{"id":43473,"date":"2026-03-30T19:32:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T19:32:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/43473\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T19:32:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T19:32:07","slug":"trumps-delusional-escalations-in-iran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/43473\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump\u2019s Delusional Escalations in Iran"},"content":{"rendered":"

Trump has ordered to the waters off Iran a force that includes roughly 2,200 Marines, with another 2,500 Marines to follow, plus thousands more troops from the 82nd Airborne Division. Overall, there are more than 50,000 U.S. troops<\/a> in the region, about 10,000 more than normal. That\u2019s probably too small a force to open the Strait of Hormuz or seize Iran\u2019s oil, but large enough to trigger more retaliation by Iran against neighboring Gulf states\u2014which would then lead to Trump\u2019s next escalation.<\/p>\n

Some clues to Trump\u2019s thinking, such as it is, are in an interview that he gave to the Financial Times<\/a> over the weekend. It conveys the sense of a boy playing soldier, in this case with real weapons, real troops, and real risks. The idea seems to be: first send troops, then decide what to do with them.<\/p>\n

More from Robert Kuttner<\/a><\/p>\n

One idea is to seize Kharg Island, the base from which most Iranian oil is exported. \u201cTo be honest with you,\u201d Trump said, \u201cmy favorite thing is to take the oil in Iran but some stupid people back in the U.S. say: \u2018why are you doing that?\u2019 But they\u2019re stupid people.\u201d<\/p>\n

With Iran controlling the Strait of Hormuz, getting seized oil out of Iran and onto world markets would be a difficult climb. Trump also has fantasies of either taking the strait by force, or making its opening the centerpiece of a deal. He has repeatedly mentioned the fact that Iran allowed ten Pakistani-flagged tankers through the strait, now supposedly doubled to 20, as a \u201cpresent\u201d to the U.S. and a sign of respect for him.<\/p>\n

But Iran\u2019s permission for these tankers and restriction of others only makes clear just how total is Iran\u2019s control of the strait. And contrary to Trump\u2019s claims, the Iranians insist that they are far from any deal.<\/p>\n

Trump also keeps making claims that he has identified Iranian leaders who are willing to play the role of U.S. puppets, modeled on Venezuela\u2019s Delcy Rodr\u00edguez. Trump said that Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran\u2019s parliamentary Speaker, had authorized the additional tankers. But the suggestion that Ghalibaf, a hard-liner, would be any sort of U.S. pawn is preposterous.<\/p>\n

Other U.S. officials have said that Trump is also weighing an operation to seize 1,000 pounds of uranium<\/a>, which would require even more troops.<\/p>\n

Today On TAP<\/p>\n

This story first appeared in our Today On TAP newsletter, a weekday email featuring commentary on the daily news from Robert Kuttner and Harold Meyerson.<\/p>\n

As commander in chief, Trump is operating by impulse and whim. Occasionally, he seems to want to end the war in a few weeks, in time for his rescheduled May summit meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. But his other actions seem almost guaranteed to prolong and intensify the war.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the operational Russian alliance with Iran only grows more intimate. Russia has provided satellite imagery and improved drone technology to help the Iranians target U.S. forces. Specifically, according to a Wall Street Journal report<\/a> citing senior sources in European intelligence agencies, the technology provided includes components of modified Shahed drones, to improve communications, navigation, and targeting.<\/p>\n

Ironically, Russia has been drawing on its experience using drones in Ukraine, offering tactical guidance to the Iranians on how many drones should be used in operations and what altitudes they should strike from. Russia has also been providing Iran with the locations of U.S. military forces<\/a> in the Middle East as well as those of its allies. While Trump keeps issuing apocalyptic threats against Iran, he has been oddly silent on any threats to Iran\u2019s Russian enablers, who are Trump\u2019s de facto allies in the Ukraine war.<\/p>\n

Such is the topsy-turvy Trump world. If we are very fortunate, these fantastical missteps in Iran will bring down Trump before they bring on World War III.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Trump has ordered to the waters off Iran a force that includes roughly 2,200 Marines, with another 2,500…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":43474,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1681,38,11626,159,34,49,179,2925,55,56],"class_list":{"0":"post-43473","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-iran","8":"tag-america-and-the-world","9":"tag-donald-trump","10":"tag-energy-the-environment","11":"tag-foreign-policy","12":"tag-iran","13":"tag-middle-east","14":"tag-military","15":"tag-on-tap","16":"tag-russia","17":"tag-ukraine"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116319797159892405","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43473"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43473\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}