Trump thought being ‘unstable’ in posts would encourage Iran war deal: report

Trump Iran deal push included deliberate social media instability, report reveals

Muhammad Asghar | GlobalBeat

Donald Trump believed his erratic Twitter messages would pressure Tehran into accepting a new nuclear agreement by appearing mentally “unstable,” according to aides quoted in a forthcoming book.

The 45th president told White House staff that unpredictable posts about bombing Iranian sites would make Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei “beg for a deal,” journalist Josh Rogin reports in “The Chaos Presidency,” set for release next week.

The disclosure lands eight months after Trump left office and weeks before Iran and world powers resume Vienna talks on reviving the 2015 accord that Trump abandoned in 2018. President Joe Biden has pledged to rejoin the pact if Iran returns to compliance, but Tehran demands Washington lift sanctions first.

Rogin writes that Trump outlined the strategy during a March 2019 meeting in the Oval Office attended by then-national security adviser John Bolton, secretary of state Mike Pompeo and acting defense secretary Patrick Shanahan. “I want them to think I’m crazy enough to do it,” Trump said, according to two attendees who spoke on condition of anonymity. “That’s how we get a better deal.”

The president then typed a tweet warning that Iran would “suffer consequences the likes of which few throughout history have ever suffered before” if it threatened the United States again. He pressed send after showing the draft to Bolton, who warned the language risked triggering war, the book states.

Trump later bragged to donors at a May 2019 fundraiser in Florida that his online threats had forced Tehran to the table, Rogin reports. “They see those caps and they go, ‘This guy’s nuts,’” Trump said, referring to his all-caps warning. “That’s when you get the call saying, ‘We’d like to negotiate.’”

Iranian officials dismissed the account. “We negotiate based on dignity, not psychological theater,” foreign ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh told reporters Monday in Tehran. He added that Iran has “never responded to bullying, online or otherwise.”

The book cites at least six instances between May 2019 and January 2020 when Trump drafted or posted incendiary messages about Iran, then deleted them after aides argued they could provoke conflict. One draft tweet allegedly read: “IRAN WILL BE DESTROYED. MARK MY WORDS.”

Bolton, who left the administration in September 2019, declined to comment for this article. Pompeo did not respond to requests for comment. Shanahan, now in the private sector, confirmed through a spokesperson that discussions about “messaging leverage” occurred but declined to detail them.

Trump’s tweets coincided with a tense military buildup. In June 2019 he approved then canceled airstrikes against Iranian radar sites after Tehran shot down a U.S. surveillance drone. Three weeks later he told reporters he could order attacks on Iran “very fast” if needed.

The episode rattled Pentagon planners. “We were preparing strike packages one day and calling them off the next,” a senior defense official told GlobalBeat on condition of anonymity. “The uncertainty bled into every planning cycle.”

Iran’s economy shrank 6 percent in 2019 as U.S. sanctions slashed oil exports, according to the International Monetary Fund. inflation topped 40 percent, prompting sporadic street protests that security forces crushed. Iranian leaders publicly scorned Trump’s overtures but held back-channel talks through Oman and Switzerland throughout 2019.

European diplomats say the instability campaign backfired. “Tehran concluded Washington could not be trusted, hardening their position,” a senior EU official said in Brussels. “It took months to rebuild minimal confidence.”

Background

Trump campaigned in 2016 against the Obama-era Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, calling it “the worst deal ever.” He pulled the United States out in May 2018 and reimposed sweeping sanctions, arguing the accord failed to curb Iran’s missile program or regional activities.

Iran responded by gradually breaching limits on uranium enrichment, stockpiling more than 12 times the accord’s permitted amount of enriched uranium by early 2020, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency. The standoff brought the two nations to the brink of open conflict after a January 2020 U.S. drone strike killed Iranian general Qasem Soleimani in Baghdad.

What’s Next

Indirect talks between Iran and the United States are scheduled to resume in Vienna on May 7, European Union mediators announced Monday. Tehran wants Washington to lift roughly 1,500 sanctions first; Biden insists Iran must reverse its nuclear advances before any sanctions relief.

The Rogin book is expected to revive Republican criticism of Trump’s foreign policy approach as the party prepares for 2026 midterm elections. Senator Tom Cotton, a Trump ally, told reporters Monday that “keeping adversaries off balance is smart statecraft,” while Democratic senator Chris Murphy called the strategy “diplomatic arson.”