Analysis of Trump’s Iran Speech: This Could Have Been a Tweet

Donald Trump wasted an opportunity on Wednesday night to level with the American people about the state of his war with Iran and the jarring impact it has had on their cost of living. However, since “leveling with the American people” isn’t something he does, the president’s ballyhooed speech turned out to mostly be a rehash of his social media posts from the past month.

In other words, the nation was treated to 19 minutes of Trump rambling on and on about how great he is, making promises about the end of the conflict, lying about the state of the economy, and contradicting his own statements from the past few weeks.

“America, as it has been for five years under my presidency, is winning, and now winning bigger than ever before,” he declared.

Sound great… but it clearly doesn’t feel that way to Americans, two-thirds of whom believe that things in the US are going poorly.

One of Trump’s greatest skills has always been to con voters into believing his version of reality. However, his dismal approval ratings of late have shown that this ability is diminishing. To be fair, convincing Americans that they are living in a “golden age” is a tall order even for a seasoned charlatan when their credit card statements, grocery bills, and checking account balances tell a completely different story.

Take the price of gasoline, which has skyrocketed since the beginning of the conflict and crossed an average of $4 per gallon this week.

Even the lowest-information voter understands that this has something to do with the war.

Not according to the president.

“We’re now totally independent of the Middle East, and yet we are there to help. We don’t have to be there,” he said. “We don’t need their oil. We don’t need anything they have. But we’re there to help our allies.”

Well, then, why has the cost of gasoline gone up a buck per gallon over the past month? Also, his remaining supporters may ask, if “we don’t have to be there” and “we don’t need anything they have,” how is our presence there keeping “America first”?

Of course, just like many of Trump’s recent social media posts, this speech was as much about soothing markets as it was about calming Americans.

With the global economy buckling as a result of his war, and experts predicting doomsday scenarios if it lingers on, the president sought to reassure Wall Street that the conflict is wrapping up.

“We are going to hit them extremely hard over the next two to three weeks. We’re going to bring them back to the Stone Ages, where they belong,” Trump said while adding that negotiations are ongoing.

There you have it, nothing to see here. One way or another, with the stick or the carrot, this is all coming to a swift conclusion.

And when it does, the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway that is so crucial for global trade (as Americans have learned in recent weeks), also won’t be a problem anymore.

“In any event, when this conflict is over, the strait will open up naturally,” Trump said. “It’ll just open up naturally.”

This sounds a lot like when the president assured the nation in 2020 that the coronavirus would just disappear on its own. No big whoop.

According to Trump, everything will be fine in this case as well because he built “the strongest economy in history” and the US is “the hottest country anywhere in the world by far, with no inflation.” And, of course, there are those $18 trillion in new investments that have come in but have somehow not created a single net job over the past twelve months.

By the way, Happy Liberation Day to all who celebrate. It’s been a year since Trump burdened American consumers and businesses with his tariffs.

So, there you have it. It’s all good.

For what it’s worth, Asian markets were down sharply on Thursday morning, European stocks opened much lower, and the price of oil soared during Trump’s speech.

But, surely, Americans have nothing to worry about. They are in good hands. The best of hands, even.