UPDATED: Iran is making Trump go mad. How will world leaders and his people deal with him? This is the most urgent question. Only a worldwide depression and possible nuclear war are on the line, writes Joe Lauria.
Trump at Dover Air Force Base, Delaware, March 7, 2026. (Official White House Photo/Daniel Torok/Wikimedia Commons)
Monday, March 30 to Wednesday, April 1
Updated to include Trump’s address
By Joe Lauria
Special to Consortium News
If you took some guy off the street and installed him in the White House, putting his hand on all the levels of power, including “the button,” you couldn’t do much worse than Donald Trump.
Except Trump isn’t some guy off the street. He’s worse. He has a history. Watch this clip from 1987:
Trump himself dug up that old clip and put it out on Truth Social on Tuesday. He wants the world to know: he has been bonkers about Iran for nearly 40 years.
Now, he’s so twisted about what to do next about Iran, having put his four decade-old threat disastrously into action, that he’s spinning himself into the ground.
One minute he says he’s close to a deal in talks that Iran denies are taking place; the next minute he’s going to invade Kharg Island; then he says he doesn’t much care about the war and can walk away from it; then he implores Europe to help him open the Strait of Hormuz; when they refuse he says he doesn’t need them and was only testing their response; then he’s walking away again and tells Europe to buy U.S. oil and fight their way into Hormuz, it’s Europe’s turn; then he insults the Royal Navy and now King Charles is coming to see him in Washington this month! Impeccable timing.
An Insulting Foreign Policy
Trump is conducting foreign policy by insult. He told The Daily Telegraph on Wednesday that NATO was a “paper tiger,” and that he was ready to pull the U.S. out of it. Asked if he were really considering it, he said:
“Oh yes, I would say [it’s] beyond reconsideration. I was never swayed by Nato. I always knew they were a paper tiger, and Putin knows that too, by the way.”
Given the damage NATO has done in the post-Cold War era, that would not necessarily be a bad thing as the alliance would in all likelihood collapse without the U.S.
But his reasons are not to help bring about a more stable world. Far from it, as he has brought about the greatest instability the world has seen in decades. His reason would be because NATO refused to join him in creating that instability.
“We’ve been there automatically, including Ukraine. Ukraine wasn’t our problem. It was a test, and we were there for them, and we would always have been there for them. They weren’t there for us,” he said. [The Financial Times reported today that Trump is threatening to withdraw U.S. aid to Ukraine if NATO doesn’t join a Hormuz coalition.]
The Telegraph added:
“Singling out the UK, the US president rebuked Sir Keir Starmer for refusing to get involved in the American-Israeli war against Iran, suggesting that the Royal Navy was not up for the task.
‘You don’t even have a navy. You’re too old and had aircraft carriers that didn’t work,’ he said, referring to the state of Britain’s fleet of warships.”
Last week he called Britain’s aircraft carriers “toys.”
Not to ignore those across the Channel, he had these choice words for France:
For the most part these nations have not directly answered his insults. They simply repeat that this is not their war. And they are denying use of their bases to the Americans.
Trump and his minions have saved their greatest insults for Iran itself, spewing the vilest language against a people who were no threat to the United States. For example, on Monday, Trump threatened war crimes against Iran in the most belittling language:
“If the Hormuz Strait is not immediately ‘Open for Business,’ we will conclude our lovely ‘stay’ in Iran by blowing up and completely obliterating all of their Electric Generating Plants, Oil Wells and Kharg Island (and possibly all desalinization plants!)”
The bloodthirsty Trump told reporters last week, “We’ll just keep bombing our little hearts out.” Even though he says, “Iran has been, essentially, decimated. The hard part is done.”
Marco Rubio, his secretary of state, has been no less vicious, saying of the Iranians: “These people are lunatics. They are insane. They are religious zealots who can never be allowed to possess a nuclear weapon because they have an apocalyptic vision of the future.” A description that might better fit the Armageddonists at the Pentagon.
Speaking of which, Pete Hegseth, the secretary of war crimes, as former ambassador Chas Freeman calls him, has been the vilest of all. When it comes to diplomacy, the former TV host says, “we negotiate with bombs.”
How to Deal With Him?
Iran is making Trump go mad. How will world leaders, Congress and his own administration deal with him? This is the overriding and most urgent question. Any other person without the title would be ignored. Only a worldwide depression and possible nuclear war are on the line.
If there was ever a moment for the invocation of the 25th Amendment of the U.S. constitution it is now.
“Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President. […]
If the Congress, within twenty-one days after receipt of the latter written declaration, or, if Congress is not in session, within twenty-one days after Congress is required to assemble, determines by two-thirds vote of both Houses that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall continue to discharge the same as Acting President; otherwise, the President shall resume the powers and duties of his office.”
And yet his sycophantic cabinet and most Republicans in Congress not only take him seriously, but support his unhinged behavior.
After his disparaging remarks about the Royal Navy, even BBC commentators asked whether he had a point about the navy and agreed that he had. They did not question his sanity.
His sanity urgently needs questioning.
In the meantime the world economy is collapsing, U.S. military bases are being destroyed, Israeli cities are getting pounded and Iran is still standing.
