Trump's 'hollow stunt exposed his fragile ego' and the pattern is 'deeply worrying'
It was as fragile as his ego.
Before the parties involved had a chance to speak, Donald Trump was doing a lap of honour around the world, hailing a ceasefire between Israel and Iran as a historic victory for his leadership.
Trump, who
has been given a terrifying nickname by Iran
, posted slogans, shared self-congratulatory graphics - including one declaring 'TRUMP WAS RIGHT ABOUT EVERYTHING' - and praised himself as the man who had brought peace to a region on the brink of war.
Within hours, as always, his work and his words had crumbled.
The ceasefire disintegrated almost as soon as it was announced, exposed as yet another hollow stunt from a president obsessed with headlines over substance. It comes as
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What the US president trumpeted as a major diplomatic breakthrough has instead unravelled as yet another hollow promise, one forged not through serious negotiation or international consensus but through political theatre, self-promotion, and an alarming disregard for the complexity of the conflict he claimed to resolve.
The ceasefire, announced to great fanfare, lasted only a few hours before violence resumed. Missiles were once again fired, tensions reignited, and hopes for calm were extinguished before they had the chance to take hold.
An angry Donald Trump swore on CNN
(Image: AP)
True to form, Trump took to his personal platform, Truth Social, not to urge restraint or focus on regional stability, but to praise himself.
It was a moment of staggering hubris and a statement disproved almost immediately as the ceasefire disintegrated.
This is the danger of a foreign policy built on self-image.
Trump's actions have long been governed not by strategic logic or informed advice, but by the pursuit of credit and headlines.
In this latest episode, he sought to frame himself as a peacemaker (as he has Ukraine), a man capable of ending one of the world's most volatile standoffs.
The reality, once again, has proven very different.
Even Trump's sycophant supporters were quick to declare the ceasefire a world-changing achievement.
One moronic troll claimed: 'The Don might have just saved millions of lives around the world.'
Such declarations have aged as poorly as many of Trump's previous ventures, from his failed university to his branded vodka.
This ceasefire was never built to last. There was no structure, no verifiable enforcement, no multilateral agreement underpinning it.
The regional actors most affected by the fighting were not visibly aligned in purpose or commitment. The absence of diplomatic groundwork made the deal little more than a fragile illusion.
Meanwhile, Trump's previous actions have made any genuine progress towards peace more difficult.
He withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal while destabilising a framework that had placed significant checks on Tehran's nuclear programme.
He has routinely backed Israeli military actions without serious scrutiny. And most recently, he ordered the bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities - an act which many experts agree pushed the region to the brink.
His sudden pivot to peacemaker sits uncomfortably with the facts.
And while his administration attempted to portray the ceasefire as evidence of strength and strategic foresight, the outcome speaks for itself: a few short hours of calm, followed by a renewed cycle of retaliation.
U.S. President Donald Trump has seemingly threatened businesses to maintain low oil prices even as Iran has threatened to retaliate
(Image: Getty Images)
There is a pattern here, and it is deeply troubling. Time and again, Trump has positioned himself as a dealmaker. But what follows is not peace, not resolution, but collapse.
From North Korea to Afghanistan to the Middle East, his record is one of rushed announcements, minimal follow-through, and maximum personal glorification.
The consequences are borne not by him, but by the people whose lives depend on stable diplomacy and coherent policy.
It is not simply that this latest ceasefire failed. It is how it failed. In its haste. In its lack of credibility. And in its detachment from the on-the-ground realities that define one of the most entrenched geopolitical struggles in the world.
There was no roadmap, no coalition of allies, and no clear terms of agreement. Instead, a message of 'mission accomplished' was presented before the mission had even begun. This is the style of governance that has come to define Trump's presidency: optics over outcomes, slogans over solutions.
There is now serious damage to repair. The collapse of this ceasefire risks deepening mistrust among regional partners and complicating any future effort to secure a meaningful, durable peace. It undermines the credibility not just of the Trump administration, but of the United States as a reliable international actor.
Leadership in moments of conflict requires more than proclamations and graphics on social media. It demands discipline, clarity, and the patience to build trust over time.
These are qualities Donald Trump has never demonstrated.
The Middle East deserves more than theatrics. It deserves serious, sustained diplomacy.
What these 24 hours have shown, once again, is that Donald Trump is not capable of delivering it. And the world, yet again, must deal with the fallout.
