President Donald Trump told Axios on Sunday that the United States is deliberately downplaying its military campaign against Iran while watching the country’s economic collapse, repeating a phrase nearly identical to one he used with Tucker Carlson shortly before the war began.
In a brief phone call described by the outlet, Trump said of the conflict: “We are low-keying it. We are only semi-negotiating with them. We are just watching Iran with its huge inflation and the fact they have no money.”
He then added the line that closely mirrored his earlier comment to Carlson: “It will work out. It always works out.”
The remark has drawn attention because Carlson previously flagged a similar statement as evidence that Trump may have launched the war reluctantly. In a May interview with The New York Times, Carlson recalled pleading with the president not to start the conflict.
In case you missed it:
“He said to me, ‘everything’s gonna be okay’ because I was getting overwrought [and told him] ‘don’t do this.’ He said, ‘it’s gonna be alright,’ and he said, ‘do you know how I know that?’ And I said, ‘no.’ He said, ‘because it always is,’” Carlson told the Times’ Lulu Garcia-Navarro.
Carlson interpreted the exchange as a sign that Trump understood the war could “end his presidency” yet proceeded anyway, and “against his will.”
“I do think there’s a kind of Teddy Roosevelt optimism there, but that’s not really what it was,” Carlson continued. “This is my read: that was more a justification from a man who feels he has no choice, and that is my strong view, and not just my strong view, [but] the view of others who were around him.”
The war, now deeply unpopular, has driven up food and gasoline prices in the United States by disrupting shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway that carries roughly 20 percent of the world’s oil trade. According to a Wall Street Journal report on Sunday, Trump has privately discussed dropping his primary goal of securing a nuclear deal with Iran if Tehran fully reopens the strait, which flowed freely before the conflict began.
Earlier this month, Trump prepared a major strike on Iran but stepped back after reports of critical U.S. missile shortages. On Sunday he outlined the administration’s current approach as essentially waiting while Iran’s economy deteriorates under inflation and financial strain.
Carlson has separately claimed that Israel, a longtime advocate of U.S. military action against Iran, exerted heavy pressure on Trump and has suggested the president may have been the target of a “blackmail operation.”
Of course Israel blackmailed Trump - by not liking him so much if he didn’t play along! 🤦🏼♀️🤦🏼♀️
Ha what could they possibly blackmail him with that hasn’t already been proven? Cannibalism?