Drudge Retort: The Other Side of the News
Saturday, May 09, 2026

He wants out, but Iran could likely keep going for months.

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Even without a formal agreement, Trump has considered declaring decisive victory and moving on. Secretary of State Marco Rubio went so far as to say earlier this week that the war was over. But doing so now would leave the conflict's goals, as outlined at various times by the president and his aides, unfulfilled. Yes, the Iranian navy has been largely destroyed. But Iran still possesses, by some estimates, more than half of its ballistic-missile capabilities. Its proxy groups, such as Hezbollah, are still fighting. There has not been real regime change. Its nuclear stockpile remains a threat, and there is no deal to dilute it or ship it out of the country. Iran will almost certainly leave the war with more control, either implicitly or explicitly, over the Strait of Hormuz than it enjoyed before the conflict, including knowing that it could again shutter the waterway and inflict global economic pain.

Trump wants the war to end. He wants a deal. But deals take two parties, and there's no evidence that Iran is interested in bailing Trump out of a dilemma of his own making.

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"We're gonna win so much, you may even get tired of winning. And you'll say, Please, please. It's too much winning. We can't take it anymore, Mr. President, it's too much.' And I'll say, No it isn't. We have to keep winning. We have to win more!'"
Donald J. Trump
Recidivist Bankrupt

"I have all the cards!"
Donald J. Trump
Indian Poker Player, Strait of Hormuz Table

#1 | Posted by Doc_Sarvis at 2026-05-09 07:38 AM | Reply

Narcissists always get bored with, and want to quit, things they do that don't go well.

This is usually accompanied by statements blaming others for the boredom and the not going well.

#2 | Posted by Zed at 2026-05-09 08:22 AM | Reply

Xi will be feeling pretty confident next week when the guy who lost Trump's War shows up in Beijing and tries blowing some of his pathetic "I have all the cards" smoke.

#3 | Posted by Doc_Sarvis at 2026-05-09 08:38 AM | Reply

Two points to toss into the hopper:

(1). Trump, former "reality" show compere, is a short attention span, mentally ill, six-times bankrupt who repeatedly demonstrates he is incapable of managing even a gambling den.

(2). Iran's foreign minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi, scion of a family of prosperous Isfahan rug merchants, has a book out - The Power of Negotiation: Principles and Rules of Political and Diplomatic Negotiations. I have not read Araghchi's treatise and it's entirely possible nobody in the White House has, either. But, reaching across the aisle here, perhaps someone should.

#4 | Posted by Doc_Sarvis at 2026-05-09 10:55 AM | Reply

The bloated sack of---------- finds the slaughter of 175 Iranian schoolgirls tedious.

#5 | Posted by reinheitsgebot at 2026-05-09 11:09 AM | Reply

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