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RTÉ News
20 minutes ago
- RTÉ News
US strikes set back Iran nuclear programme by months
US airstrikes did not destroy Iran's nuclear capability and only set it back by a few months, according to one initial US intelligence assessment, as a shaky ceasefire brokered by President Donald Trump took hold between Iran and Israel. The preliminary assessment by the US Defense Intelligence Agency was disclosed to Reuters by three sources familiar with the matter. One of the sources said Iran's enriched uranium stocks had not been eliminated, and in fact, the country's nuclear program may have been set back only a month or two. The assessment contradicted Mr Trump's assertion that the weekend strikes had succeeded in destroying Tehran's nuclear program and raised questions about further US military action if indeed the program survived the intense aerial bombardment. The White House said the intelligence report was "flat out wrong." Mr Trump's administration told the UN Security Council that its weekend strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities had "degraded" Iran's nuclear program, short of Mr Trump's earlier assertion that the facilities had been "obliterated". Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel in its 12 days of war with Iran had removed the threat of nuclear annihilation and was determined to thwart any attempt by Tehran to revive its programme. "We have removed two immediate existential threats to us - the threat of nuclear annihilation and the threat of annihilation by 20,000 ballistic missiles," he said in video remarks issued by his office. Israel launched the surprise air war on 13 June, hitting Iranian nuclear sites where it said Iran was trying to develop an atomic bomb and killing top military commanders in the worst blow to the Islamic Republic since the 1980s war with Iraq. Iran, which says its uranium enrichment programme is for peaceful purposes and denies trying to build nuclear weapons, retaliated with a series of missile barrages on Israeli cities. Earlier today, both Iran and Israel signalled that the air war between the two nations had concluded, at least for now, after Mr Trump scolded them for violating a ceasefire he announced. Iranian preisdent hails 'great victory' Israel's military lifted restrictions on activity across the country at 8pm local time (6pm Irish time), and officials said Ben Gurion Airport, the country's main airport near Tel Aviv, had reopened. Iran's airspace likewise will be reopened, state-affiliated Nour news reported. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said his country had successfully ended the war in what he called a "great victory," according to Iranian media. Mr Pezeshkian also told Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman that Tehran was ready to resolve differences with the United States, according to official news agency IRNA. A senior White House official said Mr Trump brokered the ceasefire deal with Mr Netanyahu, and other administration officials were in touch with the Iranians. Qatar's Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani secured Tehran's agreement during a call with Iranian officials, an official briefed on the negotiations said. Both Israel and Iran took hours to acknowledge they had accepted the ceasefire and accused each other of violating it, underscoring the fragility of the truce between the two bitter foes and the challenge of achieving lasting peace between them. Mr Trump scolded both sides but aimed especially stinging criticism at Israel, telling the close US ally to "calm down now." He later said Israel called off further attacks at his command. Israel's defence minister, Israel Katz, said he told his US counterpart, Pete Hegseth, that his country would respect the ceasefire unless Iran violated it. Mr Pezeshkian likewise said Iran would honour the ceasefire as long as Israel did, according to Iranian media. Whether the Israel-Iran truce can hold is a major question given the deep mistrust between the two nations. But Mr Trump's ability to broker a ceasefire showed Washington retains some leverage in the volatile region. Israeli Armed Forces Chief of staff Eyal Zamir said a "significant chapter" of the conflict had concluded but the campaign against Iran was not over. He said the military would refocus on its war against Iran-backed Hamas militants in Gaza. Iran's military command also warned Israel and the United States to learn from the "crushing blows" it delivered during the conflict. Iranian authorities said 610 people were killed in their country by Israeli strikes and 4,746 injured. Iran's retaliatory bombardment killed 28 people in Israel, the first time its air defences were penetrated by large numbers of Iranian missiles. Oil prices plunged, and stock markets rallied worldwide in a sign of confidence inspired by the ceasefire, which allayed fears of disruption to critical oil supplies from the Gulf. Ceasefire violations? Earlier in the day, Mr Trump admonished Israel with an obscenity in an extraordinary outburst at an ally whose air war he had joined two days before by dropping massive bunker-buster bombs on Iran's underground nuclear sites. Before departing the White House en route to a NATO summit in Europe, Mr Trump told reporters he was unhappy with both sides for the ceasefire breach but particularly frustrated with Israel, which he said had "unloaded" shortly after agreeing to the deal. "I've got to get Israel to calm down now," Mr Trump said. Iran and Israel had been fighting "so long and so hard that they don't know what the f**k they're doing." Mr Netanyahu's office acknowledged Israel bombed a radar site near Tehran in what it said was retaliation for Iranian missiles fired three-and-a-half hours after the ceasefire was due to begin. It did not explicitly say whether the strike on the radar site took place before or after they spoke. The Islamic Republic denied launching any missiles and said Israel's attacks had continued for an hour-and-a-half beyond the time the truce was meant to start. In both countries, there was a palpable sense of relief. "Who mediated or how it happened doesn't matter. The war is over. It never should have started in the first place," said Reza Sharifi, 38, heading back to Tehran from Rasht on the Caspian Sea, where he had fled with his family.
