Is Donald Trump Looking for an Exit Ramp?

The Israel/US decapitation strike on Saturday hit the Ayatollah Khamenei when he was reportedly meeting with senior Iranian military officers. Was the Israeli hit a lucky coincidence or was this a deliberately planned trap? Did the US send a message to Khamenei for a meeting to discuss a US proposal in preparation for the planned Monday meeting — now cancelled — in Geneva? Whatever brought these senior Iranian officials together, it has been a Pyrrhic victory for the West and its Zionist masters. Killing Khamenei did not inspire Iranian opponents of the Islamic Republic to flood the streets of Tehran and demand the ouster of the mullahs. Nope, the attack rallied the Iranian people to embrace without hesistation the continued rule of the mullahs.

If you listen to Donald Trump’s public words, he is making wild claims about US military successes in killing Iranians. However, there are new reports that suggest Trump is panicked and searching for a way to declare victory and exit the war. Donald Trump asked Italy to mediate or serve as a conduit for proposing an immediate ceasefire with Iran, following the recent US-Israeli military strikes on Iranian targets (including the reported killing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in late February 2026).

According to multiple media reports, US officials, through Italian mediation (likely involving Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government or channels), proposed a swift ceasefire to de-escalate tensions and potentially return to negotiations. This was framed as an attempt to end the military campaign quickly after initial strikes achieved key objectives (e.g., degrading leadership and capabilities).

Nice try Donald… You’ve pissed away any shred of credibility you have left. Iran told the US to fuck off. The US/Israeli assassination of the Ayatollah Khomenei was the final straw for Iran. They have zero interest in a ceasefire in my opinion. The Iranians realize that they are in a stronger position to bleed the US and Israel of scarce weapon systems and force the US into a humiliating retreat.

If the US was really on the cusp of a major defeat of Iran, which would entail a regime change in Tehran, do you believe that Donald Trump would be entertaining the idea of a ceasefire and a return to negotiations? Hell no. Trump has made a major strategic error by going along with Israel and trying to force a regime change by killing Iran’s spiritual father, along with more than 100 school girls.

Although Iran is suffering some significant losses, it also is inflicting equal, if not more, pain on Israel and the US. Besides destroying the US military infrastructure in the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz is going to cause significant economic harm to the Western financial order. I believe that Iran has an enormous reserve of ballistic and cruise missiles and will be able to sustain a campaign of attrition against both Israel and the US for at least two months. This is why Trump is now desperate to secure a ceasefire and try to put the toothpaste back in the tube. But Iran is having none of it.

I believe that by March 15, the US and Israel will be pleading — at least privately — for an end to the Iranian missile barrages. The death of Khamenei has removed a moderate from the Iranian chain of command. The agreement that Iranian authorities made on June 25, 2025 to end the missile attacks on Israel had the blessing of the Ayatollah. There were many in the IRGC leadership that opposed that decision, but they obeyed the decision of Khamenei. Now they have been vindicated. The US is not a trustworthy nor reliable negotiating partner. I believe the campaign will only conclude when Israel agrees to remove its forces from Gaza and the West Bank… Otherwise, Iran will continue to pummel and shred Israel’s economic, scientific and military infrastructure. Oh, and one more thing, all economic sanctions against Iran must be lifted.

Trump’s 2024 campaign promises about securing peace will haunt him for the remainder of his term… Many of his MAGA supporters will not forgive him for his perfidy. During Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign, he repeatedly emphasized his opposition to “endless wars” (also called “forever wars” or “never-ending wars”) and positioned himself as the candidate who would avoid new military entanglements abroad, focusing instead on “America First” priorities and peace through strength.

During the 2024 campaign, Trump frequently contrasted himself with his Democratic opponent (Kamala Harris), calling her “the candidate of endless wars” while declaring himself “the candidate of peace.” He boasted that during his first term, he was “the first president in modern times to start no new wars,” a line he used prominently at the Republican National Convention (RNC) in July 2024, where he said his foreign policy would “bring stability to the world.” In various rallies (e.g., Iowa caucuses lead-up in January 2024), he promised to “turn the page forever on those foolish, stupid days of never-ending wars” and criticized past administrations for prolonged conflicts that drained U.S. resources. A signature phrase he repeated: “I’m not going to start a war. I’m going to stop wars.” This appeared in multiple contexts, including victory speeches and attacks on opponents. In his November 2024 election victory speech, he reiterated: “I’m not going to start a war. I’m going to stop wars,” tying it to redirecting resources toward domestic issues rather than foreign conflicts.

Trump has betrayed the people who, like me, foolishly believed in his bullshit. He has now launched a war that the US cannot win, and as the corpses of dead Americans killed in this needless, illegal war are delivered to Dover, Delaware, Trump’s popularity will plummet. I fully anticipate that he will be impeached and convicted before his term is up. He will have no one to blame but himself. He could have secured a deal with Iran that would have guaranteed that Iran would not acquire a nuclear weapon. Instead, he chose war and will wear that dead, stinking albatross around his neck for the remainder of his miserable term.

I have had several conversations about this in the last couple of days. Glenn Diesen and I chatted on Saturday:

I spoke today with Mario Nawfal… Poor kid is battling the flu, but we still had a productive conversation:

Garland Nixon called and we spoke late on Sunday afternoon:

Scott Horton tracked me down on Saturday and we discussed the deja vu of a new war in the Middle East:

Finally, my weekly Counter Currents broadcast, which was recorded before the war started, was posted today: