Trump Had Expletive-Laden Tantrum Over Iran War Failures

The U.S. president is on the fritz over his inability to end the Iran war.

Donald Trump was overheard roaring and cursing inside the Oval Office, “unleashing a series of expletives” while referring to Iran’s leadership as “scumbags” and “lunatics,” an insider told The Wall Street Journal late Thursday.

The war that Trump initially claimed would last just a few weeks is now entering its fifth month, with no end in sight. That reality has haunted Trump, according to the Journal, as advisers fear that the conflict could consume the final years of his presidency.

Trump effectively threw up his hands when the preliminary peace deal signed by both countries collapsed weeks ago, claiming that he couldn’t—and wouldn’t—negotiate with Tehran.

“I don’t want to deal with them anymore,” Trump bitterly announced during a NATO summit presser in Ankara, Turkey, earlier this month. “As far as I’m concerned, it’s just a waste of time dealing with them.”

At the time of the memorandum of understanding signing, Trump reportedly ignored his Republican allies who told him that Tehran would never stick to the terms of the deal, overeager to put the war behind him, according to a senior administration official that spoke with the Journal.

Trump, apparently, is only now learning that he cannot run the White House “like a business,” and that U.S. foreign policy requires a finer touch than lording around the military’s pointy stick. In just his second term, Trump has displayed a penchant for abusing America’s might, attacking Yemen, Somalia, Syria, Iran, Iraq, Nigeria, and Venezuela. Earlier this week, he reportedly mulled intervening in another foreign conflict in Mali.

The unending Iran war has deeply frustrated Trump, according to administration officials that spoke with the Journal. Trump has tried to find an offramp from the conflict in the months since he threatened to obliterate Iran’s “entire civilization,” but he has been repeatedly unsuccessful in doing so.

Some of Trump’s advisers are reportedly concerned that the ongoing hostilities could harm Republican election odds in November, a failure that could transform his final two years in office. Trump pursued war against Iran following an unusual Situation Room meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Trump then went to war without Congressional approval, and without formally addressing the American public regarding his intent.

Americans, meanwhile, have suffered. The war has killed at least 18 U.S. service members, and taken an enormous toll on daily life in the U.S., inflaming the cost of practically everything as shipping companies contend with rising oil prices. ...