The expiry of the U.S’s Memorandum of Understanding with Iran on Monday with no indication of any extension has left Washington with no clear exit strategy, six months since it launched attacks on Iran along with Israel. This is evidenced in President Donald Trump’s erratic stances on the war, expressed via his statements.
The yo-yo nature of his statements show how the Trump administration has been stuck in a quagmire following its actions, which lacked a clear strategic objective for the Americans. This will also come at a great cost. The chart shows an alternation between crude threats of destruction — for instance on March 21, he said that U.S. will destroy Iran’s power plants if Tehran didn’t fully open the Strait of Hormuz — and softened rhetoric when three days later he said that the U.S. and Iran had a productive conversation about resolution (denied by the Iranians). The Trump administration’s actions in Iran, till June alone, have already incurred huge costs (~$40 billion), according to estimates by CSIS.
