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Iran Threatens Expanded Conflict Abroad

The supposed cease fire between the USA and Iran has ended and the price of oil has moved higher over night to the highest level in over a month.  Meanwhile, a new poll shows the Felon's approval has fallen to an all time low:

[The Felon's] Trump's approval rating fell to the lowest level of his presidency, ‌with an overwhelming majority of Americans concerned the U.S. war with Iran will last a long time, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll that concluded on Monday. Just 33% of respondents in the four-day survey said they approved of Trump's performance in the White House, while 64% disapproved. Trump's approval rating, down from 35% in a poll that closed earlier this month . . . 

In this setting, Iran is threatening to expand the war and the Felon, in another insane move, has threatened to bomb Oman, an America ally. As noted numerous times, there is no face-saving exit for the Felon from a debacle of his own making even as the mid-term elections bear down on a panicked Republican Party. It would seem the Iranians fully recognize that the war has become toxic in the minds of most voters and that perhaps the best way to drive the Felon either back to the negotiating table or into simply walking away.  They recognize that either an expanded war or one involving US ground troops will only drive the Felon's approval level even lower as other Republicans fear a blood bath in November.   A piece in the New York Times looks at Iran's calculations:

After almost six months in hiding, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, has offered the clearest window yet into his vision for ruling the country, appointing a string of hard-line, veteran military commanders to top security roles.

The overhaul, which took place this month, signals that he plans to keep the nation on a war footing, analysts say — ready for open-ended confrontation with the United States and for keeping a lid on dissent at home among Iranians suffering the economic brunt of the conflict.

The appointments also reflect a leadership that is still struggling to devise a sustainable strategy for deterring Washington, analysts noted, as Tehran seeks a way to end the war without giving up the strategic leverage it has gained, most notably through control over the Strait of Hormuz.

The new security leaders will first have to navigate a period of limbo in the conflict. . . . The overhaul also included a new general staff of the armed forces, a new head of the Revolutionary Guards and a commander of the Revolutionary Guards’ naval forces — a critical role as the Strait of Hormuz has become so important.

Moderates in the government, like President Masoud Pezeshkian, say Iran should take advantage of its effective control over the Strait of Hormuz and reach a deal.

Hard-liners, however, want to hold out for more concessions and prefer maintaining an aggressive stance that would discourage the United States from launching new military interventions. They note that the last two wars launched by the United States and Israel, in June 2025 and in February this year, began while they were in negotiations with the Trump administration. They also point to the 2015 nuclear deal that Iran agreed with Washington, which President Trump withdrew from in 2018. . . . “The hard-liners gained immense traction, arguing — and history seems to have backed them — that the West is fundamentally untrustworthy.”

Ayatollah Khamenei, observers say, has surrounded himself with figures who seem as ready to negotiate, if they deem conditions right, as they are willing to prolong the war when they do not. That is a break with the approach of his father and predecessor, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. . . . . Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei has shown a greater willingness to initiate conflict with Washington, some analysts say, pointing to Iran’s decision to start the last round of military skirmishes.

“Iran is willing to engage in negotiations to end the war,” he added, “but is also prepared for a long conflict rather than accept an incomplete or temporary settlement that leaves it vulnerable to renewed U.S. pressure or attack.”

The Iranian leadership is apparently gambling that it can do that because Tehran can withstand the economic pain longer than [the Felon] President Trump can endure the fallout of the war in the United States.

This strategy has serious implications for Iran’s roughly 90 million people, who are struggling with an economy in free-fall and trapped by the constant risk of a return to all-out war.

Ayatollah Khamenei called on Mr. Taeb to strengthen the Basij’s “public intelligence network” when he announced his appointment last week, a move that experts say indicates that the group will have an expanded role in domestic surveillance and repression.

“Mojtaba may be willing to take risks in confronting the United States that even his father avoided in his final years,” Mr. Memarian said. “The question is whether Iran’s political system — and, more important, Iranian society — can absorb the consequences of that gamble.”