Irish Examiner
an hour ago
- Irish Examiner
Pentagon report says US strikes on Iran nuclear sites only set back programme months
A new US intelligence report found that Iran's nuclear programme has been set back only a few months after a US strike, and was not 'completely and fully obliterated' as President Donald Trump has said. The early intelligence report issued by the Defence Intelligence Agency on Monday contradicts statements from Mr Trump and Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu about the status of Iran's nuclear facilities. According to people familiar with the situation, the report found that while the Saturday strikes at the Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan nuclear sites did significant damage, they were not totally destroyed. The White House strongly pushed back on the assessment, calling it 'flat-out wrong'. 'The leaking of this alleged assessment is a clear attempt to demean President Trump, and discredit the brave fighter pilots who conducted a perfectly executed mission to obliterate Iran's nuclear programme,' White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement. 'Everyone knows what happens when you drop 14 30,000 pound bombs perfectly on their targets: total obliteration.' The CIA and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence declined to comment on the DIA assessment. ODNI coordinates the work of the nation's 18 intelligence agencies, including the DIA, which is the intelligence arm of the Defence Department, responsible for producing intelligence on foreign militaries and the capabilities of adversaries. The intelligence assessment was first reported by CNN on Tuesday. Read More Trump claims Israel-Iran ceasefire he brokered is 'in effect' despite initial violations
Irish Times
3 hours ago
- Irish Times
The Irish Times view on Iran and Israel: a fragile ceasefire
Donald Trump's desperate calls yesterday to both Israel and Iran not to break the ceasefire he and the Qataris brokered were testimony both to the deal's fragility and to the difficulty he has in restraining Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu. 'ISRAEL. DO NOT DROP THOSE BOMBS,' the US president wrote on his social platform, emphasising his anger with Israel in particular. He warned Israel that doing so would be a major violation of the ceasefire and called on it to bring its pilots home. And it did so, after a token hit on a radar station. While not sparing Tehran from criticism, Trump appeared to recognise that Iranian restraint after the US strike on its nuclear facilities – demonstrated in its half-hearted, well-flagged attack on the Doha US Al Udeid base – had signalled a genuine openness to de-escalate. Within hours the precarious ceasefire was agreed and much of the surprised world breathed a sigh of relief. There followed uncertainty on whether it was holding, with Trump intervening again. READ MORE That both Israel and Iran would portray the agreement to conclude what Trump calling the 'Twelve-day War' as a victory was unsurprising. The claim by Tehran, stripped of its nuclear programme and much of its missile capability, its air defences completely exposed, was a bit of a stretch. While Netanyahu claims that Israel has achieved 'all of the objectives' of its military offensive, his determination on regime change has been thwarted, at least for now. For the Israeli prime minister even a job half-done represents an important political victory. He has succeeded in his long-cherished ambition to get the US to support his personal imperative to break Iran's nuclear programme. And he has probably extended significantly his fragile coalition's life by neutralising an important section of his domestic opposition. Western leaders in Brussels have trodden warily in responding to the attack on Iran, determined not to antagonise, speaking in one voice just of the need for 'de-escalation'. The Nato leaders will know that an end to fighting between Iran and Israel and fatal damage to Iran's nuclear capabilities would be a win for the US president . But we simply do not yet know whether either of these goals have been achieved. And it remains clear that Trump's attack on Iran was a huge gamble and obviously in breach of international law. For the US president , claiming that he has ended the war is clearly a good soundbite. And a fragile ceasefire is in place. But the enmity between Israel and Iran runs deep and the destruction of Gaza continues. Today, Trump claims a victory. Tomorrow, who knows?
