Trump tells aides he’s done with Iran: WSJ
Reports last week revealed that President Donald Trump was growing "bored" with his war in Iran and now he's telling aides he's over it. The notoriously distractible president posted on Truth Social Tuesday morning that if Europe, specifically NATO countries, want to buy oil from Iran, then they should deal with the Strait of Hormuz themselves. He blamed other countries for not getting involved in his war. “Build up some delayed courage, go to the Strait, and just TAKE IT," Trump wrote. "You’ll have to start learning how to fight for yourself, the U.S.A. won’t be there to help you anymore, just like you weren’t there for us,” Trump posted on his Truth Social network. “Iran has been, essentially, decimated. The hard part is done. Go get your own oil!”Critics responded by characterizing Trump as going to war, bungling it and then leaving a mess."Getting the Strait closed because of the war you launched and then telling other countries they are gonna have to figure out how to open it is like buying a casino, bankrupting it, then putting it on the other board members to lend you the money to pay back the bank," said The Bulwark's Sam Stein.Now, The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Trump is telling his aides to finish things up and withdraw everything. It comes mere days after hundreds of special operations forces were sent to Iran, prepared for a mission in which they'd be sent into Iran to retrieve the enriched uranium Trump says Iran has. He previously sent thousands of troops, largely Marines, to wait off the coast of Iran and prepare for a ground war. The Journal cited administration officials saying that Trump "decided that the U.S. should achieve its main goals of hobbling Iran’s navy and its missile stocks and wind down current hostilities while pressuring Tehran diplomatically to resume the free flow of trade. If that fails, Washington would press allies in Europe and the Gulf to take the lead on reopening the strait."It's another flip-flop on Trump's plans that seem to change multiple times a day depending on who he's speaking to. The Journal described the constant 180-degree turns, saying, "Trump’s desire to end the war quickly is at odds with other moves he is planning to make."