or of how to win it. This was a vanity project for him. He thought he could unleash violence and chaos\u2014threaten to commit war crimes and destroy an entire civilization\u2014and end up the star triumphantly bathed in military glory and, oddly, deserving of the Nobel Peace Prize.<\/p>\n

In the end, this disaster does not demand deep analysis. It was a foolhardy move from a narcissistic numbskull who now cares more about a ballroom, an arch, and a reflecting pool than the carnage and damage he wreaked. A stupid war is yielding stupid results\u2014and with Trump its author that\u2019s no surprise.<\/p>

Read more Long After the Climate Apocalypse, Maybe Some Being Will Find \u201cEarth\u2019s Black Box\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n<\/article>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Or: How not to go to war.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":653,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"\nTrump and Iran: Stupid Is As Stupid Does - Moving and Mortgage Hub<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/movingandmortgagehub.com\/?p=655\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Trump and Iran: Stupid Is As Stupid Does - Moving and Mortgage Hub\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Or: How not to go to war.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/movingandmortgagehub.com\/?p=655\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Moving and Mortgage Hub\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-06-19T19:08:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/movingandmortgagehub.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/5dfcdece40cf74dd2fb40f549d2addb1.webp\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1124\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/webp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"7 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movingandmortgagehub.com\\\/?p=655#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movingandmortgagehub.com\\\/?p=655\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movingandmortgagehub.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/6b7c79bcfd888d98f34c5413df7e81a2\"},\"headline\":\"Trump and Iran: Stupid Is As Stupid Does\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-19T19:08:56+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movingandmortgagehub.com\\\/?p=655\"},\"wordCount\":1421,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movingandmortgagehub.com\\\/?p=655#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movingandmortgagehub.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/7912825bec447fa161de1e2ca682953f.webp\",\"articleSection\":[\"Politics\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/movingandmortgagehub.com\\\/?p=655#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movingandmortgagehub.com\\\/?p=655\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movingandmortgagehub.com\\\/?p=655\",\"name\":\"Trump and Iran: Stupid Is As Stupid Does - 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