Trump Claims Iran Broke Ceasefire Agreement
'This is a foolish violation.'
Neocons love Trump only when he bombs
The day-to-day status of negotiations may be uncertain, but the Trump administration appears to be doing everything it can to reach a deal and end the conflict with Iran.
The war had solid support from Trump’s more Fox News-oriented voters, but it remained unpopular with much of the country. It cost Trump several high-profile supporters. It also earned him the favor of political operators who previously despised him. Several figures who had declared themselves “Never Trump” suddenly discovered a strange new respect for the president once they believed he was willing to launch another regime-change war in the Middle East.
Stop allying with neoconservatives. They will always betray you in the end.
Those fair-weather allies are now melting down over the prospect of peace between America and Iran.
In his farewell address, George Washington warned the fledgling republic that foreign entanglements were dangerous to freedom and independence. He encouraged commerce with all nations but cautioned against permanent alliances and favored nations. Washington understood that favoritism toward a foreign power would invite foreign influence and lead some citizens to mistake loyalty to an ally for loyalty to the United States.
No event has vindicated that warning more clearly than the war with Iran.
Trump immediately stood out in conservative politics by taking three positions that were popular with the base and dangerous to the establishment. He opposed open borders, unfettered trade, and endless regime-change wars.
Republican politicians, conservative pundits, and Washington think tanks loathed him for all three positions, but especially for the third. Endless conflict created job security and enormous income streams for permanent Washington. The war class did not appreciate a reality television star barging in and threatening the gravy train.
Many neoconservatives abandoned the GOP once they realized Trump was not going away. Others stayed because the war-hawk establishment had deep roots in the Republican Party. They realized they could gain more influence by pretending to convert to the MAGA movement and working from within to steer policy.
Several figures who swore they would never support Trump began presenting themselves as his greatest champions, hoping they could define what MAGA should become.
When the war with Iran began, these neoconservative champions viciously attacked anyone who pointed out that the conflict contradicted Trump’s previous foreign policy. They invented slurs to brand opponents as traitors to the president and insisted that total ideological conformity was the only acceptable position.
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The strategy worked for a time. It drove many anti-interventionists away from their previous support for Trump. That made it even more revealing when Trump moved to end the conflict and his new allies suddenly attacked him in blind rage.
America and Israel entered the conflict with very different goals. For the United States, the only real concern was preventing Iran from gaining the capacity to produce a nuclear weapon. It is unlikely an Iranian nuke could threaten the U.S. directly, but keeping hostile regimes from obtaining that capacity is a legitimate goal.
Israel saw Iran differently. For Benjamin Netanyahu, Iran was an existential threat that had to be taken off the table entirely. His goal was always to collapse the current Iranian regime, replace it, or let the country become a failed state.
As Marco Rubio indicated after the war began, Israel insisted on starting the fight knowing it would force the United States to join. The two allies were out of step from the beginning, so it is no surprise that Netanyahu has done everything possible to disrupt the peace process and achieve every military objective he can while still under the protection of American arms.
The reaction in Israel to Trump’s pursuit of peace has not been gratitude. The president’s popularity there has plummeted, and headlines accusing him of betraying Israel have appeared across the country’s newspapers. One Israeli media figure even suggested America deserved another 9/11-style terror attack so the public would be frightened back into fighting Iran.
Hardcore Israel supporters in America have reacted no better. Figures such as Ben Shapiro, who briefly departed the Never Trump camp to push for war, are now turning back against Trump. At times they try to hide their anger by blaming Vice President JD Vance for the peace deal, but no one is fooled.
Neocons pushed relentlessly for a conflict that had little to do with American interests. Once they got their war, they expected military escalation to force Trump into the wider regime-change conflict they desperately desired.
Very few presidents would have had the fortitude to exit the Iran war after realizing it was unwise. Trump did. The neoconservatives will never forgive him for that outrage.
