TRiUMPhant?

Trump, his acolytes, CNN,  BBC and the international press are jubilant about the rescue of the two pilots shot down by an obliterated Iranian air defence capability. This is the air defence capacity that was obliterated a week earlier, or at least that is what the Israeli’s and Hegseth have told us. However, I am sure the families of the two pilots are grateful to those members of the American armed services who conducted the “no one left behind” mission. According to experts, this rescue cost some $350 million, which included the destruction of two Hercules transport aircraft, a damaged Black Hawk helicopter and two Reaper drones, also shot down by Iranian air defence missiles. This war of choice that Trump initiated, or he was conned into joining by Netanyahu, who has begged Jehovah for this opportunity for over 30 years. You can also be sure that Mike Huckabee, who is a praying for Armageddon Christian Zionist, was on his knees with Trump, like Blair and Bush before the start of the war in Iraq, allegedly. Whatever the rationale, there was no clear objective, no entrance strategy, let alone an exit strategy.

 Originally, Trump’s war goal was to liberate the Iranians from a brutal theocratic authoritarian regime, regime change, nothing wrong with that in principle. Still, it cannot be done from the sky. In Trump’s head, he conflated the management change that occurred in Venezuela, which was a triumph from his perspective, with regime change in Iran. A regime structure in Iran that has been built over 47 years to endure whatever the cost to ordinary Iranians. Iran cannot outgun the US and Israel, however, through an asymmetric war strategy that includes using its proxies, such as Hezbollah, strangling the Strait of Hormuz, causing a whip lash in the world economy, they are poking the Great Satan in the eye. They are also targeting the oil and gas infrastructure of their autocratic petro state neighbours, whose simple business model is oil and gas out, money in. These are Trump allies in the region, and Iran hopes that they will pressure Trump to come to an accommodation were, by reopening the Straits. Thus, leaving the IRGC in charge in Iran and paradoxically giving them geopolitical and economic leverage over the very same Straits. Even the person who coined the phrase “The art of the deal” will have difficulty selling this as a victory, even to his unquestioning disciples. What is clear is that if the current Iranian regime is left in place, they are the ones who can actually claim victory of a sort, if pissing off Donald can be called a victory.

Then the objective shifted again, to destroying Iran’s nuclear programme and its ability to build a nuclear weapon. A programme that was apparently completely decimated in June 2025 under the Israeli banner of Operation Rising Lion and the US banner of Operation Midnight Hammer. Then it shifted again to destroying its missile manufacturing facilities because of an imminent threat to the US. He and Netanyahu said that Iran’s ballistic missile capacity was destroyed, yet intelligence recently said that Iran still had 50% of its missile capacity intact. Finally, Trump said he would bomb Iran back to the Stone Age, as expressed on Truth Social, “There will be nothing like it!!! Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell — JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah.” This is because the Iranians, by closing off the Strait of Hormuz, which sees 20% of the world’s oil passing through it and bombing their neighbour’s gas and oil infrastructure, have seen petrol in the US jump from $2.80 gallon to $4.00. Trump’s MAGA maniacs were confused as to why he started this crusade in Iran and are now facing the economic cost of blindly following a megalomaniac who can hardly string a sentence together that makes sense, let alone explain his war aims. You think Biden was past his sell-by date, you have another two and a half years left to the next election. Long after Donald has gone to the White House in the sky and Netanyahu enters Gehinom, hopefully for much longer than the statutory 12 months, and likely, there will still be an Ayatollah in Iran.

This war of choice being conducted by Trump and his wee boy Hegseth has cost the American taxpayer  $35.0 billion to date($1 billion a day), according to the Centre for Strategic and International Studies. Hegseth has also requested that Congress provide an additional $200 billion just in case things go pear-shaped. Clearly, he is unaware of the shape of a pear.

Donald has again alienated his allies in NATO with threats over Greenland leaving NATO, for which he would need 66 votes in the Senate, lifting sanctions on Russian oil, and reducing support for Ukraine. He is envious of the brute power of Putin and Xi, and his narcissism and megalomania are being facilitated by sycophants in his cabinet, such as Hegseth, Rubio, Willes, Vought, Vance, Lutnick, and Bessent. European democracies cannot decouple from the US, but they urgently need to reimagine their collective relationship with the US because JD Vile could be next in the driver’s seat. If this shambles and Putin’s war have taught us one thing, it is that the investment in renewables needs to be accelerated, irrespective of the “drill baby drill” diarrhoea spouted by Kemi and Nigel.

SUNEIL SHARMA

8th April 2026