Trumpiana: Making peace with war?

Plucky peacemaker leaves it to others to pick up the piecesAfter plucking a foreign leader in a daring raid, the ‘America First’ president of peace, winner of FIFA and Nixon peace prizes and keeper of Venezuelan opposition leader’s Nobel prize, was feeling invincible.But after stopping eight ‘unendable’ wars in keeping with his promise to end what he calls forever wars, the life chair of his Board of Peace for Gaza was perhaps also getting ‘bored of peace,’ as a wag put it.So on a Saturday morning, Donald Trump, “the most badass president of all time,” as a faithful follower called him, rained missiles on Tehran taking out the supreme leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in the very first strike.

In a video posted on Truth Social, the commander-in-chief warned members of Iran’s military to surrender or “face certain death” and urged the Iranian people to take the moment as an opportunity to rise up against their government.“The heavy and pinpoint bombing” would continue in Iran, he wrote, “as long as necessary to achieve our objective of PEACE THROUGHOUT THE MIDDLE EAST AND, INDEED, THE WORLD!”Iran, however, was no cakewalk like Venezuela, where its new leader “is doing a great job, and working with U.S.

Representatives very well. The Oil is beginning to flow,” as he wrote in the midst of war.And as an Iran battered by the joint American and Israeli attack hit back at U.S. bases around the world, Trump erased all previous red lines. Claiming “the war is ahead of schedule” he suggested Uncle Sam will get out in a matter of weeks, but left open the possibility of American troops remaining on the ground.And as Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian suggested diplomatic mediation may be in the works, Trump doubled down on his Truth Social saying there will be no deal with Iran except “UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!”He also demanded a role in picking a new leader for Iran, saying he will not accept a successor to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who continues Khamenei’s policies and called Khamenei’s son “unacceptable.”“We want them to have a good leader. We have some people who I think would do a good job,” Trump told NBC News. “We want to go in and clean out everything. We don’t want someone who would rebuild over a 10-year period.”Trump also told Time magazine he wants to decimate Iran’s nuclear program, saying, “They can’t have a nuclear weapon. That’s number one, two, and three. Number four, no ballistic missiles.”After Iran, the great peacemaker is eyeing Cuba next declaring he is contemplating regime change there but “we want to finish this one first.”Earlier, even as, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth rejected suggestions that Iran could become Trump’s Iraq, he himself indicated the U.S. could be engaged for longer than he bargained.“Somebody said today, they said, ‘Oh, well, the president wants to do it really quickly; after that, he’ll get bored,’” he told reporters, “ I don’t get bored. There’s nothing boring about this.”Indeed. To keep the Don amused, the White House released provocative videos, dubbed ‘slopaganda’ by critics, promoting ‘justice the American way’ featuring clips from superhero movies.Combining real footage from the war in Iran interspersed with footage from movies and video game clips, the videos seem to liken the real-life toll of war to a kill in a video game.“War is not a f—— video game,” countered Democratic Sen. Tammy Duckworth, an Iraq war veteran who was wounded in combat, on X. But the White House remained unfazed.Trump even drafted First Lady Melania Trump in the cause of diplomacy to promote “Enduring peace” at the United Nations Security Council where she made “history in Neutral Dior Suit.”Meanwhile, Trump, according to a New York Times report “is distancing himself from what comes after the war” with officials suggesting what they “derisively refer to as the ‘nation-building’ wars in Iraq and Afghanistan,” was not for them.“We’ll see what happens with the people,” President Trump said on Tuesday as he hosted Chancellor Friedrich Merz of Germany, referring to the possibility of a popular uprising in Iran in the wake of the war.

The Times saw it as the latest instance of “Trump and his top officials taking pains to paint Iran’s political future as being outside the scope of American responsibility.”Meanwhile, even as a federal commission delayed voting on his big beautiful ballroom until next month, citing “significant public input” with more than 97% of over 35,000 comments opposed, according to a Washington Post analysis, Trump posted several new renderings of his pet project.In another setback, the Justice Department quietly shelved an investigation into “Sleepy” Joe Biden’s use of an autopen underscoring its increasing inability to follow through on Trump’s desire to indict his rivals one way or another.But Trump, who has “boycotted” the White House correspondents’ dinner every year “because the Press was extraordinarily bad to me, FAKE NEWS ALL, right from the beginning of my First Term,” said this year he will go because the association “has asked me, very nicely, to be the Honoree at this year’s Dinner, a long and storied tradition since it began in 1924, under then President Calvin Coolidge.”“In honor of our Nation’s 250th Birthday, and the fact that these ‘Correspondents’ now admit that I am truly one of the Greatest Presidents in the History of our Country, the G.O.A.T., according to many, it will be my Honor to accept their invitation, and work to make it the GREATEST, HOTTEST, and MOST SPECTACULAR DINNER, OF ANY KIND, EVER!” wrote Trump on Truth Social, “Hopefully, it will be something very Special.”Pen may be mightier than the sword, but who can tangle with “the most badass president of all time”!(By arrangement with The American Bazaar)