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Trump Punishes South Korea For His Iran Humiliation

The Felon continues to demonstrate on a daily basis his unfitness for office and daily erodes the United States' standing in the world and by the time his misrule ends the nation and the world will be far more unsafe.  Meanwhile, at home medical research has been canceled, health initiatives ended, and environmental protections and safe water and clean air are threatened, in the case of the latter to benefit the fossil fuels lobby.  On the international front, the Felon has no face-saving way to exit from the Iran war that he chose to launch despite warnings that he would face the exact situation that now confronts both the US and the global economy.  And with the Felon, one thing that is certain is that he will never take responsibility for his own actions and foolish decisions.  Someone else is always to blame, be they American citizens accused of vandalizing the Reflecting Pool rather than admit the Felon's crony who did the work was incompetent to blaming allies for the Felon's own Iran debacle. His ego and narcissism will never let him accept responsibility. The latest target in the Felon's blame someone else effort is South Korea which wisely opted to decline the Felon's after the fact request that South Korea somehow bail the Felon's ass out in Iran. A piece at The Atlantic looks at the Felon's destructive actions:

Last winter, Donald Trump plunged recklessly into war with Iran. The United States is now losing that conflict. Iran remains defiant, much of the world economy is more threatened now than it was six months ago, U.S. military resources are overextended, and munition stores are dangerously depleted. Trump and the United States have suffered one embarrassment after another; last week, he had to sneak away from the region on a backup plane because of a possible assassination threat from Tehran.

And so the [Felon] president of the United States has taken the logical next step: He is punishing South Korea, a loyal American friend, and tempting U.S. enemies to doubt America’s will to defend its allies.

Early Sunday evening, Trump instructed the Defense Department to “substantially reduce” its participation in an annual joint military exercise with the South Koreans. He did this, he said in a post on Truth Social, in part because such activities are expensive, but worse, they are insulting to his friends in North Korea, a country that has been “unthreatening and respectful” while he’s been in office.

More to the point, he complained that the South Koreans have not helped him defeat Iran: While somewhat unrelated (?), I recently asked the President of South Korea if they would like to join us in the Denuclearization of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and they said, “No thanks!”

When Trump makes the effort to say something is “unrelated” to his actions (and then adds a coy question mark) it usually means it is completely related—and probably his central motivation.

Scaling back the exercise is, of course, an insane decision, which does nothing but hurt an ally, and tempt an adversary to think—correctly—that American leadership is feckless. You could be forgiven for wondering why South Korea and the rest of the free world must pay for Donald Trump’s failures. Such confusion is understandable, except that in Trump’s world, every loss, every defeat, is a personal insult. When things go wrong, someone must be held responsible—and that someone is never Donald Trump.

America and the rest of the world are now witnessing a public exhibition of narcissistic rage. Trump embarked on a war for personal glory, and what he got instead was ongoing humiliation. He clearly finds it all unbearable.

Trump both fears and respects the autocrats who rule Russia, China, and North Korea, and so he dares not cross them. Instead, he is seeking to assuage the psychic injury of his loss in Iran—including the American public learning of the shameful conditions to which he has subjected U.S. forces—by kicking America’s allies, the nations he can punish without fear that they will kick him back.

The Iran war was not the president’s failure, you see. Others failed the president. . . . . because Trump is unable to subdue Iran, unable to replenish stocks of U.S. weapons he should never have expended in this war, unable to take care of the service personnel he has put in harm’s way, someone is going to pay. The most convenient target he could find, at least for the moment, was South Korea.

At a better moment in American history, an enraged Congress would step in and demand answers about such dangerous idiocy. They would rush to the White House, talk to the press, hold hearings, and in general act like responsible stewards of American power. Those days, at least among legislators of the president’s party, are long past.

Our allies might for the time being similarly ignore Trump’s tantrums, but they have power and agency of their own, and even now are likely planning for a world in which the Americans are no longer men and women of principle who stand by their word and by their friends.

The Chinese and the Russians and the North Koreas are certain to draw the appropriate lessons from this deranged policy. They have been shown, yet again, that when Trump fails, he hurts those he feels safe hurting. Already, North Korea is dispatching missiles and thousands of soldiers to aid Russia in its war on Ukraine. If a conflict should break out in the Pacific or on the Korean peninsula, or if the war in Europe spreads further West, the world’s dictators might well count on Trump to focus American wrath not on the enemies of the free world, but on the nations that have always pledged to stand side by side with the United States in a mutual defense of freedom.