It turns out all the rhetoric about loyalty to Trump was a farce. The neoconservatives always hated Trump and his voters, despite their change in tone after his second election. Many pundits who praised Trump’s decision to bomb Iran had tried to replace him with Ron DeSantis in the primary. The people who believed their rhetoric and followed their lead were foolish. They are notably silent now that the neoconservatives are losing their minds and turning on the president.
RELATED: A real nation knows who is in and who is out
What should we learn from this unwise detour into foreign adventurism?
First, Americans have little interest in extended foreign conflicts. They elected Trump to address crises at home, not to fix the Middle East.
Second, Washington was right about entangling alliances. Israel is its own country with its own priorities. It cares about the United States to the extent that America helps advance those priorities. Entering a war with an ally that does not share your interests is foolish.
Third, neoconservatives are not domestic political allies. They have no loyalty to Trump or the MAGA base and will turn on both the moment either stops serving their purposes.
The lesson is not complicated, but it is expensive. Movements that cannot distinguish temporary agreement from real alliance eventually wake up serving someone else’s agenda in wars they never wanted to fight at all.
Stop allying with neoconservatives. They will always betray you in the end.
Her crime: Singing without a 'Sharia-compliant hijab.' Her punishment: 74 lashes.
In a caravanserai older than the regime that now wants her flogged, a woman stood on a Persian carpet before an empty audience — without a hijab — and sang her homeland back to itself.
That, according to Iran's courts, is "obscene" and deserves 74 lashes.
‘This is a right I could not ignore; singing for the land I love passionately.’
Parastoo Ahmadi is an Iranian singer who first came to the world’s attention during the 2022 Woman, Life, Freedom protests — the uprising that shook Iran after Jina Mahsa Amini died under suspicious circumstances in morality police custody for wearing her hijab “improperly.”
At protests, Ahmadi sang the patriotic anthem “Az Khoon-e Javanan-e Vatan” (“From the Blood of the Youth of the Homeland”) as a rallying cry. Authorities subsequently summoned her and searched her home.
Ahmadi didn’t stop. In December 2024, she filmed the "Caravanserai Concert" at the historic Deir-e Gachin caravanserai, livestreamed to her YouTube channel but with no audience in attendance. She wore a long black dress, her shoulders bare, with deep red lipstick — no hijab.
The 27-minute performance has since drawn over 3 million views.
Ahmadi captioned her video, "I am Parastoo, a girl who wants to sing for the people I love. This is a right I could not ignore; singing for the land I love passionately."
Authorities arrested Ahmadi on December 14, 2024 — a detention the regime dressed up as a “summons” for producing content “contrary to social norms and values,” according to Human Rights Activists News Agency. Two musicians were taken with her.
Within weeks, the group was formally charged at Tehran’s Prosecutor’s Office for Moral Security Affairs and released on bail.
This June, a criminal court in Qom — the same province where a 19-year-old champion wrestler was sentenced to death for attending a protest, then hanged eight days after his birthday — issued its verdict: 74 lashes each for Ahmadi and eight musicians and crew members, a two-year travel ban, and a two-year prohibition on all artistic activity.
Two of the nine defendants weren't even in Iran when the verdict came down, the New York Times reported, citing "a person close to her family."
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According to court documents obtained by IranWire, Ahmadi’s uncovered head and bare shoulders were described as "obscene images," the charges filed under Article 638 of the Islamic Penal Code and Article 743 of the Computer Crimes Law. The ruling is preliminary and subject to appeal.
The indictment also described Ahmadi as "lacking the Sharia-compliant hijab" and "semi-naked," IranWire reported.
The sentence came the day after Iran and the United States signed a memorandum of understanding to end a four-month conflict that killed thousands across the Middle East.
Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam of Norway-based Iran Human Rights said the regime, "emboldened by the peace deal with the U.S., may intensify its crackdown on women."
The U.S.-Israel strikes that began in late February killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who oversaw Iran for nearly four decades. His son, Mojtaba Khamenei — dubbed the “Gayatollah” — has taken his place as supreme leader, with hard-line IRGC commanders assuming an expansive role running the country.
"They call America the Great Satan. And then they flew to the table and signed a deal with the Devil. But a woman's voice scared them," said Iranian-American journalist and activist Masih Alinejad.
“Will this country ever be fixed one day?” said Mariam, a teacher in Mashhad, according to the Times. “Where in the world is a woman’s singing punishable by lashes?”
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Senate Republicans would do well by the country and themselves to heed Trump’s political instincts on this one.
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The empire cannot drone-strike its way out of decline
There is a moment in every war, somewhere between the first triumphant press conference and the first encounter with reality, when the slogans begin to turn rancid.
Television panels flash maps. Talking heads bloviate. Officials insist that everything is proceeding according to plan. But you can’t outrun the truth forever. The central lie on which the war rested begins to collapse under the crushing weight of events.
Thomas Jefferson warned us more than two centuries ago: 'Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none.' That remains the sanest policy available.
No one should sugarcoat what has happened: America has been defeated by a lesser regional power.
I was horrified when the war began. I said then that if the initial strikes failed to decapitate the Iranian government and cause the regime to fall, Iran had already won. I am no deep geopolitical expert and no Nostradamus, but anyone with modest knowledge of the region could see where this was headed.
Because of a geographic accident, a backward theocracy can threaten one of the most important arteries in the world economy. Roughly 20% of global energy supply moves through the Strait of Hormuz. If that flow is disrupted, the result is economic catastrophe. The problem is not just oil. Fertilizer, liquefied natural gas, petrochemicals, and dozens of inputs that make modern life possible move through the same system.
Meanwhile, because Iran has endured decades of sanctions, it is less exposed to some of the pressures now wrecking others. As oil prices spike, Tehran profits.
These facts do not require affection for the Iranian regime. Tehran’s record on political repression, censorship, regional adventurism, and support for militant proxies is horrific. The question was never whether one approves of the regime. The question was whether war would accomplish the objectives announced in its name.
Washington’s understanding of Iran has repeatedly proven shallower than policymakers imagine. Talk to Iranians who are not nostalgic for the shah, and they will often describe a much more complicated country than the bloodthirsty totalitarian caricature presented by much of the media. Many may hate the ayatollahs. But they also fear the alternative: a failed state like Syria or Libya.
Iran is an ancient civilization. Civilizations, unlike a school full of girls, cannot be destroyed from the air.
What did victory even mean? Iran has nearly 100 million people, a territory almost three times the size of Texas, some of the most forbidding terrain on earth, and a population with deep nationalist feeling tied to 4,000 years of history. Short of reinstituting the draft and landing half a million soldiers, how exactly did anyone expect Iran simply to surrender?
One of the most disconcerting aspects of this war has been the relative failure of the American military when faced with weapons that will define the 21st century: drones and missiles. Reports of damaged bases, lost aircraft and multimillion-dollar drones, evacuated facilities, and strained air defenses should alarm every serious person in Washington.
One of our carriers, the $13 billion Gerald R. Ford, has been knocked out of commission for years because of an unexplained laundry fire that burned for 30 hours and almost sank the ship.
Whatever the final accounting shows, Iran and the war in Ukraine have made one thing clear: The future of warfare does not belong to giant military bases and aircraft carriers alone. It belongs increasingly to cheap, plentiful, highly effective drones.
The Shahed may go down as one of the most important military innovations of our time. It is effectively a low-cost cruise missile with a meaningful payload, long range, and a flight path that can be programmed in advance. It can be stored in a garage, launched from a truck, and produced at a fraction of the cost of the systems designed to stop it. And Iran has nearly 100,000 of them.
The age of drone warfare is here, and America looks flat-footed. Getting into an arrow war with the Persians was a mistake for Rome at Carrhae. We should have remembered the lesson.
Lies and disinformation can survive only so long against reality. We were never going to win this war. The Iranian people were never going to rise up and install a pro-LGBTQ democracy. Iran’s navy was never destroyed in any meaningful strategic sense. And whatever one believes about the nuclear question, airstrikes were never a substitute for a durable political settlement.
