Trump wants Iran in 'stone age' but forgets to 'Make Iran Great Again': A look at buzzwords, misses, takeaways from POTUS speech

Trump has delivered an address on the Iran war, stating that war will conclude in two-three weeks. While he said that his keyword “regime change” was never his agenda, he has clearly chosen another agenda - this time its to send Iran back to “stone age”. “We are going to hit them extremely hard over the next two to three weeks. We are going to bring them back to the stone ages where they belong. In the meantime, discussions are ongoing… We have all the cards; they have none,” Trump said.

Trump struck a paradoxical tone, declaring Iran “finished” while still issuing threats in classic Trump style. In the speech that sounded like his ALL-CAPS Truth Social texts, he painted a picture of total destruction, yet didn't say what's the endgame. Now, Trump has threatened that if no deal is made, Iran's electric generating plants will be hit. However, he said this despite saying Iran is in ruins and is decimated. "Iran’s navy is GONE. Their air force is IN RUINS. Their leaders, most of them — the terrorist regime they led — are now DEAD. Their command and control of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Core is being DECIMATED as we speak. Their ability to launch missiles and drones is dramatically curtailed and their weapons, factories, and rocket launchers are being blown to pieces — very few of them left. Never in the history of warfare has an enemy suffered such clear and devastating large-scale losses in a matter of weeks.”

Trump began highlighting the fact that he had vowed that he would never allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon since first day of his Presidential campaign. He ended his address saying “every American can look forward to a day when we are finally free from the wickedness of Iranian aggression and the specter of nuclear blackmail.” In the middle of his speech he declared Iran can never be trusted with nuclear weapons. He boasted that he did many things during his two terms in office to stop the quest for nuclear weapons by Iran. He mentioned the word nuclear 14 times in his speech.

Just two days after he said that his favourite thing is to take oil, the US president flipped. Now he said, “The United States imports almost no oil through the Hormuz Strait, and won't be taking any in the future. We don't need it. We haven't needed it, and we don't need it.” He also addressed the concern of oil price rise saying, “Many Americans have been concerned to see the recent rise in gasoline prices here at home… This short-term increase has been entirely the result of the Iranian regime launching deranged terror attacks against commercial oil tankers.” Thus, the President of US' solution to price rise is blaming Iran for attacks!

Trump’s comments on Wednesday were not clear about whether US military operations could end even before Iran reopened the Strait of Hormuz, the vital waterway for energy transports. He instead repeated his calls for countries that rely on Gulf oil to "take the lead" and assume the burden of reopening the waterway. "To those countries that can’t get fuel — many of which refused to get involved in the decapitation of Iran, we had to do it ourselves — I have a suggestion. Number one, buy oil from the United States of America; we have plenty. We have so much. And Number two, build up some delayed courage… Go to the Strait and just take it. Protect it. Use it for yourselves. Iran has been essentially decimated. The hard part is done.” All said, but Trump did not say a word on earlier April deadline for Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz.

Trump's speech made no explicit reference to the role of NATO despite his earlier threats. Earlier Wednesday, Trump said he was strongly considering pulling the United States out of NATO, and even called them ‘paper tiger’.

In his second term, Trump has been repeatedly using the word "Make Iran Great Again" (MIGA), that was first introduced as a proposed deal in 2019. Ahead of the war, Trump demanded "unconditional surrender" and used the tagline, suggesting that the US would work to make Iran "economically bigger, better, and stronger than ever before." However, as the war began and amid Iran's massive retaliation, Trump has almost forgotten his catchphrase. So, has he realised that he won't be able to make Iran great again? Or is his ‘Make America Great Again’ and ‘America First’ under Israeli influence - as suggested by Iran's President Pezeshkian - only time will tell.

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