There's an old apocryphal saying, often attributed to Sir Winston Churchill, that goes "It's better to jaw, jaw, than to war, war." Whoever said it, it's a fair point. But leave it to President Donald Trump to do both at once. Iran, after being on the receiving end of yet another FO after they stupidly repeated the FA, now wants to talk again.
President Trump's reply amounts to, "Fine, we'll talk, but you may have trouble hearing us over all the ordnance going off on your end of the line."
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) July 10, 2026
The president writes:
The Islamic Republic of Iran has asked us to continue “talks.” We have agreed to do so, but the United States has stated to them, in no uncertain terms, that the Cease Fire is OVER! Thank you for your attention to this matter. President DONALD J. TRUMP
So, jaw, jaw and war, war. Fine, fine. The United States can walk and chew gum at the same time. Can Iran?
Read More: Trump: If Iran Kills Me, 'Bomb Them at Levels They've Never Seen'
It's On: Trump Orders New Strikes on Iran to Protect Ships in Strait of Hormuz
The decision to slam the door on any cease-fire agreements is probably the right one at this juncture; a cease-fire requires both sides to stop pulling triggers, and that seems to be something Iran isn't keen on doing.
Iranian forces attacked commercial vessels in the strait this week, leading to a forceful American response. Trump then panned the country’s leadership at the NATO summit in Turkey, telling reporters he was weighing taking over Kharg Island on Wednesday and expressing skepticism that a deal could be reached to stop the fighting permanently.
The president had spent weeks highlighting an agreement his negotiators reached with Iran in mid-June. But the renewed hostilities this week appear to have soured him on the prospect of peace.
“My whole life is deals. I don’t see it, I don’t see it with them,” he said on Wednesday in Ankara. “There may be a big attack and it will knock out a lot of stuff. We don’t knock out nothing, we knock out a lot.”
Once more, the Islamic Republic, the fiefdom of the vicious 7th-century barbarians that have run Iran since 1979, has proven that it can't be trusted to keep any agreement. They can't even be trusted to keep the smallest agreement, to simply stop shooting at ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz. President Trump hasn't even asked them for any significant internal reforms; regime change, other than handing off operations to lower-tier officials after higher-level ones are disassembled by American explosives, doesn't appear to be on the table. That's good on one hand; nation-building attempts in that part of the world rarely succeed. What's going on now is nation-wrecking, and Iran just seems to want to keep poking the bear.
Also, nation-wrecking is historically something we've been pretty good at.
So, no cease-fire, and the systematic destruction of Iran's infrastructure would seem to be underway. The current approach of the Trump administration seems to be that if Iran wants to talk, fine, we'll talk, but if they are Zooming in from Tehran, they may have to speak up.
Editor’s Note: Thanks to President Trump and his administration’s bold leadership, we are respected on the world stage, and our enemies are being put on notice.
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