by Heather Cox Richardson
The ceasefire President Donald J. Trump announced Tuesday night fell apart almost immediately. Israel complained that it hadn’t been consulted, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted Israel did not accept an end to its bombardment of southern Lebanon as a way to dislodge Iran-backed Hezbollah militants. Steven Scheer of Reuters noted today that Israel has been under a state of emergency that halted the work of the judicial system, but with the end of the war, Netanyahu’s trial for corruption is scheduled to begin again on Saturday.
Iran has been permitting certain ships to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, but responded to Israel’s continued bombing by closing the strait again.
Vice President J.D. Vance said there was a “legitimate misunderstanding” about whether the ceasefire included Lebanon. “We never made that promise,” he said. But in fact, Pakistani prime minister Shehbaz Sharif, who posted the terms of the ceasefire on Tuesday, noted that the agreement did include a ceasefire in Lebanon. He tagged Vance in the post.
As more information about the achievement of the ceasefire became known, it reflected poorly on Trump. Humza Jilani, Abigail Hauslohner, and Demetri Sevastopulo of the Financial Times reported yesterday that while Trump claimed Iran was begging for a deal to end hostilities, it was actually the Trump administration that was pushing Pakistan to broker a deal with Iran. Tyler Pager and Katie Rogers of the New York Times reported that the White House was helping to craft Sharif’s social media statements, suggesting Trump “was actively looking for a way out of the crisis” as his own imposed deadline drew closer on Tuesday evening.
Although Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth claims the U.S. has had a “historic and overwhelming victory” that achieved “every single objective,” David S. Cloud of the Wall Street Journal wrote yesterday that Iran saw the ceasefire as a “triumph” because it had survived a 38-day barrage from the United States and Israel and because it had gained control over the Strait of Hormuz, inflicting deep damage on the U.S. economy. Iran claimed the U.S. had suffered “an undeniable, historic, and crushing defeat.” Iran’s new leadership is even more anti-Western than the previous leadership, killed in the early days of the U.S.-Israeli strikes.
Yesterday the president posted his own interpretation of the terms of the agreement, but they were aspirational and asked for Iran to agree to terms that were less advantageous for the U.S. than the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) that President Barack Obama negotiated in 2015 and Trump tore up in 2018.
The actual terms of the ceasefire agreement were murky. On Wednesday, Iran released its version of the points of the agreement; the White House said those points weren’t the basis for the ceasefire.
Also yesterday, Trump suggested the U.S. was considering joining the Iranians in demanding tolls for ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz. “We’re thinking of doing it as a joint venture. It’s a way of securing it,” he told journalist Jonathan Karl. But today Trump posted: “There are reports that Iran is charging fees to tankers going through the Hormuz Strait—They better not be and, if they are, they better stop now!” Hours later, he added: “Iran is doing a very poor job, dishonorable some would say, of allowing Oil to go through the Strait of Hormuz. That is not the agreement we have!”
By Wednesday night, Trump was backing away from his celebratory statements about the ceasefire. “All U.S. Ships, Aircraft, and Military Personnel, with additional Ammunition, Weaponry, and anything else that is appropriate and necessary for the lethal prosecution and destruction of an already substantially degraded Enemy, will remain in place in, and around, Iran, until such time as the REAL AGREEMENT reached is fully complied with. If for any reason it is not, which is highly unlikely, then the ‘Shootin’ Starts,’ bigger, and better, and stronger than anyone has ever seen before. It was agreed, a long time ago, and despite all of the fake rhetoric to the contrary—NO NUCLEAR WEAPONS and, the Strait of Hormuz WILL BE OPEN & SAFE. In the meantime our great Military is Loading Up and Resting, looking forward, actually, to its next Conquest. AMERICA IS BACK!”
Meanwhile, Jonah Kaplan and Michael Kaplan of CBS News reported today that survivors of the deadly March 1 attack on U.S. forces in Kuwait, which killed six service members and wounded over 20 more, disputed Defense Secretary Hegseth’s description of the deadly drone that hit their position as a “squirter,” suggesting it squirted through the defenses of a fortified area. The survivors say their position was not fortified and was dangerously exposed to attack.
Although Congress is not scheduled to conduct business again until April 13, Democrats were in Washington, D.C., today to try to force Republicans to vote on a war powers resolution to end the war on Iran. Republicans have steadfastly refused to discuss Trump’s attack on Iran, even on Tuesday after Trump threatened that “a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again.” That pattern continued today. The Republican in charge of the House, Chris Smith of New Jersey, refused to recognize the Democrats and ended the day’s session immediately. He later said the Democrats should get behind the ceasefire agreement.
This afternoon, out of the blue, First Lady Melania Trump called the White House press pool to hear a statement. The first lady strode to a podium bearing the presidential seal—always reserved for the president alone—and announced that she had never been friends with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, that she had never had a relationship with Epstein or his “accomplice” Ghislaine Maxwell, and that the “lies linking me with the disgraceful Jeffrey Epstein need to end today.” She called for Congress to hold hearings for Epstein’s victims, and concluded that “Epstein was not alone. Several prominent male executives resigned from their powerful positions after this matter became widely politicized.”
Her six-minute statement appeared to have been written by someone else: she could not pronounce some of the words in it, like “trivial,” and she said “calculating” and “convinced” in place of “circulating” and “convicted.” Notably, she did not mention her husband even as her unexpected statement injected the issue of the Epstein files and his appearance in them squarely back into the news. When she was done speaking, she turned and walked back out of view the way she had come, as reporters shouted questions.
Trump told a reporter he did not know the first lady was preparing to give a speech, but a source told CNN’s Betsy Klein that Trump had been alerted that she was going to make the statement. If his actions afterward were any indication, he wasn’t keen on it.
This afternoon, Trump began posting wildly. At 4:28 his social media account lashed out at former allies Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly, Candace Owens, and Alex Jones, who don’t support Trump’s war in Iran. Trump said “[t]hey’re stupid people, they know it, their families know it, and everyone else knows it, too!” He reiterated his false claim that he won “in a LANDSLIDE,” and suggested MAGA voters love him. Those standing against his Iran adventure are “not ‘MAGA,’” he wrote; “they’re losers, just trying to latch on to MAGA.”
Then, at 5:28, Trump’s social media account posted: “The Wall Street Journal, one of the worst and most inaccurate ‘Editorial Boards’ in the World, stated that I ‘declared premature victory in Iran.’ Actually, it is a Victory, and there’s nothing ‘premature’ about it! Because of me, IRAN WILL NEVER HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON and, very quickly, you’ll see Oil start flowing, with or without the help of Iran and, to me, it makes no difference, either way. The Wall Street Journal will, as usual, live to eat their words. They are always quick to criticize, but never to admit when they’re wrong, which is most of the time! President DONALD J. TRUMP”
And then, at 7:49 tonight, the president’s social media account posted a graphic video of a man killing a woman with a hammer. The screed that accompanied the video attacked Haitian immigrants, former president Joe Biden, and “the Radical Democrats in Congress.” The post echoed the usual vicious racism to which Trump turns to feed his base. But it is hard to miss that hours after his wife gave an unexpected press conference about Jeffrey Epstein, Trump posted a video of a woman’s murder.
