My take: He wants "pauses" because he wants to resupply the strike group and/or wait for the Marine unit to transfer. I have my suspicions Iran isn't gonna fall for this trick.
And Brent futures are starting to climb up again fast.
Trump's post is either him freaking out of a Black Monday and/or losing military command, or it can be interpreted as market manipulation. But I don't think he is much in control anymore.
I'm hoping that this is part of a specific plan - Reza Pahlavi has made statements about his trying to influence Trump to not strike Iran's energy sector. Given that those shortly followed Trump's own threats to do so, it seems reasonable to think that the whole interaction could be designed to make Pahlavi look good in front of the Iranian public by apparently obtaining concessions from the US via diplomacy.
If that is the case, I'd expect some kind of official recognition of Pahlavi, or at least some kind of unofficial indication that the US would consider him to be an acceptable leader.
The amphibious assault ship USS Tripoli with its marines will be arriving on station shortly [0]. The Iranian regime have been preparing for a fight with the Great Satan since it came to power.
It will be a holy war for the Iranian regime so they will not back down. So unless Trump/US does back down it's safe to assume things are going to get far worse.
The "productive" talks are, of course, a lie. Trump just said that a former president praised him in private for his war of aggression in Iran. All living former presidents confirmed they've had no communication with him.
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My take: He wants "pauses" because he wants to resupply the strike group and/or wait for the Marine unit to transfer. I have my suspicions Iran isn't gonna fall for this trick.
But, Trump being Trump, he'll probably do a suckerpunch attack today on the deadline.
And Brent futures are starting to climb up again fast.
Trump's post is either him freaking out of a Black Monday and/or losing military command, or it can be interpreted as market manipulation. But I don't think he is much in control anymore.
If that is the case, I'd expect some kind of official recognition of Pahlavi, or at least some kind of unofficial indication that the US would consider him to be an acceptable leader.
It will be a holy war for the Iranian regime so they will not back down. So unless Trump/US does back down it's safe to assume things are going to get far worse.
[0] https://news.usni.org/2026/03/18/3-ship-tripoli-arg-31st-meu...
It’s as if he’s just options trading.
I wouldn’t be surprised in the slightest if he attacked those power plants this evening.