The day began with the threat of the apocalypse
https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/1163633360339...
It was an unprecedented verbal escalation.
Since the US administration is flooding the zone with shit/slop after the war started, a lot of people will already have forgotten that according to multiple credible sources from within the military there was a very troublesome "Armageddon" briefing in early march.
"A combat-unit commander told non-commissioned officers at a briefing Monday that the Iran war is part of God’s plan and that Pres. Donald Trump was “anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran to cause Armageddon and mark his return to Earth,” according to a complaint by a non-commissioned officer."
The complaints came from more than 40 different units spread across at least 30 military installations.
https://jonathanlarsen.substack.com/p/us-troops-were-told-ir...
The day ended with a reversal, also via social media. Twelve hours after his threat and 88 minutes before the deadline for Iran was set to expire, Trump announced that he would extend it by two weeks to allow for negotiations with Tehran.
https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/1163657967133...
The president is framing this as a huge win. But what has actually been achieved?
In recent days, the U.S. president has repeatedly threatened to attack Iran’s civilian infrastructure, which would amount to a war crime.
His talk of annihilation marked a new level even for this president, unsettling allies, shocking even Republicans, and possibly drawing Iranians closer to their government.
“I am very concerned that the Iranian regime has now been strengthened” Democratic Congressman Dan Goldman said on CNN.
There are reports of Iranians forming human shields around critical Infrastructure, so his assessment is not unfounded.
https://x.com/WarMonitor3/status/2041541600069738826
A “two-week” extension is Trump’s favorite deadline. His camp argues that the escalation in rhetoric, as repulsive as it seemed, achieved exactly what the president wanted.
His critics argue that he had pushed Iran to the limit with his usual threats and was desperately seeking a way out.
A possible temporary opening of the Strait of Hormuz would now resolve one consequence of the war with Iran. For Trump himself, this issue was actually at the very bottom of his ever-changing list of priorities. Recently, he had even said that he wasn’t interested in the Strait of Hormuz and that the other countries that needed oil would have to open it on their own.
Trump also claimed that he had brought about a “complete regime change” in Iran and that “other, less radical minds” now prevailed in the new government.
Yet Mojtaba Khamenei, the son and successor of the Ayatollah who was killed by U.S. bombs at the start of the war, is considered even more radical and uncompromising than his father.
However, the temporary ceasefire does not resolve any of the fundamental issues on which the U.S. and Iran have so far been unable to agree.
It is unclear what will happen to Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium, and to Iran’s demand to continue enriching uranium in the future. There is also disagreement over the extent to which Iran’s missile program should be restricted. Tehran is also demanding that a peace agreement include reparations payments in addition to the lifting of sanctions.
“I’m very skeptical that this is sustainable,” said New York-based political scientist and Iran expert Kian Tajbakhsh on CNN regarding the ceasefire. Other observers also expressed doubt that an agreement could be reached within two weeks.
What is even more interesting is what happened behind the scenes during all this.
Shortly before Trump backtracked, an article in the New York Times caused a stir.
https://archive.ph/o/cXU3t/https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/0...
Trump had been persuaded to go to war by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, reported journalists Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan in an excerpt from a book set to be published in June.
Netanyahu reportedly sold Trump on a sure victory, complete with regime change. Although CIA Director John Ratcliffe called the scenario “ridiculous” and Chief of Staff Dan Caine also had reservations, Trump agreed.
According to media reports on Tuesday, there has recently been resistance within the U.S. military to Trump’s plans, which may violate international law.
https://archive.ph/o/cXU3t/https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-...
The Wall Street Journal reported that the number of targets in Iran approved by U.S. Central Command for the night was “far fewer” than Trump had threatened. All targets had a military connection.
“I’m concerned that the president’s bombast is putting field commanders in a very difficult position,” Geoffrey Corn, a former top legal adviser to the Army, told the Washington Post.
https://archive.ph/o/cXU3t/https://www.washingtonpost.com/na...
The Post also cited government sources who described Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth’s claims that the campaign against Iran was going “incredibly well” as exaggerated. They also expressed concern that Hegseth was providing Trump with “misleading information.”
A personal remark, I talked to a few people I served with who refer to Hegseth as "Kremlin Pete" jokingly but wouldn’t explain why. It kinda makes sense now. Because as we know Putin went to war with Ukraine over getting fed false intel by his inner circle.
This doesn’t excuse an illegal war, but it puts things in perspective how important it is people who advise the president of a superpower being really the best of the best, not just in terms of ability but also in integrity, which Hegseth neither was a commander, nor as defense secretary.
So what is the current reality now?
The Strait of Hormuz remains under the control of the Iranian armed forces. Tehran’s peace plan stipulates that Iran will collect a fee of approximately two million dollars per ship it allows to pass through and will share this money with Oman, which lies on the other side of the strait.
The shipping companies won’t eat those fees which means we all get poorer by paying more for almost everything we are going to buy in the near and foreseeable future, if the deal and ceasefire holds at all.
It is also unclear what would happen to the 440 kilograms of enriched uranium reportedly buried near the Iranian city of Isfahan. This is the same region where a downed U.S. officer was rescued over the weekend in a risky, large-scale military operation.
The White House did not issue any further official statements last evening.
“President Trump’s words speak for themselves,” his spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said simply, before dismissing the reporters in the West Wing at 6:44 p.m. local time.
The American people should use the two week ceasefire to have a serious discussion if this administration is still worth their trust and support and how much influence you allow Israel, respectively the war criminal in charge of a right wing extremist government there, the citizens of Israel I got to know over the years are mostly fine people, on your immediate lives.
Not a single good thing for the American people comes out of this war. 13 dead and hundreds of wounded American soldiers, who entrusted their lives to a society making wise decisions where and when to risk their lives.
You need to do better than this. Those soldiers didn’t deserve this war and their mothers not crying over their caskets.
It was the most dangerous unnecessary rescue operation in the history of the US military.
Prices for the average American only going up.
The president is right if he says a lot of money is about to be made, just not for you. You’re just paying for all this. You have a voice and choice, make it heard.
As a European I am deeply concerned.
If the American people allow this to continue we can no longer be friends.
And I enjoy being friends with the American people. American soldiers freed my grandmother from the Nazis and treated my family well. I fought along brave American men and women in Afghanistan and shed the same tears when one of them fell at every funeral of US soldiers i went to I would have shed for my own brothers and sisters.
I hate to see what this current administration is doing to the US military and its global reputation.
Your service members are the spearheads of American values around the world, values our ancestors did bleed and fight for, the damage done to what it means to be American will be hard to fix and will take a long time to heal. The sooner that process can start the better, I just don’t see it with this commander-in-chief in charge.