Earlier today he said he was negotiating with a new president of Iran and that he’s close to a deal. He said the new president asked for a ceasefire. Trump said he’d grant one if the Strait of Hormuz is opened. Otherwise he’ll bomb Iran “back to the Stone Age.”
The problem is there is no new president of Iran. And the Iranian foreign ministry has denied any direct talks with the U.S., let alone asking for a ceasefire.
Trump needs to get out of the disaster he created and that is consuming him. He said Tuesday he wants out in two or three weeks. Realizing the war is lost and his career is over, will he escalate the way Lyndon Johnson did by sending in the ground troops, as University of Chicago professor John Mearsheimer fears?
Benjamin Netanyahu wants him to fight on. So far whatever Bibi wants, Bibi gets. If Israel is pushed to the brink, might that mean Bibi using the bomb? The relationship between the two is murky. Can Trump act without fear of exposure by Netanyahu?
A Disgraceful Speech
Trump’s “address to the nation” on Wednesday night saved the biggest insults for the rest of us. He insulted our intelligence with gibberish about how “easy” it would be for other nations, which have declined to enter the war but who are suffering economically, to open the Strait of Hormuz.
“The countries of the world that do receive oil through the Hormuz Strait must take care of that passage, they must cherish it — they must grab it and cherish it,” he said. “They can do it easily.”
“We will be helpful. But they should take the lead in protecting the oil that they so desperately depend on.” The Strait is closed to U.S. and Israeli allies because of a war Trump and Netanyahu launched. Now he’s abandoning his allies to open it themselves because the U.S. doesn’t need Persian Gulf oil.
“In any event, when this conflict is over, the strait will open up naturally,” he ludicrously added. “They are going to want to be able to sell oil because that is all they have to try and rebuild. It will resume the flowing and the gas prices will rapidly come back down. Stock prices will rapidly go back up.”
First, the Strait is not closed to Iranian oil or to allies of Iran, provided they pay in yuan to use it. Second, Trump forgot that he lifted sanctions on Iranian oil to try to get as much oil to market as possible.
Stocks plunged and oil prices rose on Trump’s speech as he provided no optimism that the war and the energy disruption would end soon. On the contrary, he ramped up his derogatory and insulting speech towards Iran, vowing “to hit them extremely hard over the next two to three weeks. We’re going to bring them back to the Stone Ages, where they belong.”
Joe Lauria is editor-in-chief of Consortium News and a former U.N. correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, and other newspapers, including The Montreal Gazette, the London Daily Mail and The Star of Johannesburg. He was an investigative reporter for the Sunday Times of London, a financial reporter for Bloomberg News and began his professional work as a 19-year old stringer for The New York Times. He is the author of two books, A Political Odyssey, with Sen. Mike Gravel, foreword by Daniel Ellsberg; and How I Lost By Hillary Clinton, foreword by Julian Assange.
It is wrecking ball military creative destruction. If we don’t get unconditional surrender then just walk off and leave it for someone else to fix. Unfortunately that may cost the entire world economy to fix it. That may have worked for 20th century world wars as profitable ventures but that wore off in a decade or two. This century our planet may have a fish in store for us we cannot afford.
Vance owes his political career, as a senator and now as VP, to Peter Thiel. Peter Thiel’s parents were evangelicals, and while he is not otherwise overtly devout himself, he has been quite outspoken about his belief in the prophesies of the Book of Revelation. It is therefore fair to assume that, like Hesgeth, he sees Trump’s war with Iran as the fulfillment of those prophesies. This alone makes it very unlikely that Vance would support invoking the, 25th amendment.
So true, this is a revelation indeed that people who bank on a 25th Amendment off-ramp are riding on false hopes. The U.S. requires a far more fundamental change than that. Can U.S. citizens still afford to look up to their ineffectual and overly-bribed elites for their politico-economic salvation ?
And in the meantime? There’s no time for that kind of fundamental change much as its needed. Trump’s hands must be wrested from power now to try to prevent worldwide economic meltdown and possible nuclear war. Vance may be the same but we don’t know that for sure.
I hope so, CN gets the benefit of the doubt !
I remember how Trump has been literally impeached for delaying weapons to Ukraine in the run up to that disastrous war (as appendage of imaginary Russian “meddling” plot), and for a several hour “Insurrection” riot of 4 Chan and Fox News viewers, but potentially destroying the world economy in an unjustifiable and illegal war of aggression waged on behalf of another country, both parties in Congress refuse to do anything. What a sham they are.
Incorrigible madmen desperately striving to bring about their apocalyptic fantasies using rhetoric penned by human hands and molded by centuries of councils, translations, and revisions. Words that – regardless of the book you read them from – essentially boil down to: ‘Give us enough rope and we will hang ourselves’.
I would say we can see from evident reality that the desire for messing about with eugenics in elitist circles never really went away, it just went underground until it got so big they could no longer hide it and had to act accordingly to normalise it for a balking public, including the introduction and aggressive promotion of several highly controvertial schemes, practices and ideologies, along with harsh laws dedicated to making sure they stick.
