The Rupert Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal blasted President Donald Trump for losing the upper hand over the Strait of Hormuz in an editorial published on Sunday evening.
The conservative newspaper lambasted the 79-year-old president’s strategy for putting an end to his war in the Middle East as details of a proposed deal between the United States and Iran began to surface over the weekend.
“Reopening the Strait will reduce oil prices, but in the President’s reluctance to do so by force, he has signaled that Iran holds the trump card,” the Journal’s editorial board wrote. “Even if successful, the deal would leave that card intact and looming.”
The editorial board highlighted that the “preliminary deal” reached by the two warring nations includes both sides immediately halting their blockades of the Strait of Hormuz, but allows talks on nuclear development and sanctions to continue for 60 days or more.
“The basic problem lies with ending U.S. pressure before dismantling the nuclear program,” the board wrote. “If the blockade ends and Iran can sell its oil, all that’s left to coerce it into nuclear concessions is the threat of renewed war.”
“But Mr. Trump wasn’t willing to do that after Iran reneged on reopening the Strait of Hormuz and attacked U.S. forces and Gulf allies,” it continued. “How credible will the threat be 60 days closer to midterms, when it would trigger a new Iranian blockade of Hormuz? A pledge not to build a nuclear weapon means nothing because the regime has always said that while doing the opposite.”
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment on the editorial.
Earlier on Sunday, Trump, 79, posted on Truth Social about how good his peace deal with Iran is, despite admitting that it “isn’t fully negotiated yet.”
“If I make a deal with Iran, it will be a good and proper one, not like the one made by Obama, which gave Iran massive amounts of CASH, and a clear and open path to a Nuclear Weapon,” the president wrote. “Our deal is the exact opposite, but nobody has seen it, or knows what it is. It isn’t even fully negotiated yet.”
“So don’t listen to the losers, who are critical about something they know nothing about,” he continued. “Unlike those before me who should have solved this problem many years ago, I don’t make bad deals!”
The Journal’s editorial board noted that, despite Trump’s assertion that he doesn’t “make bad deals,” he is likely feeling pressure from his constituents over the rising gas prices as November’s midterms creep ever closer, contributing to his panicked efforts to put an end to the conflict he started.
“We’d add that a bad deal would leave him worse off politically, even if gas prices fall. Even a half victory by Iran would hurt America’s standing—and Mr. Trump’s,” the board wrote.
