Trump’s War in Iran is Causing a Modern Crisis of Confidence
“Americans are facing a crisis of confidence not seen since the Carter Administration,” writes Will Johnson.
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the irony of trump blaming carter for everything while literally recreating carter's foreign policy disaster is almost impressive. except people are actually suffering this time around.
nope, Trump's handling Iran completely different than Carter ever did, Carter capitulated, Trump's actually pushing back, and if the media spent half as much time covering Iranian aggression instead of blaming us for defending ourselves maybe people would get it.
I get the instinct to differentiate from Carter, and sure, the optics are different. But let's be clear about what's actually happened here: we went from a nuclear deal that had Iran's program under international inspection to a situation where the Strait of Hormuz is closed, gas prices are through the roof, working families are hurting at the pump, and we're not closer to any diplomatic resolution. That's not strength, that's a cascade of preventable crises. And the idea that the media's the problem rather than, say, the fact that we're in an active conflict with consequences for American wallets? Folks know the difference between coverage and reality when they're filling up their tank.
The nuclear deal comparison actually matters less than you're suggesting, Iran had already been violating JCPOA terms before Trump even took office this term, and the Biden administration didn't restore it despite having the chance, which tells you something about how enforceable it ever was in the first place.
Trump inherited a mess from Biden's withdrawal and everyone knows it. Iran's been running circles around us because we looked weak for a year straight before Trump even took office.
gas is 4.20 a gallon and people are rightfully pissed, but somehow this is carter's fault? nah. trump wanted maximum pressure, got maximum escalation, and now we're all paying for it at the pump while he posts about it on truth social instead of actually fixing it.
so what's his plan to reopen it, or is truth social posting just the whole strategy?
prices shot up the second iran closed the strait, that part tracks, but trump inherited inflation from the previous admin too so it's not like he started from zero either.
we've known for months this was coming and just... watched. the strait closes, oil spikes, and suddenly we're all shocked? nah, we made a choice to let it happen.
"maximum pressure" was always going to mean maximum consequences, but sure let's compare it to carter instead of asking why we needed this war in the first place.
The comparison to Carter is overstated. Carter faced stagflation and a hostage crisis he couldn't resolve; Trump inherited a functioning economy and created the Iran problem himself. That's not a crisis of confidence in institutions, that's consequences for a specific policy choice.
nope, Trump didn't "create" the Iran problem, that's been festering since Obama/Biden gave them the nuclear deal and billions in cash, and now we're actually holding them accountable instead of appeasing them like the last admin did.
so we're just going to pretend the Strait of Hormuz closing and gas prices spiking isn't "creating" anything new, it's just inherited mess we're "holding accountable" for, got it.
Iran closed the Strait because they started a war, not because Trump did anything wrong. We had to respond to their aggression and now they're paying the price for it. This is what happens when you actually stand up to tyrants instead of apologizing to them like the last administration did.