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The Problem Causing Trump’s Supporters to Turn on Him

As the 2026 mid-term elections approach, the Felon has a huge problem - actually several Problems - that are causing even some his Kool-Aid drinking cultists to turn against him, namely high gasoline prices here at home in America.  The polls are showing the Felon far under water with historic levels of disapproval.  Even Fox News is unable to ignore the horrific poll numbers which are turning the Felon into an albatross around the necks of congressional Republican candidates. The New Republic reports on this reality: 

An intriguing pattern is developing in Fox’s polling of the Senate races this summer: Just about all the Democratic candidates are significantly outrunning the favorability of their party. While the party’s standing—which is pretty bad—can’t be shrugged off, Fox’s polls do show that most of these Democrats are not getting dragged down by association with the party.

Meanwhile, all these polls show [the Felon] Trump deeply underwater—including in states he won by double digits. To wit: Fox’s latest poll in Ohio finds Democrat Sherrod Brown leading GOP Senator Jon Husted by eight points, 53 percent to 45 percent. That’s despite the fact that only 42 percent view the Democratic Party favorably. The rub is that only 44 percent see Brown as too close to the Democratic “establishment,” while 55 percent do not. Turns out a lot of voters who don’t like the party support Brown.

Surrounded by bootlickers and sycophants, the Felon is likely being shielded from information he does not want to hear.  Indeed, this week the Felon more or less told Americans to stop whining about gas prices and to simply pay more for gas, ignoring, of course, the fact that the higher prices are directly due to the Felon's war of choice with Iran.  A second New Republic piece looks specifically at the gas price revolt:

[The Felon] President Trump has hit the highest national disapproval rating on gas prices in recorded history, as 79 percent of Americans—and a whopping 52 percent of Republicans—feel negatively about how he’s handled skyrocketing gas prices. 

“No president has been hated more when it comes to gas prices,” CNN’s Harry Enten said during a Friday segment. “79 percent ... that is the highest disapproval rating for any president on record.”  Former Presidents George Bush, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden, who each had their own struggles with gas prices, never eclipsed a 75 percent disapproval rating on the issue. 

“Donald Trump takes the cake as these $4-plus gas prices continue to give us pain at the pump. The American people are taking their anger out on the President of the United States,” Enten said.

The poll’s party line breakdown is even more devastating, as 52 percent of Republicans disapproving may put Trump-backed candidates at risk in their November elections as they have to answer for his decisions—especially in swing states. 96 percent of Democrats disapproved, along with 85 percent of independents. 

These are startling numbers that [the Felon] Trump can’t convincingly blame on decisions Biden made three years ago. Gas prices are high—and will continue to be high—because Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu started bombing Iran and Lebanon, and Iran closed the crucial Strait of Hormuz in response. That’s why your gas is $4 for the third time this year—something else that has never happened before.

Another factor that could harm Republican candidates, especially in tight races like the one for Virginia's 2nd congressional district is the Felon's complete lack of concern for America's service members as underscored by his statements about conditions on the aircraft carrier, Abraham Lincoln.  Norfolk is home to the world's largest naval base and there are many service members and their families across the Hampton Roads region. In close races, service members and their loved ones could decide that the Felon and his party are no friends to them. The above New Republic piece looks at the Felon's uncaring statements:

[The Felon] President Donald Trump denied reports Friday of horrific conditions onboard the USS Abraham Lincoln—and suggested that the U.S. servicemembers should stay at sea for even longer.  

Trump offered a shockingly callous response while taking a question about the aircraft carrier that’s been deployed since November. 

Asked whether he believed that the servicemembers had been deployed for “too long,” Trump had a similarly heartless reply. “No, no, no. Not nearly long enough,” Trump said. . . . Clearly, the president couldn’t care less about U.S. servicemembers or their families. 

One can only hope this callousness will cost candidates like Jen Kiggans who puts the Felon above her constituents.

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