Donald Trump the Megathread part II - Mod Warning updated in OP 12/2/26

I had to read the headlines twice this morning.

US have lifted sanctions on Iran to allow them to sell oil!?

They are doing this to ease the cost of oil, prioritising this over the fact that they are giving money to the country they are at war with, and therefore funding Iran's war against the US.

take your point. It’s just ‘Donnie’ gives off a kind of ‘warm and cuddly’ vibe/image…...but in saying that he is the ultimate ‘man-child’…….😡

I think most people are missing the point of this war.

It is being talked about in terms of the outcomes mentioned by Trump & Hegseth, oil price etc.

But I think that all this is about Israel. Israel wanted to bomb the crap out of its neighbours, especially Iran, but also Lebanon.

But Israel needs US to help with that. US had now done all the heavy lifting meaning there really is very little threat to Israel from Iran. Israel now has complete military dominance over Iran.

Trump doesn't care about the effects on global trade or economy. He showed that with his tariffs. He got to be the war president. Not content with ending 8 wars, he can now say he won one. And one no other POTUS would do.

His moves to lift sanctions on Russia and Iran to keep oil price a bit lower shows that this isn't about 'winning ' anything. Its about achieving a goal, destroy Irans offensive military capability so Israel can be dominant in the ME.

This lifting of sanctions against Iranian oil in transit is hilarious. Iran sells oil to China at a discount for fixed year structural funding so they're not going to divert that oil to appease an attacker that will as quickly reapply those tariffs when it suits.

I am not convinced that Trump will stick by Israel. I always got the impression that staunch support for Israel was as much Muslim bashing for his hardcore rally attendees. Last year at one of his rallies he used "shylock" to bash bankers and even if he didn't understand the implication if his hardcore gobbled it up then that's ok by him.

If they're not happy about gas prices at the pump he'll call them Israeli's trouble makers driving up oil prices with their war that they misled him into.

BTW, last night I was reading a chapter about how in the mid 1970s the then Shah's wife went to Paris for her annual three week holiday and flew home in her private jet with an Iranian 707 behind her carrying French marble for her own private swimming pool. That's pure Trump.

Headline on BEEB this morning: "Trump says US considering winding down war in Iran but other nations must guard Hormuz".

Totally predictable: another betrayal by Trump. It's an iron law of politics: Trump will always betray you.

Man-child is also coincidentally his preferred relationship style 😉

The news of the attempted Iranian strike on Diego Garcia is far more important than many suppose.
It's not just that Iran launched at a 4000km distant target.
It's that usually, when the range of a Ballistic Missile is extended, it comes at the cost of Payload and/or Accuracy.
Iran seems to have managed to avoid that issue insofar as they targeted a relatively small target at an extreme range.

There is speculation that the launches took place shortly after Keir Starmer provided the US permission to use UK bases for "Defensive" strikes.
Which coincidentally aligns with the rest of Europe confirming they would not be partaking in any offensive ops against Iran.

My own, early thinking and very likely to change when/if new details come to light is this.
The Iranians, even without hitting Diego Garcia, have sent explicit strategic messaging with the attempt.
Much of Western Europe is within reach if they wish it.
Don't fire at us, and we won't fire back.
Even more importantly, very little of western Europe has anything approaching a reliable BMD capability.
Yes SAMP-T, IRIS-T and Patriot are operated by many NATO members, but as point defence for strategic targets and not as nationally interleaved BMD defence.
Expect development and deployment of Sky shield to be much accelerated.

thought of this when I saw him explain it

The Cyprus missile came from southern Lebanon and was probably Israeli in an effort to get the Brits into this . Iran didn’t fire it