Trump seen as 'thrashing around for ideas' to escape Iran quagmire during latest interview

According to Financial Times columnist Ed Luce, Donald Trump spent an inordinate amount of time during their Monday interview grasping for clues on how to bring his war on Iran to a close.

Calling into MS NOW’s “Morning Joe,” Luce elaborated on more details from his chat with the embattled president who reportedly jumped from topic to topic.

Speaking with the hosts, Luce recalled, “He was toggling between what I call the ‘armageddon TACO [Trump Always Chickens Out] shuffle’ in that he was, you know, talking about taking Iran’s oil and how easy it would be to seize Kharg island, referring to the Venezuela model of regime change by taking out the head and doing business, including oil business, with the remains of it. Then shifting to saying that, that he was having great talks with the Iranian regime.”

Asked about Trump’s oil problems with the Strait of Hormuz closed and no easy answers to getting it open for tankers again, Luce claimed Trump told him, “It was slightly in tension with what he was saying about, well, now they’re letting 20 tankers through, I believe these are Pakistan-flagged tankers. ‘But the Iranians have given me an even bigger gift and even bigger present, 20 tankers.’“

“And of course, you know that that in a way, it’s a little bit awkward because that in a way demonstrates Iran’s ability to control who goes in and who goes out,” Luce observed before commenting, “I sensed a little bit of sort of thrashing around for ideas because, you know, other than this stress on the indirect talks and these 20 ships that have been permitted to go through the strait, it didn’t sound like he had a whole lot of ideas as to how to get out of this situation.”

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