Now we are on the verge of a global economic crisis that could endanger some of our most important allies, including Japan and South Korea. Gulf Arab countries that spent the last 15 years stamping out radical Islamic movements and pledging trillions in economic partnerships with the United States have been ravaged by the conflict. When grocery prices explode, when fertilizer costs flow through to food prices, when filling up a car eats through family savings, ordinary Americans will ask obvious questions.
Who started this war? And why?
Iran will end the war bloodied but standing. It will retain enormous leverage over one of the world’s most important commercial arteries. It may enjoy windfall profits as oil prices rise, sanctions loosen, and frozen assets return. It may emerge with more, not less, power on the world stage.
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That could have been avoided. But you cannot tweet your way to victory.
America has depleted its interceptor missiles. Billions of dollars in regional defense infrastructure will need rebuilding. Bases have been evacuated. Brave Americans have died. Who will pay to rebuild the system? Certainly not Arab states that watched Washington prioritize Israel’s security over theirs.
Iran remains. Its people remain. Its national identity remains. The need for diplomacy remains. The need for political solutions remains.
What has disappeared is the illusion that these realities could be bombed away.
We should have learned that lesson in Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq. We did not. Now we must take the deal, walk away, and admit that the American empire can no longer rule the world by force of will.
Thomas Jefferson warned us more than two centuries ago: “Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none.” That remains the sanest policy available.
One line from Tucker Carlson sparks political firestorm for the GOP
Reactions have come pouring in from defenders and detractors alike after Tucker Carlson made a shocking pronouncement that may well serve as a bellwether for the future of the Republican Party.
On a recent podcast appearance, Carlson, who has been vocal about his misgivings about the current direction of the GOP, drew a hard line in the sand when asked about his ongoing support for the Republicans.
'And if I'm out, then I think a lot of other people are out.'
Asked about the war in Iran, which became a wedge issue among Republicans long before the end of February, Carlson argued that supporting the current conduct of the Trump administration has become untenable because Israel's undue influence: "How could I or any American voter support a political party that's not loyal to the United States? That puts the interests of a foreign country above those of its own citizens?"
"I voted Republican my entire life. I worked at Fox News, CNN, MSNBC. I've been a consistent defender ... of the Republican Party — I mean, very consistent defender," Carlson explained. "But there's no defending this because it's immoral, and it's exactly the opposite of what a political party in a democracy is charged with doing, which is representing its own voters, its own citizens, its own nation. And they're not doing that. So no, I'm out."
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"And if I'm out, then I think a lot of other people are out," he added.
Some leaders attacked Carlson's statements, accusing him of hating America. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), for example, wrote: "This has been obvious for some time. @TuckerCarlson HATES: Trump[,] Republicans[,] Israel[,] Christian Zionists[,] YOU[.] Tucker loves: Qatar[,] The Ayatollah[,] Antisemite crackpots[,] Shirtless Putin[,] Sharia law."
It isn't clear how Carlson's disagreements with the conduct of the Republican Party make him a lover of "Shirtless Putin."
However, Carlson's message seemed to resonate with others.
"Sadly the GOP will lose hundreds of thousands of voters in the mid-term election because of the total betrayals that have occurred[.] Turn out will drop significantly[.] @TuckerCarlson aligned voters like myself & millions of others are disappointed by the America Last foreign policy & massive amounts of foreign 'legal' labor coming in still," Lake County Commissioner Anthony Sabatini wrote.
Marjorie Taylor Greene joined the fray, adding that millions of people like Tucker Carlson are tired of the "America LAST" politics in the party today:
Tucker is not the only one who is done supporting the Republican Party. There is A LOT of us that are absolutely fed up and will not support a party that betrays its voters and country. That does not mean we are turning into Democrats either. But we are DONE with the America LAST Republican Party.
Michael Knowles, on the other hand, made an attempt to get people to look past the "infighting": "I'm just pointing out: while the Right does all this infighting, the Left is waiting for the Right to destroy itself so they can bring back transing kids, racial politics, government suppression."
"I am imploring the American Right: please keep some perspective," Knowles added.
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