I’m probably mad – I certainly hope so, but IMO the Georgian Guidestones were not a simple folly, they were a genuine, required warning of plans made by those with the ability and desire to see them play out. No different than the evacuation warnings sometimes given in war before structures are targeted, or Bart Simpson cartwheeling his arms as he strides towards his sister Lisa, exclaiming it’s now all her fault if she gets hit.
There’s no running from their plans, should they be so insane. The only thing you can do is be happy and try to enjoy life. The bombs may not go off but you could still be hit by a meteor tomorrow, so remember to live, laugh and love like there isn’t one.
Starmer has granted the US the free use of UK airfields, both on Airstrip One and in Diego Garcia.
Remember what Michael Moore said after Trump’s first election to presidency?
“Donald Trump will be our last president.”
12 yr. olds can be eligible for service in Iran ?
I think they could operate besides production in a basement .
————————
“Basement” Production: Similar to tactics used in Ukraine, reports indicate Iran is moving toward a decentralized “cottage industry,” using residential basements for FPV (First Person View) and drone assembly, often with Chinese and Russian parts.
Update: “Iran is making Trump go mad”?
If not obvious, after his screech to the nation last night 04/01/2026, and the world, Trump is the messenger, and the message, of his own madness.
If he is not immediately impeached by invoking the 25th Amendment, and carried through by the legitimate government, his garbled verbal insults will, at a minimum, surely bring down the international system of civilization.
Below, the letter Iran’s erudite President Masoud Pezeshkian addressed to the American people:
hxxps://www.counterpunch.org/2026/04/02/letter-to-the-people-of-the-usa
Who exactly do you consider to be “legitimate government”? JD Vance? Marco Rubio the gusano? None of them are legitimate. They are all fascist war criminals. I don’t consider any of them legitimate.
Granted, the entire American systemic edifice is infested with worms and is therefore illegitimate to the core; the the vast majority of the US Congressional ‘membership’ not excluded!
The 25th Amendment is, unfortunately, inoperable, in particular, at this juncture of the U.S. history. There has been a long history of U.S. chief executives functioning under the overbearing influence of the Zio-Con lobby. The 25th Amendment requires the U.S. vice-president to be acting president and or move to side-line a president deemed no longer competent. With Vance occupying the vice-presidency not only the Zio-Cons but also the Indo-Zions, via the Nutty-Modi combo, now have a way of putting both presidential and vice-presidential balls simultaneously into the vice ! Will the 25th Amendment be viable in this context ?
What is required is a world wide ban on US and Israeli goods; travel bans on the leaderships; seizure of foreign assets of the leaderships; ICC arrest warrants; removal of US/Israeli landing rights in all airports. Instead what we get is a hand wringing Starmer (in the UK’s case) standing in front of a suitably diverse group of sycophants telling us we will not get drawn in, while US bombers use our airbases to bomb Iran. Europes leaders no better, spineless windbags the lot of them.
The Dollar is the problem. Stop using the dollar and many problems go away.
That is a long term project many sensible countries are engaged in. It will not have any bearing right now. The above would.
We need a guillotine.
Please, no more close ups of tRump.
My lunch is on the toilet floor.
so much to speculate on, so many mad men, and some women, too.
senators who think USD are never better spent than when they kill
russians, or iranians, or whoever else might just be on the “menu”.
looking at the the untied[!] states’ history, which began w a genocide,
continued w slavery, two nuclear bombs, wars since US inception, i.e.
millions of people around the globe dying under US hegemony, i think
it is not just #47’s sanity that needs to be questioned.
when i see the head of my EU state, who, instead of siding w pedro sanchez
and saying: “no to war!”, seems quite inclined to “go to war!”, and to turn my
country into europe’s biggest military power for that purpose [yet again?],
i wonder when and where his and his cabinet’s sanity got lost along their way
to power.
the chancellor, when asked how he assesses the escalations in the ME, and
whether appeals to moderation weren’t called for, just answered: “it is not
up to us to lecture others.” the indifference to human suffering, NOT just
among politicians, has reached degrees that i find UTTERLY unbelievable.
and that does not save a single human life threatened by all the insatiable
warmongers and war profiteers around, be they epstein classmates or other-
wise CONnected.
Be careful what you wish for… like Netanyahu, like Trump. Believe it or not, there are even worse that are waiting in line.
Who?
Probably Tom Cotton…or they could just elect an actual Israeli.
Turns out naming names is a retrospective endeavor “(implying) that the full context—including the consequences of actions—must be known before a name can be accurately and powerfully associated with that behavior.” (AI Harvard Magazine +1)
Can’t get much worse than what we have now!!!!
What, like those mentioned 12,000 times in the Epstein files ?
“They are religious zealots who can never be allowed to possess a nuclear weapon because they have an apocalyptic vision of the future.” A description that might better fit the Armageddonists at the Pentagon.” I’d say you forgot one: the Zionists of Israel and elsewhere.
Except Hegseth was speaking so the reference is to the Pentagon. I think Consortium News is well aware of what Israel is.
A good read.
In The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump (edited by Dr. Bandy X. Lee) experts argue that Donald Trump’s psychological stability poses a danger.