First Draft – 💥 US Intel to Trump: Iran Isn’t Breaking
The president claims we’ve already ‘won’ in Iran, as his officials tell him we most definitely haven’t; Ohioans protest Trump; and a former ICE lawyer (!) wants to replace Rep. Ilhan Omar in Congress.
On this day in 1933, Franklin D. Roosevelt conducted his first radio "fireside chat" as president. Our current president’s equivalent of that is a Truth Social post, calling actor Robert De Niro “demented” and “even sicker” than comedian Rosie O’Donnell.
Hi! Swin here, with your daily dose of ‘First Draft.’ I keep trying to compare Donald Trump’s Iran war to another administration’s official act or policy, but it’s getting clearer by the hour that there is only one truly apt analogy, and it has nothing to do with past presidencies. Right now, the United States is Thomas Jane’s character, Todd Parker, in the movie ‘Boogie Nights’ – we psyched ourselves up to execute the dumbest heist possible, went ahead with it after our buddies told us to abort, and now we’re paying for it.
In today’s ‘First Draft,’ US intelligence officials whisper to Trump that the Iranian government is still holding on tight, the president reportedly told his top Capitol Hill ally that “no one gives a shit about housing,” and another school in another country was hit by a drone strike, in a different horrifying war.
‘We Won’?
Since last month, we at Zeteo have reported that virtually no one in the Trump-Vance administration had a clear idea of what the mission would be going into this new, illegal war on Iran. Trump did it anyway. We told you about how Trump was repeatedly warned by his senior officials that Americans would “very” likely die if he started this fight. He did it anyway.
We also told you about how, in the run-up to launching this regional bloodbath, Trump’s advisers “fully briefed and prepped” him on how Iran’s government would likely respond by acting to explode oil prices – and damage the markets and our economy – if he went ahead with the war. Trump privately downplayed those warnings. Then he did it anyway.
In recent days, two Trump advisers and two other sources briefed on the situation tell me, US officials have delivered another dire warning to our batshit crazy president: They’ve informed Trump and his lieutenants that, based on American intel, the Iranian regime at this time isn’t breaking, isn’t ready to fold on the war or stop retaliating, and that there are signs the war is causing significant rally-around-the-flag effects on the ground in Iran, including among some groups that hate the government in Tehran.
And yet – you guessed it – Donald Trump is going to keep doing it anyway, even in the face of mounting casualties on all sides of the conflict, the world economy on the brink, and gas and fertilizer prices surging, and increasingly disastrous poll numbers at home for this president.
On Wednesday night, Reuters first reported that “US intelligence sees no imminent collapse of Iran government.”
At least for now, the American president intends to continue prosecuting his war, and most crucially for him, he’s going to continue lying about his supposed progress in the region and burying the wincing intel assessments. Publicly, President Trump claims he can end this war whenever he wants to end it, and that, somehow, “the war is very complete, pretty much.”